According to Osho, maturity is the relaxed acceptance of existence as it is—dropping desire, ambition, and the urge to become. It is the part harmonizing with the whole, seeing there is nothing to reach because you already are, and discovering no-self. From this insight, effort turns into play, the future stops disturbing the present, and suffering ceases.
Maturity means stopping the chase to become someone and peacefully being as you are, in tune with everything.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
What is maturity?
MATURITY is to know that nothing can be done. Maturity is acceptance of existence as it is: YATHA BHUTAM. Maturity is not to desire things otherwise. Maturity is relaxing with the whole. Immaturity is conflict, struggle. The part fighting with the whole is immaturity. The part come to be in tune with the whole, coming to a harmonious settlement with the whole -- not in defeat but in understanding is maturity. Nothing can be done. To realize that is maturity. And also: Nothing matters. You allow it deep into your heart that nothing matters. All is good as it is, is maturity. Otherwise people remain childish. When you are desiring you are childish. Every desire is a complaint against existence. Every desire is a discontent with the way you are, the being you are. And every desire brings frustration in its wake, because it cannot be fulfilled. Desire brings future…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES OF A MATURE PERSON? The qualities of a mature person are very strange. First, he is not a person. He is no more a self. He has a presence, but he is not a person. Second, he is more like a child -- simple and innocent. That's why I said the qualities of a mature person are very strange, because maturity gives a sense as if he has experienced, as if he is aged, old. Physically he may be old, but spiritually he is an innocent child. His maturity is not just experience gained through life. Then he will not be a child, and then he will not be a presence; he will be an experienced person -- knowledgeable but not mature. Maturity has nothing to do with your life experiences.
What is the difference between waiting for godot and waiting for god?
It is as if the sun has risen in the morning and you are sitting in your room with closed doors and windows, in darkness. Open the doors, you become available to the sun. The sun was already available -- just the meeting happens. You cannot wait for God. All waiting is for Godot. Godot means the one who never comes, who CANNOT come, whose arrival is impossible. And the only impossible thing is that which has already happened -- how can it happen again? You are alive, and you are waiting for life, Now, this is ridiculous. The real man of religion does not think in terms of God. He thinks in terms of life or, even better, of living -- because life can again become an abstract idea. Living, moment-to-moment living. In that very living, one knows what God is, because one knows who one is. Your idea…
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF MATURITY? But remember, he said, "Those who are LIKE this small child...." He didn't say, "Those who are small children." There is a great difference between the two. He did not say, "This child will enter into my kingdom of God," because every child is bound to be corrupted, he has to go astray. Every Adam and every Eve is bound to be expelled from the garden of Eden, they have to go astray. That is the only way to regain real childhood: first you have to lose it. It is very strange, but that's how life is. It is very paradoxical, but life is a paradox. To know the real beauty of your childhood, first you have to lose it; otherwise you will never know it.
Beloved master, is maturation an ongoing process? How is maturation related to awareness? Please explain.
Yes, maturation is an ongoing process. There is no limit to it -- not even the sky is the limit. Your consciousness is far bigger than the whole universe. It is infinitely infinite. You cannot come to a point where you can say, "Enough." There is always more and more. There is always a possibility to go on growing. And growing, maturing is such a beautiful experience, that who wants to stop it? We are stopped in every way. Even a great scientist like Albert Einstein has used only fifteen percent of his intelligence. What to say about ordinary people? -- they never use more than five percent. Just think, if Einstein was capable of using one hundred percent of his intelligence he would have given the world unimaginable richness. And if everybody is using his consciousness one hundred percent, then who would like to go to heaven and live…