Theos-Talk Archives (March 1995 Message tl00208)

Thoughts on the Masters -- Eldon Tucker

There is much speculation about the nature of the Masters, and
even upon their very existence. They fill a certain place on
the evolutionary scale, in advance of the ordinary man, but
trailing behind the highest flowers of humanity, the Buddhas.
Who are they? What are their lives like? How do they relate to
us?

Our study of Theosophy provides us with the groundwork from
which we can build up an understanding of them. Thinking about
the Teachings, applying some common sense, and looking deep
within, we can come up with a reasonable understanding of the
nature of the Mahatmas.

When we attempt to study something new to us, we first explain
the unknown by analogy to what we know. When we learn a new
word, we first define it in terms of words that we already
know; as we grow to appreciate the word, it takes on a meaning
of its own, apart from those definitions. In a study of the
Masters, we may consider what they do in terms of activities
that we know, and we may consider how they relate to us in
terms of relationships we find in our lives. These comparisons
are analogies, that are initial aids in our understanding, but
are later left behind.

The Masters are frequently described as authority figures. Why
is this? We are looking outside ourselves for guidance, and
are seekers. We have not yet found that what we are really
looking for is an active, living relationship with our Inner
Teacher, whom is not an external person. The goal of an
external Guru is to awaken that relationship in us, not to act
in its stead. We may mistakenly look to Masters as greater
beings to tell us what to do, or to give us lessons to train
ourselves. But our individual karma, and life itself, is the
greatest Teacher. We can evoke from life lessons and training
far in advance of anything that a mere human, even a Master,
could devise!

We may consider a Master to be a *parent*, to watch over and
take care of us. We may consider one a *law maker*, as someone
making rules for us to live by. We may consider one a *boss*,
as our direct supervisor in an organization, giving us work
assignments and evaluating our work. All these are analogies,
but are incomplete and still put us in the role of a
subordinate, a junior helper, an underling. Although life on
Globe D has an element of dog-eat-dog mentality, with big
animals eating littler ones, size -- and physical might --
have little to do with the importance of our roles in live. A
flower in a meadow, blossoming according to schedule, and
adding its beauty to the environment, is as important a
contributor to life as a writer of a grand book, as a Mother
that gives her life to protect her children, or as an Avatara
returning to brighten our dark world. The highest value is in
giving full expression to what is within, to the beauty in our
inner natures, regardless of its apparent affects in the outer
world.

How do we know about the Masters? We have some descriptions of
them in our literature. We have some Teachings about them. And
when we take the core concepts, and *go deeper*, we can
sometimes learn more that appears on the written page.

We hear that they do not want to tell us what to do. They do
not want followers. They do not want irrefutable public
evidence of their existence.

What work do the Masters do? Well, what work do *we* do? They
are more advanced people than us. They are more advanced
because they have spend more time in inner growth than we
have; they are not intrinsically different than us. If we
spend a few years learning to ice skate, we would be more
advanced ice skaters than other people; we would not be better
than them, just more experienced in a particular way because
of having spent the time to learn and grow.

The Masters have certain heightened faculties of
consciousness. They have a greater ability to know and
understand; they have flowered their manasic principle.

So what do they do? They have as many different things to do
and as much a freedom of choice as we do! We can become
dancers, ice skaters, bums, great writers, hermits,
accomplished musicians--almost a countless number of different
things. So can they.

Because of their special development, they are naturally the
carriers of the wisdom of humanity. They carry on the deepest
knowledge, as *learned tradition*. What they study and pass on
cannot be simply put into writing, but has to be trained and
individually instructed. There is a passing on, from
generation to generation, of the precious body of Wisdom given
to humanity in its infancy.

The Masters are not puppets in some rigid world plan. They are
not predestined to do things, to act out certain events
according to prophesy. They are not rigidly locked into some
pseudo-Christian or Tibetan hierarchy of angels or deities,
following out a plan according to some hard-and-fast outline
in some religious text.

The Mahatmas are just people, but able to appreciate and
understand things that we cannot. And perhaps they exist on
the other Globes (Planes) at times, when not living on earth
as an apparently ordinary person.

Some may choose to train Chelas. If they do so, it is because
they have taken it up as their vocation, as what they choose
to do in life. Some may do so, but this is not universal.
There is no rigid organizational hierarchy that we and they
must join and work our way up, progressing from one level to
the next.

We may read that they intended the Theosophical Society for
certain purposes. That may be so, but it was what a few of
them planned at that time. As circumstances change, so do
plans. There is a general work of pulling the west out of
materialism. The current usefulness of theosophical groups in
this work depends on their current membership, and not upon
any claims regarding being "the true society", having some
succession from HPB, or having the largest membership.

Not all Masters are with Chelas, or acting as Gurus. They do
not work in a business-like hierarchical organization, with
everyone a manager of underlings, and having a boss. In normal
circumstances, they are born on earth as regular men, and
function according to the conditions of Fourth Round human
life, even if they are *interiorly* Fifth Rounders.

They can suspend their ordinary personalities, stepping aside
and functioning on other Globes, or on earth in a self-made
Mayavi-Rupa; but this is not the normal course of life. They
are still people, and live as such, although many of them may
be seeking embodiment on the other Globes, rather than our
Globe D earth, since the experiences that they need for their
hastened evolution may not be available here.

How do we relate to them? We do not need a Master as a
personal trainer, we do not need one to progress on the Path.
They are self-made, and we also must progress by our own self-
devised efforts.

When we do come into relationship with the Masters, the type
of relationship is as varied and individual as any
relationship that we might have with other people that we may
know. There is no one, special, solitary way of knowing a
Mahatma.

We could have a reverence for one as a Teacher to us, living
out the parent-to-young-child relationship. Consider a four-
month-old baby, wide-eyed, looking with unconditional love and
trust at the parent holding him.

But we could also relate to a Mahatma in the apparent role of
enemy, where the Master seems to block what we would do in
life, bringing us continual pain and frustration.

There are many ways to relate to a Mahatma, and the simplest
may be as friend and equal. The Masters are just as human as
the rest of us. A Master has no need to be in a superior role,
and can be simply a kind, helpful person in our lives.