What is the urge to understand?

Question: Maneesha has asked: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS THE URGE TO UNDERSTAND? Maneesha, the urge to understand comes from your very nature. The mystery of existence wants you to become a shareholder. The mystery of existence does not want you to stand outside, but to come inside the temple. It is too hot outside, it is perfectly cool inside. The urge to understand is absolutely a part of intelligence. Intelligence wants to know, who is there within me; from where comes my love, my tears, my laughter? One does not want to remain ignorant of his own house. The urge to understand is the only hope for man. If there is no urge to understand, there will not be any mysticism, and there will not be any poetry; there will not be any music, there will not be any dance.

Maneesha has asked a question: BELOVED OSHO, HAS ONE ONLY RECEIVED A HIT IF IT HURTS?

Maneesha, a master hits not to hurt but to heal. And a disciple receives the hit with tremendous gratitude, not with anger. Unless a hit is received with gratitude it cannot do its work of healing. You are all full of wounds, and they all need to be exposed to the sun, to the open sky. Unless you allow yourself to be exposed completely, you cannot get rid of those wounds. The normal way in the world is to hide the wounds so nobody knows about them -- go on hiding them deeper and deeper in the unconscious, so even you forget them. But to work on the consciousness, cleaning it from all the wounds is absolutely necessary. Those wounds have to be brought into the open. You are asking, "Has one only received a hit if it hurts?" No, Maneesha. If it hurts you have missed. If it does…

Osho, I am here only for a very short visit. I have come to try to understand what you have here that the rest of the world does not. Can you help me?

I HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER TO YOU -- only nothing. But that is the greatest thing that can be given as a gift. My only advice to my people is to be nothing, to be nobodies, to be utterly nude of all the clothes that the society has given to you -- of thought, of religion, of philosophy -- utterly empty of all the conditionings that have been forced on you by others, utterly devoid of all the inhibitions and taboos that time has gathered around you like dust. If you can be an empty mirror, then God is. In that empty mirror, God reflects -- and there is no other way. I have nothing substantial to give to you, because all that is substantial is mundane. I have something intangible to give you, non-substantial, something that you cannot grasp with your hand, something that cannot be measured or weighed.…

Osho, I know what is right, yet I cannot do it. And you say that with knowledge alone—mere knowledge—behavior changes. This does not make sense to me!

A book cannot be a Guru—even if it contains the words of Gurus. However beautiful the book, it cannot be Guru. A book cannot awaken you; it is asleep itself. A book cannot make you alive; it is dead itself. The book may be filled with priceless sayings; it may cry from within, “Arise, awake!”—but if you are snoring beside it, what will happen? You will keep snoring; the book will keep shouting—but you will not hear. A living person is needed—someone who can shake you, jolt you, splash water on your face, prise open your eyes with his hands and say, “Get up! Wake up!” Someone who can shatter your dreams. A book cannot do this. Through meditation, the inner vision slowly begins to open. And when, with meditation, the Master’s word is heard, you recognize instantly what the diamond is. The fist closes in that very moment. Conduct…

Osho, I feel I can lovingly understand you, and I can even make others understand. Then why does that very understanding fail to bring authenticity into life—whose absence keeps a constant disintegration going inside and out? Where is the mistake being made? Kindly shed your light.

But how does authenticity arise? If you tie it to “how,” you will be stuck—because authenticity is not something you can produce. Whatever you produce will be inauthentic. Keep this well in your heart: whatever you manufacture will be false. How can what you put on be authentic? The authentic has already been created by the divine. You ask, “How do I wear my original face?” The original face is not worn; it is. Only masks are worn. Anything you can put on will be false. Don’t say, “Fine, I won’t wear the false; I will wear the true.” Can the true be worn? The true is that which is on you without your putting it on—which even if you tried, you could not remove. That which you never miss, never lose, from which you are never separate—that is authentic. So what to do? Only see the false as false.…