According to Osho, life has no built-in meaning; it is an open field of freedom and energy in which you must create meaning yourself. Meaning isn’t found like a rock or a scientific law; it’s composed like poetry, danced, sung, birthed. Each person must become a creator—giving birth to truth and God through living, loving, and making beauty—turning existence into a personal, joyous adventure.
Life doesn’t come with a meaning; you make it by creating, loving, and bringing your own music and dance to the world.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what is the meaning of life? Life has no meaning by itself; we have to pour meaning into it. Life is an opportunity; if you infuse it, it becomes meaningful.
Life is like a blank canvas; paint upon it and meaning will appear. The meaning will depend on your skill. If a Picasso paints, it will be worth millions; if you paint, perhaps it won’t fetch millions. There is as much meaning in life as we put into it. Life in itself is empty; life is a bare opportunity. Possibility is all; actuality is nothing. That’s why people so often think: life is futile! What meaning? People come to me asking, “What is the meaning of life?” They are imagining that meaning is some ready‑made thing—lying around somewhere to be handed to you, like predigested food. No; meaning is born of creativity. Compose a few songs; make a sculpture; dance a little. Love a little; meditate a little. Explore; dive into inquiry. And you will find that meaning begins to arrive. And the more multidimensional your being, the more unending…
Osho, what is the meaning of life? Life has no meaning by itself; we have to pour meaning into it. Life is an opportunity; if you infuse it, it becomes meaningful.
Life is like a blank canvas; paint upon it and meaning will appear. The meaning will depend on your skill. If a Picasso paints, it will be worth millions; if you paint, perhaps it won’t fetch millions. There is as much meaning in life as we put into it. Life in itself is empty; life is a bare opportunity. Possibility is all; actuality is nothing. That’s why people so often think: life is futile! What meaning? People come to me asking, “What is the meaning of life?” They are imagining that meaning is some ready‑made thing—lying around somewhere to be handed to you, like predigested food. No; meaning is born of creativity. Compose a few songs; make a sculpture; dance a little. Love a little; meditate a little. Explore; dive into inquiry. And you will find that meaning begins to arrive. And the more multidimensional your being, the more unending…
Life is simply available in all its multi-dimensionality. No meaning is imposed from above; you have to create meaning. Each one has to be a creator, a god in his own right. We live in the world we create, and we live the life we create. So whatsoever meaning you prefer, you can create. The ultimate is to be able to live without any meaning, not to hanker for meaning, not to be obsessed with purpose, not to think in terms of goals; that is the ultimate. Once a man is able to live life for no reason at all, he is a Buddha, he is enlightened. Enlightenment means to live life without any hankering for meaning. Then whatsoever is, is good, and whatsoever is not, that too is good. Then each moment becomes so radiant, so luminous, so fun of fragrance, but still there is no meaning.
Beloved Osho, what is life?
"Ah thought so," said Ezra, "all the time you was preaching it." Life is not there readymade, available. You get the life that you create, you get out of life that which you put into it. First you have to pour meaning into it. You have to give color and music and poetry, you have to be creative. Only then will you be alive. The second essential thing: that only those few people who are creative know what life is. The uncreative never know, because life is in creativity, life is creativity. Can't you see how life goes on creating? It is a continuum of creativity, constant creativity, every moment creativity. In fact God is not a creator. It is better to call him "creativity," because verbs are truer than nouns. Nouns look like things, verbs are processes -- alive, flowing, dynamic. God is more creativity than a creator. Whenever…
Question: The first question: Osho, what is life? Such questions seem simple; they arise in everyone’s mind. But such questions have no answer. In fact, they are not really questions at all; therefore they have no answer. An answer to “What is life?” would be possible only if there were something other than life. Life alone is; there is nothing besides it. We could answer in reference to something else—but there is nothing else. Life is just life. So life can have neither a goal nor a cause. The cause is life, and the goal is life. Consider it this way: someone asks you, “What are you standing on?” You say, “On the roof.” “And what is the roof resting on?” You say, “On the walls.” “And the walls?” “On the earth.” “And the earth?” “On gravity.” If he keeps asking, “And what is gravity resting on?