What are the benefits of meditation and the purpose of seeking?

Why meditate? Why seek?

I DON'T SAY that you should meditate, I don't insist that you should meditate. It is you who are seeking it. And you have to seek it. It is just like a man who is ill and asks, "Why take medicine?" Because you are ill, that's why. If you are not ill, then there is no need. Why seek health? There is no need if you are healthy. But if you are not healthy; then you have to seek health. Meditation is not meaningful for a Buddha, for one who has attained the wholeness of his being. Meditation is a medicine; it has to be thrown. Unless you become capable of throwing your meditation, you are not healthy. So remember, meditation is not something to be carried forever and ever. The day will come when the meditation has worked and it is no longer needed. Then, you can forget it.…

Question: First question: Osho, why should I meditate? Divakar Bharti! In life there are some things that are not means but ends. And there are many things that are means, not ends. One may ask, “Why should I earn money?” One cannot ask, “Why should I meditate?” Because money is a means—the “why” can be answered. Ramakrishna tells this story again and again: two dolls of salt, seeing the crowd, had come to the fair. They heard the debate. They said: Wait! We’ll go and find out. How else will it be settled? Sitting on the bank, how will you measure the ocean’s depth? We’ll go, we’ll take a plunge, and we’ll be right back! The two salt dolls plunged in. The people waited—and waited. The fair ran for months—then it dispersed—people went home. The dolls did not return. They could not return.

Osho, what is the goal of meditation?

Even Ananda, Buddha's closest disciple, asked one day when they were walking through a forest. It was autumn and leaves were falling from the trees and the whole forest was full of dry leaves and the wind was blowing those dry leaves about and there was a great sound of dry leaves moving here and there. They were passing through the forest and Ananda asked Buddha, "Bhagwan, one question persists. I have been repressing it, but I cannot repress it anymore. And today we are alone; the other followers have been left behind so nobody will know that I have asked you. I don't want to ask it before others. My question is: Are you telling us all that you have discovered or are you still hiding something? -- because what you are telling us does not clarify your bliss, your peace. It seems you are hiding something. " And…

Question: SEEKER! DO NOT BE RECKLESS. MEDITATE CONSTANTLY OR YOU WILL SWALLOW FIRE AND CRY OUT: "NO MORE!" IF YOU ARE NOT WISE, HOW CAN YOU STEADY THE MIND? IF YOU CANNOT QUIETEN YOURSELF, WHAT WILL YOU EVER LEARN? HOW WILL YOU BECOME FREE? WITH A QUIET MIND COME INTO THAT EMPTY HOUSE, YOUR HEART, AND FEEL THE JOY OF THE WAY BEYOND THE WORLD. LOOK WITHIN -- THE RISING AND THE FALLING. WHAT HAPPINESS! HOW SWEET TO BE FREE! IT IS THE BEGINNING OF LIFE, OF MASTERY AND PATIENCE, OF GOOD FRIENDS ALONG THE WAY, OF A PURE AND ACTIVE LIFE. SO LIVE IN LOVE. DO YOUR WORK. MAKE AN END OF YOUR SORROWS. FOR SEE HOW THE JASMINE RELEASES AND LETS FALL ITS WITHERED FLOWERS. LET FALL WILLFULNESS AND HATRED. ARE YOU QUIET? QUIETEN YOUR BODY. QUIETEN YOUR MIND. YOU WANT NOTHING. YOUR WORDS ARE STILL.

A friend has asked: What is the purpose of meditation?

The purpose of meditation is that your life should no longer remain a tale of sorrow, but become a fountain of joy. Within you—within each one—there is such capacity and such infinite sources that if they all are revealed, flowers and fragrance will spread all around your life. The veena will begin to play around you. Then there will be no need to seek forgetfulness. For friends who truly feel drawn to meditation and wish to understand something about it, there is a separate meeting at night. There are four or six more questions regarding meditation; I will speak about them in the night session. Because by understanding meditation nothing happens; by doing meditation something happens. Come at nine-thirty at night and do the meditation, go within and search for that treasure which is hidden within you. The day your hand touches that treasure, from that day you no longer…