According to Osho, the master/disciple relationship is an Eastern, mystical love affair based on trust, love, and surrender—not doubt or logic. It cannot be taught but caught: the master helps the disciple unlearn, drop the ego, and become childlike. The master is a presence; through silent communion and receptivity, the disciple merges with that presence and tastes the supreme ecstasy of awakening.
It's like sitting quietly with someone very loving and wise until their peace rubs off on you, you stop pretending to know, and your big 'me' melts away.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved master, to many people in the west, the master/disciple relationship is outside their experience. What does it involve?
Chris Lister, Allen Jewhurst, Lesley Rogers, the East has contributed a few tremendously significant things to human consciousness. One of those beautiful things is the phenomenon of the master/disciple relationship. It is an Eastern contribution; just as science is a Western phenomenon, mysticism is Eastern. Science is extrovert, mysticism is introvert. Science is trying to know the objective reality, and mysticism is an exploration of the subjective reality, of the interiority of your own being. In the world of science the teacher/student relationship exists, because science can be taught -- hence the teacher/ student relationship. But religion, mysticism, cannot be taught, it can only be caught. Hence in mysticism there is no relationship like the teacher/student relationship. A totally different kind of relationship exists: the master/disciple. The differences are tremendous, the differences are great. Between a student and a teacher, doubt is the method. The teacher is there to help…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, YOU HAVE BEEN MY FAVORITE UNCLE AND MY FATHER, MY MIDWIFE, A LAUGHING CHILD; MY BEST FRIEND, AN ANCIENT SAGE, MY FAVORITE STORYTELLER, AND MY MASTER... MY FIRST THOUGHT ON WAKING, MY LAST AT NIGHT.... YOU HAVE BEEN WARM BROWN EYES, A GENTLE HAND, FEET FOR MY HEAD; A TINGLING IN MY BODY... SOMETIMES A SILENCE, SOMETIMES A SONG.... YOU HAVE BEEN A HIT, A GLANCE, A PRESENCE, AN ABSENCE; DAY AND NIGHT, SUMMER AND WINTER -- A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS; A PROMISE OF FULFILLMENT, THE ONLY HOPE, THE ULTIMATE DESTROYER OF ALL DREAMS; THE ONLY REFUGE -- AND THE ONE I SOUGHT TO ELUDE; A MAGICIAN, AND JUST ONE ORDINARY MAN. YOU WERE AN ENIGMA, YOU WERE ME. YOU WERE THE MOON, THE STARS AND ALL THAT MOVED AROUND THEM. YOU WERE THE GREEN AND BROWN, THE BLUE AND GOLD, OF MY EARTH.
What is the guru/disciple relationship?
Wittgenstein has said somewhere that what cannot be said can be shown. Saying needs no patience, but showing needs much patience. If I want to say something to you, I can say it this very moment. Your patience, your preparation is not needed. I can say it, and you will hear it. But if I want to show you something then you will have to make great preparations in order to see it. I cannot show it to you unless you have the capacity to see. The guru is basically not saying anything but trying to show something; and if the disciple is aware, then things become clear by not intervening. Things are always clear, but the mind is confused -- and a confused mind confuses things. As far as worldly things are concerned your mind cannot distort them too much because they are so objective that they do not…
Beloved Osho, being with you in these days has been like a shower of love, gratitude, like an open ocean. Being away from you has been sometimes so hard and so deep at the same time. Can you please say something once again about the relationship between master and disciple?
The relationship between the master and the disciple is a scientific lab in which the false has to be burned and the original has to be discovered. And it is the original that we are all missing. That is our misery, that is our pain, that is our anguish -- that we do not know who we are. All that we know is so stupid. A Sufi story will help you. A Sufi mystic comes to a great fair. All the caravanserais are full; he goes from one place to another, it is becoming midnight, he is tired. One manager of a caravanserai has compassion for him and says, "I can arrange something, but I cannot give you an individual room. In one of the rooms one person is there; he is well known to me, so I can persuade him just to let you also sleep there. Now, where…
Beloved Osho, your relationship with your disciples seems to be unique among the religions. Would you say something about this?
The person who made it possible for you to have those few moments, the woman, the man -- be grateful, immensely grateful to the person. Yes, those moments are no more there. Nothing can be done about it. They cannot be pulled back, and even if there was some way to pull them back, they would not be the same. It would be a repetition. It wouldn't bring you the same joy, the same ecstasy. It is good that they cannot be pulled back, otherwise even the memory of those cherished moments would be spoiled. Respect the person, be grateful to the person that, for no reason at all -- she is a stranger, you are a stranger -- for no reason at all, for no bargain, there was no business... mysteriously the universe managed; something transpired between you. And it was nourishing to both of you. It has made…