Trickster

I was fortunate once to sit at the feet of a great master, J. Krishnamurti. He gave a talk in a park in Bangalore, India in the fall of 1970 and I was among the two or three hundred people gathered there on a warm sunny day to listen to him. My main reminiscence is of his apparent transparency. He seemed wholly congruent: his words, tone of voice, pitch, breathing, gestures, demeanor, intention and mood all harmonious with his message:

I do not demand your faith; I am not setting myself up as an authority. I have nothing to teach you- no new philosophy, no new system, no new path to reality, there is no path to reality any more than to truth. All authority of any kind, especially in the field of thought and understanding is a most destructive thing. Leaders destroy their followers and followers destroy their leaders. Be your own teacher and your own disciple. Question everything… (Freedom from the Known)

Similar to what the Buddha offered to the Kalama clan when they asked for his guidance: “Don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought…” He proposed a constant questioning and wisdom grounded in practice.

Allan Watts observed long ago in his famous essay The Trickster Guru that [unfortunately] “millions of people are searching desperately for a true father-Magician, especially at a time when the clergy and the psychiatrists are making rather a poor show, and do not seem to have the courage of their convictions or of their fantasies.”

Here are some of his DIY recommendations for setting yourself up as a spurious spiritual leader:

• “Be quite well-read in mystical and occult literature…
• Frequent those circles where gurus are especially sought, such as the various cult groups which pursue oriental religions or peculiar forms of psychotherapy
• Because people love to be types, sort them into groups according to their astrological sun signs or according to your own private classifications...
• Work out different stages of progress…
• A judicious use of hypnosis – to produce pleasant changes of feeling and the impression of attaining higher states of consciousness…
• Let on that you are in some way connected with an extremely select in-group…
• As soon as you can afford to wangle it, get hold of a country house as an ashram or spiritual retreat…
• Allow it more and more to be understood that you are in constant touch with other centers of work…
• Disappear from time to time by taking trips abroad, and come back looking more mysterious than ever…
• Eventually come to believe in your own hoax… This can be done through religionizing total skepticism to the point of basic incredulity about everything…”

Watts’ lampoon brings us full circle. Questioning everything leads to questioning even that, and then maybe sustaining a state of mind, a fleeting silence, in which there are no beliefs at all, but only what is- what actually is.