In the beginning when you are totally lost and need a starting point, it is nice to be guided by someone wiser then you. They can help bring out insights, keep you on course, and get you further than you could have gone on your own.
There comes a time thought, that eventually all wise masters; Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu, Muhammad, and even the idea of God must be let go of intellectually. This is because these individuals are all just direction pointers to something that is beyond themselves.
The problem is that to the mind run, which is the majority of society still, something that is beyond the mind can never be understood and this is what those entities have been pointing to with their teachings for centuries.
You can see in your own experience or with those close to you, that we humans love to pedestalize entities, whether it’s; celebrities, sports stars, musicians, artists, or the named above spiritual teachers.
This all may seem like very innocent behavior and doesn’t seem as if it would be dangerous, but this is exactly how religions – the organizations created to spread this deeper truth – have themselves been pedestalized and turned into mind monstrosities and started to abuse the worshiping. When one lives in the mind, they cannot see outside of it and therefore no matter how noble they may seem, mind games exist at all levels, even the most sacred spiritual ones.
The fact is that nobody is greater or less than you, EVER! and this can only be truly experienced when you can learn how to detach from your mind. When you are worshiping some entity (no matter what it is) that means that you are saying that they are above you and in turn you allow them to rule you. This is all egoic at this point because one’s power can’t ever be really taken away, but on the level of the mind it seems as it is and therefore many fall for this game.
Only when you stop worshiping can you realize for yourself what those spiritual teachers have realized and tried to point you to. This is the truth of what you are and this cannot be told to you because it’s outside of the mind, yet you want to know it with the mind. See the dilemma? No matter who tells you this, it will be on the level of the mind and therefore it will always be this type of worshiping business. Like today, people love the Buddha for being awakened, but many people worship him for being something special, when that is done it is saying that he is above them and therefore they will always be stuck from seeing the actual truth of what he was pointing to and that is that everyone is the Buddha, they just need to have an experience and not just try to figure it out with the mind.