https://oshofriends.com/key_issues/27830
Question 1:
Beloved Osho,
When does the disciple's freedom become his master's condemnation?
Milarepa, the authentic disciple has never condemned the master. In fact, he cannot condemn the master; the master has become his own heart and being. To condemn the master is to condemn oneself. But yes, there are so-called disciples. Your question can only be relevant to those so-called disciples. In the first place, they are not disciples this is condemnation enough, not of the master but of their own being, of their own sincerity, of their own authenticity. As far as the master is concerned, he is the freedom of the disciple.
If the master's being in any way becomes a hindrance to the freedom of the disciple, the master is not true. So your question raises a very complex experience of the relationship between master and disciple. If it is authentic, then the disciple never feels himself separate from the master. There is no question that he would act in any way or behave in any way in the name of freedom which goes against the master. It simply is not possible.
He breathes the master; in a certain way, the master and his own being have become so deeply involved that it is difficult to make demarcations, where is the master and where is the disciple. They are one heart, beating in two bodies. But if the disciple is pseudo, not a hundred percent but just so-so, a lukewarm disciple, then he is going to condemn the master sooner or later. Then it becomes almost a destiny which can be predicted, that he will condemn the master, because the master and his being have never become one.
He was never able to dissolve totally into the master or let the master dissolve totally into him. He cannot forgive it; neither can he forget it. He will do things, consideredly, which go against the master and his teachings, just to condemn him and to protect himself: "Why have I become separated? The master was not worthy, I had to separate. The master was not truly a master, so the question of my being a disciple to him does not arise." To protect his ego, he has to condemn the master.
And the only way to condemn is to do things exactly against what the master has been teaching. Every breath of the master's life is devoted to a certain phenomenon: a certain ecstasy, a certain experience beyond which there is nothing higher or holier. The disciple will do things against the master just to protect his ego. If the master is also a false one, then certainly he will feel the condemnation and he will react furiously.
He will also condemn the disciple. But if the master is authentic, he will simply laugh at the stupidity of this ignorant man who does not know that he is cutting the same branch on which he is sitting by his acts he is simply becoming a laughingstock. But not for a moment can the authentic master think that he can be condemned. Thousands may be against him, thousands may be in opposition to him, thousands may come to be disciples and leave him at any point in the journey, but he will not feel any condemnation.
Simply a great compassion, that it is not their fault. If you are selling glasses ask Premda, my optician if you are selling glasses in a city of the blind you should know that nobody is going to accept that you have brought a great blessing to them. The people are blind, they have never seen anything, and your glasses cannot help them. And all great masters have been selling glasses to the blind. If the blind are ready to follow all the instructions, disciplines, perhaps their eyes may start opening, because nobody is born spiritually blind.
Only eyes are closed, and you have forgotten how to open your own eyes. The whole function of the master is to help you to open your eyes. Sometimes it hurts. It is a surgery. And the disciple becomes offended when something hurts. But the master's intention is never to hurt you; his only intention is to help you to a better and more spiritual, more beautiful, more immortal life. How can one even think to do something, in the name of freedom, against his own master?
The master is his freedom, and if something is going against the master, that is not freedom. You are going against yourself and against freedom. It may appear on the surface that you are acting on your own, but you will harm yourself. If you think harming yourself is your freedom, destroying the work that the master has been doing on your eyes... if you think it is your freedom to destroy the glasses that have been provided to you, then you are behaving in an absolutely idiotic way.
To find the master is a blessing, and to dissolve oneself into the master is the most delicious experience experience of freedom and joy, a kind of unburdening of all the unnecessary load, an experience of lightness and laughter.... But it is very difficult to see one's own faults. By our very nature we are made up in such a way that we can see the faults of others, but we cannot see our own fault. And our own fault may be big enough; then too, we will not be able to see because it is our own. We have become identified with it, it is our personality. If somebody points it out, it is going to hurt us.
The ancient Sufi proverb is, "One can see a small piece of sand in somebody else's eye, but one cannot see a whole camel in one's own eye." The big-mouthed frog is sitting by his pond in the jungles of Goa one day, when the tiger comes by and says, "Hey man, have you heard? There is a big full-moon party down at the beach tonight."
The frog opens his huge mouth and says, "Faarrr out!"
"Yeah," says the tiger, "and there will be lots of dancing sannyasin girls."
"Faarrr out!" says the frog.
"And there will be lots of jazz music and skinheads," says the tiger.
"Faarrr out," says the frog.
"And there will be lots of booze and plenty to eat."
"Faarrr out," says the frog.
"One thing only," says the tiger, "has to be remembered: that people with big mouths are not allowed to go."
The frog shuts his mouth with a `bang' and says, "Poor crocodile, he will be so disappointed."
Faarrr out!
-Osho, "YAA-HOO! The Mystic Rose, #11, Q1"
