Kill the Student
June 27, 2011
In the 1963 film ‘Pink Panther’, Inspector Jacques Clouseau, played by Peter Sellers,
was relentlessly followed by an idiot who’s job was to hide behind corners, to test Inspector
Clouseau’s awareness of danger. Likewise, we have forces always around us to test our
own awareness allegedly until ‘one gets it’. ‘Getting it’ has been referred to as ‘enlightenment’.
It has been said, to ‘kill the Buddha if you meet him on the path’, meaning once you ‘get it’,
it’s time to go out on your own. It might mean your parents, or some form of teacher. Know
when you are liberated.
The ‘student’ is the Master, but doesn’t yet have the realization of it. The ‘student’ is a disciple
of the hidden master within, but may need someone with that realization, who ironically is
usually not a finder of the master within themselves, to provoke them to look within beyond the
mental understanding of the ‘koan’, and to see and feel a sense of the indescribable ‘nothingness’.
Most spiritual Masters are really ‘pseudo masters’ who perhaps have convinced themselves having
‘mastered the right words to say’, that they have arrived.
Truth is, there is no Master, just you in the moment, but people are rarely there. In this strange town, there
is a saying, ‘we’re not all there, because we’re all here’. Mental masturbation, particularly of the
spiritual, is a ‘partial provoker’ that anyone can do with a little study, and use it on those who are gullible.
A spiritual dude I know hangs his hat on enlightenment going around challenging everyone like Inspector
Clouseau, at the oddest moments seeing if he can catch them reacting to his words then judging them while
instructing them that words are just nothing to get upset about, taken seriously or whatever. Behind it lurks
an attachment to a spiritual like game that he calls ‘a mastery of’ while denying it of course.
Every venue in life be it economics, fashion, theater, or the spiritual, there are always ‘Master Bubbles’ who
seek the limelight of their own egos while they ‘vampire’ the gullible into their silly game that appears ever so
‘respectable’. Being able to laugh and drop all ‘instructiveness’ is a step into being wonderful company both to
the self, and others who are relaxed enough to enjoy. Drop all ‘belief systems’, then all ‘Masters’ that really
imprison you (money included), opens the door to innocence lost. Those who argue, are reluctant students, but
who on rare occasion ‘let go’ and dialog while enjoying floating down the river of bliss, joy and acceptance of the
mirrors of those who have something special to give. Give where there is someone who is willing to receive, and
be open to the giver of more than words. The ‘disciple’ never was, and merges into the Master who never will be.
‘Let go’ of mistakenly objectifying, or inordinately revering all figures external to yourself.
Arhata
