According to Osho, a Buddha is moved by no motive at all. Enlightenment happens only when every desire, goal and achieving mind falls away; then one simply is—pure awareness. From this state there is nothing to attain, nowhere to go, nothing to do. Action, if it happens, is spontaneous, effortless expression of awareness, not driven by purpose. Motivation and true awareness cannot coexist; the Buddha embodies motive-less presence.
A Buddha isn’t trying to get anything—he’s just fully awake, and whatever happens flows naturally without a reason.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
What motivates a buddha?
The question is absurd, because a Buddha becomes a Buddha only when all motivation has left, when all desires have disappeared. A Buddha becomes a Buddha only because he now has nothing to do, nothing to desire, nowhere to go, no achievement. The achieving mind disappears -- then one becomes a Buddha. So if you ask, "What motivates a Buddha?" you are asking an absurd question. Nothing can motivate him; that's why he is a Buddha. Siddhartha Gautama became enlightened. The story goes that a Brahmin was passing by. He had never seen such a beautiful person. Something unearthly was surrounding Buddha sitting under his tree; he was luminous, a tremendous peace. The Brahmin could not go. He was in a hurry, he had to reach somewhere; but the silence of Buddha pulled him. He forgot where he was going, he forgot his motivation. Being close to this man who…
Question: wasn't buddha's desire for realization a desire?
Mind is desiring. The mind cannot do anything without desire. You cannot transcend the mind through desiring, because the mind is the desiring. So the mind has to desire even that which is found only when there is no desire. But begin with the wall. Know desire, and you will stumble upon the door. Even Buddha had to begin with a desire, but no one told him -- the fact was not known to him -- that the door opens only when there is no desire. As I understand it, struggling with desire is the disease. Giving up the struggle is the freedom. That is the only real death: when you just give up. If you can just lie down and die with no struggle to live, without even an indication of struggle, that death can become a realization. If you just lie down and accept -- with no movement…
Osho, Lord Buddha did not flee from suffering—he fled from pleasure. He didn’t skip a meal; he left after his last meal. But why did it still take him years to discover meditation?
Buddha certainly fled from pleasure; that’s why the work was finished in years, not lifetimes. You think it took years? Does it feel like a very long time? Six years—what kind of time is that? Where you have had thousands of births, is six years any time at all? You feel, six years! Why do those six years seem so long? A child goes to school—do you ever say, “So, in seven years he’ll only matriculate? And then six more years to get a degree—only a graduate? Then three, two more years for a doctorate!” Half a life is spent collecting certificates, yet no one says, “So much time?” But if Buddhahood is attained in six years, we still feel, it took too long! Why? In truth, our ambition is tied to the university. From it we expect money, position, prestige. So however much time it takes, it feels little.…
Therefore, o sariputra, it is because of his non-attainmentness that a bodhisattva, through having relied on the perfection of wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought-coverings he has not been made to tremble, he has overcome what can upset, and in the end he attains to nirvana. All those who appear as buddhas in the three periods of time fully awake to the utmost, right and perfect enlightenment because they have relied on the perfection of wisdom.
Buddha is powerful, powerful in his peace, in his silence. He is as powerful as a roseflower, he's not powerful like an atom bomb. He's as powerful as the smile of a child... very fragile, very vulnerable; but he's not as powerful as a sword. He is powerful, as a small earthen lamp, the small flame burning bright in the dark night. It is a totally different dimension of power. This power is what we call divine power. It is out of non-friction. Concentration is a friction: you fight with your own mind. You try to focus the mind in a certain way, towards a certain idea, towards a certain object. You force it, you bring it back again and again. It tries to escape, it runs away, it goes astray, it starts thinking of a thousand and one things, and you bring it again and you force it. You…
Osho, what is the goal of meditation?
Even Ananda, Buddha's closest disciple, asked one day when they were walking through a forest. It was autumn and leaves were falling from the trees and the whole forest was full of dry leaves and the wind was blowing those dry leaves about and there was a great sound of dry leaves moving here and there. They were passing through the forest and Ananda asked Buddha, "Bhagwan, one question persists. I have been repressing it, but I cannot repress it anymore. And today we are alone; the other followers have been left behind so nobody will know that I have asked you. I don't want to ask it before others. My question is: Are you telling us all that you have discovered or are you still hiding something? -- because what you are telling us does not clarify your bliss, your peace. It seems you are hiding something. " And…