According to Osho, the secret to a long life is disarmingly simple: keep breathing. He uses this playful reply to point out that life unfolds one breath at a time; longevity isn’t a mystical formula but the continuity of breath. Honor the breath, stay present, and life continues—length measured in mindful, ongoing inhales and exhales.
Just keep breathing—each breath keeps you alive and here, now.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, why such an enormous fear of allowing myself to be really alive?
The Jews have been tortured for two thousand years because they crucified Jesus, and now this is a crucifixion for all the Jews -- Israel. They have poured their money into it, they have come from faraway lands, they have been working hard, because it is a desert; and besides there is continuous harassment from the Mohammedans who are not going to accept that Israel is not theirs. On their maps they still show Palestine, not Israel. The trouble has increased more and more just now, in a way in which the Jews were not even aware would happen. There are outside enemies all around, and now there are inside enemies. Firstly, the Mohammedans who have been living for centuries in the land are still there; they function as informers to the Mohammedans, because their devotion is to Mohammedanism. And now something new, inconceivable is happening... because some Jews have…
And think of life without love. It is pointless. For what will you live? So these two things are the most cherished things, and people are the most afraid of them. These are the two things for which people should live ! But these are the two things of which they are most afraid. Naturally everybody lives in misery and hell. So remain happy, and after three weeks, report to me. For these three weeks, just remain happy, with no problems, no other questions about love or this and that -- nothing. Simply be happy, purely happy, and then I will see, mm? Good ! [A 70-year-old sannyasin asks if he is too old to meditate. Osho says he is not old. The sannyasin replies:... once I very nearly did meditate unconsciously. That was in the war.
The buddha asked a monk: how do you measure the length of a man's life? The monk answered, "by days." the buddha said: you do not understand the way. The buddha asked another monk: how do you measure the length of a man's life? The monk answered, "by the time that passes during a meal." the buddha said: you do not understand the way. The buddha asked a third monk: how do you measure the length of a man's life? The monk answered, "by the breath." the buddha said: very well, you know the way.
THE BUDDHA ASKED A MONK: HOW DO YOU MEASURE THE LENGTH OF A MAN S LIFE? THE MONK ANSWERED, "BY DAYS." It is just like money: if you go to the market, it has value. If you simply sit alone with your money, it has no value. The value comes only when you relate with others, because the value is just an agreement between you and the others. That's why money has a beautiful name: it is called currency.'Currency' means: when money moves it has value; when it does not move it has no value. If you go on keeping it in your pocket always and always, it is meaningless. You can keep anything else instead of it; it will be the same. Money has value when it changes hands. From one hand to another -- then there is value. Value is in its being a currency, a moving force.…
Beloved Osho, you have told us that the mind becomes more and more quiet if we meditate regularly. Last year, when I was living in europe outside of a commune, thoughts became stronger and stronger during my meditations until I began to dread sitting. Now that I am with you again, this problem has gone away. But I wondered: how can one be a sannyasin for ten years, meditating every day, and have a mind which becomes more and more noisy?
Scientists say there is no reason for the body to die for at least three hundred years. It is just an old hypnosis, autohypnosis, which has made the idea prevalent that you have only seventy years to live. It goes so deep in your consciousness that by the seventieth year you start thinking you are sinking, you are gone. And anyway by the time you are retired at the age of sixty there is nothing to do. Death seems to be a relief, not a danger. We have not been capable enough and human enough to provide a situation where our old people can have some dignity, some self-respect, some pride. We have not been able to find dimensions where they can contribute to the world. And they are experienced and certainly capable of contributing enough -- enough for their self-respect, enough for them to live and not to feel…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, THEN ALMITRA SPOKE, SAYING, WE WOULD ASK NOW OF DEATH. AND HE SAID: YOU WOULD KNOW THE SECRET OF DEATH. BUT HOW SHALL YOU FIND IT UNLESS YOU SEEK IT IN THE HEART OF LIFE? THE OWL WHOSE NIGHT-BOUND EYES ARE BLIND UNTO THE DAY CANNOT UNVEIL THE MYSTERY OF LIGHT. IF YOU WOULD INDEED BEHOLD THE SPIRIT OF DEATH, OPEN YOUR HEART WIDE UNTO THE BODY OF LIFE. FOR LIFE AND DEATH ARE ONE, EVEN AS THE RIVER AND THE SEA ARE ONE. IN THE DEPTH OF YOUR HOPES AND DESIRES LIES YOUR SILENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE BEYOND; AND LIKE SEEDS DREAMING BENEATH THE SNOW YOUR HEART DREAMS OF SPRING. TRUST THE DREAMS, FOR IN THEM IS HIDDEN THE GATE TO ETERNITY.