Searching

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, 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, why does life feel futile? When I come to you I get a small glimpse of meaning, but it keeps slipping away.

Life is neither futile nor meaningful. Life is a blank canvas. Paint upon it whatever you wish. Life is a blank book—write abuses in it if you like, or write songs. In itself, life is nothing; life is a bare opportunity. Many people live with the illusion that life already has a meaning and wonder why they cannot find it. Meaning does not exist in life; it has to be put into it. The more you pour in, the more you will receive—no more. A flute lies before you and you sit there saying, “The flute is here, but why are there no notes in it?” Notes do not dwell inside a flute; they have to be born, awakened, poured in, coaxed to surge. Put it to your lips and play, and an incomparable music will arise. There is no ready-made meaning in life, as if you could walk into…

Osho, “For a thousand years I have crossed so many rivers and plains, yet still I have not understood the meaning of this walking! I am lost, I am lost.” In other words: over thousands of years of journeying I have crossed countless rivers and forests, yet even now I have not understood the meaning of this walking. Now I am defeated—utterly defeated! Osho, this refrain from a Bengali song often resounds within me. I too am defeated by my passions. Even after realizing the futility of desires, why do they not go?

Anil Bharti, whoever sets out to find the meaning of life is bound to be defeated, to fail. To seek the meaning of life is to assume that life is not a mystery but a mathematics—just a puzzle to be solved. But life is not a puzzle. That is precisely the difference between a puzzle and a mystery: a puzzle can be solved; a mystery remains unknown even when known—no matter how much becomes known, the unknown still remains. This is the difference between science and religion. Science divides existence into two parts—the known and the unknown. What was unknown yesterday is known today; what is unknown today will be known tomorrow. Between the known and the unknown there is no essential, qualitative difference; they are two sides of the same coin. And science says there is nothing beyond those two. That is its denial of consciousness. Religion divides existence…