According to Osho, a master is even more essential after satori because satori is only a fleeting glimpse of the peak; entering the unknown breeds doubt, fantasy, and spiritual intoxication. The master—who has realized the peak—holds your hand, tests experiences against truth, prevents self-deception, and guides the glimpse into stable, lived reality.
After your first peek of the mountaintop, you need an experienced guide to help you climb safely and not mistake mirages for the real thing.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Is a master needed after satori?
Within a second you are back, the mind starts functioning: it was simply a shock. Through electric shock it is possible, through insulin shock it is possible, through drugs it is possible. Even sometimes in illness it happens. You are so weak that the mind cannot function; suddenly you have a glimpse. Through sex it is possible. In the orgasm, when the whole body vibrates, it is possible. The first glimpse is not necessarily through religious effort. That's why LSD, mescaline, marijuana, have become so much important and appealing. The first glimpse is possible, and you can be caught because of the first glimpse in a drug. It can become a permanent trip; then it is very dangerous because glimpses won't help. They can help, but there is not necessarily help coming from them. They can help only around a Master, because then he will say, "Now don't be after…
Osho, is it wrong to try to save somebody? Is it not part of compassion?
That reminds me again of Natthu Kaka. I was a regular visitor to his salon. I had no beard at that time -- I was a child -- and no mustache, so there was no fear, but I had to use a scarf because I had long hair, and if Natthu Kaka was in the mood he might start cutting. And once he had cut your hair you could not do anything. And he was such a nice man, he would say, "Why be worried? -- you need not pay." It was, every day, a problem that he had shaved somebody without asking him, and now the man was angry. Particularly in India, people shave if they become sannyasins; that means they are dying in a ritualistic way. When a person dies, he is shaved; it is just symbolic. Just as when a person dies he is shaved, in the…
Does being in the presence of a master really change a man?
YOU ARE CHANGED BY EVERYTHING! The sun rises in the morning, your sleep disappears. Not only yours -- trees are awake, birds start singing, the earth wakes up. When the sun sets in the evening, you start falling asleep -- not only you, but trees and birds and rivers and mountains. The whole earth plunges into sleep. When you listen to great music, is some chord in your heart touched and moved or not? Listening to great music, do you become music or not? Seeing a dancer, does not a great desire arise in you to dance? to participate? Does not your energy start becoming a dance? Listening to a poet, listening to great poetry, for a few moments, you attain to a poetic vision. Some doors open, some mysteries surround you. Exactly the same happens, on a more total level, in the presence of a Master -- because the…
Osho, if a seeker finds the true Master, does the search come to an end?
Only then does the search begin. Before that, what you called a search was mere, futile coming and going. Before that it was groping in the dark. There was no path, no direction, no vision. With the meeting of the true Master, the search begins. The pointless running around ends. That was never a real search. The real search begins. And once the real search begins, it is already half fulfilled. Very little remains after the Master. Whoever has found the Master has, in essence, bowed down, effaced himself a little, stepped aside from the ego. Only then could he find the Master; otherwise he could not. And on this very path the Master will take you further: “Don’t just lessen yourself—disappear utterly.” A little effacement brings you to the Master; total effacement brings you to the Divine. Now the way is clear. Step aside a little—you meet the Master.…
That's why all shortcuts are false -- and dangerous. They can only delude you. There is no shortcut for inner growth because the very way, and the very difficulty of it, is part of the growth. If you avoid the difficulty, you avoid the growth also. But many things are going to happen, mm? You just have to remain available. Start meditating, and while meditating bring your total energy to it. Don't go on withholding anything, don't be clever. That is one of the troubles, because the mind is very clever. It always goes halfway and keeps one step ready to withdraw if things go beyond control and you cannot manipulate. But if you are ready to withdraw you cannot go in, because one has to go with both legs, not only with one; and one can go only totally, not partially.