Intention

Question: OSHO, WHAT IS INTUITION, AND WHAT IS ITS PLACE IN YOUR RELIGION? Instinct makes you do things, forces you to do things even against your will. Intellect helps you to find ways if you want to do a certain thing, or to find ways if you don't want to do a certain thing. Intellect's function is to find a way. If you want to go with the instinct, intellect will find a way. If you are a so-called religious person, a pseudo-religious person, and you want to go against your instinct, intellect will find a way. They may be strange ways, but intellect is at your service: whatever you want it will do. It is not in favor of or against anything, it is simply at your disposal. If a man is sane he will use his intellect to help his unconscious be fulfilled.

This is how the mind works: it is attracted like towards a magnet wherever it finds something negative. He is enraged against me. He himself confesses that only about one single thing he is against; otherwise he is absolutely with me, for me. But that's all that he writes in favor; the whole book is against me. Looking at his book I remembered that this is how everybody's mind functions. We only count the thorns in life; we don't count the flowers. They may be ninety-nine percent, but we don't count. You have to reverse the whole process. Opportunities will be coming when hate is easy, anger is easy, rage is easy, jealousy is easy. Remain detached. I am not saying repress; I am saying remain detached, aloof, just a watcher, aware that, "I am not going to be pulled in it.

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…

Osho, what is the meaning of existence?

Buddha says: The inner emptiness is so beautiful, don't stuff it with junk, leave it as it is. And that's what meditation is all about, that's what Zen is. It means living out of emptiness, asking nothing from life, living moment to moment for no other reason, just enjoying being alive. It is more than you can ask for! What more meaning do you need? Is breathing not enough? Is this chirping of the birds not enough? Is the green and the red and the gold of the trees not enough? Is this vast existence with all its splendor not enough? You want some meaning? Yoka says: <q>THE MOON RISES ABOVE THE RIVER. ON THE BANK THE WIND PLAYS SOFTLY IN THE PINES ALL NIGHT LONG, PURE AND CALM. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THAT SERENITY? LOOK ON THE BUDDHA'S PRECEPTS OF NATURE. WINTER AND AUTUMN MISTS, DEW, CLOUDS, SPRING…