Disciple
Hood
When
the great Sufi mystic, Hasan, was dying, somebody asked
"Hasan, who was
your master?" He said, "I had thousands of masters. If I just relate
their names it will take months, years and it is too late. But three masters I
will certainly tell you about.
One
was a thief. Once I got lost in the desert, and when I reached a
village
it was very late, everything was closed. But at last I found one man who was trying
to make a hole in the wall of a house. I asked him where I could stay and he said
'At this time of night it will be difficult, but you can stay with me - if you
can stay with a thief'. And
the man was so beautiful. I stayed for one month! And each night he would say
to me, 'Now I am going to my work. You rest, you pray.' When he came back I would
ask 'Could you get anything?' He would say, 'Not tonight. But tomorrow I will
try again, God willing.'
He was never in a state of hopelessness, he was always happy. When I was meditating
and meditating for years on end and nothing was happening, many times the moment
came when I was so desperate, so hopeless, that I thought to stop all this nonsense.
And suddenly I would remember the thief who would say every night, 'God willing,
tomorrow it is going to happen.'
And
my second master was a dog. I was going to the river, thirsty and a dog came.
He was also thirsty. He looked into the river, he saw another dog there -- his
own image -- and became afraid. He would bard and run away, but his thirst was
so much that he would come back. Finally, despite his fear, he just jumped into
the water, and the image disappeared. And I knew that a message had come to me
from God: one has to jump in spite of all fears.
And
the third master was a small child. I entered a town and a child
was carrying
a lit candle. He was going to the mosque to put the
candle there. 'Just joking,'
I asked the boy, 'have you lit the candle
yourself?' He said, 'Yes sir.' And
I asked, 'There was a moment when the candle was unlit, and then there was a moment
when the candle was lit. Can you show me the source from which the light came?'
And the boy laughed, blew out the candle, and said, 'Now you have seen the light
going. Where has it gone? You will tell me!' My ego was shattered; my whole knowledge
was shattered. And that moment I felt my own stupidity.
Since then I dropped all my knowledge ability. It is true that I had no master.
That does not mean that I was not a disciple -- I accepted the whole existence
as my master. My Disciplehood
was a greater involvement than yours is. I trusted the clouds, the trees. I trusted
existence as such. I had no master because I had millions of masters I learned
from every possible source.
To be a disciple is a must on the path. What does it mean to be a disciple? It
means to be able to learn, to be available to learn, to be vulnerable to existence.
With a master you start learning to learn. 
The
master is a swimming pool where you can learn how to
swim. Once you have learned,
all the oceans are yours.
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