Total Surrender & Trust
Mysticism Cannot Be Taught, It Can Only Be Caught
Total Surrender & Trust
To be introduced to a true spiritual teacher is a very unique phenomenon.
First, nobody is searching truth. Even if a master passes you by, you will remain completely oblivious of his existence. That’s how it happened when Buddha passed. Millions of people remained oblivious. When Jesus passed, people had not even heard his name. He was an unknown figure. When Mahavir was here, very rare souls came in contact with him.
Because you can come in contact with a master only when you are really seeking truth intensely, passionately; when you have mumuksha, a fiery desire to know, and you are ready to stake everything for it.
When you are ready to know, when you are ready to become a disciple, only then can you come into the contact of a master, only then can you be introduced to the world of a master. Your readiness to become a disciple will be your introduction.
It is very difficult to become a disciple. It is easy to become a student, because a student has no personal relationship. He comes to know things. You go to the university, you are a student. If you come to me as a student, you will miss me, because then you hear only what I say, and you will collect it as information; you will become more knowledgeable. But if you really want to come to me, you have to come to me as a disciple.
A disciple is one who says, ‘I don’t know anything. I surrender totally, utterly. I will be just receptive. I trust. I am ready to annihilate myself. If you say, “Jump into the fire,” I will jump.’
A disciple means one who is ready to trust somebody… very difficult… ready to drop himself, ready to go with somebody into the unknown, uncharted world. Only a very courageous soul becomes a disciple. To learn, one needs to be humble. To learn, one needs to be totally empty, receptive, sensitive, meditative.
A student needs concentration, a disciple needs meditation. Concentration means he has to listen correctly to what is being said. Meditation means you have to be present rightly; not only listen rightly — that is only a small part of it.
You have to be here with me present rightly, in tune, in harmony, in deep rapport, en rapport, so my heart can beat with your heart, so you can breathe with my breathing, so you can vibrate with my frequency.
A moment comes between the master and the disciple when they both start vibrating in the same rhythm. Then something is transferred, and then something transpires between them. That which cannot be said can be transferred in those moments. That which cannot be expressed can be handed over in those moments. A transmission beyond scripture, that’s how Zen Buddhists express it, a transmission beyond scripture, a transmission immediate, direct.
OSHO
The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol-2, Chapter-1
Mysticism Cannot Be Taught, It Can Only Be Caught
The East has contributed a few tremendously significant things to human consciousness. One of those beautiful things is the phenomenon of the master/disciple relationship. It is an Eastern contribution; just as science is a Western phenomenon, mysticism is Eastern. Science is extrovert, mysticism is introvert. Science is trying to know the objective reality, and mysticism is an exploration of the subjective reality, of the interiority of your own being.
In the world of science the teacher/student relationship exists, because science can be taught — hence the teacher/ student relationship. But religion, mysticism, cannot be taught, it can only be caught. Hence in mysticism there is no relationship like the teacher/student relationship. A totally different kind of relationship exists: the master/disciple. The differences are tremendous, the differences are great.
Between a student and a teacher, doubt is the method. The teacher is there to help your doubts disappear, he is there to answer your questions; he is there to inform you, make you more knowledgeable. The student is there with all his questions, curiosities, doubts. In fact, the more intelligent he is, the more doubtful he will be. The best student is full of doubts, and the best teacher is one who helps the student with new answers, new knowledge, so that his doubts can be disposed of. Science uses doubt as the method; that’s its fundamental method of inquiry.
In the world of religion just the opposite is the case: trust is the method, not doubt; love is the method, not logic; surrender is the method, not conquest of knowledge. The student, when he comes from the university, comes with great ego because he has accumulated much knowledge, he has learned much. But the disciple, when he comes from the master, comes as a nobody, egoless. He no longer exists as a separate entity from existence. He has not learned anything; on the contrary, he has unlearned whatsoever he used to know before.
A great philosopher had come to see Raman Maharshi — a German philosopher. He asked Raman, “I have come from far far away, to learn much from you.”
Raman laughed and he said, “Your journey has been an exercise in futility. Unnecessarily you traveled to me, because I am not here to teach you anything — if you have come to learn, you have come to the wrong place — I help people to unlearn!”
The master helps you to unlearn. The master helps you to become innocent again, childlike.
Jesus says: Unless you are like a child, unless you are reborn, you shall not enter into my kingdom of God. He is speaking an Eastern language. Jesus traveled to India; whatsoever he taught later on, he had imbibed that spirit in this country. In fact, it was one of the reasons that he was crucified. It was one of the basic reasons why his people could not understand him: he was bringing a totally new language, a new approach, a new vision.
The East has always been the source. Pythagoras came to the East, Jesus came to the East… and whatsoever the West has ever come to know about master-and-discipleship has been experienced through the East, directly or indirectly.
The master/disciple relationship is a love affair, the greatest love affair possible. The disciple surrenders his ego to the master. He bows down. He says: BUDDHAM SHARANAM GACHCHHAMI — I bow down to the Buddha, I surrender to the Buddha, I take shelter at your feet. The moment he drops his ego he becomes part of the being of the master.
And the master is no more there as a person, he is only a presence. And when two presences meet, the greatest orgasmic experience happens, the greatest ecstasy. That ecstasy is the goal of the master-and-disciple relationship. That ecstasy has been happening for centuries in a very mysterious way: the master says nothing about it, the disciple hears nothing about it, but sitting by the side of the master, silently waiting, patiently, prayerfully, one day the synchronicity…. One day, suddenly, the disciple starts breathing with the master. His heartbeat is no longer separate from the master’s heartbeat. They disappear as two and become one.
That experience of oneness with the master is the opening of the door of the temple of God.
OSHO
The Dhammapada: the Way of the Buddha, Vol- 6, Chapter-4
