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Osho – Once it so happened that a man came every day for twenty-one days to hear Lao Tzu. Every day he would tell Lao Tzu, ”I have forgotten what you said yesterday. Please explain again”. This went on for a few days. Lao Tzu’s one disciple Ma Tzu could bear it no longer. On the morning of the fifth day, he stopped the man outside Lao Tzu’s hut and said, ”What is your problem?”
The man replied, ”I have forgotten what was said yesterday and so have come to ask again.” Ma Tzu said, ”Go away, do not enter in for one mad person is you and another is this Lao Tzu. If you come with the same question for the rest of your life, he will keep on explaining to you. Since the last five days I have noted that you are where you are with your question and he is where he is with his answer!”
When this talk was going on, Lao Tzu came out of his hut and said, ”You have come brother? Come in. Have you forgotten? Then hear again.” For twenty-one days this went on. On the twenty-second day, he did not come. The story goes that Lao Tzu went to his house, fearing he might be ill. ”What is the matter? Why did you not come today?” Lao Tzu asked. The man replied. ”I have understood. Now I am a different man.”
Understand the difference: Had we gone twenty-one times to Lao Tzu it would not have been for the sake of understanding. The understanding, according to us, took place the very first day but life did not change. This man however says that: ”If I understand what you have said, my life must change.” And there the matter ends.
Whenever Buddha spoke – and this amazing fact came to be known when his books were edited – he repeated each line not less than three times. Now it is difficult to print the same matter three times. Besides, making the book three times its size, it proves burdensome to the reader also. Therefore when Rahula Sankrityayana first translated the vinaya pitaka, he put an asterisk after each line and in his notes he added another asterisk and yet another – the whole book is filled with asterisks.
What was the reason? Why did Buddha repeat so often? To explain a thing, a logic has to be given but to convey the thing to the innermost to those simple people, all that was needed was repetition, which then became mantra-like and suggestible and it quickly penetrated the innermost centre. Continuous repetition was enough. Each repetition helped it to penetrate more within.
Source: from Osho Book “The Way of Tao, Volume 1”