Osho,
When I came to Pune I felt more strongly than ever before that I have come home. Recently I began to see that although I hear your words, I don’t listen. The few times that I have allowed myself to listen, I have felt such a transformation, an opening. Beloved Master, please will you guide me on how to listen?

The question you have asked is a little bit strange. Strange, because you say that the few times that you have allowed yourself to listen, you have felt such a transformation, an opening. So listening is not something that you are not capable of. You can allow yourself to listen; you concede the fact, and still you are asking how to listen. It is as if you have eyes, you see everything – and still you ask how to see. It would have been better to phrase the question in another way; perhaps that’s what your intent was.

You have a misunderstanding that you allow it. If it is within your powers to allow yourself to listen to me, then the whole question is useless. The reality is that sometimes it happens that you listen. It is not your allowance, it is not within your hands; it is just a happening, not a doing. And whenever it happens, you suddenly find a great transformation, a great opening to existence and all its beauties.

Your misunderstanding lies in that you can do something, that you can force yourself to allow opening. That is not possible. In fact, that’s how you are preventing your being from opening.

You forget all about it, you simply enjoy…sometimes listening, sometimes not listening. Listening will deepen by itself. It is not an art that you can learn; it is a knack that you have to wait to grow in you. More and more listening will be happening and more and more opening. All that you can do is something negative, not positive. What I mean by negative is: you can remove a few hindrances that don’t let listening happen.

You cannot make yourself open by force.

But you can watch closely and see why sometimes you are ready and open and why sometimes you are closed. So whatever you find keeps you closing, you can remove that.

It is what all the great physicians of the world know: their medicine is not capable of bringing health to you. The power of healing is within you. All that they can do is to remove the hindrances so the power of healing starts flowing. You cannot force that healing power to flow, but you can certainly do something negatively to make the way, to clean the path, to remove the rocks.

And then wait, and wait with trust, because it has happened even without you doing any negative work.