I have been a meditation and mindfulness teacher for several years now.
At the latest, during the training for this profession, but probably earlier, one comes into contact with the gurus and masters of “Eastern and Western meditation and mindfulness philosophies”. They explain life to us in a completely new way.
You devour their books, practise the meditations and mindfulness exercises described in them, accompanied by specially composed music (available separately), wrapped in exotic incense fragrances and colourful robes, sometimes flowing, sometimes tight-fitting.
By the way, the books (as well as the accompanying CDs) were often best-sellers (and still are), so these masters and gurus were able to put one or the other luxury car in their garage. They also had relatively low living costs, because their followers (“devotees”), in order to be close to the master or to be able to bathe in his aura, often provided their services free of charge (or even paid for it) … a pleasant side effect of this masterhood.
But, yes, I was fascinated by this very own world with its meaningful sayings (“The way is the goal” … or maybe the other way round?) and travelled off to India, finally landed on the border between Occident and Orient on a Greek island and worked for several months in one of the local meditation centres, where the spirit of the – mainly – Eastern masters was clearly felt.
There, as a result, I was able to observe that the kundalini (or “life energy”), cited in numerous books, can certainly go to one’s head at times. After a fulfilling seminar day in the spirit of “We are all one”, the participants already extended their elbows in the evening at the vegan buffet in order to stand at the front of the “queue” (by the way: can be translated in Sanskrit as Kundalini) – because satisfying our own hunger seems to be the closest thing to us … “Namaste and happy meal time”.
Personally, I preferred to spend my free evenings in the taverns of the locals, chatting with innkeepers and workers … about life, its meaning, as well as its purpose, and I learned many things over Greek mountain tea, beer or ouzo that none of the Eastern or Western Masters had been able to teach me before … right in the middle of life, directly at its source.
My lesson from this was that the concept of master dissolves there, because it loses all meaning and because it is not a purpose in life for these great, authentic and unique people. One is completely with oneself, no longer needs a master. For that very reason, they have been the true masters of life for me ever since.
The moral of the story remains: appearance becomes reality and I pour myself an ouzo (or tea) …
… (story and ouzo) with the kind permission of Nikos Kaloudis, an innkeeper & True Master
© Wolfgang Lugmayr 2022-09-23