"When the student is ready, the master appears"

[mcoolio]

So your teacher deemed you ready and appeared.

Very cool to hear.

 

Interesting followup question for this discussion: what does it mean to be ready?

 

I would think destiny and timing is a very important factor. So perhaps we can even use the known destiny techniques (bazi, ziwei, ...) to know when there is more opening to find teacher/have teacher appear and perhaps even prepare accordingly.

Edited June 22, 2022 by mcoolio

[Ajay0]

On 6/15/2022 at 1:53 AM, looschmaster said:

This seems to be a common concept shared by a lot of spiritual doctrines. I've read that the Buddha or Lao Zi once said something along those lines. I also feel that verse 34, chapter 4 of the Bhagavad Gita describes something similar, though I am no Gita expert:

 

"Know this! Through humble submission, Through enquiry, through service (on your own part), The knowing ones, the perceivers of truth, will be led to teach you knowledge." - Winthrop Sargeant's Translation

 

In your experience, is this true? Should we seek out a teacher, or wait for a teacher to seek us out? That's something I've been wondering.

 

 If you are seeking answers to questions with a certain intensity,  I would say the answer can come in the form of a teacher or a book.

 

This depends upon your receptivity as well. The ego blocks grace and wisdom if the sufficient spade work in terms of self-purification by sadhana and practices are not done.

 

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former Indian president and the scientist who played a major role in India's space rocket programme, had in his autobiography talked about his dejection after not being selected as an air force pilot, and talking with Swami Sivananda in this regard. He credited Sivananda's counsel with recharging him and motivating him to pursue alternative career options which later turned out to be eventful.

 

https://sundaysatsang.blogspot.com/2011/02/abdul-kalam-meets-swami-sivananda.html

 

 

 

 

[Eduardo]

13 hours ago, mcoolio said:

 

Estoy de acuerdo.

 

Es una pregunta que me ronda mucho la cabeza últimamente. Estuve en la escuela por un tiempo, pero ahora volví a entrenar por mi cuenta. Creo que obtuve algunas prácticas decentes que me mantienen ocupado por ahora, pero ¿es eso suficiente? ¿Simplemente mantenerse enfocado en la práctica y esperar fluir hacia algo nuevo, o buscar activamente un nuevo maestro?

 

No ha pasado mucho tiempo desde que dejé la escuela, así que me quedaré y descansaré un rato. Pero me parece que, en última instancia, si el buscador desea encontrar a su maestro, es mejor que comience a buscar.

 

I like to quote the phrase from the book Light on the Path by Mabel Collins:

 

"Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters, it must have lost the ability to hurt"

 

That demand for purity and cessation of all hostility even at the mental level, is the hallmark of the true initiatory path.

 

I don't know if the Mahatmas of Theosophy exist, but I believe that in some way they represent the prototype of the true Spiritual Master.

 

 

[looschmaster]

On 6/16/2022 at 7:42 PM, Eduardo said:

Enemies and misfortunes are the best teachers...

That reminds me of a very wise saying: "Out of suffering comes wisdom."

[manitou]

It's everywhere.  It's in the things you want, it's in the things you don't want.  It's in our ego, which will bring itself down.  It's in the mysterious smile of a stranger that you may lust after.  We're always seeking it, even when we don't know it.  

 

 It's in the lows in life, it's in the highs of life.  The lows of life have given me the most.  The lows have reduced my ego to a pulp, and when my ego  gets up again, it is reduced to a pulp once more.  It dwells in arrogance, it dwells in humility.  It lives in spiritual arrogance.  It certainly dwells in addiction.  And when we don't learn, we manifest the same lesson over and over again until the mask is finally pulled off the problem and it's seen for what it really is.  Until then, we have to repeatedly duplicate the lesson until we finally get it. 

 

It's in the empty nature of money and financial security.  It's lessons are in nature, man is patterned after nature.  It's in longstanding character defects that continue to work against us.  It's in selfishness, it's in unselfishness.  It lives in fear, it lives in courage.  But most of all, it lives in loving your brother as yourself.

 

Ah, yes.  Light on the Path, by Mabel Collins.  It doesn't get any more profound than that.  A lesson in opposites, extremes, enigmas, and dichotomies.  And the central theme of Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism.