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It is true. But if a buddha had asked Buddha, “Describe briefly, what is life?” He would have said, “Bliss.”

The answer has nothing to do with the question, the answer has something to do with the questioner. The answer depends on the questioner. A man like Gautam Buddha does not answer questions, he answers questioners. He is not saying anything about life, mind you – he is not saying anything about life. He is saying something about the life of the man who had asked the question.

Buddha is not saying that his own life is a misery; certainly it is not. No one has seen such grandeur, such bliss. No one has walked on this earth with such grace, such utter celebration. Humanity remembers no one who has been more beautiful. How can Buddha say that life is misery? You should remember that he is not talking about life as such; he is talking about the life of the man who had asked the question.

It becomes a problem because for forty-two years Buddha was continually answering people. Different people required different answers and sometimes contradictory answers. A buddha has to contradict himself almost every day.

Once it happened…

One morning a man asked Buddha, “Is there a God?” Buddha said, “No.” In the afternoon another person asked, “Is there a God?” Buddha said, “Yes.” In the evening a third person asked, “Is there a God?” Buddha kept quiet; he didn’t answer and remained silent.

Ananda, who was Buddha’s chief disciple, was present on all three occasions. He was continuously behind Buddha like a shadow – serving him, taking care of his body, looking after his needs. He was very puzzled. “In a single day, Buddha has said there is no God, then he has said there is a God and then he has kept silent too; he has not answered this way or that. These are the only three possibilities – all the possibilities exhausted, in a single day? All the answers have been given.” He could not sleep; he tossed and turned.

Buddha asked, “What is the matter with you tonight? Aren’t you tired or something?” He replied, “I don’t want to disturb you, but unless you answer me this question I don’t think I will be able to sleep. In the morning you said no, in the afternoon you said yes and by the evening you remained silent, you didn’t answer. And the question was exactly the same.”

Buddha laughed and said, “The person who had come early in the morning and had asked ‘Is there a God?’ was a theist, was a believer. He wanted me to say yes so that his belief could become strengthened – and I don’t strengthen people’s beliefs because a believing mind is never a seeing mind. To believe is to remain in darkness. I wanted to shatter his belief. My answer had nothing to do with God; my answer had something to do with that man. He was there just to accumulate a little more evidence for his belief, so he could say to people, ‘Not only do I believe that there is a God; even Buddha says there is a God.’ He had not come to understand. He simply wanted me to be a witness to his belief. His belief is just out of fear, a conditioning taught by others. His belief is nothing but a cover-up for his ignorance. I cannot be in any way a help to it. I had to shatter it. I had to shout no, emphatically. And it helped. ‘Buddha says no?’ An inquiry started in his being. Now he cannot be at rest with his belief. He will have to come – you will see.”

One day he came again and said to Buddha, “You did it; since that time my worship has become empty. Since that time I go to the temple, but the temple no longer has any deity in it. Since that time I know it is only a belief. If you say that God is not, who am I to say God is? You are so godly, you must be true. I have come to inquire. Now I come to you without any belief. Now I come to you open – to seek, to search. Now my question is not rooted in my knowledge.”

Buddha said to Ananda, “The second person was an atheist. He believed that there is no God. He had come in the same way as the first one: to have my support.” His belief was as stupid as the first one’s because to believe without knowing is to be stupid. Believe only when you have known, but then it is not a belief at all; it is a totally different experience. It is trust. It is not based on someone else’s experience, it is your own experience. You are reborn in it. It is not Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan. It is simply your experience. Even if the whole world says it is not so, you cannot deny it. Your trust cannot be shaken. “The other person,” Buddha said, “was an atheist, hence I had to say yes, and I had to say yes emphatically.”

Ananda said, “And what about the third?” Buddha said, “He was neither a theist, nor an atheist, so neither was yes needed nor was no needed. He was really an innocent soul, a very pure heart. His question was not out of his a priori knowledge, his question was really innocent. His question was a quest, an inquiry. I had to remain silent – because that was my answer to him. And he understood it. Weren’t you watching? When I remained silent and closed my eyes, he also closed his eyes and a great silence descended on him. Didn’t you observe? When he went his eyes were shining, his eyes were like lit candles. Didn’t you observe? When he left, he touched my feet, bowed down, thanked me, saying, ‘You answered rightly,’ although I had not answered him at all. That man tasted something of my silence, imbibed something of my being. That man was the true seeker.”

A true seeker does not need a verbal answer. A true seeker needs something existential – a penetration of the heart into the heart, a penetration of the soul into the soul. The real seeker wants the master to overlap him. The real seeker wants the master to enter his innermost core and stir the sleeping soul.

Your question is significant. You say, [“I once read somewhere that when Buddha was asked by a disciple to describe life briefly, Buddha replied ‘Misery.’”]

It is true. Many times he said to people that life is misery; many times he said to people that life is bliss – sat-chit-anand: it is truth, it is consciousness, it is bliss. But people have gathered more from the answer that life is misery because it fits with their own experience. When Buddha says, “Life is joy,” it doesn’t fit with your experience. It falls on flat ears. You hear it, but you cannot understand it. It does not ring any bells in your heart. So the answers that he gave to those who had come to know something of bliss, something of joy, something of song, have not become so important. It was only rarely that he would say that because it is only a rare person who will require that answer. Millions and millions need to be told, “Your life is misery.” It is so.

But why does Buddha say your life is misery, why? – he says it so that you can come out of it. You can have another kind of life – this is not the only kind. This is only one of the ways and the worst way possible. You have created a hell out of your life and if it can be a hell, it can also be a heaven; if it can be misery, it can be bliss. It is the same energy used wrongly that becomes misery, used rightly becomes bliss.

What is misery? – misery is feeling separate from existence, feeling isolated from existence, feeling alienated from existence. That is misery. What is bliss? – bliss is feeling one with existence, orgasmically one with existence, organically one with existence. Having an ego is misery and becoming egolessness is bliss. Both alternatives are open. The choice is yours.

Listening to Buddha’s answer that life is misery, don’t settle there. His answer is to unsettle you. His answer is to shock you. His answer is to wake you up to the fact that your life is misery. But people are really cunning, very cunning. They listen only to that which they want to listen to. People are so cunning that listening to the statement that life is misery, they say, “Then nothing can be done. If life is misery, I have to live a miserable life. This is all there is – so live it. Live it anyhow.” Rather than creating a desire to transform themselves, they completely drown themselves in their misery – as if Buddha has given them a certificate that this is what life is all about. People are so cunning, they simply listen to that which they want to listen to.

“This is all a mistake, Your Honor,” said the first harlot. “I was walking along and this guy…” “Just a minute, young lady,” said the judge. “Now, you have been here a dozen times. One hundred dollars fine. Next!”

“I am just a poor private secretary,” said the second girl, “and I was not doing anything…” “I recognize you too, miss,” said the magistrate. “Two hundred dollars or ten days in jail. Next case!”

“Judge,” said the third girl, “I am a prostitute. I am not proud of it, but it is the only way I can support my three kids. I am guilty.” “Young woman,” said the judge, “I like your honesty and because of it I am going to give you a break. Your case is dismissed and sergeant, give this girl fifty dollars out of the policemen’s fund.”

Now comes poor old Liebowitz, arrested for selling ties without a license. “Your Honor,” he pleaded. “I’m not gonna lie to you – I am a prostitute too…”

Beware of your mind. It is always trying ways and means, strategies, tactics, to remain as it is. It can wear masks, it can become religious, it can go to church, it can read the Bible and the Vedas – and still find the ways and means to remain itself. Buddha’s statement has been taken by people as if he has said, “Life cannot be bliss; it is impossible. Life is misery and it is going to remain misery. To be miserable is life’s intrinsic quality.” People have taken it that way.

That is not true. I know it is not true.

I say to you, your life is misery, but it need not be so. It is misery because you have not tried to transform it, you have not worked on it. It is misery because you are still unborn. It is misery because the opportunity is being wasted and you are not being creative. It is misery because you are not behaving intelligently.

Be intelligent. I don’t mean by “intelligence” be intellectual. Intellectuals are not necessarily intelligent people and intelligent people are not necessarily intellectuals. Almost always the case is that the intellectual is only a pretender, he is pseudo; by being intellectual he is trying to convince himself and others that he is intelligent.

What is the criterion of being an intelligent person? – only one criterion. If you can create bliss in your life you are intelligent; otherwise there is no other way to prove it. If you can create a paradise around yourself, if you can remain in a constant cheerfulness, then cheerfulness becomes just your very milieu – and you are intelligent.

Be intelligent and life is bliss; be stupid and life is misery. It all depends on you.