Osho – It is certainly the master who chooses the disciple, but his choosing always remains indirect. He always gives a chance to the disciple to choose. The disciple is not even aware that he has been already chosen. But without the master choosing the disciple, there is no way for the disciple to choose the master; his choice comes second. But the master never imposes, he makes it always free for the disciple to choose.
The reason is clear. The disciple is asleep; he has no idea who is awake and who is not. He is dreaming – how can he choose? Whatever he chooses is almost certainly going to be wrong. It is a rare coincidence that he may choose the right person, simply because he is unconscious, he is asleep.
Just think of this room – a few persons are sleeping and one person is awake. Now, can the sleeping persons choose who should wake them up? That is impossible. If they can choose that, then what is the need of the master? – they can wake themselves up. They are already awake if they can choose who should wake them.
The whole burden falls on the master to choose whom to wake. He has certain ways to know who is very close to awakening. Even if you are watching a few sleeping people you can decide who is very fast asleep, deeply asleep, snoring; and who is sleeping very light – a thin layer of sleep, and is already on the verge. If somebody can wake him up, it is not going to take time. But there is every possibility, if nobody wakes him, he may slip back into deep sleep, turn over again and pull the blanket over himself.
Spiritual sleep is not very different from ordinary sleep – just a little more complicated and more subtle. It is one of the functions of the master to choose the disciple but never to let the disciple know that he has been chosen. That is disturbing his independence, that is taking away his freedom. As far as the disciple is concerned the master allows him to think that he is the chooser. That is out of his compassion. Even when the master does something, he makes it appear as if it has been done by the disciple.
You are asking… I have talked about the functions of the master – what are the functions of the disciple? The functions of the disciple are very simple. Condensed to one single word it is receptivity, non-resistance, availability, saying with a full heart ”Yes!”
There should be no shadow of ”No.” That is the barrier. The master cannot function with a ”no” standing between him and the disciple, because he cannot be violent, he cannot destroy the ”no.” He cannot remove it because all that will be interfering with the disciple’s innermost life.
So it is the function of the disciple not to put the master in such a situation where he cannot work. His yes, total and unconditional, gives the whole scope to the master to work. And now there is no question of interference: you have allowed the master to be a guest in your innermost being, you have become a host. And it is one of the greatest joys for the disciple to experience that the master has come within him and he has not resisted.
His whole life he has been resisting. He has never allowed anyone a total yes – not even his lovers, not even his parents, not even his friends, not even his children. To no one has he ever said an unconditional yes, it has always been conditional. And conditional means mixed with no. It has never been pure.
He has always been guarding himself – not only against enemies but against friends too. In fact one does not need to guard himself against enemies too much because they are always far away; they are not that dangerous. The real question is of those who are very close to you, very close to your being. They can stab a knife in your back very easily. You have to be constantly on guard.
There is an Urdu poem with a statement which is very significant. It says, ”I will take care of my enemies, God, but you please take care of my friends. I am not in danger from the enemies, I know them – I am on guard. But about friends I am confused. And to be on guard with friends is painful. So you take care of me against my friends.”
It is only with the master that for the first time you put all your guards away. That’s the only function of the disciple – great, arduous, but single. It implies everything: openness, readiness to go wherever the master is leading him. It is a way of becoming part of the being of the master – allowing him to be within you – now there is no fear.
Source – Osho Book “Light on The Path”