A certain man decided that he would seek the perfect master. He read many books, visited sage after sage, listened, discussed and practiced, but he always found himself doubting or unsure. After twenty years he met a man whose every word and action corresponded with his idea of the totally realized man.
The traveler lost no time. ”you,” he said, ”seem to me to be the perfect master. If you are, my journey is at an end.” ”i am, indeed, described by that name,” said the master. ”then, i beg of you, accept me as a disciple.”
”that,” said the master, ”i cannot do for while you may desire the perfect master, he, in turn, requires only the perfect pupil.”
The Master appears only when the disciple is ready. Never otherwise. In no other way. At no other point in life’s journey. The disciple has to be ready and ripe; only at that moment does the Master become visible. The disciple has to earn eyes, to earn ears, to create a heart, to feel. How can the sun appear if you are blind? The sun may appear but you will go on missing it.
Unless you have eyes, there is no beauty in the world. The flowers will bloom, but not for you. And stars will fill the sky with immense beauty, but not for you. Unless you have eyes, there is no beauty in the world.
If you don’t have love in the heart, you will not find the beloved. The basic requirement has to be fulfilled. Only love finds the beloved. Eyes find beauty. end the ears find music and melodies. But there are people, and they are many – the majority consists of those – who go on searching and seeking something out there without creating a corresponding receptivity in themselves. I have come across many seekers who are searching or a Master – not at all aware that the disciple is completely absent. The disciple is not there at all. How can you find a Master? The Master is not just an objective phenomenon THERE. First he has to be something interior in you. That’s what disciple hood is: a preparation, a thirst, a passionate desire, a great passion for truth. That is lacking. And then people go ON searching. And if they don’t find, it is not surprising. They are not going to find! They may come across MANY Masters, but they will go on missing.
How can you see the Master if you are not vulnerable to him? How can you see the Master if you don’t know even what it is to be a disciple? The beginning of the finding of a Master starts by being a disciple. The real seeker does not worry about the Master, where he is. His whole concern is how to create the disciple in himself, how to be a learner, open to reality; how to function from innocence, and how not to function from the state of knowledge.
If you function from the state of knowledge, you will find many teachers but never a Master. If you already know something, and you think that you know, then you will find other knowers, claimers, who are ahead of you. You will meet only the people whom YOU CAN MEET. You will meet people like you. A person who functions from the state of knowing that he has gathered will find many teachers and will learn many things – but will never find a Master.
To find a Master you have to be a child. To find a Master you have to be utterly innocent, not knowing anything, the mind empty – full of passion for truth, but without any conclusions about it. This is the state of real learning. And then you need not even go anywhere: the Master will come to you.
The Perfect Master
Osho
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