According to Osho, life's true fulfillment isn't a future goal but the immediate realization of what you already are. The distance you feel from ideas of God, soul, or meaning arises from clinging to words and mental pictures. Drop second-hand concepts; meet reality directly. In direct experience there's no gap, no pursuit, only being.
Stop chasing a future purpose; let go of labels and ideas so you can feel your own being right now.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
It has been asked: Osho, why do we assume that the attainment of God is the goal of human life? Could it not be that human life has no goal—no purpose at all? Between these two points, the questioner must be seeing a contradiction. He has asked: Is the aim of human life to attain God? Or does human life have no aim at all?
And sit with a very light heart—no seriousness; you are not going to do some big task. We are going to spend a few moments, two or ten, in a playful mood, silently, in stillness. Keep no expectation that some great peace will come, some great bliss will be had. Keep no expectation. Drop all expectation. Become absolutely light; set aside the whole burden from the mind. And keep in mind, after closing the eyes, that there is no tension on the brain, the face is not drawn—leave it utterly loose. Let no furrow remain on the forehead—leave it utterly loose. Remember: as you were when you were a small child, sit just that light and buoyant. All right! Let the body be loose; let the eyes close. Become completely light, erase yourself—you are not. Now listen. There will be sounds all around: crickets are calling; the hush of the…
Beloved Osho, what is the goal of life? Why is there a desire to continue to live forever?
They said, "Wait. This is not a simple question and we have to consult ancient scriptures. We have to find some precedent, and we have to come to an agreement. The astrologer is saying something, the priest is saying something else. If we give you fifteen answers, what help are they going to be? So let us come to one conclusion." The king's old servant was standing by his side. He whispered in his ear, "I am an old man, and I am not supposed to interfere in this great conference of big shots; I am just a poor servant. But I am old, I am just the same age as your father, and I have brought you up from your very childhood. Just listen to me: these people will never come to any conclusion. "These people have been arguing for centuries and they have never come to any conclusion.…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS THE GOAL OF LIFE AND HOW CAN IT BE ACHIEVED? The camels are very difficult people! Whatever you do to them, somehow or other they will express their camelhood. My whole life I have been telling you there is no goal! Life is its own goal. There is nothing outside life that you have to achieve. All achievement is the projection of the ego. The very idea of achievement is ambition. What you achieve does not matter -- money, power, knowledge; these are not in any way going to give you life. In fact, in achieving power, in achieving money, in achieving prestige, in achieving any other ambition, you are losing your life, you are sacrificing your life. You are involved in stupid things, and by the side life goes on slipping out of your hands.
Question: Osho, since life and death follow each other, there must surely be some gap in their timing. People say the life that follows death is just a change of dress—the clothing changes, the soul remains the same. The “dress” we receive—do we get it by our own choice, with our consent, or is it forced upon us? Birth seems to be given to us without our consent. If so, does it mean that at that time we had some intention about what we would do with this dress? And have we now forgotten what that intention was—what our goal is? And if it is given to us, surely it must be given with some thought—“Go, and do this.” So what is our goal now? If all of us share the same goal, why then are our environments and “dresses” not the same?
You have said that there are no goals in life, no purpose. And yet we are all here with enlightenment as our goal. Please speak on this.
Then you start a totally different way of life. You start being playful, you start being alive moment to moment with nowhere to go -- whatsoever the life gives, you accept it with deep gratitude. Grace happens to you. This is what I call: to become a god. The moment you start playing, living in the moment, you have become a god. I am here to persuade you that you are already gods. You may be here to become gods -- that's your trip, I'm not concerned with it. I know what I am here for: just to persuade you to look at your own face once again; to search within and not to go without, searching for something which doesn't exist. Life is a purposeless play, a play of infinite forces -- beautiful if you don't have an achiever's mind, ugly if you have ambition to become something, to…