“Money is a loaded subject because man’s psychology is full of greed; otherwise, it is a simple means of exchanging things, a perfect means. There is nothing wrong in it, but the way we have worked it out, everything seems to be wrong. If you don’t have money, you are condemned; your whole life is a curse, and for your whole life, you are trying to get money by any means. If you have money, it does not change the basic thing: You still want more, and there is no end to wanting more. When finally, you have too much money—even though it is not enough, it is never enough, but it is more than anybody else has—then you start feeling guilty, because the means that you have used to accumulate the money are ugly, inhuman, violent.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“Heaven is not a goal; heaven is the presence right now. If you are present, the divine is available. If you live in the moment, you are enlightened; there is no other enlightenment. And then ordinary life is so extraordinary. Then to be just a nobody is so fulfilling. I call this whole approach sannyas: dropping the goals, the purposes, the future—becoming part of existence this very moment, not postponing it. Then in this very moment, a great explosion is possible in you: the ego disappears, you are no more, but the divine is. And that is bliss and that is truth.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“[The] will to power is the greatest sickness man has suffered from. And all our educational systems, all our religions, all our cultures and societies are in absolute support of this sickness. One has to understand that this tremendous urge to power is arising from an emptiness within you. A man who is not power-oriented is fulfilled, contented, at ease, at home as he is. His very being is an immense gratitude to existence; nothing more is to be asked. Whatever has been given to you, you had never asked for. It is a sheer gift out of the abundance of existence.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“You ask, ‘Why am I always daydreaming about the future?’ You are daydreaming about the future because you have not tasted the present. Start tasting the present. Find a few moments where you are simply delighting. Looking at the trees, just be the look. Listening to the birds, just be a listening ear; let them reach to your deepest core. Let their song spread all over your being. Sitting by the side of the ocean, just listen to the wild roar of the waves, become one with it… because that wild roar of the waves has no past, no future. If you can tune yourself with it, you will also become a wild roar. Hug a tree and relax into it. Feel its green shape rushing into your being. Lie down on the sand, forget the world, commune with the sand, the coolness of it; feel the coolness saturating you. Go to the river, swim, and let the river swim within you. Splash around, and become the splashing. Do whatsoever you feel you enjoy, and enjoy it totally. In those few moments, the past and future will disappear and you will be here now.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“If you drop the mind, suddenly you become happy for no reason at all. Then happiness is just natural, just as you breathe. For breathing, you need not be even aware; you simply go on breathing. Conscious, unconscious, awake, asleep—you go on breathing. Happiness is exactly like that.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“Become a little more aware, and try to bring your consciousness more and more to the facticity of existence. See this flower; don’t think about that flower. Listen to this word I am uttering, not to that word that I am going to utter. Look right now. If you postpone even for a single, split moment, you miss. And then it becomes a habit, an ingrained habit. Tomorrow also you will miss, and the day after tomorrow also, because you will remain the same.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“Each desire is born out of the past, and each desire is projected in the future. The past and the future constitute your whole mind. Analyze the mind, dissect it, and you will find only two things: the past and the future. You will not find even an iota of the present, not even a single atom. And the present is the only reality, the only existence, the only dance there is.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“Needs are small: yes, you need food, shelter, you need a few things. Everybody’s needs can be provided for; the world has enough to fulfill everybody’s needs—but desires… it is impossible. Desires cannot be fulfilled. And because people are fulfilling their desires, millions of people’s needs are not being fulfilled.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“Greed is an effort to stuff yourself with something —it may be sex, it may be food, it may be money, it may be power. Greed is the fear of inner emptiness. One is afraid of being empty, and one wants somehow to possess more and more things. One wants to go on stuffing things inside so one can forget one’s emptiness. But to forget one’s emptiness is to forget one’s real self. To forget one’s emptiness is to forget the way to god. To forget one’s emptiness is the most stupid act in the world that a man is capable of.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“This is my idea of being successful—be a nobody! Just be ordinary, nobody, and life will be a tremendous joy to you. Just be simple. Don’t create complexities around yourself. Don’t create demands. Whatever comes on its own, receive it as a gift, and enjoy and delight in it. And millions are the joys that are being showered on you, but because of your demanding mind, you cannot see them. Your mind is in such a hurry to be successful, to be somebody special, that you miss all the glory that is just available.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“Let things be. You just go on moving, enjoying whatsoever becomes available. If success is there, enjoy it. If failure is there, enjoy it—because failure also brings a few enjoyments that no success can ever bring. Success brings a few joys that no failure can ever bring. And a person who has no idea of his own is capable of enjoying everything, whatever happens. If he is healthy, he enjoys health; if he is ill, he rests on the bed and enjoys illness.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“A meditator is neither a man nor a woman, because meditation has nothing to do with your body; neither does it have anything to do with your mind. In meditation, you are simply and purely consciousness, and consciousness is neither male nor female.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“In the ultimate analysis of life, name and fame are just irrelevant. All that matters in the final reckoning is how you lived each moment of your life. Was it a joy, was it a celebration? In small things, were you happy? Taking a bath, sipping tea, cleaning the floor, roaming around the garden, planting trees, talking to a friend, or sitting silently with your beloved, or looking at the moon, or just listening to the birds—were you happy in all these moments? Was each moment a transformed moment of luminous happiness, was it radiant with joy? That’s what matters.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“People go on postponing everything that is meaningful. Tomorrow they will laugh; today, money has to be gathered… more money, more power, more things, more gadgets. Tomorrow they will love; today there is no time. But tomorrow never comes, and one day they find themselves burdened with all kinds of gadgets, burdened with money. They have come to the top of the ladder, and there is nowhere to go except to jump in a lake.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“Your true self does not speak in words or banal phrases. Its voice comes from deep within you, from the substrata of your psyche, from something embedded physically within you. It emanates from your uniqueness, and it communicates through sensations and powerful desires that seem to transcend you. You cannot ultimately understand why you are drawn to certain activities or forms of knowledge. This cannot really be verbalized or explained. It is simply a fact of nature. In following this voice you realize your own potential, and satisfy your deepest longings to create and express your uniqueness. It exists for a purpose, and it is your Life’s Task to bring it to fruition.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery
“There are many paths to mastery, and if you are persistent you will certainly find one that suits you. But a key component in the process is determining your mental and psychological strengths and working with them. To rise to the level of mastery requires many hours of dedicated focus and practice. You cannot get there if your work brings you no joy and you are constantly struggling to overcome your own weaknesses. You must look deep within and come to an understanding of these particular strengths and weaknesses you possess, being as realistic as possible. Knowing your strengths, you can lean on them with utmost intensity. Once you start in this direction, you will gain momentum. You will not be burdened by conventions, and you will not be slowed down by having to deal with skills that go against your inclinations and strengths. In this way, your creative and intuitive powers will be naturally awakened.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery
“If there is any instrument you must fall in love with and fetishize, it is the human brain—the most miraculous, awe-inspiring, information-processing tool devised in the known universe, with a complexity we can’t even begin to fathom, and with dimensional powers that far outstrip any piece of technology in sophistication and usefulness.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery
“Mastery is not a function of genius or talent. It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge. But there is another element, an X factor that Masters inevitably possess, that seems mystical but that is accessible to us all. Whatever field of activity we are involved in, there is generally an accepted path to the top. It is a path that others have followed, and because we are conformist creatures, most of us opt for this conventional route. But Masters have a strong inner guiding system and a high level of self-awareness. What has suited others in the past does not suit them, and they know that trying to fit into a conventional mold would only lead to a dampening of spirit, the reality they seek eluding them. And so inevitably, these Masters, as they progress on their career paths, make a choice at a key moment in their lives: they decide to forge their own route, one that others will see as unconventional, but that suits their own spirit and rhythms and leads them closer to discovering the hidden truths of their objects of study. This key choice takes self-confidence and self-awareness—the X factor that is necessary for attaining mastery.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery
“When you move toward mastery, your brain becomes radically altered by the years of practice and active experimentation. It is no longer the simple ecosystem of years gone by. The brain of a Master is so richly interconnected that it comes to resemble the physical world, and becomes a vibrant ecosystem in which all forms of thinking associate and connect. This growing similarity between the brain and complex life itself represents the ultimate return to reality.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery
“Want to drive yourself crazy? Try to fix everyone around you. Try to make them so perfect that they can’t annoy you in any way whatsoever. Make them so morally perfect and righteous that they will always make the right decision and will go out of their way to help you. Or, if you prefer to keep things simple, rigidly examine your own shortcomings and biases. Correct your own faults first. Trying to escape your own faults will take a lifetime.” ~ Matt Karamazov, High Existence