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of misery. If there is nothing to be miserable about they will invent something.
I have heard that a psychiatrist advised his patient to go to the mountains for three or four weeks for a rest. The third day he received a telegram from the patient: "I am feeling wonderful -- why? "
People cannot accept bliss easily; misery is okay.
Remember that it is only a question of your decision; in a single blow one can cut the Gordian knot, and one can be free on a single quantum leap.
Sannyas is not practicing bliss, it is simply renouncing misery.
Bliss takes a lion's heart.
It is said that when Bodhidarma became enlightened he roared like a lion. The people of the nearby village became so afraid because they thought that a lion had come. They were just thinking of escaping to some other place when somebody informed them: "Don't be worried, this is that old monk -- something has happened to him. He is roaring!" Then they all slowly slowly went into the forest, gathered around him and asked "What is happening? Have you gone crazy or something?" He said "I was crazy before: I used to think that I was just a sheep -- and I am a lion!"
Buddha himself has said that when one becomes enlightened one roars like a lion. One becomes a rebel, and to rebel against misery is the greatest rebellion.
Misery is very comfortable, remember, cozy. It is so familiar and you have lived with it so long that it is very difficult to (de)part, to divorce it. Thousands of husbands would like to divorce and thousand of wives would like to divorce but they symply carry on. They just cannot gather enough courage; they go on remaining miserable. And this is not only about marriage, this is their very style of life in everything.
Even when they can come out of the darkness into the light they will not. They are afraid of getting into anything new because who knows? -- the new may be more miserable. Who knows? At least the old is known, familiar; you have become accustomed to it, you have become adjusted to it -- why bother with the new? but the courageous person is always ready to go with the new that one grows. It is not a question of whether
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