Skip to content

Zen Quotes

    “You don’t possess the stars; still you can enjoy them.  Or do you first have to possess them, and only then will you be able to enjoy them?  You don’t possess the birds in the sky, but you can enjoy them.  What you need is not more possessions.  What you need is more sensitiveness, more aesthetic sensibility, more musical ears, more artistic eyes.  What you need is a vision that transforms everything into something significant and meaningful.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition

      “Live in the moment for the sheer joy of living it.  Then each moment has the quality of an orgasm.  Yes, it is orgasmic.  This is how my people have to live, with no ‘should,’ with no ‘ought,’ with no ‘must,’ with no commandment.  You are not here to become martyrs; you are here to enjoy life in its fullness.  And the only way to live, love, enjoy, is to forget the future.  It exists not.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition

        “Kill desires—you will not find any blood coming out of them, because they are bloodless.  But kill a need, and there will be bloodshed.  Kill a need, and a part of you will die.  Kill a desire, and you will not die.  Rather, on the contrary, you will become freer.  More freedom will come out of dropping desires.  If you can become a person of need and no desires, you are already on the path, and heaven is not far off.” ~ 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

                  “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