|
Swami
Eggshell Walker
Registered: 01/18/00
Posts: 15,413
Loc: In the hen house
|
Recognizing a Master
#3338484 - 11/09/04 05:58 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
Would YOU recognize a spiritual Master if you met one?
-------------------- The proof is in the pudding.
|
psyka
Praetorian
Registered: 06/09/03
Posts: 1,652
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: Swami]
#3338491 - 11/09/04 06:00 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
lol a spiritual master?
What the hell is that?
-------------------- As the life of a candle, my wick will burn out. But, the fire of my mind shall beam into infinite.
|
Autonomous
MysteriousStranger
Registered: 05/10/02
Posts: 901
Loc: U.S.S.A.
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: Swami]
#3338512 - 11/09/04 06:07 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
I've looked, but all I've been able to find are charlatans. Either there are no spiritual masters or I am deficient in the gifts necessary to determine such a thing.
-------------------- "In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination." -- Mark Twain
|
phi1618
old hand
Registered: 02/14/04
Posts: 4,102
Last seen: 13 years, 10 months
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: Swami]
#3338537 - 11/09/04 06:14 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
I've met people with calm eyes and steady minds who are what I would term very spiritual people.
If by "spiritual master" you mean sombody along the lines of Buhdda or Jesus, I don't know whether they were actually all that special or if it would be easy to tell if sombody could be put in the same catagory; I've certainly never met anybody whos spiritual practice was so advanced that I would put them in an entirely seperate catagory from the rest of us.
|
SkorpivoMusterion
Livin in theTwilight Zone...
Registered: 01/30/03
Posts: 9,954
Loc: You can't spell fungus wi...
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: Swami]
#3338543 - 11/09/04 06:16 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
Good question for discussion.
Personally, I think that today, Jesus or the Buddha would go quite unnoticed by alot of people in public. He would be pretty invisible, almost like a "nobody". BUT, only a "nobody" to those with egos. Egos are attracted to larger egos.
Truly enlightened masters, the very few that are real, are not special as persons. Without a false sense of self to uphold, defend, and feed, they are more simple, more ordinary than the ordinary man or woman. Anyone with a strong ego would regard them as insignificant or, more likely, not see them at all. Any kind of exclusivity is identification with form, and identification with form means ego, no matter how well disguised.
If you are drawn to an enlightened teacher, it is because there is already enough presence in you to recognize presence in another.
I was also discussing this subject a while ago, and a friend of mine believes that self-realization is the Death of the Ego. According to him, these people [spiritual masters] are empty. There is NOTHING inside of them. If you see a self-realized teacher face to face you will see a vacant hollow eyes [which is the most I can put in language], there is nobody there. That doesn't necessarily mean that they would have 'cold eyes', of course... the joy of Being certainly is not cold in my experience, at least.
-------------------- Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
|
Gomp
¡(Bound to·(O))be free!
Registered: 09/11/04
Posts: 10,888
Loc: I re·side [primarily] in...
Last seen: 1 year, 27 days
|
|
"Whit nothing inside, one got it all in that" -unknown :P ""Would YOU recognize a spiritual Master if you met one? "" recognize nothing and nothing is a spiritual 'master'? :P
-------------------- -------------------- Disclaimer!?
Edited by Gomp (11/09/04 06:23 PM)
|
Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly
Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,689
Loc: On the Border
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: Swami]
#3338578 - 11/09/04 06:26 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
I see one every morning when I look in the mirror. The only spiritual master is the self.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
|
psyka
Praetorian
Registered: 06/09/03
Posts: 1,652
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: Gomp]
#3338586 - 11/09/04 06:27 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
We are all enlightened, it just takes some of us a long time realize that and empower ourselves.
-------------------- As the life of a candle, my wick will burn out. But, the fire of my mind shall beam into infinite.
|
nunciate
Cold and Indifferent
Registered: 05/23/04
Posts: 904
Loc: Edge of the World
Last seen: 6 years, 10 months
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: psyka]
#3338603 - 11/09/04 06:32 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
Swami, goddamit, I thought I had already explained this....
-------------------- I am the devil and I am just like you
|
kaiowas
lest we baguette
Registered: 07/14/03
Posts: 5,501
Loc: oz
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: Swami]
#3338783 - 11/09/04 07:17 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
since I'm not a spiritual master I probably wouldn't know what to look for. have I met others that have seemed wiser beyond their years and have i learned something from them?? yes!
-------------------- Annnnnnd I had a light saber and my friend was there and I said "you look like an indian" and he said "you look like satan" and he found a stick and a rock and he named the rock ooga booga and he named the stick Stick and we both thought that was pretty funny. We got eaten alive by mosquitos but didn't notice til the next day. I stepped on some glass while wading in the swamp and cut my foot open, didn't bother me til the next day either....yeah it was a good time, ended the night by buying some liquor for minors and drinking nips and going to he diner and eating chicken fingers, and then I went home and went to bed.
|
gettinjiggywithit
jiggy
Registered: 07/20/04
Posts: 7,469
Loc: Heart of Laughter
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: kaiowas]
#3338810 - 11/09/04 07:27 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
I agree with those who don't see the word as having any meaning outside of themselves.
I liked this one when I heard it. A true master is some one who is mastered by no one and seeks not to master over anyone.
I work on that, can't say I know anyone who fits the bill completely, but many I think are in the ball park.
-------------------- Ahuwale ka nane huna.
|
Cyber
Ash
Registered: 06/14/04
Posts: 1,476
Loc: Dearborn Michigan
Last seen: 10 months, 16 days
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: Swami]
#3338947 - 11/09/04 08:15 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
Do you need an epicurean master to teach you to eat? Or a TV Master to tell you what to watch?
Then why look for a spiritual master to tell you what you already know?
Life has provided you with a thousand valuable lessons. Each designed specifically for you. You need do no more than listen and learn.
|
Swami
Eggshell Walker
Registered: 01/18/00
Posts: 15,413
Loc: In the hen house
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: Cyber]
#3338956 - 11/09/04 08:17 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
Do you need an epicurean master to teach you to eat? Or a TV Master to tell you what to watch? Yes.
Then why look for a spiritual master to tell you what you already know? This question is redundant after my response to the above question.
-------------------- The proof is in the pudding.
|
gnrm23
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 08/29/99
Posts: 6,488
Loc: n. e. OH, USSA
Last seen: 5 months, 20 days
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: Swami]
#3338998 - 11/09/04 08:27 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
hmmm...
stephen gaskin comes to mind... (although i rather suspect he would shun the label...)
-------------------- old enough to know better not old enough to care
|
Ravus
Not an EggshellWalker
Registered: 07/18/03
Posts: 7,991
Loc: Cave of the Patriarchs
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: Swami]
#3339020 - 11/09/04 08:32 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
"Those who know do not say; those who say do not know."
"Sages do not accumulate anything but give everything to others, having more the more they give." -Tao Te Ching
By a "spiritual master" I presume you mean a sage or wiseman who others consider enlightened. I would not know immediately on seeing someone, but those who claim themselves to be enlightened I would doubt the most of attaining it. Those who live humbly and gain through loss, who are always flexible and bending in mind, whose words are never wasted and seem to always be learning, I would see as the most likely candidate to be a sage.
Though one would wonder how many "spiritual masters" have died without telling anyone of what they have learned, without even caring themselves what others think them to be. Perhaps many people who are just considered peaceful, quiet, introspective and benevolent are just silent sages, a Jesus without disciples or a Buddha without preaching.
After all, the world does not need any more religions.
-------------------- So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
|
deff
just love everyone
Registered: 05/01/04
Posts: 9,425
Loc: clarity
Last seen: 35 minutes, 58 seconds
|
|
What skorp said is true
However, it takes someone willing to learn to apply the label master. The person is not objectively a different race of human, homo sapiens masteriens or something, but just an ordinary person whose messages hold great spiritual significance to others. What one musn't forget though, is that they are still people, no matter how much one learns from them.
It's like, what is a master without a student?
Also, what hue said is true. The self is the best master there is. LEarning from others is still learning from yourself, as you are what internalize that sensory input and apply that spiritual meaning to the inert medium. As all we have are experiences, we can only go by experiences in guiding our own path of 'knowledge'. This is not to say that you can't learn a lot from others, so long as you are willing to listen. But, even this, is still learning from oneself.
Or something.
Sum up - no such thing as 'spiritual master' unless someone labels one as such. The only true master for a subjective being is themselves, as they are the source of their own cognition and spiritual understanding. I dunno.
--------------------
|
falcon
Registered: 04/01/02
Posts: 8,035
Last seen: 18 hours, 38 minutes
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: Swami]
#3339284 - 11/09/04 09:49 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
one? The world is littered with them. Damn Masters.
We need to build some monasteries with barred windows to house them.
|
trick
Registered: 10/22/04
Posts: 1,059
Loc: unknown
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: falcon]
#3339289 - 11/09/04 09:50 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
if by spiritual master you mean egotistical asshole, then yea....
|
Moonshoe
Blue Mantis
Registered: 05/28/04
Posts: 27,202
Loc: Iceland
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: falcon]
#3339295 - 11/09/04 09:51 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
hmm. id say if they are out there i havent met one yet. then again i havent done much looking. id look for someone who was very happy and trouble free in their own lives. if they werent, how could they offer me advice on mine? (if there still dealing with big problems in their own lives)
-------------------- Everything I post is fiction.
|
gettinjiggywithit
jiggy
Registered: 07/20/04
Posts: 7,469
Loc: Heart of Laughter
|
Re: Recognizing a Master [Re: falcon]
#3339302 - 11/09/04 09:53 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
falcon said: one? The world is littered with them. Damn Masters.
We need to build some monasteries with barred windows to house them.
Amen to that!
-------------------- Ahuwale ka nane huna.
|
|