According to Osho, your lingering emptiness is purposeful: the master awakens and quenches thirst only to deepen it until it becomes total. The more you drink, the more thirsty you feel, because each sip lifts you to a higher, more intense longing that dissolves the 'you'. In sincere, wordless communion your question is already received; as this ripened thirst matures, the master becomes a door, and the Divine is directly available beyond the teacher.
You feel unfulfilled because the master gives you just enough to make your longing grow until it’s big enough to find truth (God) directly, beyond him.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, you make us drink so much every day, and yet instead of being satisfied the thirst keeps growing day by day. Why?
Dreams lie about us like the desolate shadows of night, Longings lie as though forever now estranged, Such darkness has spread that clouds of fear have gathered— We do not receive even two drops of someone’s tenderness when we ask. Neither does the song become complete, nor is the heart’s friend found; The one who would clasp life to life—that mind-conqueror—is not found; The Swati drops are restless, yet no oyster is found; We do not receive even two loving words when we ask. On every side draws near the half-extinguished thirst of an extinguished mind; Sobbing, echoing, the crushed thirst of life; Forever in each breath spreads the sound of separation— We do not receive even two drops of affection when we ask. By asking, nothing has ever been gained. Unasked, pearls are given; by asking, not even bran. If you ask, you will gain nothing; it is through…
And ps: just because we were urged to create questions, I have made this one. But today's lecture gave me the answer. Before I ask you for water, you quench my thirst. But now a real question arose. Why, drinking and eating so much from you, am I still hungry and thirsty? But please do not answer it I will just go on drinking and eating.
If the question is really sincere, it will be answered even before you have asked it. Because then it is simply transferred to me; it is simply communicated non-verbally. When I come here, those who are really in tune with me immediately communicate whatsoever is their real question. They need not even ask, but the answer will be there. Because I am not speaking here in a vacuum, I am speaking to you. That's why I don't like people who are not in deep communion with me to be here -- because they disturb; their vibrations create clouds around here: then those who are in tune with me cannot relate so easily. Even a single person who is antagonistic here will not allow me to flow, will not allow me to reach you. Those who are in tune with me need not ask. Their very tuning... they may not even…
Question: Fifth question: Osho, People drink and they stagger; in your refuge they find so much. As for us, in your gathering we come thirsty, and thirsty we go! Then that thirst is not really thirst. Right now it is only an idea, not actual. Otherwise, who is stopping you from drinking? If you return thirsty from the very shore of the lake, then your thirst was not thirst. When thirst truly seizes someone, he will drink even from a foul puddle. What is needed is thirst. And when there is no thirst, even if the pristine Lake Manasarovar is before you, what will you do? Look for the thirst. Seek it. Otherwise the “thirst” will be false. Many people feel a false thirst. By hearing talk about thirst, real thirst does not arise; instead a greed takes hold within—“one should have thirst.
Osho, sometimes I feel I have received so very much from you, and sometimes I feel I am missing so much of you. Why is it so?
Then you will dance in joy, sing songs of wonder; yet you will not become a dead rock sitting—you will keep moving. More and more new flowers have yet to blossom in you! You have no inkling of your own possibilities. You have no idea of your own being—how much you can be! If one wave stirs, it can become a storm— Even a small ripple, if it stirs... If one wave stirs, it can become a storm— because the ocean is also hidden in the small ripple. If a single flower wishes, it can become a garden. A tiny flower could fill the whole earth with flowers. A single seed can make the whole earth green if it keeps spreading... In one seed are millions of seeds; in those millions, yet millions more! If the earth were given just one seed, the whole earth could turn green. If one…
Osho, From this tavern, the more we drink, why does it feel the less it is? I feel as if I keep missing. As much as you pour, I don’t drink. It’s not in my control. Is this just a habit of complaining? Is it really that I lack the courage?
Dharm Shraddha! Courage is complete in you. There is no lack of courage. Your trust is unique. Your feeling is total. You did not become a sannyasin out of formality; it happened from the heart. This surrender was not out of greed or fear. It is a flower of love. But this nectar of the divine is such that however much you drink, there will still be more left to drink. However much you know, there will still be more left to know. Drinking this sweet elixir does not quench the thirst—it increases it. This is not your fault. Nor is it your helplessness. It is the very nature of this wine that by drinking it the thirst will increase, become more intense, and go on increasing. There is no end to it. That is why the divine is called the Infinite. You say: “From this tavern, the more we…