According to Osho, you hoard because you’re afraid to face your innate inner emptiness (sunyata). Hoarding—of money, power, food, knowledge—is a futile attempt to stuff what is unfillable. The real transformation comes by clearly seeing this futility and accepting the emptiness; then the compulsion drops by itself, revealing emptiness as divine and home.
You keep grabbing things because you’re scared of a big, safe space inside you; once you see it can’t be filled and relax into it, the grabbing stops.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
I feel stuffed with my stinginess -- and still I hoard. Why?
The question is from Amida. You must be feeling empty. And you are not yet courageous enough to accept that emptiness. Hence one goes on stuffing in many ways. People stuff with food, people stuff with knowledge, and people stuff with many things: money, power.... Deep inside, everybody is empty. And that emptiness is divine, that emptiness is God. Buddha calls it SUNYATA -- nothingness. And sooner or later one has to come to terms with that inner emptiness. There are only two types of people, the worldly and the other-worldly. The worldly is one who goes on stuffing the emptiness. And the other-worldly is one who comes to see the point that there is no way to stuff it. It remains empty. So why not face it? Why not BE it? Why not accept it? In that very acceptance, the revolution. The radical transformation. The metamorphosis. And that is…
Why this madness to hoard? I stayed at a house whose owner was the very incarnation of hoarding. Even useless things he stored. The house was a junkyard. How they lived was the mystery. One day, we stood in the garden talking. His young son threw out a broken broom—just the stump. At once I saw the father grow restless; he kept talking, but his eyes were on the broom. I thought my presence was a hindrance. I said, “I’ll be right back.” I went inside. When I returned, both broom and father had vanished. He had taken it in. I followed him. “Now this is going too far,” I said, catching him red-handed with the broom. “Why did you bring this in?” “Who knows—might be useful someday,” he said. “How? For what?” “You never know. What’s the harm in keeping it?” A kind of madness to hoard. Why?
Oh idiot! Sing the song of the divine, sing the song of the divine, sing the song of the divine, because at the time of death the memorization of grammar will not save you.
OH IDIOT! DROP THE DESIRE OF ACCUMULATING WEALTH, AWAKEN RIGHT UNDERSTANDING, MAKE THE MIND DESIRELESS AND BE CONTENTED AND HAPPY WITH WHATSOEVER YOU GAIN THROUGH YOUR OWN LABOR. DO NOT BE INFATUATED BY THE BEAUTY, THE BREASTS, THE NAVEL AND THE WAISTLINE OF A WOMAN. THESE ARE NOTHING BUT CONTORTIONS OF FLESH AND FAT -- CONTEMPLATE UPON THIS AGAIN AND AGAIN. LIFE IS AS TRANSIENT AND UNSTABLE AS A DROPLET ON THE LOTUS LEAF. UNDERSTAND IT WELL THAT THE WORLD IS SUFFERING FROM THE DISEASE OF EGO AND IS WOUNDED BY SORROWS. THE FAMILY TAKES INTEREST IN YOU ONLY AS LONG AS YOU ARE CAPABLE OF EARNING MONEY. AS OLD AGE COMES AND THE BODY BECOMES DECREPIT, NO ONE IN THE HOUSE EVEN BOTHERS ABOUT YOU. ONLY AS LONG AS THERE IS LIFE IN THE BODY, DO THE PEOPLE IN THE FAMILY CARE FOR YOU. THE LIFE GONE OUT, THE…
Beloved Osho, when you spoke of greed, I was totally horrified. I have finally reached a point where I am willing to see how big a part it plays in my life, and the misery it brings with it. Could you please shed more light on what this thing called greed is, where it comes from? -- and perhaps offer some tools to help me?
It is strange that the word health, and the word holy both come from `wholeness'. When you are feeling one with wholeness all greed disappears. Otherwise... what have religions been doing? They have misunderstood greed as a desire, so they try to repress it: "Don't be greedy." Then one moves to the other extreme, to renounce. One collects -- the greedy person; and the person who wants to get rid of greed starts renouncing. There too there is no end. Mahavira could never recognize Gautam Buddha as enlightened for the simple reason that he still carries three sets of clothes -- just three sets of clothes, which are absolutely necessary. One you are using, one has to be washed, and one for emergency reasons... someday the clothes may not come from being washed or they are not dry, or it is raining the whole day. So three seems to be…
A friend has asked: Osho, is striving to get more of what is worth having also greed? What would you say about acquiring more wealth in order to give more in charity?
Among the enemies like lust and anger, we have, by and large, done a little injustice to greed. Greed is not, in the same way as anger and attachment, wholly harmful—or else I have completely misunderstood greed. A few things about greed need to be kept in mind. First, lust, anger, attachment—are nothing compared to greed. Greed is a very deep phenomenon. When a small child is born, there is no lust in him, but there is greed. Lust comes later; greed comes with birth. Anger is contextual. It arises when circumstances are adverse. But circumstances feel adverse in the first place because greed is inside. Anger is a by-product of greed. If there is no greed within, there will be no anger. When someone obstructs your greed, anger arises. When someone does not cooperate with your greed—becomes an opponent—anger arises. Greed is at the root of anger. Look deeper,…