6
STEPPING STONES TO MASTERY
The Master and the Chela
By D. T. Marches
Many students on the Path feel that the ultimate spiritual achievement for them
would be if they could but "contact" the Master through their personal ego.
Perhaps it does not occur to them that the moment a person puts his foot upon
the Path, he is immediately placed under the care and protection of a Master of
Love and Wisdom, and the beautiful association with the Master begins, although
outwardly the student is not always aware of this fact.
The first thing a Master does when a student is presented to him for care and
instruction is to look down the lifestream of the aspirant and make careful note
of his evolutionary endeavors. He makes himself aware of his strengths and
weaknesses, as well as his potential reactions under the pressure of
circumstances. In fact, he comes to know much more about the student than the
aspiring one knows about himself. He is aware of all his hopes and aspirations,
and is, in consequence, more eager to reach the conscious mind of the pupil
through the awakening power of love than the sense bound mind of the individual
is to reach him.
The tendency of the personal ego is to lean on a stronger or more outstanding
individual, especially a teacher. Even the apostles leaned on the Master Jesus
and he told them "It is expedient for you that I go, because if I do not go, the
Comforter will not come." Therefore, it is "expedient" that the Master "keep out
of sight" while the student is learning his first steps on the Path to
self-mastery. The embryonic god must not be allowed to become an automaton,
which could happen very easily if the Master were to solve all the pupil's
problems and make all his personal decisions for him.
The Masters themselves work under a strict code of Cosmic Law, and, if they were
not fortified by Wisdom, one might say that they actually suffer when they see a
loved pupil laboring under the limitation of human conditions which they could
disperse by a mere gesture. However, it takes a great and wise love to withhold
a gift from a loved one that would ease a present need, but which would later be
a detriment in the achievement of mastery.
The wise mother encourages her infant in his first attempts to walk, although
she knows he will perhaps fall and hurt himself many times before he takes his
first step unaided. Later on, when the child goes to school, his attempts at
reading and writing may be a painful effort, but the wise teacher does not
perform these tasks for him, knowing that he will eventually master the art
through perseverance and practice.
The Masters of Wisdom use the same wise methods in dealing with the student on
the Path. They realize that a person awakening out of the limited human
consciousness is as much a child in cosmic knowledge and self mastery as the
little one starting out on its first day at school.
It is only by experience that the student on the Path learns that he is expected
to proceed Godward on his own power and is not "carried" by the Teacher. He
learns wisdom by his mistakes and also learns that he must make his own
decisions and must abide by the results of his choice. He very often experiences
a sense of disappointment when he learns that he is apparently
It is wise for the sincere student to take stock of his intellectual and
spiritual assets; he should take particular note of his "liabilities," which
include all human tendencies and weaknesses and these he should try to eradicate
from his consciousness one by one, because if they are not removed they will
prove to be the greatest stumbling blocks to his progress later on. Jesus said:
"He that over cometh is greater than he who taketh a city."
In every decision, he is called upon to make, if he will listen to the "still
small voice within" he will surely hear the Master speaking to his
consciousness, advising him as to the wise and proper procedure to take.
As the traveler grows "older and wiser and more experienced" on the Path, he
will sense the nearness of this Beloved Invisible Mentor, and although he may
not be able to discern him with fleshly eyes, he will unquestionably feel the
radiation and comfort of that Loving Presence who is so selflessly interested in
his welfare. He will find that the Master whom he has been searching for on the
"outside" actually abides within his heart and is, in fact, "nearer than hands
and feet and closer than breathing."
Study and contemplation of the Twenty-third Psalm which was given to David at a
time of stress by the Holy Comforter himself will help the student to realize
the "contact" with the Master that he has been longing to experience and which
cannot be taken away from him.