It almost always happens that people enjoy a few moments and then afterwards feel very guilty. The guilt arises because of the ego. The ego starts torturing them, “What are you doing? Have you decided to kill me? And I am your only treasure. Killing me? You will be destroyed. Killing me is destroying yourself.”

You are so identified with the ego that when the ego says such things, they have a great appeal, attraction, conviction in them. The reality is just the opposite: you are not your ego. In fact because of the ego you are not growing, the ego is like a rock preventing your growth. Remove the rock and you will start growing, growing into a big tree with great fulfillment, flowering.

But in the beginning it will feel as if throwing the rock away is throwing away all safety. The rock was preventing many things. It was preventing rain from coming to you and you were thinking it was safer. In fact the rain is nourishing. If it had reached you, you would have started growing. The rock was preventing the sun and you were thinking it was a shelter: it prevented the heat of the sun from reaching to you. But that heat is needed, that heat is life.

What is destructive to you, you have been told by the society is not destructive; not only that it is not destructive but it is a shelter, a protection, a security. That idea has become deeply rooted in you; hence you feel misery is safe. Everybody feels like that. That’s why everybody chooses to be miserable; it is your choice. Everybody chooses hell. It is your responsibility. If the whole earth is living in hell it is nobody else’s responsibility. It is a deliberate decision to live in hell because in hell the ego can remain.

The ego can remain when it is dark, dismal, no sun on the horizon. When the sun arises on the horizon, the sun of awareness, then the ego starts disappearing like the darkness. Of course if you feel identified with the darkness then the sunrise is threatening. But if you disidentify yourself with the ego then you will be able to welcome the sun, it is not threatening anymore. It is a thrill, an adventure, it is new life, new birth, it is resurrection.

The ego is a grave; to come out of the ego you will need to come out of the grave. Don’t think that the grave is safe. It appears safe because you have never ventured outside it. You have never been adventurous. You have not known the taste of danger, insecurity. Once you have tasted danger and insecurity you will never go back to the grave. It is better to live totally for a single moment than to lie down in a grave for a thousand years.

That is not life, it is avoiding life. Come out of your misery, come out of your ego, come out of your grave and accept the threatening happiness. Accept the danger of going to the heights, because those who go to the heights can fall – they are risking.

Risk all because life is only for those gamblers who can risk all. But by risking all you become the beloved of existence.