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Enlightened Teachers and Pedestals
by UT

I'm grateful for having had the opportunity to just hang around with Rama. Go to movies, go to Denny's, that sort of thing. Many seekers in other spiritual traditions never get to experience that. The teacher, if they ever get to meet him at all, is up on some throne on a stage and if you can get near him at all you're expected to do bowing and scraping and prostrations and treat them as if they are special.

For me, Rama's teaching about pedestals, and putting people up on them, is never far from my mind. The higher you make the pedestal, the more "special" you make the teacher, the further away from you he is. If you come to believe that your teacher could only realize his enlightenment or do the extraordinary things he does because he's extraordinary, then what does that mean for you, an ordinary guy or gal? If you believe that the teacher is an avatar, and thus special, are you subconsciously going to believe that you can realize the things that he has realized, or are you going to assume that the difference between the two of you is so great that you can't?

Getting to hang out with Rama was wonderful because it reminded me of all the ways in which he wasn't special, and in fact was pretty ordinary. And if he could be ordinary and realize his enlightenment, then I can, too.

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