According to Osho, there is greed in every chase for “worthy attainments” because greed arrives first and paints objects as desirable. Whatever requires acquisition is not truly worth attaining and will be lost. The only genuine attainment is one’s own nature—already present, beyond desire. Turning inward dissolves greed; outward pursuit breeds attachment if it succeeds and anger if it fails.
The only thing truly worth having—your real self—is already inside you; wanting other things just makes them seem special and keeps you chasing and upset.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
A friend has asked: “Is there greed even in the attempt to obtain, in ever-greater measure, that which is worth attaining?”
What, in truth, is worth attaining? That which is truly worth attaining is already found within. You cannot be greedy for it. And whatever we take to be “worth attaining” is in fact not worth attaining. Greed arrives first; that is why something starts appearing desirable. Understand this a little clearly. We say: “If something is worth attaining, what’s wrong in desiring it?” But something appears “worth attaining” precisely because greed has seized it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t appear worth attaining. What you find desirable may not appear desirable to your neighbor. His greed is elsewhere; yours is elsewhere. That’s the only difference. Nothing is desirable in and of itself. The moment your greed gets attached to something, it starts looking worth attaining. Before greed was attached, it wasn’t desirable. “Desirable” simply means greed has latched onto it. Then a vicious circle arises: greed gets there first, so the thing looks…
Osho, the path of sannyas is unfamiliar and I am afraid. What should I do?
But this is everyone’s belief—that love arises from fear. So the husband frightens the wife as much as he can, thinking otherwise there will be no love. And the wife frightens the husband as much as she can, thinking the same. Parents frighten the children; and the children, for their part, do not hold back—they frighten the parents too; they have their own ways, their recipes. All devotees of Baba Tulsidas! Everyone is frightening everyone. Teachers are frightening students; students are frightening teachers. Fear pervades everywhere. Our notion of God is as if he were a policeman. We imagine he watches you twenty-four hours a day; he won’t even leave you alone in the bathroom—sitting there, peeping through the keyhole. I have heard: a Christian nun used to bathe with her clothes on. At last her companions became concerned. They said, “What sort of madness is this? Why don’t you…
Osho, what is greed?
Look within yourself and you will experience great uniqueness. And all inferiority disappears, evaporates; it was created by you and by wrong education, it was created by a subtle strategy -- the strategy of comparison. Once you know your uniqueness you are joyous, and then there is no need to follow anybody. Learn from everybody. An intelligent person even learns from idiots, because there are few things you can learn only from idiots because they are experts in idiocy. At least watching them, observing them, you can avoid a few things in your life. You can learn from everybody, not only from man but from animals, from trees, from clouds, from rivers. But there is no question of imitating. You can't become a river, but you can learn some quality which is river-likeness: the flow, the let-go. You can learn something from a roseflower. You cannot become a roseflower, you…
Osho, tell us of some lure that would set us moving toward God—some temptation that would engage our mind in God-realization.
Difficult today, difficult tomorrow; the day after, not so difficult—if you persist and don’t jump up, “Oh, a bad thought—get rid of it!” The witness has nothing to do with good or bad. Thorns have the same worth as flowers. We label; the witness does not. Soon, an amazing thing begins: now and then a gap appears—an interval. A thought comes, then the next does not; a space remains. In that empty space, the first glimpses begin. In that emptiness, even you are not—there is only emptiness. That is the door. Keep at it, and thoughts lessen; spaces grow. It’s like a road where a person passes, then for an hour no one—emptiness. A thought appears on the screen, then none for a long while; the screen is blank. From that blankness, your first contacts with God begin—because in that moment you are present. Thought can take you to past…
Beloved Osho, when you spoke of greed, I was totally horrified. I have finally reached a point where I am willing to see how big a part it plays in my life, and the misery it brings with it. Could you please shed more light on what this thing called greed is, where it comes from? -- and perhaps offer some tools to help me?
It is strange that the word health, and the word holy both come from `wholeness'. When you are feeling one with wholeness all greed disappears. Otherwise... what have religions been doing? They have misunderstood greed as a desire, so they try to repress it: "Don't be greedy." Then one moves to the other extreme, to renounce. One collects -- the greedy person; and the person who wants to get rid of greed starts renouncing. There too there is no end. Mahavira could never recognize Gautam Buddha as enlightened for the simple reason that he still carries three sets of clothes -- just three sets of clothes, which are absolutely necessary. One you are using, one has to be washed, and one for emergency reasons... someday the clothes may not come from being washed or they are not dry, or it is raining the whole day. So three seems to be…