According to Osho, a true master never refuses you—only your disease. He rejects your conditioning, guilt, and egoic pathologies and seeks to mercilessly destroy them. If you’re identified with them, you’ll feel personally rejected and hurt; if you disidentify, you discover you are beyond all acquired sicknesses and can live joyously, affirming life rather than perpetuating slow spiritual suicide.
The teacher says “no” to your illness, not to you—let go of it and you’ll feel healed, not refused.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, we indians know that we have been caught in serious diseases for centuries, but when such a great doctor like you refuses us, what will become of us?
In Russia revolution is absolutely impossible, hence people are becoming more and more hopeless seeing that Marx had said state will wither away -- once capitalism is gone there will be no need for the state -- but the state has become more and more stronger. Marx' prediction has gone absolutely wrong: just the opposite has happened. The same is going to happen to China. Right now they are very enthusiastic, but soon they will settle into the same slavery as Russia has settled. The people who are past-oriented like the Hindus are living with a long, long dead past -- and carrying it. It is a mountainous weight; they are crushed under it. And there is no hope in the future. The Hindus think that the best days were in the beginning; they don't believe in evolution, remember -- they believe in involution. Evolution means we are reaching to…
Osho, what does it mean that a disciple should be close to the master and open his heart? Please explain well. And why is it so difficult, and why is there fear?
If ever you are entering someone’s love, if ever someone’s call reaches you, if ever you glimpse a ray of the divine around someone, do not miss the opportunity. What is there to lose? One more illusion—so be it! Among millions of illusions, one more—what obstacle will that create? So many thorns have pierced you; one more thorn will pierce. So many people have deceived you; one more person will deceive you. This is what I call courage. Courage means: try once more. Courage means: do not take past experience as the whole truth. It is possible that something new may happen—trust in that possibility is faith. To believe that only what has happened so far will keep happening forever—that is to sink into melancholy, into despair. True, you have traveled many paths and none took you anywhere. There is nothing to be frightened about in that. I have heard:…
Question: LUNG SHU SAID TO THE PHYSICIAN WEN CHIH: 'YOUR CRAFT IS SUBTLE. I HAVE AN ILLNESS, CAN YOU CURE IT?' 'YOU HAVE ONLY TO COMMAND. TELL ME THE SYMPTOMS OF YOUR ILLNESS.' 'I DO NOT THINK IT AN HONOUR IF THE WHOLE DISTRICT PRAISES ME NOR A DISGRACE IF THE WHOLE STATE REVILES ME; I HAVE NO JOY WHEN I WIN, NO ANXIETY WHEN I LOSE; I LOOK IN THE SAME WAY AT LIFE AND DEATH, RICHES AND POVERTY, OTHER MEN AND PIGS, MYSELF AND OTHER MEN; I DWELL IN MY OWN HOUSE AS THOUGH LODGING IN AN INN, AND LOOK AT MY OWN NEIGHBOURHOOD AS THOUGH IT WERE A FOREIGN AND BARBAROUS COUNTRY. 'HAVING ALL THESE AILMENTS, TITLES AND REWARDS CANNOT INDUCE ME, PUNISHMENTS AND FINES CANNOT AWE ME, PROSPERITY AND DECLINE, BENEFIT AND HARM CANNOT CHANGE ME, JOY AND SORROW CANNOT INFLUENCE ME.
Osho, why is it that a true master has only a few disciples, while around a false master a crowd of followers gathers?
Of the patients who come, by plain arithmetic at least fifty percent will recover anyway—perhaps more. Not all illnesses are fatal. Even a doctor does not really cure; he only supports. There is a saying in the West: if you catch a cold it gets well in seven days without medicine, and with medicine in one week. Medicine or no medicine is not the big issue. Illnesses mostly heal. A person does not die of every disease! It is a matter of time. Just keep sitting. In lawsuits too, after all two people are fighting—one will win. And often it happens that both parties come to the same false master—the one who will lose and the one who will win; one is bound to win. And the game goes on. Those fifty percent who succeed because of your blessings return with garlands, spread your fame, and bring along fifty more…
Bahauddin el-shah was sitting with a number of disciples when a number of followers came into the meeting hall. El-shah asked each of them, one by one, to say why he was there.
THE FIRST SAID: YOU ARE THE GREATEST MAN ON EARTH. I GAVE HIM A POTION WHEN HE WAS ILL, SO HE THINKS I AM THE GREATEST MAN ON EARTH, SAID EL-SHAH. THE SECOND SAID: MY SPIRITUAL LIFE HAS OPENED UP SINCE I HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO VISIT YOU. HE WAS UNCERTAIN AND ILL AT EASE AND NONE WOULD LISTEN TO HIM. I SAT WITH HIM, AND THE RESULTANT SERENITY IS CALLED BY HIM HIS SPIRITUAL LIFE, SAID EL-SHAH. THE THIRD SAID: YOU UNDERSTAND ME, AND ALL I ASK IS THAT YOU ALLOW ME TO HEAR YOUR DISCOURSES FOR THE GOOD OF MY SOUL. HE NEEDS ATTENTION AND WISHED TO HAVE NOTICE PAID TO HIM EVEN IF IT IS CRITICISM, SAID EL-SHAH. THIS HE CALLS THE GOOD OF HIS SOUL. THE FOURTH SAID: I WENT FROM ONE TO ANOTHER PRACTICING WHAT THEY TAUGHT. IT WAS NOT UNTIL YOU GAVE ME A…