You go on telling us to celebrate life. What is there to celebrate?

     I can understand. Your question is relevant: there seems to be nothing to celebrate. What is there to celebrate? The questioner's question is your question, is everybody's question.
     But reality is just the contrary. There is everything to celebrate. Each moment is so immense, is so fantastic, each moment brings such an ecstasy.... But you are asleep. The ecstasy comes, hovers around you, and goes. The breeze comes, dances around you, and goes. And you remain asleep. The flowers bloom and the fragrance comes to you, but you are asleep. The divine goes on singing in a thousand and one ways; the divine dances around you; but you are asleep.
     You ask me: What is there to celebrate?
     What isn't there to celebrate?
Everything that one can imagine is there.
     Everything that one can desire is there.
     It is more than you can imagine. It is in abundance. Life is a luxury!

     Just think of a blind man. He has never seen a rose flower bloom. What has he missed? Do you know? Can't you feel any compassion for him that he has missed something, something divine? He has not seen a rainbow. He has not seen the sunrise or the sunset. He has not seen the green foliage of the trees. He has not seen color. How dull his consciousness is! And you have eyes and you say: What is there to celebrate?
     The rainbow is there, the sunset is there, the green trees are there, such a colorful existence.... Yet I understand. Your question is relevant. I understand that this question has some meaning.
     The rainbow is there, the sunset is there, the ocean, the clouds, all are there – but you are asleep.
     You have never looked at the rose flower. You have passed by, you have seen the rose flower – I am not saying you have not seen it, you have eyes so you see – but you have not looked at it. You have not meditated upon it; you have not given a single moment of your meditation to it. You have never been in tune with it. You have never been by the side of it, sitting close by, in communion. You have never said "Hello!" to it; you have never participated with it.
Life passes by; you are just there, not participating. You are not en rapport with life; that's why your question is meaningful. You have eyes and yet you don't see; you have ears yet you don't hear; you have a heart yet you don't love – you are fast asleep.

     This has to be understood; that's why I go on repeating it again and again: If you understand that you are asleep, the first ray of awakening has entered you.
     If you can feel that you are asleep then you are no more; then you are just on the verge of where the day breaks...the morning, the dawn. But the first essential is to understand that "I am asleep." If you think you are not asleep then you will never be awake. If you think that this life that you have been living up to now is a life of an awakened being, then why should you seek and search for ways to awaken yourself?
     When a man dreams, and dreams that he is awake, why should he try to be awake? He already believes that he is awake. This is the greatest trick of the mind, and everybody is fooled by this trick. The greatest trick of the mind is to give you the idea of that which you are not, and to help you feel that you are already that.

     It is you who are reflected in existence: existence functions as a mirror. If you are dull and dead, there is nothing to celebrate, because existence simply shows your dull and dead face. What is there to celebrate? If you are alive, flowering, singing a song, dancing a dance, the mirror reflects a dance, a song – there is much to celebrate. When you celebrate there is much more to celebrate...and it goes on and on. There is no end to it. If you don't celebrate, by and by you become more and more dead and more and more dull. There is less and less to celebrate. One day suddenly life is absolutely meaningless.

     But why – why is man asleep? What is the root cause of it? It is a way to avoid; sleep is a way to avoid. There are many problems in life. Obviously they are there. When I say celebrate, I don't mean there are no problems. Problems are there. They have to be encountered; they have to be transcended. And celebration is a way to encounter them.
     I am not saying there are no problems, I am not telling you fairy tales, I am not telling you that there are no problems and that life is simply beautiful and there are no thorns and only rose flowers. There are not. For every one rose, there exist one thousand thorns.
     I am not creating a dream for you, a utopia.
I am utterly realistic and pragmatic.
     But the way to get beyond the thorns is to celebrate life, is to celebrate that one flower.
     In fact, that one flower is more precious because there are one thousand thorns. If there were all flowers and flowers and no thorns, flowers would be meaningless. It is because of darkness that the morning is so beautiful, it is because of death that life has such joy, it is because of illness that health is significant.
     I am not saying there is nothing to be worried about. There are many things, but there is no need to worry about them. They can be encountered. They can be encountered without any worry; they can be encountered through celebration. There are only two ways to encounter them: one is the way of worry and the other is the way of celebration.
     You ask me: What is there to celebrate? What is not there? What is missing? All is there, only you are asleep. Come out of your sleep. And when I say come out of your sleep, I mean come out of your dead head.
     Come into the heart. Let the heart pulsate, let the heart sing, let the heart dance.

Osho: "Sufis: The People of the Path"

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