The most significant thing about bliss is that it is intrinsically a paradox and because of its paradoxical nature, it has almost always been misunderstood. The paradox is that man needs to make great effort, and yet bliss does not happen because of the effort, it always happens as a gift of existence. But without effort man never becomes capable of receiving the gift. Even though the gift is always available, man remains closed.
So the whole human endeavor is not really the cause of attaining bliss; it cannot cause bliss, it can only remove the barriers. It is a negative process. It is as if you are living in a closed room, all the windows, all the doors are closed: the sun has risen but you are in darkness. The sun cannot rise because of your efforts. Whatsoever you do cannot make the sun rise, but you can open your doors or keep them closed — that much depends on your effort. If you open the doors, the sun becomes available to you — other- wise it waits just on your doorstep without even knocking. You can live in darkness for eternity, when all that was needed was to remove the barrier between you and the sun.
