"Whenever you have to play a role, you create a face, you become an actor.

"The master is one who has stopped playing roles. He is not playing anything, he is not doing anything. Really, he has come to understand that the doer is the total. The individual is in illusion if he thinks that he is doing something. The master cannot think that he is helping the disciple or that he is endeavoring for his transformation. All this happens of course: the transformation happens, the disciple changes, is reborn, but this is not something done on the part of the master.

"The master has become a nobody. He exists not as a presence, but as an absence. Within him there is no mind, within him there is no ego, within him there is no center. The center has been given back to the divine; the ego has been surrendered. He has become a vehicle, he has become a passage – just a flute. Now the divine sings through it. Now no song belongs to the master – nothing. How can he play a role? How can he endeavor? How can he do something?

"All these words – do, role, endeavor, help – are egocentric. They mean that the master is doing something. No, the master cannot do anything. He is not, but things happen around him. I am not saying that the disciple will not be transformed: he will be transformed, but he can only be transformed through a master who is not doing anything. If the master is doing something, the disciple cannot be transformed. The very effort on the part of the master shows that the master is not there yet. There is no question of effort.

"The master exists as an absence, as a nobody. And this very fact becomes a tremendous force. This very fact, this existence of a void, creates mysterious happenings around it. But the master is not doing them. Remember, the river is flowing toward the sea, but the river is not really flowing, not doing anything. This flow is just nature. It is natural for the river to flow. There is no effort on the river's part."