Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Question

How do you tell a real spiritual Master from a false Master?

Also, Neo-Advaita scares me. Maybe it's because I just don't sense all that sweet love that my ego wants to feel. It's like this: "You feel pain? Too bad. It's just an illusion. People are starving to death? Too bad. It's just an illusion." I don't like tough love. I love love. I just sometimes get the feeling that Neo-Advaita really ignores the development of character. I want to serve and how can I serve by tough love? I want to serve by nourishing.

(P.S. - I apologize for not responding to comments the past.... well... month or so. I read them carefully, each and every one of them. I am not blowing you off by not responding. My energy levels have been fluctuating and that is really the only excuse I have to give you for not responding. I just didn't have any response juice. I will try to do better.)

Anyway, I just want to know how we can tell a real Master from a false Master. The more opinions I have the better. At the moment I've just been going off my own intuition.

42 comments:

Anonymous said...

All this stuff about "Everything is an illusion" sounds ok until you try something that directly affects yourself, like trying to cut off your thumb or somesuch with a dull knife, then the illusion gets instantiated into Reality."

donstockbauer *attt* hotmail.com

Alexander M Zoltai said...

"How do you tell a real spiritual Master from a false Master?"

It's like Christ said:
"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit."
(King James Bible, Matthew 7:16-17)

~ Alex from Our Evolution

klaus s said...

"Love"

Mark said...

This is a great question. First clue, anyone who claims to be a master is most likely not one. Kind of like if you have to tell people you are a lady, you probably are not one. Spiritual masters come in many forms, do not be dissuaded or persuaded by the outer appearance. Alexander provided us a great quote from the bible which states that we must look at the fruits of men rather than merely listen to their words.
Trust your intuition and have enough trust in yourself to walk away when you feel things are not right.

Anonymous said...

You can tell false teachers by how much evil and destruction their followers have done to the world. Like exploitation, divisiveness, and wars. Thru their ignorance, arrogance, dogmatism, and false piety.

Anonymous said...

Thru their megalomania and hypocrisy.

Anonymous said...

Thru their manipulation and intimidation of the poor and the ignorant.

V said...

Thru their unfulfilled promises. And thru their threats of destruction and annihilation of non-believers.

Anonymous said...

What is a spiritual master? People like to teach the things they seek to learn. That's no master at all. Once a person understands what they were seeking, their need to teach disappears. Shake hands with the only real teacher that can ever be in your like, yourself.

klaus s said...

True enough "once a person understands what they were seeking, their need to teach disappears."
and that should be that.

but what if a seeker asks to be taught does the Master walk away or does The Master show compassion and begin to teach?

Anonymous said...

Good to see you back Sophia,

The only part of you that can discern what is real is the real part. That is... not the mind. So really "You" will never know, but your Soul will know. Interesting paradox isn't it. But what do you expect from reality.

Leon1234 said...

Who knows.

Anonymous said...

Compassion is never altruistic.

klaus s said...

of course not. you help others you help yourself. we're all in this together.

Elio Milay said...

Hello, Sophia.

Hope you don't mind if I include your wonderful blog between my favorite ones. (Inside my own blog, and inside my spanish version of Anne Frank's Diary.)

http://eldiariodeanne.blogspot.com

You're amazing, Sophia. Delightful reading every time. Hugs from Spain. Take Care!

Elio Milay

http://eliomilay.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

"We're all in this together."

That depends on goals. I'm not in this together with you. I do recognize the sales strategy though. Here's an example:

http://www.cleanlinkconsultancy.co.uk/80508/info.php?p=3

Start here on the page:

"Noun (em-pa-thy) the ability to sense and understand someone else’s feelings as if they were ones own.

"We understand the importance of creating a common bond between you and your clients that will help to smooth the path to building a successful partnership."

...

"Empathy is a determining factor in any sale. It is a general truth that people tend to buy from people that they like. People generally like others that have the same thoughts and feelings as they do."

Let me repeat my earlier sentiment
(typo corrected):

"Shake hands with the only real teacher that can ever be in your life, yourself."

I had the last two, now three, anonymous entries, and this will be the last for me. The others are someone else. You're debunked as far as I'm concerned. My job here is done. The superhero moves on. LOL

Anonymous said...

I thought that your first priority was awakening.

It is not quite the same thing as serving the needy. Could this be another diversion?

Anonymoss

Sophia said...

Don,

I don't think I'll try that. :)

Sophia said...

Alex,

I guess you don't really know if the tree is good or not until you taste the fruit. If it's not so good you can always just spit it out and try the fruit from the next tree.

Sophia said...

Klaus,

:)

If Love is what drives the Master, how could it possibly be wrong?

Sophia said...

Hi Mark,

I doubt Jesus or Buddha had to tell anyone they were Masters. They probably radiated Truth and that was enough for people to know who they were.

That's probably the best I can do, just to see if what comes from them feels like Truth. Luckily I think I know a little bit of Truth, enough that I can gauge what's real and what's false.

Thanks for your input on this.

Sophia said...

Anonymous,

Yes, we teach what we need to learn. But if no one taught what they learned, our growth by now would have become stunted.

Sophia said...

I'm with Klaus on this one.

I'm looking around this great big world and, to me, it really looks like we're all in this together.

Sophia said...

Hi Mossy,

We'll just follow our hearts. :)

Sophia said...

Anonymous,

"Compassion is never altruistic."

Who peed in your Cheerios this morning?

C'mon, cheery up.

To me, your statement sounds like you're feeling a little disappointed with the world. Any idea why?

Sophia said...

Hi Elio,

That is very kind of you. Thank you. I have returned the favor! :)

I have forgotten most of the Spanish I learned but the images you've collected are fantastic.

Sophia said...

Anonymous,

Whether or not two people share the same thoughts or feelings is not the most important ingredient in a relationship. In my opinion, trust is.

Sophia said...

Anonymoss, (Cute, Mossy!)

It seems to me that the more one awakens the more there is a need to serve.

Teddy said...

It seems a Master would be know by how and who he/she serves.

Teddy said...

It seems a Master would be known by how and who he/she serves.

Teddy said...

Don:

I believe the pain would bring you to the reality of the Present...This one and only moment.

The thought that you had a thumb in the past, or will not have one in some future is the "illusion."

Anonymous said...

If I had a thumb in the past, that is the reality and my thinking that I had a thumb is also the reality. I can't buy a lot of this fuzzy-headed thought.

Anonymous said...

Here's one for you - ask someone who thinks that "everything is an illusion" to stand between the tracks with a train coming at them. Everything's an illusion, right????

Sophia said...

A justed,

I am glad you brought this input into the forum. That sounds to me like it would be a really good clue that who we're dealing with is a true Master.

If they serve Love, Life, the Universe, Truth, God then we can know them to be true. At least, these are my ideas based on your input.

Thank you.

Sophia said...

Don, you remind me of me trying to use the intellect to understand something that can't be comprehended with the human mind.

It's actually the thinking that gets in the way of experiencing the Moment.

Anonymous said...

The intellect is all you have.

You can experience the Moment, but the only good you'll gain from it is to analyze it with the intellect afterward.

Just my opinion. Mystical opinions may very. (Are we mixing things up now, after so long at peace?)

Anonymous said...

cs/very/vary/

Anonymous said...

After a good night's sleep, things look better. Peace shall remain.

I still swear by the intellect if the intellect is powerful enough. Although no one's intellect is powerful enough to understand everything. We're all fishies in a fishbowl looking out and wondering.

Teddy said...

Don:

It would seem, that everything, in this moment is quite real...

I suggest it may be, that the rememberances of some near or distant past (what ever your stories may be) are merely things of the mind, very similar to the anticipated or imagined stories of the near or distant future.

All that is not illusion is here and now.

I believe the Buddha may have said it in this way "In this moment, what is missing?"

Anonymous said...

I do agree with mystics in that we know very little and there is a Universe of Knowledge out there each of us individually will never know. Although all of us as a group may very well know it.

This Global Brain theory I like has this within it: each of us in such a Brain would be like one neuron in our own brain. One neuron knows very little. All neurons together know a lot. Thus the Universe can look mysterious to us. It's to the point if anyone tells me anything, I can always say "Yes, but there is so much you don't know, how can you be sure of what you say?"

donstockbauer *attt* hotmail.com

Teddy said...

Don:
Thank you. I was listening and I appreciate that you cared enough to share your thoughts with me.

Anonymous said...

Sophia,

Yes, but who best to serve and how best to serve them? What part in each person must be served? And what part of us is doing the serving? What about serving ones own Soul?

Perhaps the highest service that can be given to God and man is to be a little more conscious, to be a flash of light in a dark and empty world.