Why did it take Buddha years to discover meditation after leaving pleasure?

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.…

Osho, the severe austerities that Bhagwan Buddha practiced for six years before enlightenment—did all of that go to waste? Or did some part of it also serve a purpose? Kindly explain.

And then “six years” … don’t think that the number six has any special relation either. Don’t decide, “All right, we too will run for six years.” It depends on how intensely you run, how totally you run. If you have Buddha’s urgency, it happens in six years; otherwise not even in sixty. If you run slowly, limping along, checking the clock to see when the six years will be over—“Come on, let’s trudge a little more”—dragging yourself somehow, then in six years the work will not be done; even six lifetimes may pass. It depends on how total your running is. Buddha staked everything—that is his glory. He staked wealth, position, prestige—everything. Body and mind, everything was dedicated to that search. He held nothing back, no miserliness. The running was not half-and-half, not lukewarm. Only at a hundred degrees does water turn to steam. After six years of running…

How many years did it take you to enter meditation?

If then the man reaches the center, and you ask him, “How much of the circle did you travel to get here?”—what will he say? He will say, “I traveled a lot on the circle, but that did not bring me to the center. I walked a great deal, but I did not arrive through that.” You ask, “How many miles did you cover to arrive?” He will say, “No matter how many miles I walked, that did not take me there. I walked a lot, but arrival did not happen through that. When I did arrive, it was by leaping off the circle.” And there, miles have no meaning. Exactly so. The event does not happen in time. And time—we have wasted plenty of it. All of us have. The day it happens to you, you too will not be able to say how long it took. No—the question…

For a while the fool's mischief tastes sweet, sweet as honey. But in the end it turns bitter. And how bitterly he suffers!

FOR MONTHS THE FOOL MAY FAST, EATING FROM THE TIP OF A GRASS BLADE. STILL HE IS NOT WORTH A PENNY BESIDE THE MASTER WHOSE FOOD IS THE WAY. FRESH MILK TAKES TIME TO SOUR. SO A FOOL'S MISCHIEF TAKES TIME TO CATCH UP WITH HIM. LIKE THE EMBERS OF A FIRE IT SMOULDERS WITHIN HIM. WHATEVER A FOOL LEARNS, IT ONLY MAKES HIM DULLER. KNOWLEDGE CLEAVES HIS HEAD. FOR THEN HE WANTS RECOGNITION. A PLACE BEFORE OTHER PEOPLE. A PLACE OVER OTHER PEOPLE. "LET THEM KNOW MY WORK, LET EVERYONE LOOK TO ME FOR DIRECTION." SUCH ARE HIS DESIRES, SUCH IS HIS SWELLING PRIDE. ONE WAY LEADS TO WEALTH AND FAME, THE OTHER TO THE END OF THE WAY. But following somebody else, how are you going to become intelligent? You will not give any chance for your intelligence to explode. It needs a challenging life, an adventurous life,…

Question: First question: Osho, in the Srimad Bhagavatam there is this verse: yas ca mūḍhatamo loke yas ca buddheḥ paraṁ gataḥ | tau ubhau sukhamevaite kliśyaty antarito janaḥ || “In this world, the extremely foolish and the one who has gone beyond the intellect—both are at ease. But the one who is in between is afflicted.” Is it really so, Osho? Buddha was kept in such deception. But for how long can you keep someone deceived? How can you hide anyone from life? For a youth festival, the prince was to preside over the opening. Drums were beaten along the route: no old person should be out, no sick person, no funeral procession, no monk. But the world is vast. A deaf man did not hear the drum. A sick man did not know. It was a great capital.