Don't take life for granted

Osho

People take life for granted, hence there is no gratitude in them. And without gratitude there is no growth, with out gratitude there is no religion, without gratitude there is no prayer. Religion begins in gratitude and ends in gratitude. It is a journey from gratitude to gratitude. In the beginning it is a seed, in the end it becomes a flower. But the most fundamental fact is that life should not be taken for granted. We have not earned it, it is gift. It is such a simple and obvious fact.

May be because it is so obvious, people tend to forget it. Religion does not begin in the belief that God exists, it begins in this awareness that life is a gift. We don't know from whom - that has to be inquired into - but one thing is certain, it is  a gift. Some unknown force, some mysterious force has given you the most valuable thing.

And once this feeling becomes crystallised in you then the inquiry starts. Godliness is not very far away from gratitude. From this moment, start looking at everything as a blessings. And when I say everything, I mean everything. Even when you sometimes feel pain it is blessings. You may not understand but it is blessings. One day you will understand and you will see that it was a blessings, that it was needed. Absolutely needed, that it helped your growth.Even suffering is a blessings. It cleanses, it helps you to become integrated, it takes away childishness, it helps you to become mature. A certain rightness arises out of suffering. A man who has never suffered remains childish, juvenile, superficial. He cannot understand life's deeper things. He thinks that life is just a marry-go-round, so he goes on moving from one sensation to another. He is continuously greedy and hankering for all kinds of toys. But they are toys.

A man who has suffered enough becomes mature. He can see that toys are toys - not worth the labour, not worth the worry. He can understand the depth and can see other people's lives with more sympathy, with more compassion, with more love. because he has suffered, he knows what suffering is. That makes him more human. So suffering too is a blessing.

Watch, observe and try to find a blessing everywhere. Sometimes it is in disguise and sometimes not so disguised, sometimes utterly nude. But if you watch you will find it is always there, in success, in failure, in pain, in pleasure, in life, in death too. It is there in summer, it is there in winter, it is there in youth, in there in old age. It is there in health, it there in illness. I call that person religious who can see blessings every where, who cannot find any place, any  point which is not a blessings.