Why is there greater joy in delaying enlightenment than in being enlightened?

Osho, I keep thinking of my life in terms of goal or destination, waiting to wake up some day and find myself enlightened, and I worry that others will reach before me. Today is a tension. Why is eternity so difficult to feel and remember? You keep reminding me but I keep forgetting and lose patience. Why am I such a food? And then I think 'so what?' and then I want to scream 'no more!' but go on.

But do you think a day will come when all your invest-ments and all your worries and all your acts are complete? Will there ever come a day when you are finished with the activities of your so-called life, and you can come and say, "Right now I am ready"? It will never come, because life is such a complexity. It never begins, it never ends. You are always in the middle. It is like reading a novel from the middle. The beginning part is missing and the end part is missing -- you know only the middle. That is the mystery of life! Try some time reading a novel from the middle and you will find that even an ordinary novel becomes very mysterious. Intrigued you will be, and many times you will be tempted to look back: "What is the beginning?" But resist the temptation, go on reading…

Osho, when am I going to become enlightened?

Please don't be in such a hurry because I will be left without business. This is not fair. If I have so much compassion for you, you should have at least a little compassion towards me too. Go slowly. Let me also enjoy the Masterhood. The psychiatrist leaned heavily on the bar and began to drink long, hard doubles. His face was wreathed in sorrow and he was, at the same time, ominously sad. Another psychiatrist happened by. 'John!' he exclaimed: 'John! My good fellow. You don't seem to be yourself tonight. Care to tell me about it?' 'There isn't much to tell' John replied. 'Remember that rich nut I was treating for years? The one who practically kept me in business from the start?' 'I certainly do. You mean the one who kept dreaming for thirty years that he was still in high school?' John nodded. 'What happened?' 'Last…

Have I come here to enjoy myself or get enlightened? Does one need to suffer to become enlightened? I seem to fluctuate between the two. I'm very confused.

First, become joyous! And Jesus goes on saying it, but nobody listens. He says again and again: Rejoice! Rejoice! I say AGAIN rejoice! You ask: HAVE I COME HERE TO ENJOY MYSELF OR GET ENLIGHTENED; You have come here to get enlightened, as far as you are concerned. As far as I am concerned, you have come here to enjoy. But through enjoyment comes enlightenment, and through enlightenment just suffering. These are all ego trips. You find beautiful names, that's all, but they are all ego trips. Now, you want to become enlightened. Why? For what? From where did you get this idea of enlightenment? And this will create much suffering, because now you will be searching. What to do? Stand on your head to become enlightened? Fast to become enlightened? Go to the mountains to live in a cave? Become a masochist -- to torture yourself? Practise a thousand…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, DON'T CONSCIOUSLY AWAIT ENLIGHTENMENT WHETHER YOU'RE HAPPY OR ANGRY, IN QUIET OR NOISY PLACES, YOU STILL MUST BRING UP CHAO CHOU'S SAYING, "A DOG HAS NO BUDDHA-NATURE." ABOVE ALL, DON'T CONSCIOUSLY AWAIT ENLIGHTENMENT. IF YOU CONSCIOUSLY AWAIT ENLIGHTENMENT, YOU'RE SAYING, "RIGHT NOW I'M DELUDED." IF YOU WAIT FOR ENLIGHTENMENT, CLINGING TO DELUSION, THOUGH YOU PASS THROUGH COUNTLESS EONS YOU WILL STILL NOT BE ABLE TO GAIN ENLIGHTENMENT. AS YOU BRING UP THE SAYING, JUST AROUSE YOUR SPIRIT, AND SEE WHAT PRINCIPLE IT IS. CONSTANTLY TAKE THE TWO CONCERNS -- NOT KNOWING WHERE WE COME FROM AT BIRTH AND NOT KNOWING WHERE WE GO AT DEATH -- AND STICK THEM ON THE POINT OF YOUR NOSE.

I am frustrated -- you say be herenow, drop the mind, be spontaneous -- to me this would be an enlightened state. I don't experience being enlightened, so what does this asshole do in the meantime?

Drop misery!... And you will ask: "How to drop misery?" Drop goals. Goals create misery. When you are hankering for something and you cannot get it, you become miserable. When you don't hanker for anything, but start moving in a new dimension, whatsoever you have, you start enjoying it.... You may be sitting in the small garden of your cottage and thinking of the great palace -- how to get it? In that very idea of the great palace which you can see far away in the sunlight, the marble palace, you are becoming miserable. The more you become focussed on THAT palace, the more you forget the beauties of this small cottage -- the flowers are there, the lawn is green, the trees are happy, the wind is blowing, the sun is showering, the birds are singing.... For the birds there's not much difference between a palace and a…