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“A true master does not wish to be worshiped and does not care to be criticized.
Florent Manitara
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The path of the disciple is not an easy thing, it is a mountain path. What we experience in the valley is different from what
l’on vit en montagne. Tout est plus intense en haute montagne : le brouillard, la pluie, l’orage, le tonnerre et les éclairs. Tu sens la puissance de la nature, tu peux ressentir une crainte et du respect envers les forces à l’œuvre ; alors la concentration, l’attention et l’éveil naissent à l’intérieur de toi.
In the mountains, you can get lost, you can take the wrong path while believing you are on the right one, you can fall. Of course, it's not all pitfalls; there is the pure spring and the fresh air, the lake, the river, the fields of flowers, the big sky, the stars...
The intensity and power of nature in the mountains awakens. The mountain makes you appreciate what is simple and essential: the higher you go, the lighter you become. We gain height and then everything becomes clearer, brighter, we are more alert too. We are freed from a lot of pollution; not only physical, but also psychological, moral and philosophical. Nature is so much stronger in the mountains... even if today it is dying, because all the values it gave to men are being lost.
Climbing a mountain is an initiatory and mystical experience. There is great knowledge and wisdom, knowledge hidden in the mountains.
What we experience in the mountains is an existence within existence, a more intense life within life. You can have experiences there that you should have had in several lifetimes.
The experiences of the disciple are universal: there is in truth only one disciple in all the disciples. And even if there is necessarily my heart in this book, what will be developed is greater than the existence of a man in a body.
“What the disciple experiences in terms of trials, experiences,
understandings, mistakes and victories,
has been experienced and will continue to be experienced.»
This mountain path does not belong to any man, it is the path of a tradition of prayer, service and works. This tradition carries a memory and has traced a path of virtues always open, but kept pure, from the valley to the summit of the mountain.
All men are born and die in the valley, but some decide to look up to the sky and climb a mountain, their inner mountain. Throughout their ascent, they grow and form through numerous experiences, encounters and influences. Arriving at the top of the mountain, they observe the world with a completely different perspective. They are no longer the same, full of new learning, sometimes trials, full of these initiations that they would never have been able to do down below. Once back in the valley, they pass on what they have experienced. Many will then say:“Why go up? There is nothing. I have everything in the valley to live well. » Others will think:“This path seems so difficult, I won’t make it. This path is not for me. » Finally, others will want to follow him, enjoy the experience and also walk this path of discipleship, in order to climb the summit of the mountain in their turn.
Whoever wants is not a disciple. We are not born a disciple, it is a potential, a possibility inside each of us, but it is this mountain path, with all that it entails and how we are going to walk it, which will make us true disciples. This path is elusive, although it has been marked by all those who have traveled it.
Your potential may be great, you may have been well prepared in the valley, but you may fall and not be able to get up. You can get lost and not be able to get back.
Even after having climbed the top of the mountain, on the way down, you will continue to be tested because in the valley, again and again, you will have to sow. If you settle for one harvest, then at some point you will have nothing left. But if at each harvest you always keep some grain to sow, you will never be in need.
The mountain teaches you, among other things, perseverance, concentration, silence and wonder. These are the first attitudes that the disciple must develop to create in him the forces which will allow him to climb his own inner mountain.
Excerpt from F's booklorent Manitara
How a Master Trained His Disciple