According to Osho, missing material things like Rolls Royces is a sign of unconsciousness, comparison and jealousy; you long for what you have not truly lived. When you live totally in the present, nothing is missed—paradise is wherever you are. Possessions neither help nor hinder spirituality; the restless, envious mind creates suffering whether the car is there or not.
You only miss stuff when you aren’t really living; stay present and you won’t care whether it’s a Rolls Royce or a Honda.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Do you miss the rolls royces?
I never miss anything. But it seems the whole world is missing my Rolls Royces. It is a very insane world. When the Rolls Royces were there, they were jealous; now that they are gone, they are missing them. I am simply left out! They may be again there, and people will start feeling jealous.... Just the other day a few beautiful photographers were here. All my people tried to prevent me from being photographed by the side of a Honda, but I insisted that this picture should be taken. The Honda does not belong to me; neither did those Rolls Royces. But let people at least enjoy; they will feel good. It is very strange that people's minds should be concerned about things with which they have no concern at all. I am reminded of two alcoholics on a full-moon night, completely drunk. They were lying down under a…
Osho, can you please give me your car?
The question is from Hans Conard Zander. He is a reporter from Germany; he represents the famous magazine STERN. Coming from Germany and asking for an ordinary Mercedes-Benz? -- it is like carrying coal to Newcastle. And this is the only question he has asked. Coming from Germany, from so far away, representing a very reputable, famous magazine, and only this question to ask? It shows much. Hans Conrad Zander had been a monk before he became a journalist. That repression must still be there. He has not asked about God, not about meditation, not about love, but he has asked about a car. The monk has not yet died. This is the ugliness of monkhood: you impose certain things upon yourself forcibly. Your poverty is imposed. Your poverty is not your joy, it is your suffering. The monks become poor because they are greedy. They want the joys of…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, BECAUSE OF YOUR GENIUS IN COMBINING AND THEN GOING BEYOND THE MATERIAL AND THE SPIRITUAL, AND BECAUSE YOU SEEM TO HAVE AN ABUNDANCE OF BOTH WORLDS, I THINK THAT MANY NON-SANNYASINS AND SANNYASINS FEEL JEALOUS OF YOU. PEOPLE RESENT AND DON'T WANT TO FEED ABUNDANCE. IF THEY FEED ANYTHING, THEY FEED POVERTY. IF YOU WERE SITTING IN A CAVE, NAKED, COLD, AND MEDITATING, IT WOULD BE ONE THING, BUT YOU ARE NOT. SANNYASINS WHO NEVER DREAMED OF HAVING A ROLLS ROYCE SEEM TO YEARN FOR ONE MORE THAN FOR THE STATE OF MEDITATION EVEN AFTER SPENDING YEARS WITH YOU. YOU SEEM TO BE SPARKING GREED FOR THE MATERIAL, RATHER THAN A YEARNING FOR THE BEYOND -- OR AT LEAST THAT'S THE MESSAGE THAT'S BEING RECEIVED BY SOME. COULD YOU COMMENT. It is part of my whole device to change the very structure of human consciousness.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, AND TELL ME, PEOPLE OF ORPHALESE, WHAT HAVE YOU IN THESE HOUSES? AND WHAT IT IS YOU GUARD WITH FASTENED DOORS? HAVE YOU PEACE, THE QUIET URGE THAT REVEALS YOUR POWER? HAVE YOU REMEMBRANCES, THE GLIMMERING ARCHES THAT SPAN THE SUMMITS OF THE MIND? HAVE YOU BEAUTY, THAT LEADS THE HEART FROM THINGS FASHIONED OF WOOD AND STONE TO THE HOLY MOUNTAIN? TELL ME, HAVE YOU THESE IN YOUR HOUSES? OR HAVE YOU ONLY COMFORT AND THE LUST FOR COMFORT, THAT STEALTHY THING THAT ENTERS THE HOUSE A GUEST, AND THEN BECOMES A HOST, AND THEN A MASTER? AY, AND IT BECOMES A TAMER, AND WITH HOOK AND SCOURGE MAKES PUPPETS OF YOUR LARGER DESIRES. THOUGH ITS HANDS ARE SILKEN, ITS HEART IS OF IRON. IT LULLS YOU TO SLEEP ONLY TO STAND BY YOUR BED AND JEER AT THE DIGNITY OF THE FLESH.
Osho, you often say that material prosperity is the foundation of spiritual growth; but in your last discourse on non-possession you said that the fewer things one has, the less enslaved one is, and the more things one has, the more enslaved one becomes. Please clarify this fundamental paradox between prosperity and non-possession, and also explain how more things make a person more enslaved. And how does the possessor become possessed?
Material prosperity is the foundation of spiritual life, but a building is not raised by the foundation alone. It can happen that the foundation is there and the house is never built. A house never exists without a foundation, but a foundation can exist without a house. One may lay the footings and leave them filled in—then there will be a foundation, not a building. But wherever there is a building, it cannot be without a foundation. Prosperity is the base of detachment. Without becoming prosperous, no one ever really discovers that prosperity is futile. Without having wealth, no one ever realizes that nothing essential is gained by wealth. The greatest gift of wealth is not wealth—it is the breaking of the illusion about wealth; it is disillusionment. If wealth is never attained, its futility is never known. The poor, the needy, the destitute find it very hard to be…