According to Osho, the pundit can be called a Taoist only in belief, not a man of Tao. His words are clever, even beautiful, but borrowed, like a blind man describing light. He delights the intellect yet carries no nourishment or creative power, so he's not on the way to the ocean; he's in tune with you, not with Tao.
He talks beautifully about Tao but hasn’t lived it, so he’s not truly on the path.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
The pundit in today's story -- was he not also a beautiful taoist? Perhaps not reached the ocean, but on the way?
He can be called a Taoist, but not a man of Tao. Taoist in the sense that he believes that Tao is true, but not a man of Tao because his belief is unbased. It is not his own experience, it is not his own existential understanding; it is still knowledge, it is not knowing. To be a Taoist is easy, it is very cheap: you can always borrow knowledge. To be a man of Tao is arduous, it needs guts. Sometimes you may be more impressed by a Taoist than a man of Tao, because the Taoist is understandable by your intellect. He has some affinity with you, he talks the same logic and the same language that you can understand. To understand the man of Tao may be difficult because there is no bridge yet between you and him. He exists in a very transcendental world, in a…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, ONCE A TAOIST, HAPPENING TO PASS BY HYAKUJO'S MONASTERY, ASKED, "IS THERE ANYTHING IN THE WORLD MORE MARVELOUS THAN THE FORCES OF NATURE?" HYAKUJO REPLIED, "THERE IS." "AND WHAT IS THAT?" THE TAOIST INQUIRED. HYAKUJO SAID, "THE POWER OF comprehending THOSE NATURAL FORCES." THE VISITOR ASKED, "IS COSMIC VITALITY THE TAO?" HYAKUJO RESPONDED, "COSMIC VITALITY IS COSMIC VITALITY. THE TAO IS THE TAO." THE TAOIST SAID, "IF SO, THEY MUST BE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS?" HYAKUJO SAID, "THAT WHICH KNOWS DOES NOT PROCEED FROM TWO DIFFERENT PERSONS." THE EXASPERATED TAOIST REPLIED, "WHAT IS WRONG AND WHAT IS RIGHT?" HYAKUJO REPLIED, "WRONG IS THE MIND THAT ATTENDS TO EXTERNALS; RIGHT IS THE MIND THAT BRINGS EXTERNALS UNDER CONTROL." Maneesha, listening to these dialogues and anecdotes, the more important thing should not be forgotten. This is not a school or a university. You are not here learning any knowledge.
Question: ON THE CHARACTER OF TAO: TAO IS A HOLLOW VESSEL, AND ITS USE IS INEXHAUSTIBLE, FATHOMLESS. ON THE SPIRIT OF THE VALLEY: THE SPIRIT OF THE VALLEY NEVER DIES. IT IS CALLED THE MYSTIC FEMALE. THE DOOR OF THE MYSTIC FEMALE IS THE ROOT OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. CONTINUOUSLY, CONTINUOUSLY, IT SEEMS TO REMAIN. DRAW UPON IT AND IT SERVES YOU WITH EASE. ON THE CHARACTER OF TAO Logic is superficial. You can understand Aristotle, there is nothing much. But when you come to Lao Tzu... for the first time you may even miss that there is something, but by and by Lao Tzu will haunt you. His attraction is feminine. By and by he will catch hold of your being -- you have only to allow him.
These so-called knowers have not the tiniest drop of knowing. They cannot receive it either. They have plastered themselves with the oil of scriptures—they are slick pots; the rain falls and not a drop clings. Have you seen anything slicker than a pundit? Water cannot touch him. When I was small, our neighbor sold ghee. His clothes were soaked with ghee—an extreme miser; perhaps he owned no second set of clothes. I saw him bathe—he did not remove them; he poured water over himself and it would not wet the cloth. I have seen no such wonder again! Such is the pundit. Knowledge the size of a sesame seed does not enter them—better to keep quiet. Do not knock your head against pundits. Paltu says: avoid them; they are great fools. Neither love’s arrow nor meditation’s shaft has pierced them; no dawning of wisdom.
The autumn floods had come. Thousands of wild torrents poured furiously into the yellow river. It surged and flooded its banks until, looking across, you could not tell an ox from a horse on the other side.
THEN THE RIVER GOD LAUGHED, DELIGHTED TO THINK THAT ALL THE BEAUTY IN THE WORLD HAD FALLEN INTO HIS KEEPING. SO DOWNSTREAM HE SWUNG, UNTIL HE CAME TO THE OCEAN. THERE HE LOOKED OUT OVER THE WAVES TOWARD THE EMPTY HORIZON IN THE EAST, AND HIS FACE FELL. GAZING OUT AT THE FAR HORIZON HE CAME TO HIS SENSES AND MURMURED TO THE OCEAN GOD. WELL, THE PROVERB IS RIGHT. HE WHO HAS GOT HIMSELF A HUNDRED IDEAS THINKS HE KNOWS MORE THAN ANYBODY ELSE. SUCH A ONE AM I. ONLY NOW DO I SEE WHAT THEY MEAN BY EXPANSE! THE OCEAN GOD REPLIED: CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SEA TO A FROG IN A WELL? CAN YOU TALK ABOUT ICE TO DRAGONFLIES? CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE WAY OF LIFE TO A DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY? Look at a child -- he is still without a mind. He opens his…