Power of a Master’s Presence

In Blog 68: One Thing that Distinguishes Excellent Students and in Blog 120: The Second Key for Students of Life-long Learning, we discussed what crucial things students can do to extract the most from a master. In this blog, we’ll look into the role & power of a guru/master’s presence.

Like I mentioned in my blog 75: Tragic Drama | The screwed system, simply converting text-to-speech or presenting data is not teaching. In that blog, we were talking about the screwed system. As you know, this blog is not about the system. This is specifically if you are learning out of the system.

Who is a Master?
A master is not simply a converter or interpreter of a text or data. A master is someone who is giving more value than he’s taking. He is the active live example of the knowledge he’s teaching. He’s already practiced what he’s teaching innumerable times. And when I say he is an active example, I not only mean that he has practiced what he’s preaching but also, he is the proof of what kind of person and living that can be attained through what he’s teaching.

Study the master
If you think you’ve achieved more than him or equivalently, then don’t join as a disciple under him. But if you think, his achievements are way higher (in terms of actual greatness, not fame or money), then humility and surrender are natural, isn’t it? But for this you need to, study the master, right?
Like I mentioned in the blog: One thing that distinguishes an excellent student – We can devote ourselves, only to something that we understand is “Great”. And through that understanding, we believe, we love, and then, there is devotion. [ Simple question, would you devote yourselves to Rama if you did not know Ramayana?]

You can of course use the above insights before you’ve started learning, to choose your master. But the focus of this blog is to remember those insights even after you’ve joined under such a master.

What you get from each visit to your Master
When you attend a class, it’s not just the next lesson you’re learning. In fact, due to the sheer intensity of the master, your thoughts, emotions, and energy can change. [ Blessings or grace, etc are also crucial benefits that impact a student’s life, but I choose to keep spiritual aspects out of this blog.]

One might have noticed this, you might have tried to learn a particular concept or technique in the absence of your master and failed, but when you try the same in his/her presence, all of a sudden, you’ll understand it. And if you had already understood, the clarity increases with his presence. And sometimes the opposite also happens. When you think you’ve mastered something while you’re practicing at your home, but then when you try to show it to your master, you won’t be able to play. Why? Because that’s the power of the presence of a master. His very being makes you see the truth. If you’re not able to perform well in front of your master, that means, the level of clarity you have on that specific topic is still not enough. That’s all. In other words, you have not mastered that topic yet.

A master’s presence can be very powerful, no doubt. Hence it is suggested by all wise people to visit one’s master regularly. Students aware of the power of the master’s presence, choose to attend class even though they haven’t practiced their previous lesson. Why? Because they know from their experience that sometimes what they couldn’t figure out even after cracking their heads for hours on their own could be possible within minutes through the master. The power of the master’s presence is also the reason why there will always be a slight difference between offline and online learning students, and that’s why I suggest students try and visit their master in person once a month, tri-monthly, or semi-annually.

Anyway, that said, I’ll give something more concrete for you to ponder and have access to as a mental model to understand the role of a Guru/master.

A student’s practice and work is only in trying to move from the ‘known but unpracticed’ quadrant to the ‘known & practiced’ quadrant. The rest quadrants are handled by your master. First the obvious one, he shows you what you do not know and you haven’t practiced. That is the new stuff you know nothing about. And then he guides you on how to go about practicing what he just taught. But also, he shows what you’ve practiced that is unknown to you, it may be mistakes or a feature. And finally, even in the ‘known & practiced’ quadrant, the master has a role to play. He not only verifies whether the known and practiced is correct, but also he ensures that the students practice the known in the first place by motivating them to do so.

Yes, the role of a master is in all the quadrants. Imagine learning without a master and hence having to handle all these processes I just mentioned. By this graph, I think it’s very clear why a master is considered a beacon of light, a guide that takes our hand and moves us on to what’s unknown terrain for us, with his thousands of hours of exploration and experience on it.

Thank You
Sanath Kumar Naibhi