To follow or not to follow?
I have just finished reading an interesting exchange between the Director of the Raja Yoga Institute, Shri Yogacharya Ajita (Philippe Barbier), the Romanian born leader of Denmark’s (in)famous Natha Yoga School, Mihai Stoian:
http://www.mihaistoian.net/?cat=40
A quote from Mihai:
I wonder how the essence of my problem can be the fact that I follow my spiritual guide. In which books have you read that a disciple who follows his spiritual guide has an essential problem because of this? From what it is clearly stated in all basic treaties of wisdom, essential problems appear when the disciple does not follow his spiritual master properly. And, of course, in order to practically follow your spiritual master, you must believe in him and in the truthfulness of his affirmations.
Interestingly I have just this week read a wonderful passage from Osho’s lectures on the Ashtavkra Gita where he recounts the paradoxical realizations of Buddha himself.
It seems that Buddha was an impeccable student. So perfect that he followed many different “spiritual masters” extensively, with precision detail and often did everything they guided him to do and MORE. However, eventually (and repeatedly) this led to frustration. And as Osho accounts it, he was asked by more than one of these masters to “Go Away”. A passage from Osho is offered to illustrate the pattern:
Teachers never tire of students who don’t follow their instructions, […] because they can always say “You are not following instructions. That’s why nothing is happening. What can we do?” […] If you had obeyed it would have happened.
But with Buddha the teachers were in trouble. Buddha did whatever the gurus said [and more]. Finially the gurus, exasperated, told him, “Look, go somewhere else. Whatever we have to say, we have said” Buddha said, “But nothing has happened through it.” They said, “Nothing has happened to us either. We cannot hide it from you. Just go somewhere else.”
[It was not until there] was nothing left to be done - [until] it was no longer possible to be a doer - [that] there was nowhere for Buddha to go, neither inside nor outside. That night, for the first time Buddha attained rest, as Ashtavakra says - the rest in consciousness, out of which one attains the truth.
For a seemingly lazy man such as myself, this presents a bit of a conundrum… The gurus and the sages, for as long as our records show (with Ashtavakra as one of the few exceptions), all demand that we follow. Yet, those who “succeed” do so only when they have stopped seeking, stopped following, and managed (somehow) to rest in the infinite bliss of our unified awareness.
Hmmmmm….
