According to Osho, a spiritual seeker first sees the futility of outward, desire-driven life and its built-in frustration, then turns to discover reality as it is. Seeking means dropping projections and desire, meeting the present moment directly—here and now. With a no-desiring mind, one awakens from dreams, encounters ‘what is,’ and finds intrinsic bliss, fulfillment, and alignment with existence.
Notice that chasing desires never satisfies, stop projecting, and look at life exactly as it is right now.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A SPIRITUAL SEEKER? It means two things, primarily. One, that life as it is known outwardly is not fulfilling, life as it is known outwardly is meaningless. The moment one becomes aware of this fact, that this whole life is just a meaningless thing, then the seeking begins. This is the negative part, but unless this negative part is there, the positive cannot follow. Spiritual seeking means primarily a negative feeling, a feeling that life as it is, is meaningless, this whole process just ends in death: "Dust unto dust." Nothing remains conclusively in one's hands. You pass through life with such agony, with such hell, and nothing is achieved conclusively. This is the negative part of spiritual seeking, and the whole life helps you toward this.
Osho, what is the difference between surrender and blind imitation?
So be careful: the freedom you allow yourself, allow the other too. You have no right to judge another as blindly credulous or as a surrendered being. Drop that concern. You cannot judge anyway—how will you enter another’s heart? How will you know? Think only about yourself. See within whether, up to now, you have lived by blind belief or by surrender. Decide only there; leave worrying about others. Otherwise, all your judgments will be wrong. Jesus said: Judge not; do not set yourself up as a judge in relation to another. To the friend who has asked: if you are asking for yourself, good. Drop worrying about others. Look within and see: whatever I have been clinging to till now—have I ever staked my life to hold it? Have I meditated for it? Have I loved for it? Or am I just clutching what culture, society, civilization handed me?…
Questioner: what is the difference between a seer and a sannyasin? Can't one be a seeker without being a sannyasin?
One cannot be a seeker without being a sannyasin, because to be a seeker is the beginning of sannyas. A seeker is one who is seeking sannyas. What else can a seeker do except seek sannyas, except practice and perfect sannyas? He has to gradually transcend the pains and pleasures of the world and attain to bliss. He has to transcend the doer and attain to witnessing. He has to go beyond his ego and attain to emptiness. He has to transcend matter and be one with God. All these things are collectively known as sannyas. Being a seeker means he is starting on a journey to sannyas. A seeker is a beginner on the path of sannyas, and a siddha, an adept, is one who has fulfilled his sannyas. The whole of seeking is directed towards sannyas. A seeker is one who is in search of sannyas. But always…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES OF THE SEEKER OF TRUTH? Your society destroys you. It has very sophisticated ways and means to destroy your quest, to remove the question from your being, or at least cover it up. And the method it uses is this: before the child has even asked who he is, the answer is given. And any answer that has been given before the question has been asked is futile; it is going to be just a burden. He is told that he is a soul, that he is a spirit, that he is not a body, that he is not material. Or, in communist countries he is told that he is a body, just material, and that only in the old days, out of fear and ignorance, did people believe that they have souls -- that that is just a superstition.
Osho, in yesterday’s talk you said that a seeker should first be concerned with becoming a vessel, and should not go about begging from place to place. But the very meaning of a seeker is that he has obstacles in practice. He doesn’t know how to become a vessel, how to prepare. So if he does not go asking, what should he do? How difficult it is to meet the right guide!
But searching and begging are two different things. In fact, the one who does not want to search is the one who begs. Searching and begging are not the same; they are opposites. He who wants to avoid searching begs; a seeker never begs. And the processes of searching and begging are entirely different. In begging you have to keep your attention on the other—the one who will give. In searching you have to keep your attention on yourself—the one who is to receive. It is true that there are obstacles on the path of the seeker. But if we understand rightly, saying there are obstacles on the path of the seeker means the obstacles are within the seeker; the path too is within. And to understand one’s obstacles is not very difficult. So we will have to speak a little more extensively on what the obstacles are and how…