Your own innermost center is your real master. Outer masters can help, but their help is basically directed toward finding the inner master. And when the inner one is found, there is no need for the outer master. You have become master in your own right. But this happens only when you have come to realize a total inner silence, without any thoughts, without any words, without any imagination, without any ripples of any kind.
When you have come to understand and feel a rippleless silence, a thoughtless, nonmoving silence – this silence becomes your inner master. Now, out of this silence, guidance will be given to you.
”For when the disciple is ready the Master is also ready.” When you are ready to receive the inner guidance, the inner guidance comes naturally, automatically. But the disciple must be ready. What is meant by the disciple being ready? It means to become totally receptive, humble, egoless, surrendered, in a deep let-go.
When you are not saying anything but are just receptive to listen, when you are not imposing any theories upon truth – you are naked, vacant and ready to allow the truth to reveal itself in its own way; you are not in any way, consciously or unconsciously, forcing anything upon the truth; you have stopped forcing; you are ready to be carried away to wheresoever the truth leads you – then, you are a disciple.
There is a difference between a student and a disciple. A student is hankering for information. A disciple is not hankering for information. His search is for knowledge, authentic experience. He is not interested in what others say. He is interested in what he can feel. The student will collect information; he will train his memory.
And the more his memory is trained, the more information is accumulated, the more egoistic he will become. A student can never be humble, a scholar can never be humble. His basic search is egoistic. Someone accumulates riches and someone else accumulates knowledge. There is no difference. Every accumulation feeds the ego. Whatsoever you accumulate – the greater the quantity, the more egoistic you will feel.
So a student or a scholar is not a disciple. The very dimension is different. A disciple is not in search of accumulation. Rather, on the contrary, he is ready to throw all accumulations. If the.truth happens only in that emptiness, he is ready to throw all accumulations, all knowledge.
In his old age, Socrates is reported to have said, "Now I can say that I do not know anything. I am ignorant." He was a disciple.
It happened that one seer declared Socrates to be the wisest man in Athens. Those who heard the seer came running to Socrates. They said, "Socrates, have you heard or not? The seer has said that you are the wisest man in Athens."
Socrates said, "There must have been some error. Go back and tell the seer that Socrates says he knows nothing. He is absolutely ignorant."
The people went back to the seer and told him, "Your prophecy has been denied by Socrates himself. He says, 'I do not know anything. I am ignorant.'"
The seer laughed. He said, "BECAUSE OF THIS I say he is the wisest man" -- because only a perfectly wise man can say, "I do not know."
Ignorant people always claim knowledge. The more ignorant, the more they claim they know. This is part of ignorance. A student, a pundit, a scholar -- they are all claiming knowledge. They are not disciples.
And remember, if you are a student you can become a teacher but never a master. Only a disciple can become a master. If you are a student, a scholar, you can become a teacher -- never a master. Only a disciple can become a master. Discipleship means egoless surrender. And once you surrender, your innermost self is revealed to you. That is the master who is waiting for you. He has been waiting for you for lives and lives.
In any moment of surrender, the master will be revealed to you. And that master is no one. It is your own innermost self, it is your own atman. So really, this can be said: when you are a perfect disciple you have become a master. You are no longer a disciple at all. Discipleship achieved, you are now transformed into a master.
- Osho, "The New Alchemy: To Turn You On, #9"