According to Osho, life seems meaningless because it has no built-in purpose; it's a blank opportunity awaiting your creative responsibility. Meaning arises only when you stop waiting for a giver-God or ready-made answers and begin to act, love, and create. Passive prayer breeds anxiety and emptiness; wholehearted doing invites existence's cooperation, and significance appears as you risk, commit, and shape your own freedom.
Life feels empty when you wait for meaning to arrive; it gains meaning when you take responsibility and create it through your actions.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Life seems to he meaningless. Why?
Have you not heard of the madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place and cried incessantly 'I seek God! I seek God!' As many of those who do not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. 'Why, did he get lost?' said one. 'Is he afraid of us? Is he hiding?' said another. 'Has he lost his way? or gone on voyage? or emigrated?' said the third. Thus they yelled and laughed. The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his glances. 'Whither is God?' he cried. 'I shall tell you. We have killed him -- you and 1. All of us are his murderers. And now we are plunging continuously into nothingness. Do you not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night and more night coming on…
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…
Question: Second question: Osho, life seems meaningless. What should I do? He asked the second son. He smiled and said, “I was clever beforehand—I wouldn’t fall into that trouble.” He quickly opened the safe. A terrible stench rose—the seeds had rotted. From which flowers could have bloomed, from which an incomparable fragrance could have arisen—there was only ash. The father said, “These are seeds? This is ash. Are seeds to be kept in a safe? Madman! Are seeds banknotes? Banknotes are already dead—you can keep them anywhere. Do notes contain any possibility? They are corpses. Have you ever seen anything deader than money? If they were notes, a safe would do. But seeds? Do you store seeds in safes? They are not minted in man’s mint; God creates them. You do not lock them away. You have killed them—you have destroyed all possibility.
Osho, why do I feel that if life is meaningless and empty? It seems that I am deathly afraid of being alone. How can I go totally into my aloneness with joy instead of fear?
I am not in favor of all these five "existentialists" -- in quotes -- because I am not even ready to call them existentialists. Kierkegaard never really lived, or if you call his life, life, then it was worse than death. He came out of his house only once a month, and the house was not much, just a small room. His father, seeing that his son seemed to be a little crazy -- continuously reading and writing -- tried to read his books, and threw them away because he could not manage to figure out what Kierkegaard wanted to say. And he goes on and on about nothing, much ado about nothing. Kierkegaard never got married. One foolish woman was in love with him... must have been foolish, because he was an ugly man in the first place, and a strange type, eccentric, who lived in the darkness of…
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…