A master is like a lamp that helps you see what’s already there, then teaches you to light your own lamp so you don’t need him.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, is it wrong to try to save somebody? Is it not part of compassion?
That reminds me again of Natthu Kaka. I was a regular visitor to his salon. I had no beard at that time -- I was a child -- and no mustache, so there was no fear, but I had to use a scarf because I had long hair, and if Natthu Kaka was in the mood he might start cutting. And once he had cut your hair you could not do anything. And he was such a nice man, he would say, "Why be worried? -- you need not pay." It was, every day, a problem that he had shaved somebody without asking him, and now the man was angry. Particularly in India, people shave if they become sannyasins; that means they are dying in a ritualistic way. When a person dies, he is shaved; it is just symbolic. Just as when a person dies he is shaved, in the…
Osho, immediately after his enlightenment Buddha said: Having known by myself, whom shall I call a master and whom shall I teach, whom shall I make a disciple? And yet for forty years he initiated and taught millions. But before the Mahaparinirvana, his final instruction was: Atma Deepo Bhava! Bhagwan, please shed some light on this.
You know how to play the veena. Your fingers are skillful. The veena is there. Yet music is not arising. You are not placing your fingers on the strings. You are not pouring your skill onto the veena. Pour your skill onto the veena; the veena will shower music on you. Everything is present. You know how to cook. There is flour, salt, ghee, lentils, water, the fire is lit—and you sit hungry! And you also know how to cook! Nothing is lacking. Everything is there. Only a little coordination is needed. A little arrangement is needed. There will be no need to remain hungry. Therefore Buddha says: Whom shall I teach? What shall I teach? Truth cannot be taught at all. Whatever is taught will not be truth. Even to say “taught” is too much; truth cannot even be said. Whatever is taught is not your nature. All teaching…
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…
As I come to understand more deeply how completely the mind has been conditioned it seems to me that even the guru-disciple relationship is an expression of this conditioning. For man to be totally liberated, must he not also transcend this traditional belief by leaping through love in the wonder and mystery of life itself, beyond the form of gods or gurus? If my heart makes a leap of surrender through a guru, doesn't that very act of creating an authority outside of myself become a subtle form of bondage? I have just described my mind-heart search for truth. Can you please go into this more d
That conditioning still lingers somewhere around his personality. He is not yet free of those ugly theosophists, he is still living that nightmare. That's why he is against the masters. He has never been with a master, he was with these people who were not masters at all. Cunning frauds, charlatans, they wanted to exploit the whole world through Krishnamurti. They wanted to remain behind him and manipulate him in every way. It was a great conspiracy against humanity, and it is good that he revolted. But I think it was too much and he cannot forget it and he cannot forgive them. He is against masters, naturally -- I can understand. If I had been in his situation I would have been against the masters. I would like to ask you: Have you ever been in relationship with a master, which is not a relationship at all? Have you…
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…