Becoming a Disciple | The Meaning of Discipleship | Words to Express the Inexpressive


Becoming a Disciple: A Great Gamble - Osho

Osho World celebrated Disciple Week in February to mark the birthday of one of Osho's most devoted and ardent disciples Ma Yog Laxmi on 12 February. As His Secretary, Ma Laxmi became well known not only all over India but also all over the world wherever Osho was mentioned ruing the Seventies and the early Eighties for her total commitment and surrender. Here Osho talks about what it means to be a disciple...

To become a disciple is a great decision. It is no ordinary decision, it is a very difficult, almost impossible decision. I always say that to become a disciple is the most impossible revolution. Because how can one trust another? How can one leave his life in the hands of another? It is the most impossible revolution, but it happens, and when it happens, it is beautiful, there is nothing like it. But only those who are very courageous, almost daredevils, only they can take the step. It is not for cowards. It is not for head-oriented people. It is for those who live in the heart, for those who have courage, for those who can risk. This is the greatest gamble ever because you risk your total life, you give yourself to somebody. You don't know who he is, you cannot know. You may feel certain things, but you can never be certain about the master. Always a doubt remains. In spite of the doubt, one has to take the jump. The doubt cannot be satisfied. No. You can hide it, but you cannot convince the doubting part -- how can you convince it? You have to be with the master, only then will the doubt disappear. Before it is not possible. Only experience will help it to disappear. So how can you convince it?

The mind always hesitates. People come to me and they say that they are hesitating, they are fifty-fifty, what to do? Should they wait? If they wait, they can wait forever, because if they think that they will take the jump only when the mind is a hundred percent certain, convinced, then they will never take it. Because the mind can never be a hundred percent for something -- that is the nature of the mind. It is always divided, fragmented; t can never to total. That is the difference between heart and mind. Heart is always total, mind is always divided. Mind is the division of your being: heart is the undivided being.

Discipleship is of the heart. The mind goes on rambling and talking and doubting and being suspicious. In spite of that, in spite of the chattering mind, one takes the jump. I say "in spite of that". That is the only way -- you simply don't listen to the mind. You simply move beneath the mind, reach the heart, and ask the heart. Discipleship is like love, it is not like a business partnership. It is not a bargain. You simply give, without knowing whether something is going to happen or not. Whether you will receive anything back, you don't know. You simply give. That's why it is courage.

He was not only interested in Zen, he was a devotee. He loved it. Interest, curiosity, enquiry, is of the mind, devotion is of the heart.
... DESIRED TO BECOME A DISCIPLE. What is becoming a disciple? What does it mean? It means: I have tried, and failed; I have searched and couldn't find; I have done all that I could do, and I have remained the same. No transformation has happened to me. So I surrender. Now, the master will be the deciding factor, no me. I will simply follow him like a shadow. Whatsoever he ways I will do. I will not ask for proofs. I will not ask that he should first convince me. I will not argue, I will simply follow -- in deep trust.

The mind may still go on about: "What are you doing? This is not good. This will not lead anywhere, this is foolish, this is mad." The mind will go on saying this, but, once you have taken the decision to be a disciple, you don't listen to the mind, you listen to the master. Up to now you have listened to your own mind, the ego, from now onwards, you will listen to the master, now the master will be your mind. This is the meaning of discipleship: you will put yourself aside and allow the master to penetrate into the deepest core of your being. You are no more. Now only the master is. To be a disciple means to be a shadow, to put your ego completely aside.

Osho
Discourse Series
The Grass Grows By Itself