Rewards
Rewards are meant for purposes where the process itself is that of misery -- then a reward is needed. So the reward is like a carrot hanging in front of you and to get the carrot you can pass through all kinds of miseries. The Nobel Prize, the gold medals in universities, the presidencies, the prize minister-ships of the world -- these are just prizes. They are very childish because to hanker for a prize is childish, to ask for a reward is childish.
The really mature person lives in such a way that each moment in itself is a reward. It is not that the reward will be coming later on. The mature person has such an insight into things that the journey and the goal are no more separate, so each step of the journey is a goal in itself -- tremendously blissful, beautiful. who cares about the goal? Every moment is such a benediction that one enjoys it as an end unto itself; it is not a means to anything.
When a man has come to this state, when everything is an end unto itself, only then has he lived his life truly, he has become really grown-up. Growing old is not becoming grown-up. Growing old has nothing to do with you, it is not to your credit. Every donkey becomes old; it does not need any intelligence. But to be grown-up needs great intelligence, great courage, and a heart which is ready to risk, gamble.
One can be my sannyasin only if one is ready to gamble, if one is ready to risk without holding anything back. When one is ready to be totally committed, then only is some transformation possible. But it brings infinite grace, it brings celebration to your life. Flowers start showering on you, the whole existence rejoices in your joy.
-Osho, "Just the Tip of the Iceberg, #29"