Osho on Master

IF THE TRUTH IS ONE, THEN WHY DO ALL THE MASTERS, ALL THE AWAKENED ONES, SPEAK IN DIFFERENT WAYS? SOMETIMES IT EVEN LOOKS AS IF THEY ARE CONTRADICTORY.

The truth is certainly one, but it has multidimensional reality, and every master has to choose a certain dimension. You cannot speak all the dimensions together. Every master has his own style, his own way of speaking, his own way of conveying. The higher you rise in consciousness and awareness, the more you become unique, the more you become individual. But let me explain to you: Individuality is not personality. Personality is given by the society to you. Individuality is your intrinsic nature. Personality is fake, a fraud. Individuality is your innermost Buddha, your innermost enlightenment, your innermost door to the divine.

But every master is bound to be unique in his expressions. They are all saying the same thing, they are all indicating towards the same moon, but their fingers are different. They are bound to be different. The finger of Buddha, the finger of Lao Tzu, the finger of Chuang Tzu, are bound to be different. If you pay too much attention to the finger, there is every possibility you will forget the purpose. The purpose was not the finger, the purpose was the moon. All the differences are in the fingers, in their expressions. The experience of truth is one, but to bring it to expression, every master has to find his own device. That’s why even enlightened people appear to you to be speaking differently, even contradictorily — because existence does not have one-dimensional sources, it is multidimensional. It is comprehensive of all contradictions. All contradictions melt into one cosmos. Now, you cannot express the whole cosmos in any statement. All philosophies fall short, and all languages appear impotent. All theologies only manage a very partial truth. And remember, a partial truth is not truth. You cannot cut truth into parts. It is one, and organically one, not mechanically one.

You can take a car apart, and you can put those parts together again, but you cannot do the same with a living organism. You cannot take a man’s parts apart, and then put them together. You can do it, but the man will not be there. There will be only a corpse in your hands. But it is one of the most difficult problems faced by all awakened ones: How to convey it? They find devices, methods, meditations. They open doors so that you can look at the truth yourself. Of course, every master will have his own door. Existence has millions of approaches, and when a master reaches to the truth, he reaches by one path. Obviously, he will talk about the path by which he has reached to the truth.

Truth is one, but paths are many. And unless we understand it, there is going to be a constant conflict and misunderstanding in the minds of the seekers.

I am reminded of one of the greatest Urdu poets, Ghalib. Three hundred years have passed, but in three hundred years no poet so great has been born in the Urdu language. It is a very poetic language, I don’t think there is any other language in the world which is so poetic. Contemporary languages are bound to be non-poetic; they have to be scientific, exact. Poetry is flexible; poetry does not say directly, it only hints. This great poet, Mirza Ghalib, has a very beautiful statement. I would like to repeat it first in his own language, then I will translate it.

HAIN AUR BHI DUNIYAN MEN SUKHANBAR BAHUT ACHCHHE

KAHTE HAIN GHALIB KA HAI ANDAJE BAYAN AUR.

HAIN… DUNIYAN MEN SUKHANBAR BAHUT ACHCHHE

…. In the world there are many great poets, but it is said that Ghalib’s way of saying, his style, his nuance, is absolutely unique.

Every master is unique, just like an Everest, standing far higher, touching the stars — alone. Never compare two masters. Comparison is not the right thing in the world of masters. Comparison is mind-oriented, it is intellectual, and the master’s realization is beyond the mind, it is spiritual. In the world of spirit, in the world of godliness, there is no question of comparison. Everyone is unique, but surrendered, dedicated to the same truth from different angles. It needs a tremendous capacity of understanding, and that understanding has not to be of the mind, it has to be of meditation.

Mind can understand everything that is outside you. All that is objective is available to the mind: science and technology, philosophy and theology — all are mind-oriented. But that which is within you, is behind the mind, beyond the mind. It opens itself in your meditations, when you start dropping your thoughts and relaxing deeper and deeper, when only a witness is left.

The body is far away and no more you, the mind is just an echo in the valleys, and is no more you.

In the innermost core of your being there is no thought, no cloud, a great silence. In that silence arises authentic understanding. In that silence you are closest to the divine. That silence is a way, a bridge, a path, a connection to the ultimate.

Once you know the ultimate, the difficulty arises: How to convey it? And there is a tremendous urge to convey it, because millions of people are living in darkness, in blindness, stumbling, finding no way out. Millions of people are born in the night and die in the night; there is no dawn in their lives. When one comes to the dawn, when one realizes the sunrise and his whole being becomes full of light and beauty and blessings, he wants to share it. This desire to share comes autonomously.

But how to share that which is beyond words? All masters have been struggling to find some way to communicate, to commune. That’s why you find differences in their statements. Rather than thinking about their statements, it will be better to go within yourself and find the truth. Nobody can help you.

The masters can only show the way; you have to walk. Nobody can come inside you. That is the dignity of man, a great privilege: nobody can interfere in your inner life. You are alone there, the supreme most sovereign.

Source:

Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link.

Discourse name: Christianity: The Deadliest Poison and Zen: The Antidote to All Poisons

Chapter title: The opium of the people

Chapter #1

22 January 1989 pm in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium

References:

Osho has spoken on ‘Master, individuality, understanding, silence’ in many of His discourses. More on the subject can be referred to in the following books/discourses:

1. A Bird on the Wing
2. The Book of Wisdom
3. The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha
4. No Water, No Moon
5. The Rebel
6. Sufis: The People of the Path
7. Tao: The Pathless Path
8. Vigyan Bhairav Tantra
9. The Path of the Mystic
10. Beyond Psychology