I had this thought, long long ago, that if one of us evolved into… what shall we call it? "God consciousness", then they could guide all the others through. Of course, in my "fantasy" it was going to be me.

Tee has found a new guru, and she's glowing. Glowing bright as "Wild-eyed Neil" in his loin cloth down at our little ice-cream kiosk in North Street. I bumped into Neil ten years on and he was a wizened, worried man without the guru glow. Didn't quite stick.
     Tee's new guru, Swamiji, keeps talking (on his youtube videos) about "the master", the "enlightened master", proclaiming that the gift of enlightenment comes from having, from finding a God-realized Master.
     I was asking my mindfulness meditation teacher about this difference between Hindus and Buddhists, rather like Protestants and Catholics. Catholics think the priest and Pope own the channel to God. Protestants preach a direct personal connection, and Hindus, it seems, are looking for that heavenly connection through The guru (with a capital "T"), while Buddha said, "Do the practice;" but Philip replied, "Oh, its Very helpful (with a capital "V") to have a teacher, particularly once you've entered the first stages of enlightenment, prone as we are then to delusions."
     But I'm balking at all this Master cant.

I had an insight today. I was taking Tee's guru's weekend meditation course(1), and a penny dropped. But let me take you back a step… I've been searching awhile, that spiritual stuff. I've been deeply involved in "Native Spirituality". A very important part of those practices is the ritual of "smudging"; cleansing with the smoke of medicine herbs: sage, cedar, sweetgrass. Then I worked a while with a "spiritual healer" and she would often have me smudge her patients. She once asked me, "Where do you think the cleansing, healing power comes from when you smudge?"
     "From the cedar," of course I answered.
     "No," she said. "Maybe twenty percent comes from the cedar. The rest comes form you."
So it seems that we may use the smudge to "tune" our energies. We tune to the vibration of the smudge. Perhaps it's the same principle at work with people who play with crystal healing:the gem stones may help patients tune to certain vibrations.
     A word about vibrations: recent research has shown that simple, quiet, low amplitude vibrations can incease our bone mass, muscle mass (and cause weight loss!): simple low frequency vibrations. Hmm? Then what does chanting "Om" do?
     So the penny dropped, for me, watching Mahaliny's eyes light when she spoke to me of her first teacher, Amma. I saw how brightly the resonance can glow. I could feel the guru shining there. So, in part, that's what the Master's for: not just a verbal guide, but he can help us tune in: we can resonate with the Master's vibration to actually attune to the "higher" conscious, experience.

What if one of us evolved into higher consciousness; then perhaps they could guide the rest of us through.