Neither happiness nor misery lasts for long; one state is continuously giving way to another. If you understand this clearly you will not be disturbed when misery overtakes you, because you know that in a little while things will change. Nor will you become so excited when you are happy that you will forget everything else and view happiness as a permanent feature of your life. You will know that in a short while everything will change again.
The master cannot give you any proof. There is no proof. The experience itself is the proof. But when you have deep faith in your heart you can enter into his experience.
Your faith must be so strong that you can bridge the distance between you and him, so strong that you begin to obtain not only direct proof but direct sensual perception of his experience as well. So strong that you can also hear the sound of the harmony that rings continuously within him. So strong that you also have an inkling of the taste that fills his mouth. So strong that what has happened to him touches you too. So strong that the darkness within you is shattered by a brilliant flash of lightning and you see for a moment who you are.
For this phenomenon to occur you must give yourself the opportunity. And that opportunity will be given to you by your faith.
Remember this and remember it well: if you do not approve of a master, of a guru, of a sage, or a saint, leave him at once — but do not make up your mind that he is false, that he is a fake. How can you decide? If you do not approve of him, then just leave him quietly, just say to yourself that his is not the path for you. But do not pronounce judgment on him.
Many people turned away from Buddha and declared that he was a fake. Many did the same to Jesus and played their part in placing him on the cross. So don’t set yourself up as being so very intelligent. All of these people were intelligent men; they were just like you — and see what happened! They said Buddha was a fake, that what he said was not to be trusted — and they were just as intelligent as you.
They had the same minds; they put forth the same arguments as you. They had the same experiences of the world as you do. How could they believe what someone like Buddha said? They had no experience of the world beyond, the other shore was not visible to them. And Buddha was speaking of that other shore.
That other shore is not only unknown, it is also unknowable. Even after knowing it, it cannot be known completely. You have to keep on trying to know it, to keep on trying more and more, and still your knowledge will remain incomplete. Its totality is such that it is always expanding. There is no contradiction in speaking of its totality or of its non-totality.
What Buddha was saying was beyond intellect, so may people did not believe what he said. Many people rejected him. But because of their disbelief Buddha loses nothing; on the contrary, it is the disbelievers who miss, who fail to realize the truth. Remember, no one loses anything because of your doubt, because of your disbelief. You are the only loser. And you are the loser because you are hindering your own progress.
So when you feel someone is not completely right for you, do not make any decision about him — just leave him quietly and seek out someone else. What is the problem? There are two alternatives open to you. You can either say, “I am leaving this man because he is wrong,” or you can say, “I am leaving this man because his path is not for me.” There is a difference between these two statements.
You have come to me. If you feel that what I have to say does not suit you, that you do not approve of what I say, then leave me quietly. Why? Then you will seek out someone whose views suit you better. But if you decide that I am false then your mind will harden, and when you go to the second man you will also decide that he is false. And when you go to the third man you will come to the same decision as well.
Eventually this decision you have taken will be like a weight on your mind, and then wheresoever you go it will be an impediment on your path, it will hinder your progress; it will always cause you to find fault with others. And then you will never be able to recognize an enlightened man.
There is no other way to know Buddha but to become a buddha yourself. To know Krishna, to understand him, you will have to become like Krishna yourself. Nothing less will do. But we decide things in such a hurry. You are drowning in the valley of darkness and yet you reach monumental decisions about the peaks, about places your vision is not even able to reach — not to mention making up your mind about the journey itself. You make up your minds about things you have not even glimpsed.
There is a reason you make such decisions. The mind decides every master is false because the mind does not want to go anywhere at all. So with this kind of attitude you are definitely going to remain in the dark valley. If you find an authentic master the mind will have to begin its uphill journey, and that it does not want to do, the uphill journey seems painful and arduous. The mind loves to be idle; it loves inertia. It says, “Stay in bed. There is no need to go anywhere today.”
The valley is all there is for you. Earning money, having children, seeing your name in the newspaper on and off, having one or two hundred people attend your funeral — all this is enough for you. Then you can say you are a successful man. What success!
The most amazing thing is that you do not believe the enlightened man! You doubt him — yet you never have doubts whatsoever about this mind that makes you so mean and selfish. You never ask your mind, “Is earning money, siring half a dozen children, achieving fame, enough?
Is this all? Is this the goal of life? Is this real achievement?” But this is what your mind keeps telling you. When you kneel to pray it reminds you of your shop. It tells you how much you could have earned this hour you are spending praying. It rushes you through your worship, but when it leads you to the house of a prostitute it wishes the night could have been longer. And you never entertain the slightest doubt about your mind?
If you want to doubt anything, doubt your mind! But you do not doubt it at all! You have become so identified with it you have forgotten you are not the mind, you have forgotten you are separate from the mind. You are identified with it; you think it is you. You raise doubts about the enlightened man because to be associated with him you will have to begin an uphill journey, you will have to work hard, you will have to repent. You will be transformed; you will no longer be what you are — and so you find all sorts of excuses not to follow the men who have become enlightened.
OSHO
