Just thinking,,,

I'm pretty sure that the saying,
"If you see the Buddha on the road.. kill him," was a Koan for provoking insight, rather than a teaching on the unimportance of teachers. The koan itself contains so many dualities, i find my self struggling with what the Buddha looks like, does he have exceptionally long arms, as described in the Pali? Is he Indian or Chinese? What if I meet him in the mall, not on the road? And how exactly does on kill a transcendent being? Buddha nature is said to be indestructible and un-corruptible and innate in all beings How could any one kill that.
All these Questions (and their answers of course,) come from my educated mind. I've read about Buddhism since I was about ten years old, and my head is "full of concepts" as my spiritual friends would say. But I am being silly about this for a reason. For me to take this as an instruction to go out and kill someone compassionate and wise as Buddha is just as incorrect as taking the meaning to be a metaphor.
And along with "the sound of one hand clapping," this koan has been floating around in popular culture for as long as i can recall. In a way that kind of dilutes the usefulness that it once had for derailing the train of mental associations that we like to call thought.
This particular method of learning non-duality used to belong to a school Zen, and was passed down from master to student. There was a trick for knowing which koan to use for which student, but passing the test didn't mean anything in particular, it was an opportunity for growth. People develop and grow up to a point, under the supervision of an older more experienced person, but after that they have to do for themselves.
It is easier to think about mastery outside of the spiritual dimension. Music and Intellectual pursuits are also shrouded with their own kinds on mysticism, so it is easier to look at something like carpentry or ever the system of degrees and accredition that we use in colleges in the US.
Simply, a master of any trade has all the skills needed to do that kind of word and an additional set of life skills and experiences that give them a much broader perspective.
I can see how this might be of use in a practical way. If wanted a house built I'd need some one in charge to make sure that all the walls meet at the corners, and some one familiar with the trade practices of all the plumbers masons and electricians who were also working on the job.
A kitchen needs the same kind of direction. Someone has to direct all of the work and coordinate meals purchases and cleanup. I've shared communal kitchens and found that with out a "Mom," they degenerate into anarchy. This is arguable, because Democracy gets such high ratings. The thing is that the work usually falls to the person who has the greatest need for an orderly kitchen. She, (or he,) ends up doing the most cleaning and preparing. In a professional kitchen, I've seen Chefs do prep and scullery work because it was their responsibility to see that those things were done properly.
Now I don't really see how the presence of spiritual masters would foster the dualistic thinking, but some have suggested that the teacher / student relationship is dualistic and by its nature causes dualistic thinking which keeps people from progressing spiritually. It has also been suggested that we should not look outside ourselves or in distant exotic places for our spiritual development.
I can accept this. but i feel that many people who have the benefit of some insight, look down on others who follow and revere teachers. It also seems that it is very arrogant and egotistical for any of us to assume that we are complete in ourself. There really is new and different stuff out there in exotic places and a whole fresh way of looking at the world inside of every person. We just don't want to admit it, and we don't want to put a high value on travel because some times we are lazy and we didn't save money to travel, or we didn't put the effort into school, so we say that those things are less valuable.
I do that. Many of my friends do that. And i worry because it devalues us in the process. It is not that i think that i would be a better person if i traveled to some place and learned from some important teacher, but if i had made the effort, that would be a good trait of character. I will have to make some big sacrifices in the future if i want to grow. Maybe it is too late for me to find a true master, but to grow i will need to accept my spiritual friends as much more than just friends.