Satisfaction & Contentment

By Osho

There is a vast difference between satisfaction and contentment. Satisfaction is something invented. When people cannot reach, they have to create a certain consolation around themselves. That consolation is satisfaction, that consolation functions like buffers.… This helps you to carry on the routine life but this is not contentment; there is no joy in it, because deep down you know that it is only a deception. You can deceive others but how can you deceive yourself?…

People don’t want to accept facts. They create fiction around themselves. Even if a person dies, people don’t say directly that he is dead; they say, ‘he has gone to the heavenly abode’, or that ‘he has become God’s beloved…’. What was he before that?


Contentment is a totally different phenomenon. It happens only to the meditator; only the meditator becomes so blissful, so peaceful, because he has arrived. He has found his home! He has experienced the ultimate significance. He has touched the optimum, and out of that bliss is contentment. So, contentment is not something one can cultivate; it is a by-product of meditation.

And one should not cultivate satisfaction, because that will keep you away from contentment. It is better to realise facts as they are: illness is illness and death is death. Don’t deceive others and yourself that they are sour. So, I am all for reality. My approach is pragmatic.

Abridged from The Old Pond, Plop! Osho Times International, www.osho.com