One can be a disciple only if one drops all knowledge. Disciplehood means that you accept the fact that you know nothing. It begins in a state of not-knowing. If you know then you cannot be a disciple. Then your knowledge will be a constant disturbance and whatsoever you know is nothing but rubbish; it is all borrowed — from traditions, from conventions, from the society, from the scriptures — it is all conditioning and a disciple needs as a first step to be totally unconditioned. He has to drop his whole mind, he has to behead himself. Unless that much readiness is there one can only be a student, not a disciple, and that is the difference between these two words. The difference is immense.
A student is only intellectually interested, he wants to know more. The disciple is not intellectually interested, he’s existentially interested; he is not after accumulating more information and knowledge. He wants to be more; not to know more, but to be more.
Knowledge is something of the mind and being is a totally different phenomenon. One can know all the scriptures of the world and yet may remain ignorant — that’s how scholars are: they are just donkeys carrying a big burden of scriptures. That burden has not transformed them, that burden has really hindered, hampered their progress. It is like with rocks hanging around your neck. You are trying to swim: You are creating unnecessary hurdles for yourself.
Socrates is right when he says, ‘I know only one thing, that I know nothing.’ That is the state of a disciple and in that state great things happen: Ego disappears, it can’t exist — How it can exist? There is no claim left. One becomes utterly empty and in that emptiness god comes to you; you become a host, he becomes a guest.
To be a true disciple
Is one of the greatest experiences of life,
The greatest experience.
There is nothing greater than that
But it requires courage;
Courage to be egoless, courage
To discriminate exactly
What you know and what you don't know.
And if you really look into yourself
You will be surprised:
You know only about trivia
You know nothing about anything essential.
God, soul, love bliss, truth, freedom --
You know nothing about them
And those are the essential things of life.
Become a beloved disciple.
And when I say become a beloved disciple
I don't mean be my disciple.
My sannyasins are my friends...
You have to be a disciple of existence
You have to be a disciple to the sun
To the moon, to the stars, to the trees
To all this beautiful existence that surrounds you
You have to be a disciple to god himself.
The true master only helps you
To discover your hidden secrets.
And this is the key: Function
Out of a state of not-knowing
And you will become wise;
Function out of knowledge
And you will remain stupid.
All scholars are stupid,
Universities are full of them.
Universities are factories to create stupidity.
My work is just the opposite: Here we try
To bring your intelligence back to you
Which has been crushed , destroyed
Covered, in thousands of ways.
- Osho, “No Man Is an Island, #27”