Chuang Tzu always watched monkeys. He was deeply interested in them because they are the forefathers of man. And a monkey is hidden in you! This whole world is nothing but a monkey mountain, all around are monkeys.

 

What is the characteristic of a monkey? What is the deepest character in the monkey? It is copying. Gurdjieff used to say that you cannot become a man unless you stop being a monkey – and he was right. Somebody asked him: What is the deepest characteristic of a monkey? He said: Copying, imitation.

 

The monkey is a perfect imitator. What have you been doing your whole life? Have you been a man or a monkey? You imitate, you just look around and you follow; following, you become false. You see somebody walking in a certain way, you try to walk that way; somebody is wearing a particular dress, you would like to have that dress; somebody has got a car, you would like to have that car – everything!

 

You never look at what your need is. And if you do look to your need, life can become a blissful existence, because needs are not much. Imitation will lead you on a path which reaches nowhere in the end. Needs are not much, needs are always few; if you look to YOUR need, you can be satisfied.

 

Contentment is easy, because what is needed? Few are the needs. But if you imitate, then millions of unnecessary needs crowd all around. And there is no end to them, because there are millions of people and you would like to imitate everybody. It becomes impossible; you start living everybody’s life and then you forget that you were here to do your own thing, and you have become an imitator.

 

You are here to fulfill your own destiny and that destiny is individual, it is nobody else’s. This existence has given you birth to fulfill a particular destiny which cannot be fulfilled by anybody else. No Buddha can do it, no Jesus can do it, only you can do it. And you are imitating. That is why Hindus say that unless you stop imitation you will be thrown again and again into existence – that is the theory of rebirth. You will be thrown in again and again unless you fulfill your destiny – unless you flower, you will have to come back. How can you flower if you imitate? You see a musician and you want to be a musician; you see an actor and you want to be an actor; you see a doctor and you want to be a doctor. You want to be everything except yourself – and that is all that you can be, nothing else. Nothing else is possible, and nobody else is like you, so nobody can become your ideal.

 

Love a Buddha, Buddha is beautiful – but don’t imitate, else you will miss. Jesus is wonderful, but he is needed no more; existence has fulfilled that destiny, that work is complete. He has come to a flowering. That is why whenever a person has flowered he never comes back. Love Jesus, but don’t be an imitator, otherwise you will end up unfulfilled, in misery and anguish. You cannot really follow anybody. You can take hints, but then you have to be very alert; hints should not become blind imitations.

 

If you see a Buddha, take how he has flowered as a hint. What are the methods? What has he been doing? Try to understand it, and let that understanding be absorbed. By and by you will start feeling your path. It will never be like the Buddha’s, it can never be, it will be absolutely different. But absorbing Buddha will help. You will have to grow in your own way, but absorbing him will make you more understanding. That is the difference between an authentic disciple and a follower who is false.

 

A disciple is something completely different from a follower, and I would like to tell you to be my disciples but not my followers. What is discipline? Discipline is learning. The root word of discipline comes from learning. It is nothing to do with self control, no. A disciple is one who is ready to learn; a disciple is one who is ready to absorb; a disciple is one who is open, receptive; a disciple is one who is ready to become a womb. He is not antagonistic, he is not fighting and arguing. He is trying to understand, and when you try to understand, the head stops functioning. Because the head can do two things: it can either fight or it can follow. It can either be a blind follower or a blind enemy, but it can never be a disciple.

 

A disciple is totally different because he is not head-oriented; a disciple is heart-oriented. He loves the master, absorbs him, and then goes on his own way. It is a very indirect, very delicate thing. It is not direct. You cannot just look at the master and do whatsoever he is doing – then you will become a follower. You cannot learn the words and start repeating them – then you will become a follower, then the effort has been in the head, and the head is the problem.

 

Whenever you are not fighting and not in search of somebody to imitate, your consciousness falls from the head to the heart. Then you are open, then you are simply in love. That is what is meant by SHRADDHA, faith, trust. It is neither belief nor disbelief. Don’t think that trust or faith is belief, it is not. Belief is in the head, disbelief is in the head, trust is in the heart. It has nothing to do with belief or disbelief. Believing or not believing is not a concern at all; you simply love.

 

You see a rose flower. Do you believe in it or do you disbelieve in it? You don’t do anything, you simply look at it. Nobody is a follower, nobody is against. The sun rises in the morning. What do you do? Are you a believer or a disbeliever or do you follow the path of the sun the whole day because you are a follower? Either way you will go mad. You simply enjoy, you absorb the morning, the freshness of it, the youngness, the newness – with the sun everything is becoming alive. You enjoy the very life and become more alive through it. You look at a rose and something of the rose reaches to your heart. Outside the rose is flowering, inside, the heart starts flowering. You reach a master, a Buddha or a Jesus, a Chuang Tzu. What do you do? Do exactly as you would do with a rose or with a sunrise. No need to follow, no need not to follow, just absorb.

 

Jesus’s last words to his disciples were: Eat me, let me be your drink and your food, let me flow in your blood, absorb me. When he says ’eat me’, that means absorb me, digest me; don’t follow outwardly, digest me, and then you will have your own inner light. A real master never gives you rules, he gives you the eye. He never shows you the path, never says this is the path, follow. He simply gives you the light and says: Now take the light and go into the darkness, this light will show your path.

 

A false master always gives you a map: This is the map. Don’t go astray, follow this map. He never gives you the light. If you have the light then there is no need of the map, you will find your path. And everybody’s path is going to be different because everybody is different. Let this understanding go deep into your heart: there are not two persons similar, there cannot be. Existence is not repetitive, existence is not yet exhausted, existence goes on flowering in new uniquenesses.

 

Everybody is extraordinary. No need to prove it. If you want to prove, you will become a monkey, not a man. Stop copying. It is easy to copy, difficult to understand. That is why one copies, because it is so easy – just a rule has to be followed. You need not have any understanding about it: a clear-cut rule is given and you follow it. People come to me and they say: Give us clear-cut rules, so that we can follow. They are saying: we are not going to grow, we are not going to become mature ourselves. You simply give us clear-cut rules: what to eat, what not to eat, when to get up early in the morning and when to go to bed. Just give us clear cut rules so that we can follow. You want to become a monkey, not a man.

 

A man will never ask for clear-cut rules, he will ask for understanding, so he can find his own way, so he can move in the wide world. He need not have a map with him, no need of any compass. Just your inner light will show your path.

 

And there is beauty because there is freedom. When there is no freedom, there is no beauty. Bondage, slavery, is the ugliest thing in the world.

 

- Osho, “When the Shoe Fits, #5”