Pay Attention and Ask Yourselves!

By Diana Roque in “As minhas reflexões…”

A master is an individual who has acquired an expertise on a particular area of human knowledge and that has the ability to convey this knowledge to other individuals, known as pupils or disciples. The term master requires the existence of a dual relationship between the individual that has the role of master and the pupil or disciple who considers the first one as his master. This description associated with the original definition of master, requires that the master should act in order to educate and teach, directly and personally, the pupil in a given area, and simultaneously, the pupil should receive and embed the master teaching, being aware of this connection, that must exist between a certain period of time, which is necessary to complete the learning process. This learning process occurs in several stages through a determined communication channel.

There are individuals who are truly masters and teach the art they have learned in a authentic and genuine way. Those masters put many years of dedication and personal commitment, developing and continually improving their practice and theoretical and technical capacity, helping and supporting the growing and developing of those who surround them.

Therefore, to define the concept of master obliges, also, to define the term pupil, which should be differentiated from the term disciple. Who do not absorb directly the knowledge from a master cannot be characterized his pupil and much less his disciple, since the latter term, defines who follows and respect the master. The disciple is the one that learns what the master teaches, and seeks to put into practice the teachings that he receives or received from the master. The pupil is a mere student who can become a disciple, if later on put in practice what he learned from the master. So many pupils may never be considered disciples, given the misrepresentation that they insert on their master teachings, thus undermining the very essence of the given learning.
Master and disciple, or teacher and pupil? To identify this relation, both must mutually recognize each one in their own role, because it is a relationship established in a two-way communication and it is not unilateral, and that generates a sense of mutual communion. However, in a higher level of development the pupil or disciple, naturally, becomes master of itself, because the purpose of learning a given Art is not only theoretical and practical, it is also the personal development knowledge. The last aim of each individual is to improve his self knowledge and to expand the awareness of the All that transcends him, and that simultaneously is One with himself. At this stage the master/disciple relationship is focused and works in two ways. The first one is the self knowledge work because each one is master of itself, and the second one concerns the fact that each master has the possibility to have several pupils or disciples and those ones have the opportunity to have several masters. ~

Thus, when faced with a path that aims to learn and develop the knowledge that concerns a specific Art, pay attention and carefully ask yourselves who is your Master, as well as ask yourselves, if you are disciples or pupils!

Coimbra (Portugal), 23 March 2010