A disciple is something completely different from a follower. What is discipline? Discipline is learning. The root word of discipline comes from learning. It is nothing to do with self control, no. A disciple is one who is ready to learn; a disciple is one who is ready to absorb; a disciple is one who is open, receptive; a disciple is one who is ready to become a womb. He is not antagonistic, he is not fighting and arguing. He is trying to understand, and when you try to understand, the head stops functioning. Because the head can do two things: it can either fight or it can follow. It can either be a blind follower or a blind enemy, but it can never be a disciple.
A disciple is totally different because he is not head-oriented; a disciple is heart-oriented. He loves the discipline, absorbs it, and then goes on his own way.
It is a very indirect, very delicate thing. It is not direct. You cannot just look at the master and do whatsoever he is doing -- then you will become a follower. You cannot learn the words and start repeating them -- then you will become a follower, then the effort has been in the head, and the head is the problem.
Whenever you are not fighting and not in search of somebody to imitate, your consciousness falls from the head to the heart. Then you are open, then you are simply in love. That is what is meant by SHRADDHA, faith, trust. It is neither belief nor disbelief.
Don't think that trust or faith is belief, it is not. Belief is in the head, disbelief is in the head, trust is in the heart. It has nothing to do with belief or disbelief. Believing or not believing is not a concern at all; you simply love.
You see a rose flower. Do you believe in it or do you disbelieve in it? You don't do anything, you simply look at it. Nobody is a follower, nobody is against. The sun rises in the morning. What do you do? Are you a believer or a disbeliever or do you follow the path of the sun the whole day because you are a follower? Either way you will go mad. You simply enjoy, you absorb the morning, the freshness of it, the youngness, the newness -- with the sun everything is becoming alive. You enjoy the very life and become more alive through it. You look at a rose and something of the rose reaches to your heart. Outside the rose is flowering, inside, the heart starts flowering. You reach a man of tao, a Lao Tzu, a Lieh Tzu, a Chuang Tzu. What do you do? Do exactly as you would do with a rose or with a sunrise. No need to follow, no need not to follow, just absorb.
Jesus's last words to his disciples were: Eat me, let me be your drink and your food, let me flow in your blood, absorb me. When he says 'eat me', that means absorb me, digest me; don't follow outwardly, digest me, and then you will have your own inner light.