We need ask no one. There are an infinate number of paths to the divine, as there are an infinate number of names.
You pick and choose... who to read, who to hear, who to follow.
Pick up "Shiva Vigyama Upanishad" or "One River". Read, understand, reflect, try it on. Put on the mind of christ. If it works, do it. If not, abandon it.
I do appreciate the response. I disagree, however. I do not believe that
anyone will do, or that
any path is the same as any other. If that were the case, I'd still be a drugged out hippie in the 60s, and life would not have presented me with lessons which brought that experience - and lifetime - to an end.
I know that for many people, the Master is not at all the same as taught in Theosophical and similar schools. Yet I would add something which goes hand in hand with the idea of the Mahatmas, taught via H.P. Blavatsky but also by esoteric teachers since. It is made clear that the first
Master is the Soul, the `Master within the Heart.'
If the Disciple has not yet learned contact to contact his Master there (again, the SOUL) he will not find Him elsewhere. This is Biblical, it is taught in both Buddhism as well as Hinduism, and in fact, I don't think you'll find
any exoteric religious teaching which does not advocate it.
There is no point turning to esoteric teachings unless one has discovered this truism. And when we have ceased to simply regard it *as* a tautology, THEN we may find ourselves advancing on the path ... and before we realize it, meeting a Master
according to the next needed technique, method or step (becomes possible, but not before).
Some disciples will never meet their Teacher in the flesh. Alice Bailey never met the Tibetan Master in this way, although he did send her incense from Tibet (or India, I forget) ... and technically he wasn't her own Master, anyway. Still, her case and the case of HPB are somewhat unique.
That said, I know that many hundreds, probably many thousands of individuals in the world today have had a
direct encounter, with one or more Masters, and they have known it to be exactly such. They have not forgotten it, nor will they ever in the current incarnation. Some will retain the impressions in future lifetimes, as well.
The importance of this is that we must not believe,
assuming we are students of esotericism, that there are no specific teachings on Discipleship, its requirements, Initiation, the Path of Service and the Masters as individual beings,
whatever their level of spiritual attainment.
So, with that in mind I will again acknowledge that for many there is an appeal to the notion that
`Truth is a Pathless Land.' I disagree, and I think we must either understand
precisely what Krishnamurti actually meant by this (and his words are greatly misinterpeted, as even
he was in error when he spoke them, *certainly* given the context which 99% of students will not grasp) ... or recognize that a simple explanation can be provided.
The Master in the Heart is the
FIRST Master to the Disciple, and this does not change, even once s/he has finally - in some incarnation - met a member of the Hierarchy (an Adept or Master) in the flesh, or in meditation, etc. This gets us back to the thread topic, and although I'm not seeking anyone's personal, private experiences (on this subject), I'm definitely interested in anything anecdotal ... or related.
Earlier there was mention of Osho, so I'll toss out another name or two. I was interested some time ago in the teachings of
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov. I never read much, but it had some kind of appeal. There are many for whom the Guru ideal will
never cease to appeal in the current lifetime. Many are devotees, influences strongly by the 6th Ray at the head of which we find the Nazarene Chohan. Others similarly harken back to the
Guru-shishya relationship which has conditioned Humanity (via the 6th Ray) for the past two thousand years. This is increasingly superseded in the New Era by
Group Discipleship.
There is a teacher in the tradition of Alice Bailey's writings, Torkom Saraydarian, who also appeals to me, although I find his emphasis quite heavy on the discipline. This seems either 1st Ray or 6th Ray (Master Jesus is described as fairly stern,
even martial) ... yet I have some of his books, and I fully respect his contributions. Nor do I disagree! One excellent book of his is called
Christ, Avatar of Sacrifical Love, and at the outset it helps considerably to distinguish between the Master Jesus and the World Teacher, or
Christ/Bodhisattava/Imam Mahdi/Saoshyant/etc.
Are there others, not yet mentioned, who some people find inspiring and either believe to be Masters or to teach so clearly, with such Loving Compassion, that clearly they are
on the Road to self-Mastery ... either embodying the Bodhisattva Ideal (as certainly does His Holiness the Dalai Lama) or the Christian Way (as Mother Teresa)?
