A silent feeling of well-being…whatever is happening is perfectly right. Don’t ask me to destroy it, ask me to enhance it. Don’t make it a problem! It is not. It is a tremendous gift that the master never gives and the disciple always receives.

There are things the master never says and the disciple always hears. It is one of those mysterious phenomena that are not handed over by the master to you – but you receive it, it arises within you.

It is just like the sunrise when millions of birds start singing. They are not even aware of the sunrise, but something in their heart is triggered by the presence of the sun; the sun is not aware of so many birds. Millions of flowers suddenly open their petals. The sun is not going to each single flower saying, “Wake up! It is time, and I have come.” Neither are the flowers aware of why they are opening their petals, why they are releasing their perfume. It is all happening silently. The presence of the sun is needed, but that presence does not do anything. Just its being there is enough.

Gurdjieff used to say that the situation of the human mind is like that of a small school class. The master is out, and all children are shouting and screaming and jumping and every kind of thing is going on, books are being thrown at each other…. Then suddenly the master appears and there is absolute silence. All screaming, all jumping, all throwing books stops. They are all leaning on their books – although they are not reading, but pretending that they are reading.

One thing is certain, that the very presence of the master makes a difference. He does not do anything, he does not say anything. If he needs to say anything, if he needs to do anything, he is not a master – he is not respected, he is not loved. The children don’t feel that he is worthy enough that they should be behaving differently in his presence than they behave in his absence.

In ancient Eastern scriptures it is again and again discussed because it has been one of the eternal questions: should the disciple respect the master or not? All the organized religions have decided that he should respect.

I have been talking to different religious leaders and I have said to them, “That is just wrong. The disciple should not respect. The master should be respectable. That is a totally different thing. The master should have the weight; he should be lovable, he should be respectable. Don’t put the responsibility on the disciple, who is after all a disciple, a learner. It is easy for him to err.”