Ordinarily, people are not happy when they are alone. They feel very empty, they feel something is missing. They can’t live alone for long periods; even an hour looks like many hours. They escape into a relationship. The relationship is just an escape from oneself. It is not a true relationship, it is negative: a man falls in love with a woman just to avoid his loneliness, a woman falls in love with a man just to avoid her loneliness. Their relationship is negative, and what can you expect out of a negative relationship? Misery, quarrelling, nagging, fighting, jealousy, possessiveness, domination — all kinds of ugly things.
A positive relationship is a totally different one. You are not trying to escape from yourself. You love to be yourself, you love your aloneness, you rejoice in it, and whenever you find time you move into it. But in aloneness so much bliss is created that you have to share it. It becomes like a burden, like a cloud full of rainwater — it has to shower. It doesn’t matter whether the earth needs it or not, it does not matter whether the trees are receptive or not; it has to shower, it has to unburden itself.
Remember, the greatest burden in life is when you are overflowing with bliss. Everything else can be carried, but bliss has to be shared. It is the greatest burden — sweet, but a mountainous burden. You cannot carry it one; you need friends to share it with. Then relationship is positive. Then you don’t fall in love, you rise in love.
