According to Osho, we repeat life because we never truly live; incomplete experiences and unlived love create cravings that demand another chance. Desire pulls consciousness back again and again. When you live, love, and know yourself totally—without avoidance or repression—the hankering ends, nothing remains unfinished, and the cycle of repetition ceases.
We keep coming back because we leave things half-done; if you fully live and love now, there’s nothing left to repeat.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Why does man go on living in the same repetitive circle, again and again and life after life?
It is simple. Because you don't really live. That's why you want to repeat. If you really live, there will be no need to repeat. If you have loved, and known what love is, there will be no need to repeat; you will be finished with it. Whenever something has been known totally, you are finished with it. When something remains unknown, you hanker. Natural it is, you go on desiring. You have not loved in this life, you will desire another life. You have not loved THIS woman, you will desire another woman. You have not loved THIS man, you will desire another man, in some other world, in some other planet. You have not been able to see and recognize and realize who you are in THIS life -- you will hanker for another. The incomplete hankers to be completed, that's why. And then you can understand my…
In this regard a friend has also asked: Osho, can we know our past lives?
Sri Aurobindo undertook another experiment. He did not appear to succeed, and did not succeed outwardly, but his direction was absolutely right. His experiment was this: Is it possible for a few souls to rise so high that their very presence begins to lift and call other souls upward? Is it possible that when one person’s soul rises, the overall level of the soul of humanity rises with it? This is not only possible; today it is the only possibility. Nothing else can work now. Man has fallen so low that if we plan to change people one by one, perhaps the change will never happen. In fact, the one who goes to change them is more likely to be changed by their company—to be corrupted along with them. You can see it: those “servants of the people” who go to serve the people—within a short time it is discovered…
Osho, I don’t want liberation. I want to be born again and again. What do you say?
Ramadhar! Even if you desire liberation, is it so easy to get? You don’t want it? Then you won’t get it—don’t panic. Don’t carry needless anxieties. No liberation is chasing you! Even if you chase liberation, will it happen? Not easily. You are surrounding yourself with pointless worries. Is anyone handing out liberation somewhere that you say, “I don’t want it”? You sound as if you’re afraid I’m ready to dump liberation on you! Liberation isn’t a garment I can change for you. It isn’t a dye I can color you with. It isn’t an object I can thrust on you against your will. Liberation is never by force. Do you understand what liberation means? Supreme freedom. If you don’t want it, it won’t happen. Be at ease—birth after birth, be at ease. For all eternity, be at ease. If you don’t want it, it won’t happen. Liberation happens only…
Osho, if the movement of life is circular—like day and night, like months and seasons—does it mean we, too, keep merely repeating ourselves again and again?
Strive! Buddha’s last words at the moment of farewell were: Ananda, be ceaselessly engaged in effort! Do not be negligent even for an instant! Do not let even a trace of sloth settle within! For a little sloth, and much is lost. Keep toiling until you awaken; until then, do not grant yourself any rest. Tireless effort! You will have to strike again and again; only then will this darkness break—because you have been maintaining this darkness for so long. Your state has become rock-like, inert. The crust has grown very strong. The soul is hidden within; the spring is within; but the doors are closed. By striking, the doors will break. By striking continuously, the doors will break. Even if the blows are gentle, they must be unbroken. Water falls—gentle blows—and rocks are split. Let the stream of your remembrance fall upon the mechanical rocks within you. If not…
Osho, what is the first experience of samadhi like?
You will know only when it happens. It cannot be said; at most a few hints can be given. It is as if, in the dark, a lamp is suddenly lit. Or as if a dying patient, right at the edge of death, suddenly finds a medicine that works; life’s wave, life’s thrill spreads again—so it is. As if a corpse becomes alive—such is the first experience of samadhi. It is the taste of nectar. The experience of the ultimate music. But it will be only when it happens; and only then will you understand. You will not understand by my saying it. It is as with love. How can anyone explain it? To someone who has never loved, never known love, no matter how many explanations you offer—he will hear it all and still ask, “I haven’t understood; please explain a little more.” It is like explaining light to…