Lost in the jungle

It is my own experience that there is no greater joy than to be alone; the joy of love is secondary. And the joy of love is possible only if you have known the joy of being alone, because then only do you have something to share. Otherwise, two beggars meeting each other, clinging to each other, cannot be blissful. They will create misery for each other because each will be hoping, and hoping in vain, that “The other is going to fulfill me.” The other is hoping the same. They cannot fulfill each other. They are both blind; they cannot help each other.

I have heard about a hunter who got lost in the jungle. For three days, he could not find anybody to ask for the way out, and he was becoming more and more panicky – three days of no food and three days of constant fear of wild animals. For three days he was not able to sleep; he was sitting awake on some tree, afraid he may be attacked.

There were snakes, there were lions, there were wild animals.

After the third day, the fourth day early in the morning, he saw a man sitting under a tree. You can imagine his joy.

He rushed, he hugged the man and he said, ”What joy!”

And the other man hugged him and both were immensely happy.

Then they asked each other, ”Why are you so ecstatic?”

The first said, ”I was lost and I was waiting to meet somebody.”

And the other said, ”I am also lost and I am waiting to meet somebody. But if we are both lost, then the ecstasy is just foolish. So now we will be lost together!”

Osho, Guida Spirituale: Discourses on the Desiderata, Ch 11, Q 1

Two unhappy persons meeting cannot make each other happy;
they will become doubly unhappy, that’s all. It is simple arithmetic.
They will become very very unhappy.
Not only doubled, in fact, their unhappiness will be multiplied because their unhappinesses will clash.
They will be angry at each other.
They will take revenge on each other.
They will think the other has been a cheat,
because the other promised me a garden of roses,
and there seems to be no possibility of any delivery.

All promises prove false –
because out of unhappiness how can you promise?
Out of unhappiness how can you give?
You don’t have it in the first place, how can you share?
You share only that which you have.
If you are happy, you share happiness.
If you are unhappy, you share unhappiness.
If you are sad, you share sadness.

Osho, The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 3, Ch 2, Q 6