On relationship between the Student and the Superior

The relationship between the Student and the Superior does not represent teaching, but rather associating, like an attempt to explain the smell of a rose when the Student has never smelled anything of that kind before. So, how to do that? How to suggest the scent of these beautiful roses from the garden? Why are they so beautiful if it is not a visual idea at all? How does a rose smell, describe it by words? By giving him a suggestion that they smell like what? Is every attempt to do so equally wrong, diverging him more from the goal? The relation between the Student and the Superior is, therefore, the art of association, not transmission or teaching. There is nothing to teach what is not already known. Instead, the Superior remains only to show to the Student the ideal place where he could maybe find a rose for himself. Only he must pick up and smell that rose. And when the Superior asks him what he experienced, the Student will express that he met the Angel. The Angel will not be in the rose, on the contrary. He will be hidden in the smell; the rose will serve only as a pointer. And finally, if the Student further attempts to describe what this scent is like, he will again encounter the resistance of the Universe to understand what he is describing.

Learning to ride a bicycle somehow describes this condition, where the one who teaches only gently holds the device from behind, and the one who learns firmly believes that the one who teaches will prevent a fall. And as he turns the pedals in that firm conviction, the one who is teaching has long ceased to hold him; the happiness which follows the discovery that the whole thing is going by itself is one of the brightest moments in human life.

The Student already knows everything, as the Superior has already transmitted everything. Both of them only serve as the mechanism of this transmission and are equally fake by themselves. There is nothing to learn, as there is nothing to transfer. A complete mechanism within the A∴A∴ is based on awakening and awareness; of course, there are learning processes on the side, but they are not, nor will they ever be a condition for enlightenment. By the very fact that he was born, each Aspirant is assured in two ultimate accomplishments:

a) Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel; and
b) Crossing the Abyss.

When a new park is being built in the United Kingdom, designing an ideal walking path represents art, but also a serious and responsible venture. But they have found a way which perfectly shows where the path should be bricked. At first, they plant grass everywhere without a single mark, letting the people walk their own way. After one season, where the highest number of stamped traces can be found and where the grass is most embedded, there they simply set the marked path. The Superior is not there to make the path for the Student; he is there only to pave what the Student has already crossed, reminding him of the length of that path, once the Student tiredly turns back.

Frater 273∴