When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 5. MONKEY MOUNTAIN
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
When the Shoe Fits 66 Osho