gebed 4

First...

meditate upon the counsels of your Master.

Love them, follow them. Then you have become capable of taking a plunge into prayer. The Master is visible, God is invisible...

You have learnt how to participate in the being of the Master. Now learn how to participate in the invisible being of God, who is the source of all and the end of all. That is prayer. And in prayer you will start hearing a still small voice within you.

Once that voice is clearly heard and understood...

you need not depend on the outer Master, you have found the inner Master.

And you will be surprised to see, that the counsels from the outer Master and the instructions from the inner voice are exactly the same. Your inner voice is only represented by the outer Master. The outer Master has nothing to say of his own accord: he simply looks into you, he simply finds your own heart, and speaks for your inner heart.

That is why...

you will find so many inconsistencies in a Master's statements.

Because to one disciple he will say one thing, to another disciple he will say something else. Because he is not there just dishing out ready-made formulas... He is there to listen to your inner voice. He has just to reflect you, he has to make your inner Master available to you.

You cannot yet directly contact the inner Master, hence the outer Master is needed. But he is not to interfere. If he interferes, he is not a Master at all. He simply interprets, he simply communicates your own inner voice to you, because you yourself are not yet capable of taking that plunge.

Once you have started listening to the inner instruction, nothing can ever deceive you.

Then the whole life is reflected so clearly, that nothing can ever deceive you.


~osho~
philosophia perennis ii
(1978) - chapter 6