The more we learn and experience, the deeper we can explore. There is no end to it. We do not reach a certain level, and that is it. The path of learning is endless. From this perspective, you can wonder about constructs like “awakening” as the ultimate level, and untouchable masters.

Moving in the circles of traditional East Asian (spiritual) practices, we need to constantly stay aware that concepts, but also the kinds of relationships between teachers and students, arise in specific local, cultural, and historical contexts. There is nothing universal or untouchable about them. Masters, awakened teachers, all kinds of gurus, we might subordinate ourselves to, are “typical” constructs of their respective patriarchal societies – and the more authoritarian the context was/is, the more distorted the construct is. In a non-authoritarian systemic context, you do not need to come up with constructs like these. You have partnerships between older and younger, more experienced and less experienced beings – we do not only have human teachers.

It definitely makes a lot of sense, to take a few steps back and reflect upon the ways knowledge is passed on in traditions/practices, the kinds of relationships between those with a certain knowledge and those this knowledge is presented to, and also the kinds of knowledge that are passed on. Concepts and the kinds of relationships that arose/arise in authoritarian hierarchical contexts differ in design from the concepts and kinds of relationships in other organizational contexts with different orientations.

Disappointed by capitalism, materialism, consumerism, and Christian fundamentalism in the West, many people, including myself, got attracted by ancient wisdom traditions of East Asia. But we easily get blinded by our wishful thinking, adoring something that we see lacking in our own world. In the master student relationship of East Asian traditions, we might allow for dependencies we originally intellectually opposed and might never have allowed in other contexts.

“Mastery” is relative, and as much an illusion as a trap, too easily leading to hubris – which the 老子 Tao Te Ching (自矜者不長, chapter 24) already loudly warned about. Saviors and salvation are, in general, best taken with a grain of salt. As the saying goes, “many roads lead to Rome.” Moreover, Rome is not the only place, and we do not necessarily need to go to Rome. There are also many other places we can go to. Structurally, the marketing in these East Asian traditions or in any so-called spiritual practice in modern times does often not differ much from the exaggerated TV ads for ordinary products and services. This is a paradox. It is a little bit like (highly) industrialized (and processed) organic food.

From the perspective of the philosophy of the 老子 Tao Te Ching, “forced” knowledge, from whatever side, is neither seen as constructive nor as attractive, no matter how impressive the marketing externally appears.