According to Osho, material pursuits can never still restlessness because desire is inherently a yearning for the Infinite; finite wealth, status, and ego-satisfactions only intensify the sense of 'not enough.' Prosperity becomes a blessing: by failing to fulfill us, it exposes its own limits and converts restless craving into a spiritual quest for the Supreme, where alone true contentment lies.
Chasing money and status is like drinking salty water—the more you get, the thirstier you feel—until you realize you really want the endless ocean, not little sips.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, the whole world seems to be racing to acquire more and more material comforts. Yet people remain unsettled and restless—even after obtaining them. What is your view on this?
My view is quite strange. If you understand it, a new vision can open. When a person is seeking wealth, we usually think he is seeking something opposite to God. I don’t think so. I think he is seeking God. When a person seeks status, people think he is searching against God. I don’t think so. I think he is searching for God. And I see it this way… Let us take a person—let me take you. If I ask you, “With how much money will you be satisfied?” your mind will immediately set a figure—and move beyond it, saying, “That won’t do.” Whatever number I suggest, your mind will say, “That won’t do.” What does this mean? It means: unless one gets infinite wealth, it will not do. If I offer you the highest possible position and say, “Take this position; after this, ask for nothing more—make this your…
My beloved Atman! What is humanity? What is man? A thirst, a call, a longing! Life itself is a call. Life itself is a longing. Life itself is an aspiration. But aspiration can be of hell or of heaven. The call can be for darkness or for light. The longing can be for truth or for untruth. Whether we know it or not, if we have called for darkness, we will go on becoming more and more restless. If we have desired the untrue, we will go on becoming more and more restless. If we have desired the wrong, it is impossible to be at peace. Peace is a shadow—it is born of the longing for the right. From a right, samyak longing, peace is born. A seed wants to sprout. If it sprouts, it will be filled with joy; if it cannot sprout, it will feel restlessness and pain.
Some say the prosperity of mankind is increasing by leaps and bounds. God save us from this kind of prosperity! This is not prosperity, it is just a cover-up for our poverty for our weaknesses. Prosperity and power are ways to escape from one's self. It fills my heart with sorrow and pain when I see the inner poverty and anguish that lies beneath the mantle of this so-called prosperity. Anyone who gives this the slightest thought will easily realize that material affluence is only a way to conceal inner poverty. Those who suffer from a sense of inferiority are the ones who hanker after position and wealth. To escape from his inner being, form what he really is, a man tries to project another being, another personality on the outside. What a man pretends to be outwardly is generally the opposite of what he is really like.
A friend has asked, Osho, I am very restless, and so much energy gets used up in this restlessness. How can I make use of it, and what is its cause?
But the anger remains there; it will not change by your turning away. It will change by your standing your ground and seeing it. If you turn your back, anger will make deeper wounds within and lay down roots. Fix both your eyes on anger. This is the moment to consciously see anger. When lust seizes the mind, do not run. Do not panic. Do not chant Ram-Ram. Look lust straight in the face. A direct encounter with the passions is necessary. But man has been taught to run. He has been told, wherever something bad appears—run away. But where will you run? The bad is within you; it will go with you. There is no way to run away from yourself. If evil were outside somewhere, we could run. It stands within—we will have to change it. We will have to use this manure. And using it is not…
First, I have asked one question. And I have also asked one or two related questions. It is asked: Osho, the mind is restless. Without effort and without renunciation, how can it become steady?
No. I will say to you: it is not an effort. If I am clenching my fist and ask you, “How do I open this fist?” what will you say? You will say: “To open it, you need do nothing. Please stop doing what you are doing to clench it; the fist will open by itself.” Opening is not an effort; the moment you cease the effort that clenches, opening happens. Or if I pull down a branch and hold it, and ask how to return it to its place—what will you say? “Do nothing to return it. Just stop doing what holds it down; it will return by itself.” What are we doing continuously with the mind? We are doing something. If we stop that, the mind will quiet by itself. It will quiet by itself. As I said this morning, we are constantly engaged in resistance—twenty-four hours resisting.…