What is the nature of the transmission that occurs during a lecture?

Beloved Osho, the master speaks, and the disciples listen. What is it that happens, and remains unsaid?

Yoga Chinmaya, the master speaks, the disciple listens -- yet there is much which the master does not speak, and the disciple listens. In fact, that is the whole secret of disciplehood. If you only listen to that which is said, you are a student. You listen to the words, you miss the wordless. The moment you start listening to the wordless, you are initiated into disciplehood. The master is speaking. Naturally he has to use words, but he is also leaving gaps in between. He is also using wordlessness. He is saying something, and he is also meaning something which cannot be said -- but it can be heard. If the disciple is silent, he will hear the words and he will also hear the wordlessness; he will hear what is being said, and he will hear also what is not being said and yet is transferred. You are…

Your lecture yesterday was ruthless, sharp and shattering. I felt throughout the lecture that a deep surgical operation is happening within my psyche. What is this, Osho? Along with the verbal talk what else do you transmit to the listener?

THE WORD, THE VERBAL, has nothing to do with transferring anything to you. The verbal is just a toy, so you can play with it. When you are absorbed with the words, I have -- an opportunity to do something to your being -- otherwise you won't allow me. So whatsoever I am saying is just to keep you engaged. Once your mind is engaged with the words, you are available to me, your heart is available to me. When the mind is not engaged, the mind functions like a barrier, the heart becomes unavailable. So the real work is not through the words -- the real work is through the presence. If you stop thinking and you can put aside your mind, then there is no need for me to talk at all, then silence will do -- because that which is going to happen is going to happen…

Osho, the other day while listening to your discourse, a strange kind of vibration arose in the heart and along the auditory nerves; since then even ordinary sounds set off odd ripples and waves of bliss. Please tell me: is there something in the voice of enlightened ones that produces a special effect? Also, in your presence there is a particular, delightful fragrance; at times it is felt in the ashram and sometimes during meditation as well. In this regard, please say whether certain moments in time have their own special fragrance too.

I speak with the same purpose with which a musician plays the vina. He does not play to explain anything. Remember me as a vina player. My speaking is my vina. What I am saying to you—less am I speaking, more am I singing. If you understand its purpose, that is enough: listening to this instrument—as one sometimes, listening to a vina, falls into a trance—one begins to sway; something within begins to vibrate; something like a stone inside begins to melt and flow. For a moment a window, an opening, is there—sky is glimpsed. Like a flash of lightning—the darkness is gone—even if only for a moment; but then you know that light is, and you also know there is a path. It was revealed for a moment in the lightning’s flare, but revealed it was. Now no one can tell you there is no path; no one can…

Osho, when I listen to you, every word sinks to the depths of my heart and stirs me. But when I read you, it remains a mental game. Please tell me why this happens.

It’s plain. The arithmetic is simple. When you read, only you are there; I am not. What you read is nothing but you. It becomes a game of the mind. When you listen to me, then sometimes—knowingly or unknowingly—I also slip into you. You seldom give such a chance, but now and then a lapse happens on your side. Unaware, you leave the door a little open—and I come in. So when you are hearing me, it’s a different matter. That is why truth has always been spoken, not written. It cannot be written. Even speaking it is very difficult, yet it can still be said—at least a little can be said, a little news can be given. Because in speaking, many elements are involved that are lost in writing. When you read a book, the book is dead. A book cannot create an atmosphere around you. A book has…

Osho, whatever you say seems to be right from the point of view of what you are saying at that moment. But it may be contradictory. You draw the listeners in one direction confirming a particular point, and at the same time you go via the back door to the opposite point. It is a spiral -- the listener hardly realizes what may be happening. Is this not fooling the listener -- unless he realizes that the real answer lies beyond your spoken words?

One sannyasin has done well. He has called my path VIA CONFUSIVA -- that's right. That's perfectly right. It is neither VIA NEGATIVA nor VIA POSITIVE -- it is VIA CONFUSIVA. If you can be so much confused that you drop ALL belief, out of that confusion will come clarity. When do you feel confused? When exactly? Whenever one of your beliefs is attacked -- you become suspicious: Now what to believe in? Whenever a doubt arises... but how is a doubt possible if there is no belief? The man of no-belief cannot doubt either. There is nothing to doubt. 13y destroying your belief I am destroying the very pos-sibility of doubt. Can you see the point? Doubt is a shadow of belief. It looks like the opposite -- it is not. Only believers can doubt. If you believe in God, doubt can arise. But if you don't believe in…