Following a Master - how times have changed.

The world has moved on since the days of Mahavira, Buddha, Jesus. The functioning of the Master-Disciple relationship has undergone some changes. Now, after a couple of millennia, the old approaches and methods of Masters and teachers has undergone a radical transformation.

The Master's problem is how to help the beloved disciples wake up. Some things can help, and there's a lot of stuff in the way. A divided mind, attachment to possessions, addiction to and unconsciousness in sex, repressed anger and so on. Ancient solutions to these issues don't work well in the modern context, with modern minds, so the new way has evolved.

Masters in the distant past taught mostly in an autocratic way. Sannyas (Discipleship) typically involved a dramatic and resolute renunciation of the life lived prior to initiation. There were rules about cutting the hair, or never cutting the hair, dietary restrictions, minimising personal possessions.

Submission to the Master was total, renunciation of the world outside the Master's commune was absolute. Dictatorial. It worked well, Buddha in particular developed a strong system, and many of his disciples were enlightened in his lifetime.

Both Jesus and Buddha insisted their disciples overcome their attachment to personal property, family and so on.

Much later, George Gurjieff and others took a somewhat different approach. Disciples paid what they could afford, enough to ensure that they valued the teaching sufficiently to pay attention, and the work happened more in a school context.

Recently, Osho, J Krishnamurti, Ram Das, Deepak Chopra and other Masters and Teachers have taken an even more liberal attitude. Less command, more suggestion. Less supervision, more personal responsibility.

It's not required that you join their commune, have a good attendance record at group meditations and limit your reading list. Osho does remind his Sannyasins though, of the old story of the farmer who dug shallow wells all over his field, giving up on one site, starting on another. Although he dug a total distance far beyond where the water was hiding, all he had at the end of the exercise was a destroyed field.

Because there aren't vows of the old intensity attached to these more recent Masters, the Sannyasin has to keep himself in the practices he's being taught. Too much jumping around different schools can result in one not attaining the depths which can be had by taking a teaching with depth and sincerity.

Buddha's prophecy of Maitreya resonates with this. He said that 2500 years after him, the next Great Master would be Maitreya, which means "the gentle friend".

Current (there have always been some) claimants aside, the Masters have been getting more and more friendly, more gentle. The serious, austere thing has matured into humour. Carefully directed experience (ritual) has given way to the Sannyasins getting their lessons directly from their own experience.

Perhaps mysticism is improving, maybe both Masters and Sannyasins have been maturing. Another possibility is that the archetypes founded by the old Masters are so solid now that very little of that firm unfriendly tough love stuff is now required from a Master. Existence has taken over that teaching.

Nowadays, only the most hide-bound, stagnant religious institutions and the most repressive cults do it the old way.

A seeker still goes through what s'he's got to go through. Things that Buddha used to order, like go hang out around death at the burning ghat, happen to seekers. Every sannyasin needs to become deeply aware that death is indeed going to happen. Acceptance of this reality, this Truth, is vital to a seeker's progress.

No longer does the commune want all your worldly possessions. Just buy the book, if you like, check out the website, maybe pay for some group therapies, counseling and like that. Nonetheless, the price of spiritual progress is, at at least some stage of the journey, a complete loss, a renunciation of all worldly things - all that you "live for".

A Dakini (Tantra teacher) put it very well to a man who was so intrigued by her. He asked "You have obviously got something really great that I can hardly make guesses at. There's a very rare quality to you, and I'm deeply intrigued. Tell me now: Who's your dealer, and how much?" Her answer: "Existence, and the price: Everything."

So, the path is still the path. The way the archetypal lessons are taught has changed, but the lessons are still the lessons. Now, the Master can even drop being a Master in the sense of obedient submission being due. The real Guru now is Existence itself. The Master's just to give a little friendly help, advice, support, and ok, sometimes a loving shove or shock.