The guru is a safe ladder to the Infinite, and the student lets go of “me” to climb and finally merge with the sky.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
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…
Osho, yesterday you explained that with joyful awareness (sukh-purvak surati) resolution happens on its own. Yet I find myself having to go through great effort, practice, and labor—why? How long, and why, must a seeker pass through so much effort, toil, and austerity?
If there is laziness in the mind, even little things feel like great effort. It’s a matter of your interpretation. In truth, you are not exerting at all. I tell you, those who are near me and engaged in “practice” are the people on earth who are laboring the least. You have no idea what real effort is. When a person is deeply lazy, even trivial things seem like toil. What are you actually doing? What is it you keep calling “great effort”? Which great effort are you making? You dance a little—and you call that great effort? Is dancing an effort? Dancing is joy! But your perspective is wrong. If you take joy to be effort, you have missed. Dancing is celebration, a juicy happening. Where is the effort in it? If even dancing is effort for you, then what would non-effort be? If I tell you, “Just sit…
Beloved Osho, you have said: not in thousands and thousands of years has such an opportunity come to this earth. And you have also said: this age is like any other. You have said: surrender to a stone and it will happen. And you have said: it is essential to tread this dangerous path only with the guidance of a true master. You have said: surrender and I will do the rest. And you've said: I do nothing. For us here and now, and for those in the west who will read these words, would you talk to us some more about the guru/disciple phenomenon.
It is simple because the relationship exists only on the part of the disciple. On the part of the master there is no relationship, because the master doesn't exist. He is there no more. He is a nobody. It appears to you that he is. This appearance will persist unless you surrender. Once you surrender, once you become a non-being, suddenly you will see that the master has never been there. The master is an absence. But the absence can be seen only when you have also become an absence. Only two absences meet. If you are present, you go on projecting on the master also that he is. It is your projection, because your ego cannot see non-ego. Only the similar can respond to the similar. Your ego can only see egos everywhere. That is a way to protect your own self. Wherever you look, immediately you project an…
To be a disciple is a great art. One can even say the greatest, because Its requirement is the surrender of the ego Which is the hardest thing in life. One can do everything for the ego: One can climb mountains and go to the moon. Everything is easy if it is for the ego. But to drop the ego is really an uphill task It goes against our natural instinct. But it is the beginning of real spirituality. The first requirement for a disciple Is to surrender, to say to the master 'Now I am no more, only you are!' A total yes to the master, an absolute trust -- That's what makes a disciple. There are many students but very few disciples. And only disciples can be transformed Students can only be informed.
Osho, the day you spoke about the chance meeting of the river and the boat, the world fell away. And when, on your birthday, you gazed upon this devotee with unblinking eyes, from that moment even my attachment to you dropped. You have descended into me to such an extent that I have no words for it. I have become only yours. And you have taken your seat within me. Whom should I thank? I am not worthy, and yet your grace keeps showering. Taru has asked:
Mahavira said there are two fords to reach the Divine—shravaka and sadhu—or four: shravaka-shravika, sadhu-sadhvi. Shravaka means: one who knows by hearing; one who, hearing the guru’s word—hears here, and it happens there. Sadhu means: one who hears and then practices. The sadhu is number two. But the irony is that the doer has “won,” and the sadhu sits above—and tells the shravaka he is lower. In truth, now the shravaka is no longer a shravaka, and the sadhu is no longer a sadhu. The original meaning of shravaka was precisely this: one for whom it happens simply by hearing. Buddha said the same. Buddha had a shravaka, Vimalakirti. His stories are very beautiful. He remained a householder; he never left home, never left his wife, never left his shop. And even Buddha’s great bodhisattvas—Sariputra, Moggallayana, Mahakashyapa—such eminently gifted monks—were afraid of Vimalakirti. Once Vimalakirti fell ill, and Buddha said…