What should I do now to make my life meaningful?

Question: First question: Osho, when I saw you it felt as if my life has gone to waste. What should I do now, and what should I not do? Harish! Life generally goes to waste. One in a million lives becomes meaningful—though everyone’s could; though all are born carrying the possibility of meaning. Each person is a seed of the divine. But a seed is not yet a flower; it can become a flower. A seed is a possibility—not a truth. Turning possibilities into truth is what sadhana is. A seed needs soil, manure, water; you must arrange it so that sunlight reaches it. You have to remove the obstacles between it and the sun. And then, with a prayerful heart, wait. When the right season for the seed to split arrives, there will be germination. Then the sprout must be protected.

Question: 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. That single moment will be the entire achievement of your life; that is life’s attainment. To find that moment where beginning and end become one; where the source and the destination are one; where the place from which we come and the place to which we go appear together—if you can find that moment, then there is meaning. There is a moment in which pre‑eternity and post‑eternity vanish; make that one moment the harvest of your whole life. There is a melody in which all notes merge… There is a song within you, hidden—just as a tree is hidden in a seed, so a melody lies concealed within you.

Question: Second question: Osho, life seems meaningless. What should I do? People are somehow living—dragging life like a load, a burden. Where there could have been dance, there is only weight. Where flowers could have bloomed, there are only thorns—thornbush upon thornbush. Where sunlight could rise, lamps be lit, offerings be made—there is nothing: a cremation ground’s silence, a desolation, an emptiness. But whose fault is it? God gives opportunity. Birth is not life; birth is only the chance to gain or to waste life. Death merely snatches away the chance. Those who use the opportunity—who come to know life, to recognize it; who earn life’s flowers, who taste life’s fragrance—death can take nothing from them. That is why a Buddha embraces death in peace and silence. That is why Socrates departs laughing, smiling. No weeping, no beating of the breast, no regret, no penitence.

Question: Osho, what is the meaning of life? Life has no ready-made meaning. The meaning of life has to be discovered; it is not given. It has to be created; it is not there. It has to be invented; it is not there. Meaning isn’t stored somewhere, waiting for you to go and pick it up. You will have to search, you will have to create, you will have to bring it forth. That very effort is sadhana, spiritual practice. The deeper the sadhana, the more the meaning of life reveals itself. Nowhere is it kept prepared in advance. And the day I come upon life’s meaning, it will not be the same as the meaning that comes to you. A musician will discover life’s meaning through music—the taste will be different. A dancer will discover it through dance—another taste.

Question: The third question: Osho, why does life feel futile? When I come to you I get a small glimpse of meaning, but it keeps slipping away. Life is neither futile nor meaningful. Life is a blank canvas. Paint upon it whatever you wish. Life is a blank book—write abuses in it if you like, or write songs. In itself, life is nothing; life is a bare opportunity. Many people live with the illusion that life already has a meaning and wonder why they cannot find it. Meaning does not exist in life; it has to be put into it. The more you pour in, the more you will receive—no more. A flute lies before you and you sit there saying, “The flute is here, but why are there no notes in it?