According to Osho, a master always sees two things in you: what you are now and what you can blossom into—bud and flower together. But how you see the master depends on your closeness: as a student you notice words and ideas; as a disciple, silence and presence; as a devotee, only a mirror of your ultimate self. Spectators see little. You must meet him halfway.
The master sees your present and your potential, while you see the master only as deeply as you come close—words if far, presence if near, your true self if devoted.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, what is the difference between the emptiness of the child before the formation of the ego and the awakened childlikeness of a buddha?
Whether you are for it or against it doesn't matter -- your concern shows where your ego is hanging. And I will include the capitalist in it also: his whole concern is how to gather money, hoard money -- because money has power over matter. You can purchase any material thing through money. You cannot purchase anything spiritual, you cannot purchase anything that has any intrinsic value; you can purchase only things. If you want to purchase love, you cannot purchase; but you can purchase sex. Sex is the material part of love. Through money, matter can be purchased, possessed. Now you will be surprised: I include the communist and the capitalist both in the same category, and they are enemies, just as I include Charvaka and Mahatma Gandhi in the same category, and they are enemies. They are enemies, but their concern is the same. The capitalist is trying…
Beloved master, I feel that only now I begin to see you. Until now, you were another projection of the father. A real master is not even a master. This total freedom scares me, and I don't know how to live it. What is a real disciple? Does he exist? Or does he begin to exist only when he starts to be an individual?
The real master is only a presence. He has no intentions of being a master. His presence is his teaching. His love is his message. Every gesture of his hand is pointing to the moon. And this whole thing is not being done, it is a happening. The master is not a doer. He has learned the greatest secret of life: let-go. The master has drowned his ego and the idea of separation from existence itself. He is no longer there as a separate entity, he is just a window. You can see through the window the infinite sky and the expanding universe: the sunrise, the sunset, a bird on the wing, the lotus opening its being, releasing its fragrance. The master is certainly not one of the so-called masters you will find everywhere, pretending to be masters, posing as masters. The master is just an immense emptiness. And, naturally,…
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.
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A DISCIPLE? Prem Samadhi, it is one of the most delicate mysteries. No definition is possible of a disciple, but a few hints can be given, just fingers pointing to the moon. Don't cling to the fingers -- look at the moon and forget the fingers. A disciple is a rare phenomenon. It is very easy to be a student because the student is searching knowledge. The student can only meet the teacher, he can never meet the master. The reality of the master will remain hidden to the student. The student functions from the head. He functions logically, rationally. He gathers knowledge, he becomes more and more knowledgeable. Finally in his own turn he will become a teacher, but all that he knows is borrowed, nothing is really his own. His existence is pseudo; it is a carbon-copy existence.
Beloved Osho, I feel and know in my heart, I am your disciple. I don't feel I am yet a devotee although I aspire to be one. Is it the nature of being a devotee that one knows one has become one? Or does the innocence of the devotee make the awareness of it not possible?
Just drop the aspiration and there is no hindrance for your transformation. You will be transmuted from disciplehood into the wider world of a devotee. Certainly you have stumbled upon a beautiful fact which cannot be possible just through intellect. You say, "Is it in the nature of being a devotee that one knows one has become one or does the innocence of the devotee make the awareness of it not possible?" The second part of your statement is correct; the very nature of the devotee makes it impossible for you to recognize it. There is no space left to stand aside and see. Every knowledge, every awareness needs a distance. You have to stand away; then you can see and watch, and you can know and you can be aware. But the devotee has lost all distances between himself and his knowing. He himself has become awareness. Now who…