We Are Not Carbon Copies

Each teacher has their own way of expressing the teaching. Every teacher’s teacher wasn’t a carbon copy of their teacher.

While we’re on the path, we’re not a copy of our teacher. We each have a unique path to conquer – we may all have similar problems, but we approach them in our own particular way.

However, in pure silent awareness, there is no difference.
This is the co-existence of individual expression and absolute oneness.

A true spiritual lineage or teaching tradition does not exist to produce clones. When a teacher hands down a transmission, it passes through the filter of each student’s unique personality, life experience and era.

If a teacher only demands an exact copy, the teaching would have become a dead end. Because each teacher adapts the truth to their own voice, the teaching remains alive, dynmanic and relevant to new generations.

We all enter this world with different conditioning, cultures, trauma and strengts, and therefore, the way we dismantle our illusions must be unique to us.

As human beings, our fundamental problems are identical: fear, attachment, doubt and ego. However, one person may cut through their fear via devotion (bhakti), which another works through wisdom (jnana), and another through actions (karma).

Pure silent awareness is the destination where the path dissolves. In the space of absolute stillness, all individual stories, methods, techniques and identities fade away.

On the surface, the waves (the teachers and paths) all look different, having various displays, but when we dive deep into silent awareness, there is only one ocean.

Our beautiful respect for the practical journey – where individuality matters – is balanced with the ultimate truth where individuality dissolves.

This is the difference between relative and ultimate truth.