Do we need a master?
There is so much talk about finding a guru to help us in our spiritual path. I do not know if it is a must or not. I am neither for or against any one having a master.Personally, though I have never had, nor have any urge to find one.But many people, many books, events have guided me, helped me, transformed me and are still doing. I have also noticed that whenever I have sought guidance, it arrives from some source- some one or something. But arrive it does!
So, the catalyst or teacher can be any one, a book. a house help, a child, friend,a website like this. All of us are learning and teaching almost all the time. Even masters and teachers are learning while they teach. New insights may come when they are teaching, or when some one asks them a question. So, a disciple or student too is a teacher as the master/teacher learns while he is teaching.
We learn all the time, even if we do not deliberately ponder to see what we have learned. If we are sensitive, all that needs to be learned gets absorbed in us and that which needs to be unlearned does so
A master is some one who will see that his followers follow him just enough to become their own masters and do not cling to his apron strings all their lives.
I see friends and close relatives who follow masters, some follow well known ones others not so famolus ones. They become utterly dependant on their gurus for every little or big thing. At their best, they seem to be his imitators. They make principles and formulas out of their masters' teaching and give sermons to unsuspecting friends or relatives or even strangers at times. At their worst, they seem utterly hopeless and helpless.
I wonder if any disciple has been able to discover the master in himself, after following a master. I have not come across any. Or may be, if a few have, they prefer to lead lives away from the limelight. And then, again I wonder if it is because, they did not have any one specific master that Buddha and Jesus were what they were- masters.
For those who are lucky to have found their masters, they would do well to remember this quote by a Zen master, Nan Yin, "Please do not bite my finger. Look at the moon". The master is pointing out to the moon and the disciple is looking at his finger and clinging to it, instead of looking at the moon, the direction where he is pointing,
A master is some one who will see that his followers follow him just enough to become their own masters and do not cling to his apron strings all their lives.
I see friends and close relatives who follow masters, some follow well known ones others not so famolus ones. They become utterly dependant on their gurus for every little or big thing. At their best, they seem to be his imitators. They make principles and formulas out of their masters' teaching and give sermons to unsuspecting friends or relatives or even strangers at times. At their worst, they seem utterly hopeless and helpless.
I wonder if any disciple has been able to discover the master in himself, after following a master. I have not come across any. Or may be, if a few have, they prefer to lead lives away from the limelight. And then, again I wonder if it is because, they did not have any one specific master that Buddha and Jesus were what they were- masters.
For those who are lucky to have found their masters, they would do well to remember this quote by a Zen master, Nan Yin, "Please do not bite my finger. Look at the moon". The master is pointing out to the moon and the disciple is looking at his finger and clinging to it, instead of looking at the moon, the direction where he is pointing,
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