Inner Voice

Buddha lived in his own way, then a temple was born; then thousands followed and they started living like Buddha. They missed their goal. Buddha never followed any-body, his way was his own, he was happy – then it is okay. But you will be unhappy following him. Don’t follow anybody, otherwise you will be unhappy. And you are unhappy enough because you have been following your father and mother, teachers, religion. You have been following so many, and all those voices are different, contradictory, inconsistent. You are being pulled in all directions; how can you be together? You are a disintegrated phenomenon, a crowd, one part going to the east, another part going to the west; the lower body has gone to the south, the upper body has gone to the Himalayas, north. You are a disintegrated phenomenon, not together. Be together!

And I tell you, if you remain together, if you don’t listen to anybody, if you only listen to your own voice – even if you have to err sometimes, even if you go wrong sometimes; don’t bother. You will go wrong, because you have become accustomed to following others so much that you have lost your inner voice. You don’t know what the inner voice is. Many voices are there and they are all from others. Sometimes the mother speaks – do this! Sometimes the father speaks – don’t do this! Sometimes somebody else, a Buddha, a Jesus, a Christ, a Chuang Tzu…drop all those voices. Listen!

Meditation is a deep listening, listening to the inner voice. As you become silent, voices cease. Chuang Tzu goes to his home, Buddha goes to his home, Jesus is no longer there, your father and your mother are really gone; everybody goes, only you are left, alone in your emptiness. Then your nature asserts itself – and that is a flowering. As a seed breaks and comes out, sprouting, so your inner voice comes out, sprouting. And then follow it: wherever it leads, follow it. Don’t listen to anybody; that is your way to God. And all that a master can do is to bring you to your inner voice. The master should not become the substitute; otherwise you will become even more crowded than you were before.

Don’t make me your voice, I am not your enemy. Don’t listen to me! Only this much is enough: that you go deep within yourself and listen to your own voice. If I can help you towards that, then I am a master to you, otherwise I am an enemy. And once you have started listening to your own voice I am not needed, you can discard me.

Listen. Just as there is a third eye, there is a third ear – it is not talked about in the scriptures. There is a third ear, and as the third eye will give you glimpses of your being, so the third ear gives you glimpses of your inner voice. When these two outer ears stop functioning – when you are not listening to anybody, you have become completely deaf, no voice penetrates and you have thrown all the voices from the inside outside, when you have thrown all the rubbish out, you are just empty, settling within – you will feel the voice. It is always there.

Every child is born with it, every tree is born with it, every bird lives with it – even a turtle is born with it. And you cannot confuse a turtle, you cannot convince him by saying, “Come and be dead and we will enshrine you.” The turtle will also say, “Go home, leave me here to drag my tail in the mud.”

Once you can feel your voice then no rules are needed, you have become a rule unto yourself. And the clearer the voice, the more your steps fall in the right direction. It becomes a progressively stronger and stronger force; every step leads nearer to your destiny and you feel more at ease. You will feel a deep contentment that nothing is wrong and you can bless and you can be blessed by all.


From Osho, When the Shoe Fits, Chapter 8