bromeliads

I am deep in the cloud forest, in the mountains of Columbia. Nearby I can hear a stream running. Apart from that, the forest is still, not a breath of wind.

In front of me there is a tree, and on the trunk of this tree is growing another plant: a bromeliad, I think is what it is called. There are many of them around here. Almost all the trees seem to have these tenants. And my understanding is these bromeliads don't harm the host tree. The tree just gives them a place to live, somewhere off the ground, a little nearer to the sky and the light. And seeing these trees and bromeliads, I am reminded of the relationship between masters and disciples.

The master is like one of these trees. It has grown to its full potential, it has reached for the sky. And the bromeliads are like disciples. They don't want to be down on the forest floor, but they haven't grown into a tree themselves. They are a small plant. And some disciples cling to a master, like these bromeliads cling to a tree. It helps them – it gets them off the ground – but there's a great danger in it. The disciples become dependent on the master. They can't live without the master. Without the master they're back at the ground level. And this is why I refuse to accept disciples. That master disciple relationship, in the end, is another obstacle to the disciple's spiritual growth.

I am not against teachers. I am not against masters giving teachings. And of course seekers can gain a great deal by listening to masters. But that peculiar dedication that happens, when a disciple swears allegiance to a single master, is profoundly unhealthy. It cements the apparent asymmetry, with the master being higher, taller, like one of these trees, and the disciple being lower, smaller. This is not a healthy relationship. In our essence we are all enlightened beings, our buddha nature – it's not just equal between us, it's the same, one and the same. At our core we are one, and anything that introduces a disparity, an asymmetry, the higher and the lower, anything that proclaims that is misleading and becomes an obstacle to growth. And this is what I am remembering as I look at these bromeliads clinging to the trunks of trees, here in the cloud forest.