Don’t Become Anything
The Theosophist Magazine, Vol. 143, June 2022, page 37.
I HAVE followed the same spiritual path for over 46 years and received much understanding through dedication to my Masters and the path they showed me. Since I started writing this article and sharing this teaching as told by my Guru, it has been a deepening learning experience for me. The more I opened myself to examine the intention with which I began, the more has been revealed to me, as I shifted from a cursory remembering into a much deeper understanding and, finally, into an assimilation of the universal truth of it.
My Guru never wasted his words; inherent in them was the will that we imbibe the concepts he shared with us through contemplation or direct experience and make them our own. Everything he said has unfolded through continued study along with some event on my spiritual journey that catapults me into deeper understanding. Always the Master held the intention that his students become skillful and joyful in navigating our lives, and for that I am eternally grateful.
This is how the process of writing this article began. Recently someone told me they were listening to a public talk by a spiritual teacher on the topic of not harming (ahimsa). During the talk, the speaker criticized the listener's teacher. The listener was shocked in hearing her teacher's name spoken of in such a way by someone who didn't know him. It felt to her counterintuitive in the context of not harming. It is distressing to hear these kinds of stories, especially when one is doing their best to embrace not harming. Her experience reminded me of a parable my Guru related to our assembly several decades ago to illustrate a profound spiritual teaching. So I shared it with her:
“Don’t become anything.”
Once a Master told his disciples: “Don’t become anything.” Shortly thereafter he went on a journey and asked a disciple to accompany and assist him while traveling. After a long day of walking, they came across a cabin in the woods. There was no one inside so, since they were tired and, in addition, it being late in the day, they decided to rest there for the night. Several hours after they had retired, they were roughly awakened by soldiers who had banged on the door and stomped into the cabin. The soldiers had come to prepare the place for the arrival of the King. In fact, it was the King’s private cottage and they were quite alarmed at finding two mendicants sleeping in the beds. One soldier shouted at the Master: “This cottage belongs to the King! Who are you and why are you here?!” The Master remained mute and expressionless. After a few minutes, assuming he was in fact a deaf-mute, and therefore harmless, the soldiers carried him out and left him in the yard.
Re-entering the cabin the soldiers went to the disciple: “Who are you and why are you here?!” He began to explain himself: “I am the disciple of a great master.” Then he proceeded to tell the story of why they were there. The soldiers beat him up soundly and threw him out of the house. Badly bruised and broken, and in a lot of pain, the disciple moaned to his master: “Oh Master, I can hardly move, yet how is it that you yourself are unharmed?” The Master then reminded the disciple: “I told you not to become anything.”
This teaching is found across arguably more than a few esoteric spiritual traditions, especially in their origins. I have personally experienced being the brunt of harmful criticism when I have defended a teacher or path I subscribe to, as well as feeling hurt from reading stories in the news about others doing the same on a much larger scale, through videos, movies, or reading gossip spread liberally in print media. It seems whenever one becomes something, and in some way comes into open public view, we have compounded the issue by opening ourselves to those who do not understand — in fact, whenever we become someone or something, we become vulnerable to being unjustly criticized by somebody.
After having heard my friend’s story and sharing the parable with her, my comprehension immediately catalyzed into an even deeper awareness of the consequences of comparing or criticizing one who has become something. I saw that I had become acutely sensitized to witnessing myself and others, having been guilty, more times than I like to admit, of harming others as well as myself when I or another criticized a spiritual teacher or path, opinion, or belief espoused by another that I compare as less than my own. The lesson has been made crystal clear to me. Why? Because my heart hurts when I see or hear my own or another’s denigrating words. When I compare one path or belief to another, claiming one is greater and the other lesser, I am hurting another’s heart, whether they are aware of it or not; my heart knows. This is the very op- posite of the teaching of ahimsa.
In light of my deepening examination, the challenge becomes clear. When we come across someone who has become something — a Master or teacher — can we refrain from offending that person because we disagree or follow a different path, or no path? In Kali Yuga (1) it is not just a few, but hundreds of thousands who jump up ready to malign valuable truths, teachers, and paths on which we or others are walking. Again, this results in profound harm, not only to the listeners but also to the speaker. Therefore, it would very much benefit us to weigh our words before uttering them. Perhaps, I should add, as Jesus said, not to speak about what we know before those who do not comprehend, and therefore may be inclined to harm us.
Many of us who cast such aspersions with our words or actions have had only a cursory experience with the Teacher or the path, and in many cases have never even set foot on that path nor ever met the Master. It is easy to unfairly criticize what and whom we do not understand or even know at all. If one is sensitive, the heart always aches a little whenever we see this happen or do so ourselves. The result for me has been bumps and bruises while trying to explain or justify the teachings of my path or the value of my own Master to others who do not understand.
To endeavor toward seeing the shared reality of all the great traditions while staying true to my own path, without the need to justify or prove my own understand- ing, is a shift that has taken root. In my experience, we are all here to learn and grow into mutual love and compassion for all life, no matter what may be our personal journey. To remain silent in the face of criticism is a high bar and, I believe a call of our times. Let us simply keep walking our journey, staying true to ourselves, as we continue growing into the Light.
Endnotes
1. The last of four ages described in Indian scriptural texts, when righteousness has only one quarter of its original strength and unrighteousness is found everywhere.
“Do not think that God is only in your heart. You should be able to recognize him in every garden, in every forest, in every house, and in every person. You should be able to see him on every path, in every philosophy, and in every group. You should be able to see him in all acts, in all deeds, in all thoughts and feelings, and in all expressions of them. If you really love him, if you want to find his love and be blessed by it, then see him in every corner of the universe.”
Ms Kamala Nellen, formerly a professional dancer, she then spent seven years living in an ashram while studying with a spiritual Master from India and, after his passing, another eleven years with his successor. She is currently a performance coach and a yoga teacher.
