According to Osho, means and ends are not two; they only seem separate to the mind. The quality of the end is already contained in the means—violent means breed violent ends, loving means flower into love. Therefore live the goal now: choose awareness, compassion, and integrity in each step. The path is the destination; purify the process, and the end reveals itself.
The road and the place you want to reach are the same—so act now with the same love and awareness you want at the end.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: Osho, today I would like to ask you about means and ends. Sir, in fact this issue has been very confusing for the world at large. Many scholars from the medieval period to the present have taken it up from many sides, giving different definitions and views. For instance, political philosophers have called it fundamental truth and diplomatic truth. Social philosophers have used it as ethical truth and social truth. Skeptical philosophers have spoken of actual truth and relative truth. Philosophers of science have framed it as scientific living and the art of living. But if I am not mistaken, sir, they all deal with the nine basic issues of living either subjectively or objectively, which are as follows: ...
Question: Maneesha's first question: BELOVED OSHO, ZEN SEEMS TO BE OF THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE END ALWAYS JUSTIFIES THE MEANS. WOULD YOU PLEASE COMMENT? Maneesha, there is no beginning and there is no end. There is no means and there is no goal. Zen is this declaration. Your question has been discussed by the intelligentsia down the ages. What is important? -- the means or the end? Can one achieve the right end by wrong means? Or by achieving the right end, does it matter what kind of means you use to reach it? I can discuss your question only on the margin. It has nothing to do with the anecdote we are discussing. Nobody can reach the right end without right means, because the end is nothing but the ultimate flowering of the means. The goal is nothing but the road reaching to its fullness.
It is not a difficult process because the process of looking is the same, just the object changes: you start turning your consciousness upon yourself. You may have seen many pictures of snakes swallowing their own tails. Those pictures are very ancient symbols of mystery schools; they represent this inner transformation. When your consciousness starts turning upon itself you become a circle, and the moment you are a circle you are no more the same old person. Your life starts having a new grace, a new beauty, a new beatitude. You become golden, you become precious. For the first time you have a contact with god, and that contact is a magical transformation. It is sheer magic and a miracle. Enjoy the trip, don't be too fixated on the target, Osho said in conclusion. Bliss is not a pond, it is a river. It is not static.
Question: OSHO, IS THERE ANY POINT IN LIVING? MAN has been brought up by all the traditions in a schizophrenic way. It was helpful to divide man in every possible dimension, and create a conflict between the divisions. This way man becomes weak, shaky, fearful, ready to submit, surrender; ready to be enslaved by the priests, by the politicians, by anybody. This question also arises out of a schizophrenic mind. It will be a little difficult for you to understand because you may have never thought that the division between ends and means is a basic strategy of creating a split in man. Has living any meaning, any point, any worth? The question is: Is there some goal to be achieved by life, by living? Is there some place where you will reach one day by living?
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…