--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Just to be fair, someone should point out that what > > > you're calling a "real" master may just be one that > > > appeals to your sensibilities or predilection. > > > > Not sure if you were addressing Vaj or G (me); but from my > > perspective, I follow the advice given by HH the Dalai Lama: > > examine your teacher, even if it takes you 12 years. > > Can't knock the Dalai Lama. I make no assumptions > about his enlightenment or lack thereof, even having > met him, but I respect him thoroughly. No one, in > my opinion, could have done a better job of being > the most visible Buddhist on the planet. > > > When I (G) say "real" spiritual master, I mean someone who has > > demonstrated his own achievements to my questioning, skeptical mind > > and then laid out for me what I have to do if I want to get there. > > Cool. Important clarification. > > > Then, I try it (complete with bitching and stupid questions) and > > see what happens. > > Great plan. > > > Something I learned from MMY/MCS: others may notice something > > before you do. > > And after. Otherwise, why are there so many TBs? :-) > > > That's not altogether off track. I take the remarks of others with > > the proverbial grain of sodium chloride -- but a home truth or two > > isn't always amiss, one way or another. > > Another great plan. The stuff you hear on boards like > this one is a lot like the stuff you hear from teachers. > Some of it goes in one chakra and out another, some of > it "sticks." If it proves useful, even for a short > while, IMO the source doesn't matter. I've had great > spiritual revelations from movies (obviously, given the > currently-active thread) and from bums I've met on the > street. I don't have to think of them as my formal > spiritual teachers, but in one sense all of them were.
This is a great board. What you just said/typed, whatever, above says more about you than the "teachers" -- but this is, I think, as it should be. I like the Sufi saying: the thread, by virtue of being drawn through the jewel, is not thereby ennobled. The spiritual quest (is there a better term?) is not one of being drawn through jewel after jewel, but of intense self-examination so that one can be open to the teacher who appears when one is ready. It would be extremely difficult, given the complexity of humanity, to declare one teacher, one method, one way to be the only way or the absolute way. I can only see the "only way" for myself: to be open to what I might find and to see, as best I am able, what it is for me. Just maybe true spiritual progress is knowing when to move on. G ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
