The work of a master is really the work of seduction.

Osho:
The work of a master is really the work of seduction: he seduces you into the unknown. There is no other way, only seduction can be helpful. You cannot be convinced of the unknown; whatsoever you can be convinced about is bound to be the known. The unknown is unknown. You have not tasted of it, you have not even heard anything about it, you have no idea what it is.

I can convince you of that which you have already some idea, but the unknown is absolutely unknown — and not only unknown, it is unknowable too. There is no way to know it because it is the intrinsic quality of the knower himself It never becomes the known; at no point it becomes the known. The deeper you go into it, the more and more you realise that it is not only the unknown but the unknowable because it is the center of the knower himself. How the knower can himself become the known? That is impossible; the knower will always stand beyond the known, surpassing the known.

Hence the work of a Master is actually of seduction. He allures you, he fascinates you; he promises you bliss, truth, freedom — he gives it many names. He makes you afire with longing. A moment comes when the longing is intense and passionate, that you take the jump. It is really mad! No logical person can do it.

Hence I have to destroy slowly your clinging with logic. I have to shift your energy from the head to the heart, because the heart is illogical and from the heart there is a possibility, a bridge, a rainbow bridge towards the unknown and ultimately towards the unknowable.

Hence the word “seduction” actually describes the whole work of all the Buddhas. But the people who are too much clinging to logic cannot be seduced. If they ask first to be convinced, then there is no way. If they ask for proofs, then there is no way. If the Master himself is a proof, then there is a way. If the presence of the Master is enough to give you the joy that can take you into the adventure, if the very presence of the Master gives you courage to go into the uncharted, only then the journey ever begins.

One thing is certain: once the journey begins you cannot come back. A journey begun is already half the work done; once it begins it has to reach to its climax. Only the beginning part is the most difficult part.

Hence I have to talk about the miracle mirrors and I have to praise those miracle mirrors of meditation; I have to go on saying what great ecstasies they are going to give to you. You are not interested in meditation, you are not interested in looking at your original face, but you are certainly interested in being ecstatic.

But when you for the first time take the mirror in your hand it gives you agony, not ecstasy, because you have to encounter all that is ugly in you, because the ugly is on the surface. But once you have seen the ugly you cannot rest at ease with it. That’s the only hope, because nobody can rest at ease with his ugliness. Once seen, you have to destroy it, you have to remove all the masks that are ugly, you have to peel the whole skin that is ugly. And behind the surface there is tremendous beauty. Behind the masks — and there are many masks — your original face is nothing but God’s own face. In your originality you are not separate from God; in your personality you are separate.

”Personality” comes from the Greek word ‘persona’; it means the mask. In your individuality you are one with God. Then you have the beauty of a Buddha, Krishna, Christ, the same grace. But before one can reach to it one will have to peel one’s ugly layers like one peels an onion. And when you peel an onion tears come to your eyes, it is painful. And your false masks have remained with you so long that they have almost become your faces. Removing them is not like removing clothes, it is actually like peeling your skin — it hurts. Hence only the courageous can be interested in inner transformation.

Osho – ‘I Am That’, Chapter 12, Question 2
22 October 1980 am, Buddha Hall, Pune, India