Basically, therapy is a function of love.. Never look at the patient as a patient. Look at him as if he has come to learn something — a disciple. Help him, but not as an expert; help him like a human being, and there will be much healing. There will be less therapy and much healing. Otherwise, therapy continues for years and years on end, and the result is almost nil. Or, sometimes the result is even harmful.
I have heard about one man who had a very curious habit: whenever he was in the pub he would drink wine and always leave a little part in the glass and throw it all around, over people. He was beaten many times. Then somebody suggested, the owner of the pub suggested,'Why don't you go to a psychoanalyst? You need therapy because you have been beaten and you have been thrown out of the pub. Again you come and again you do the same. Something seems to be wrong. You are obsessed.'
So he went, and after three months he came back. He was looking better. The pub owner asked,'Have you been to some psychoanalyst? Because for three months you have disappeared.'
He said,'Yes, and it helped me tremendously.'
'Are you cured?' the owner asked.
He said,'Perfectly cured.' But he did the same thing again.
The owner said,'What type of treatment is this? You are doing the same thing!'
He said,'But I am completely changed. Before, I used to do it and I used to feel guilty. I don't feel guilt anymore. The psychoanalyst helped me, cured me of the guilt. I used to feel embarrassed, now I don't bother.'
This has happened in the West: psychoanalysis has helped many people just to feel that nothing matters. It has not given a deeper responsibility, it has only taken away the feeling of guilt. The feeling of guilt is bad; it has to be taken away. But, it should be taken away in such a way that the person unlearns the idea of guilt, but learns the idea of responsibility. Guilt is bad, guilt is very dangerous — it destroys you. It is like a wound. But to feel responsible is very, very essential — it gives you soul, it gives you an integration. And unless you feel responsibles you are not a healthy person. A healthy person is always aware that whatsoever he is doing, he is responsible. The very idea of responsibility will give you a freedom, a dignity. An authentic being will come out of it. You will become more present, you will be more here and now.
The idea of guilt is a false coin. It looks like responsibility; it is not. Guilt makes you depressed. Responsibility will give you an intensity, a sharpness of awareness. You will have more integration in you, you will feel more together.
Go to help people, and if you help people you will be tremendously helped. If you love people, you will be loved. If you heal people, if you become a vehicle of healing force and energy, you will be healed. And always remember that while healing a person you are part of the process; you are also being healed. While teaching a person, you are also being taught.
The best way in the world to learn anything is to teach it. The best way in the world to learn ANYTHING is to teach it. But remember that the Master is also a disciple. He continuously goes on learning. Each disciple is a new lesson, and to work with each patient or disciple is to open a new book, a new life.
OSHO