According to Osho, suicide of the body is a futile, fearful escape that changes nothing—you’ll be reborn to repeat the same misery. When life feels meaningless, choose “real suicide”: sannyas and meditation, the gentle death of ego, craving, and old habits. This inner dying reveals another, deeper life—purpose arising from awareness—ending the cycle of suffering and, ultimately, of birth.
Don’t kill your body—let your ego and cravings die through meditation and a new way of living, and real meaning will appear.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, life seems meaningless. I want to take sannyas too, but I’m afraid of society—and I hold back. Then, seeing life’s meaninglessness, the thought of suicide comes again and again. What do you say about suicide?
The “meaning” of this life—earning your bread, running a shop, the same routine day after day. Morning you’re up again, round and round like an ox on the mill; evening you return and fall into bed; morning again. The same quarrels, the same chatter, the same ideologies. Sooner or later anyone with a little intelligence will feel: what is going on? What’s the point? I did this forty years; I’ll do it another twenty-five or thirty; then I’ll die. To what end? Only fools never have this thought. It is auspicious that you feel life is meaningless. But it is not right to decide on suicide on that basis. First search further. Another way of living may be possible. I tell you, another way of living exists. I speak from knowing: another way exists. One life heads outward; it is futile. Another turns inward; it is meaningful. Everyone is seeking…
Osho, why do I feel that if life is meaningless and empty? It seems that I am deathly afraid of being alone. How can I go totally into my aloneness with joy instead of fear?
I am not in favor of all these five "existentialists" -- in quotes -- because I am not even ready to call them existentialists. Kierkegaard never really lived, or if you call his life, life, then it was worse than death. He came out of his house only once a month, and the house was not much, just a small room. His father, seeing that his son seemed to be a little crazy -- continuously reading and writing -- tried to read his books, and threw them away because he could not manage to figure out what Kierkegaard wanted to say. And he goes on and on about nothing, much ado about nothing. Kierkegaard never got married. One foolish woman was in love with him... must have been foolish, because he was an ugly man in the first place, and a strange type, eccentric, who lived in the darkness of…
Question: Second question: Osho, life seems meaningless. What should I do? The great Western thinker Camus has written that, in his view, the biggest problem in human life is only one: Why should a man live at all? Suicide is the central philosophical problem. And Camus is right. If you do not bring meaning into life, then suicide is indeed the biggest problem—why not simply erase oneself? Other Western thinkers move in the same direction. A hero in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov says to God: “Where are you? I want to meet you—not to worship you, not to pray for anything. I want to ask why you gave me life without asking me. What kind of harshness is this? What cruelty? You should have asked whether I even wanted to be. I want to meet you face to face so I can say: what injustice is this?
Osho, Indian sages do not talk as much about meaninglessness and boredom as they do about love, meditation, and bliss. Is speaking directly of love, meditation, and bliss useful for understanding life’s meaninglessness and boredom? Kindly tell us.
In the West there is much talk that life is boredom, meaningless, futile, without essence—insubstantial. The very result of that talk has been that people have gradually accepted that life is futile and insubstantial. People have become sad. They have lost their roots in life. They are merely going through the motions—almost as if they are just waiting to die. The exuberance of life has disappeared. And although there is a little truth in what Western thinkers say, it is only a half-truth. Only half. Life is boring, life is futile, life is insubstantial. Our sages have also said that life is futile and insubstantial. But they did not stop there. That is only half a statement. This life is insubstantial because there is another life that is essential. This life is insubstantial, but life as such is not only insubstantial. This life is futile, but there is another dimension…
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…