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Chapter 26 - Life's aim is life itself
26
Life's aim is life itself
25 March 1987 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium Question 1
BELOVED OSHO,
WHAT IS THE AIM OF LIFE?
Anwar Aman, life has no aim other than itself, because life is another name for God himself. Everything else in the world can have an aim, can be a means to an end, but at least one thing you have to leave as the end of all but the means of none.
You can call it existence. You can call it God.
You can call it life.
These are different names of a single reality.
God is the name given to life by the theologians and it has a danger in it because it can be refuted; it can be argued against. Almost half of the earth does not believe in any God. Not only the communists, but the Buddhists, the Jainas and there are thousands of free thinkers who are atheists. The name "God" is not very defensible because it is given by man and there is no evidence, no proof, no argument for it. It remains more or less an empty word. It means whatever you want it to mean.
"Existence" is better. All the great thinkers of this century are existentialists. They have dropped the word "God" completely. Existence in itself is enough for them.
But to me, just as "God" is one extreme, so is "existence" another extreme, because in the word "existence" there is no indication that it may be alive -- it may be dead. There is no indication that it is intelligent -- there may be no intelligence. There is no indication that it is conscious -- it may not have any consciousness.
Hence, my choice is "life". Life contains everything that is needed; moreover, it needs no proof. You are life. You are the proof. You are the argument. You cannot deny life; hence in the whole history of man, there has not been a single thinker who has denied life.
Millions have denied God, but how can you deny life? It is beating in your heart, it is in your breathing, it is showing in your eyes. It is expressing in your love. It is celebrating in a thousand and one ways -- in the trees, in the birds, in the mountains, in the rivers.
Life is the aim of everything. Hence, life cannot have an aim other than itself. To say it in other words: life's aim is intrinsic. It has it within itself to grow, to expand, to celebrate, to dance, to love, to enjoy -- these are all aspects of life.
But up to now, no religion has accepted life as the aim of all our efforts, of all our endeavors. On the contrary, religions have been denying life and supporting a hypothetical Osho - The Hidden Splendor
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