Osho's perspective on Longing
When Osho Spoke About Longing
Passages from the discourses where this theme comes alive.
Beloved Osho, it is true that listening to you I often feel surrounded by softness, peacefulness, silence, but within all that is such a deep longing. It happens also sometimes when I am overwhelmed and delighted by a sunset, a full moon, a beautiful piece of music. There is always a longing, almost like a sweet pain. Osho, what is it that I long for?
Anything of beauty, anything reminding you of the beyond, will create a longing in you, a longing that you cannot figure out what it is for. You don't know the name of the object because in fact it is not for any object. Listening to beautiful music, looking at a sunset or just a bird on the wing or beautiful roses, or sitting here in silence, a sweet pain can be felt. The longing is how to become one with this state of feeling. It should not be a fleeting thing that comes and goes but something that remains with you, that becomes you, because the same music which was sweet today may not be sweet tomorrow, may be boring the day after tomorrow. So it is not the music. It is something else that is triggered in you: the longing to be peaceful, to be musical, to have all…
Beloved Osho, was rabindrinath's longing, his creative angst, the very thing that in the end became an obstacle to his enlightenment? Am I also destined to die with tears in my eyes, and a pocket full of songs?
Milarepa, a poet is not in search of truth. His search is for beauty, and through the search for beauty nobody has ever become enlightened. One can become a great poet, a great painter, a great singer, a great dancer; but on the path of beauty, enlightenment is not possible. The seeker of truth, and only the seeker of truth, attains to enlightenment. And this is the miracle of enlightenment, that once you have discovered truth, then beauty, the good, and all that is valuable simply become available to you. Beauty cannot lead to enlightenment, but enlightenment opens your eyes to all dimensions and all directions. Rabindranath was very close to enlightenment, but his search was not for enlightenment -- he was searching for the beautiful. And the search for the beautiful, deep down, is the search for expressing beauty -- in words, in music, in dance, in any kind…
Beloved Osho, oftentimes, when I close my eyes and look inside, I get in touch with a deep longing in my heart, for nothing in particular, just a longing. Beloved master, is this a hindrance on the path, or is this the fire that keeps me going?
All the great illumined people have been killed, destroyed, poisoned, for the simple reason that the crowd could not tolerate it, it was too much. They were flying so high that it was hurting millions of people: "They belonged to us, they have been amongst us, and it is humiliating that they have attained such height and such flight and we are still crawling on the earth. The only way to forget our humiliation is to destroy them." They don't think of the other possibility. A few think of it, and those few go through the transformation. Those few are very blessed. Those few start looking at those who have reached to the height as their pioneers, as glimpses of their own future and their potentiality. They start also moving in the same direction. But these people are very few. The majority take the easiest course, and that is to…
What is this longing in me that no relationship can satisfy, that no tears relieve, that is not changed by many and beautiful dreams and adventures?
That's why in the East, particularly in India.... It is a very ancient country, and ancient countries become cunning just as old people become cunning. Out of cunningness this country decided for child marriage, because once somebody is adolescent hope starts arising -- longing, romance, poetry; now it will be difficult. The best way that India found was child marriage, marriage of children. They don't know what marriage is, they don't know what relationship is, they don't know what love is -- they are not even hungry for it -- sex has not yet become a mature thing in them. Let them get married. Just think -- a three-year-old girl being married to a five-year-old boy. Now they will grow together, just as brothers and sisters grow together. Have you ever felt any desire to divorce your sister? I don't think anybody ever divorces one's own sister, there is no…
"The pursuit of beauty can become a veil that obscures the truth; true enlightenment arises only when the seeker turns inward, beyond the compulsion to express."
"Fulfillment is not found in longing for the ultimate, but in turning inward to discover your own beauty and resting in your true presence."
"Pure, objectless longing is the sacred fire that burns away all falsehood, revealing your authentic being; nurture this inner flame quietly, for it is your path to liberation."
"Share your truth freely, for like a flower's fragrance, it is meant to spread and multiply, not to be hoarded in the shadows of ego."
"In the longing to know, all opposites dissolve into nonduality; drop every "why" and run straight into the silent, unborn awareness that transcends all concepts."
"Embrace the ache of longing with awareness, and its tears will bloom into flowers, transforming pain into love and guiding you like a river to the ocean of your divine essence."
"Longing mixed with sadness is a blessing; it reminds you that the journey itself is your true home, urging you to keep moving beyond any temporary bliss."
"Longing is the flute of life calling you to celebrate presence; when freed from greed and possession, it transforms into a living experience of the Ultimate, where nothing is ever lost."
"Longing is the soul's pull toward its source, a dance that transforms the limiting banks into an ocean of unity, where the dewdrop merges with the vast."
"When the longing for guidance becomes uncontrollable, it marks the transition from mind to heart, leading you to the silent garden within where true answers reside. Trust this inner journey; your being is the ultimate guide beyond questions and answers."
"Longing for a master is not about dependency; it is the awakening of your own divine essence, revealing that you are not just a drop, but the entire ocean within."
"Deep longing in moments of peace and beauty is the soul's yearning for union with the eternal, a desire to transform the fleeting into the everlasting."
"The longing for a spiritual connection is the soul's whisper, urging you to return to the source of your own forgotten beauty. It is not a physical attraction, but a divine call to dissolve the ego and merge with the river of grace within."
"The longing that remains unfulfilled by relationships is the soul's deep desire to dissolve separation and unite with the whole; human loves are merely appetizers, intensifying our thirst for the ultimate love affair with reality itself."
"The pain of longing is not about physical distance, but a separation from your true self; when love becomes oneness, the illusion of distance dissolves."
"Spiritual growth flourishes when we shift our focus from what is missing to celebrating what is blossoming within us; in this celebration, the sense of lack naturally dissolves."
"Your heart's longing is fulfilled the moment the 'I' knot dissolves; what you seek is already enthroned within you."
"The heart can never be dry; it is the head that knows only emptiness. Return your attention from logic to love, and the longing for the Supreme Beloved will naturally blossom."
Profound Quotes on Longing
Explore our structured collection of meaning-mapped quotes regarding Longing.
Open Quotes Library →