Being near a master is like seeing the first flower before spring—stay close and patient, and your heart quietly blooms while your busy mind softens.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, today, after a year, I am coming to see you, to be with you. And since I awoke this morning I have been aware that my heart is beating harder and quicker than usual, and that there is a hollow, stage fright feeling in my belly. Tears are close to my eyes, but there is no sadness. On one hand I can see it as fear, nervousness. On another it is excitement, anticipation, and on yet another it is energy, pure and simple -- life, pulsation. Beloved friend, it certainly doesn't feel to be a problem, but could you speak about the phenomenon of the disciple coming closer to the physical
There are very few moments in man's life more magical than the feeling of love and trust from a disciple towards the master. It is a relationship not of this world, because it is a ladder to the beyond. Coming closer to the master certainly gives a new pulsation to the life energy, to your receptivity, to your openness. It gives you a dance, your heart starts singing a song. It is a moment of rejoicing. It is the same moment as when a river comes to the ocean, dancing, to disappear into the ocean -- but the disappearance is only from the side of those who are standing on the bank. To the river itself, it is becoming bigger, vaster, oceanic. Coming closer to the master is a way of becoming a master -- and what can be more rejoicing, more joyful? There are many kinds of love, but…
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…
Beloved Osho, how is it possible that you just walk past a person and you set them on fire? I have seen even people who don't know that they love you burst into flames.
The question is great. Life is not synonymous with logic, particularly the logic that Aristotle has given to the world. It has an appeal to the mind -- it is very simple, very obvious, very mathematical, scientific. But the appeal to the mind of Aristotle's logic is not that it fits with existence, that it represents life. On the contrary, mind is overwhelmed by it because it fits with the split mind, and it fits perfectly. Naturally the mind is convinced. But life is not logic. So first we have to understand the split of the mind which makes it so much impressed by a wrong logic, a logic which is not representative of existence itself. Mind has a double split. The front of the mind and the back of the mind -- that is the first split. The front of the mind is active, and the back of the…
Beloved Osho, the other day in lecture,for the first time I heard your song! It was so beautiful. Your words had no meaning, your voice was soft music that surrounded and filled me with such joy and delight! What a wonderful surprise!
Dhanya, that is the way to hear me. It is for the first time you have heard me. It is for the first time communion has happened and not only communication. Communication is through words, communion is through music. Communication is an intellectual process; communion is that of the heart, when two hearts meet and mingle and melt. Dhanya, your name means "the blessed one". You are... you are blessed. This is the way to be with me. This is adab the way to be with a Master -- heart to heart, silence to silence, spirit to spirit. When my words start disappearing and you start hearing the gaps between the words, when you start hearing the gaps between the lines, you will be full of great music. That is my real message.
To be with a master simply means to live with someone who is awake, who is no more asleep, whose dreams are finished, whose nightmares are over. And just being in tune with the master slowly slowly wakes you up. The very energy of the master starts penetrating your being. Slowly slowly it seeps into your heart, slowly slowly it gives you a new heart, a new beat. And you cannot remain long with a master without becoming awake, because he is continuously shouting, calling you forth to wake up, calling you forth to come out of your grave. And if you can open your eyes even once, suddenly for the first time you experience the music, the song, the dance; and it goes on increasing, it goes on moving towards a crescendo, towards a height which is absolutely unimaginable to the ordinary mind.