Guru - Disciple I
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Guru- Disciple Relation I

The need for a Master

The Buddha said:

"Rely not upon your own will. Your own will is not trustworthy.

Guard yourselves against sensualism, for it surely leads astray.

Your own will becomes trustworthy only when you have attained arhatship."

 

This is a very significant statement. Buddha never said that you need a Master, but in a subtle way he has to concede it, because a Master IS needed.

 

Buddha was against Masters, because the country was so cheated, exploited in the name of Guru-disciple relationship. There were so many charlatans and frauds, there have always been and there will always be. And Buddha was very much concerned about it, that people were being exploited, so he said there is no need for anyone to become anybody's disciple. But how can he avoid a very basic thing? There may be ninety-nine percent frauds, that doesn't matter. Even if one right Master exists, he can be of tremendous help.

 

So in a very indirect way, in a roundabout way, Buddha concedes. He says: "rely not upon your own will." He says: If you rely upon your own will you will never reach anywhere. Your own will is so weak. Your own will is so unintelligent. Your own will is so divided into itself. You don't have one will; you have many wills in you. You are a crowd!

 

Gurdjieff used to say you don't have one 'I', you have many small 'I's. And those 'I's go on changing. For a few minutes one I becomes the sovereign, and then it is thrown out of power; another I becomes the sovereign. And you can watch it! It is a simple fact. It has nothing to do with any theory.

 

You love a person, and you are so loving. One I dominates: the I that loves. Then something goes wrong and you hate the person. In a single moment love has turned into hatred. Now you want to destroy the person, at least you start thinking how to destroy the person. Now the hatred has come in: another I which is totally different is on the throne.

 

You are happy, you have another I. You are unhappy, again... it goes on changing. Twenty-four hours, day in, day out, your I's go on changing. You don't have one I.

 

That's why it happens that you can decide tonight: "Tomorrow morning I will get up at three o'clock; whatsoever happens I am going to get up." You fix the alarm and at three o'clock you stop the alarm and you are annoyed by the alarm. And you think, "One day, what does it matter? Tomorrow...." and you go to sleep. And again when you get up at eight o'clock in the morning you are angry at yourself. You say, "How could it happen? I had DECIDED to get up. How did I continue to sleep?"

 

These are two different I's: the one I that decided and the one I that was annoyed with the alarm are different I's. Maybe the first I is again back in the morning and repents. You become angry and then you repent: these are two different I's --they never meet! They don't know what the other is doing. The I that creates anger goes on creating anger, and the I that repents goes on repenting and you never change.

 

Gurdjieff used to say that unless you have a permanent crystallized I you should not trust yourself. You are not one, you are a crowd: you are poly-psychic.

 

That's what Buddha says: "rely not upon your own will." Then on whom to rely? Rely on somebody who has a will, who has an integral I, who has attained, who has become one in his being, who is no longer divided, who is really an individual.

 

"Rely not upon your own will. Your own will is not trustworthy. Guard yourselves against sensualism, for it surely astrayl. Your own will becomes trustworthy only when you have attained arhatship."

 

When you have come to know who you are, when you have become a realised soul, when the enlightenment has happened, then your I becomes trustworthy, never before it. But then there is no point. Then you have come home. It is of no use now. When there was need it was not there. So you need somebody to whom you can surrender, you need somebody with whom trust can arise in you. That is the whole relationship of a Master and a disciple.

 

The disciple has yet no will of his own, and the Master has. The disciple is a crowd and the Master is one unity. The disciple surrenders. He says, "I cannot trust myself, hence I will trust you." Trusting the Master, by and by, the disciple's crowd inside disappears.

 

That's why I say that when I tell you to do something and you want to do it, and you do it, it is meaningless --because it is still according to your I, your will. When I say to do something, and it is against you, AND you surrender and you say yes, then you are moving, then you are growing, then you are becoming mature. Then you are coming out of the mess that you have been up to now.

 

Only by saying no to your mind do you say yes to the Master.

 

Many times I simply say that which you would like, because I don't see that you will be able to do that which I like. I have to persuade you slowly. You are not ready to take a sudden jump. First I say change your clothes, then I start changing your body. Then I start changing your mind.

 

People come to me and they say, "Why should we change clothes? What is the point?" They are not even ready to change their clothes; more cannot be expected of them. They say they are ready to change their souls, but they are not ready to change their clothes. Look at the absurdity of it. But with the soul there is one thing: it is invisible, so nobody knows.

 

But I can see your soul, I can see where you are standing and what you are talking about; I can see through your rationalizations. You say, "What is there in clothes?" but that is not the question. I also know there is nothing in the clothes, but still I say, "change." I would like you to do something according to me, not according to you. That's a beginning.

 

Then, by and by, first I take hold of your finger, then your hand… mm… then of your totality. You say, "Why are you holding my finger? What is the point of holding my finger?" I know what the point is, that is the beginning. Very slowly I have to go. If you are ready then there is no need to go slow, then I can also go in a sudden leap, but people are not ready.

 

Buddha says: "Rely not upon your own will. Your will is not trustworthy."

 

Find out a person in whose presence you feel something has happened. Find out a person in whose presence you feel a fragrance of the Divine, in whose presence you feel a coolness, in whose presence you feel love, compassion, in whose presence you feel a silence, unknown, unexperienced, but it surrounds you, overwhelms you. Then surrender to that person. Then, by and by, he will bring you to the point where surrender will not be needed, you will realise

your own innermost core of being, you will become an Arhat. The Arhat is the final stage of enlightenment.

 

You become yourself only when all the selves that you have been carrying all along are dissolved. You become yourself only when there is really no self left but a pure nothingness. Then the circle is complete. You have come to the ultimate nothingness, fully aware. You have become a witness of the whole play of life, existence, consciousness.

 

This state IS possible if you don't create obstacles. This state is certainly possible if you avoid obstacles. I can also assure you that if you become a driftwood and don't cling to the banks, and don't get attached to whirlpools, and don't start decaying in your unawareness, you are sure, absolutely sure, to reach the ocean.

 

That ocean is the goal. We come from that ocean and we have to reach to that ocean. The beginning is the end, and when the circle is complete there is perfection, there is wholeness, there is bliss and benediction.

 

Excerpt from OSHO: The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 3

Continued with: Guru- Disciple Relation II: The Great Cosmic Play

<------- Guru - Disciple II