Preview page forty-seven - Life Is Divine Play: My Life and Training with Enlightened Masters

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Learning to Play with an Avatar

It was a stinking hot day in southern Taiwan in mid 1975 when the three of us walked into my Daoist teacher’s acupuncture clinic/home (he prefers to remain anonymous). As we rounded an ornate partition, there sat a young man with his hands in his sleeves looking like the leading male in a martial arts movie. His short crew cut and enlarged knuckles looked similar to many Kung Fu fighters I had met; yet his unmarked face, high forehead and lender fingers suggested an intelligent, sensitive and refined individual. He looked much younger than my 33 years so I figured I had nothing to learn from him. Later, I found out he was 46 at that time. I am glad I ignored my first impression and decided to study with that young-looking man.

As I looked around his clinic and home, I noticed many rare acupuncture books in his extensive library and many styles of calligraphy adorned the walls. His herbal room was also impressive, but most surprising to me was seeing scrolls of Han Shan, my favorite Chinese poet, all over his walls. I figured anyone who liked Han Shan was okay by me.

The second floor was where he and his wife and two preteen boys lived. Their living quarters was modestly yet tastefully done, and I later found out it was mainly due to his Feng Shui training and his wife’s innate good taste. The third floor was his shrine room where he conducted Sunday morning ceremonies for his dozen or so students. It was weeks before we were invited up there.

After exchanging pleasantries through our interpreter, we discovered he spoke a little English and that speeded up our getting to know him. I had so many questions I didn’t know where to begin. As it turned out, I asked the most significant question I could have asked right off the bat.

I noticed he had a small bald spot on the top of his head that looked deliberately placed, so I asked him why it was there. He very nonchalantly said he was born speaking and with total recall of his past lives and that upset his parents so much they took him to a Daoist shaman who burned incense on that spot to erase his memories. Apparently it worked, because he said he lost those memories until he was 13. It was at that age he met his teachers, and in their presence, those memories came flooding back.

So there I was, talking to the first person in my life who qualified as being an avatar (God incarnating as man). Since I had my fill of holy people, I didn’t care whether his story was true or not because his knowledge of acupuncture and herbs was extensive and that was all I cared about at the time. However, the concept of an avatar is an interesting one, and I would like to explore it in a little more detail before continuing the story.

From my Vedanta studies, I learned that whenever there is a serious decline in virtue and a rise in vice anywhere on the planet, an avatar will appear to restore balance by using any means appropriate to that area. I had also learned the difference between a saint and an avatar. A saint is anyone born in ignor-ance(to ignore your innate Godliness) but through effort and grace, they eventually realize their own divinity. An Avatar, or Incarnation of God, is born knowing their Divinity.There have only been a few people in history who have been labeled as such, and as for me, I was just kidding about my being an avatar, maybe next lifetime. However, in all humility, I will respond to the title “His holiness the venerable grandmaster.”

As far as I know, only two religions allow for the possibility of God incarnating fully as a human being: Hinduism and Christianity. Judaism and Islam are quite opposed to the idea and the Buddhists and Daoists are either indifferent or vague on the subject. Even though every Dalai Lama is chosen by his recognizing his possessions from a previous life, it has never been clearly stated that he was born completely knowing his divinity.

The Divine incarnating as human is further complicated by the fact that avatars come in many guises, so they are often hard to recognize. If you are a Christian, there is no problem because there was only one avatar: Jesus, end of discussion. However, if you allow for the possibility that the Divine has incarnated several times throughout history, as the Hindu scriptures acknowledge, then recognizing a saint or avatar can be problematic because you need some criteria to know who is and who isn’t a true avatar.

Most avatars were not all sweetness and light and some were downright outrageous. For instance, if you were a money changer sitting in your stall at the temple in Jerusalem, as your family had done for generations, and some guy suddenly overturned your table and beats the shit out of you with a whip, would you be inclined to say, “Now there goes an avatar if ever I saw one.” Similarly, my Daoist teacher frequently said and did outrageous things to shock the complacency out of his students, so it is not always easy to tell avatars from ordinary people.

The only characteristics I have observed common to all avatars and saints is their ability to transform, empower, and bring out everyone’s highest potential.The following is a list of traits shared by avatars and most divinely inspired people. All of them embody endless compassion for the suffering of others. Some radiate unconditional love and gentleness. Some inspire others with their wisdom. Others are tireless healers. Some shock people with outrageous statements and behavior to get them unstuck. Others display psychic abilities to assure us there is more to life than the physical realm. Some were even great political leaders and revolutionaries. And there were a few holy people in history who did nothing at all, yet when people were in their presence, they were completely transformed. Ramana Maharshi was one of those people. So keep your eye out for someone displaying those traits.

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