by Antonio Napoli

One day, after a long silence, the master stood up and spoke to the disciples gathered in a circle:
“Truth chooses any hour to manifest itself, and that hour becomes memorable, solemn, irreversible. Truth transforms everything, for before its revelation, all things exist in an illusory, incomplete form. It strips us bare, broadening the scope of our modesty: as the years pass, we feel shame for the way we once thought, embarrassment for what we once believed we desired or feared.”

He fell silent again, letting his words settle in their hearts. Then he continued:
*”How wonderful it would be to rid ourselves of all presumption. For years, I have practiced learned ignorance, and I have never spoken to you as disciples, but as friends, companions in a shared love of knowledge. Among those who know that they do not know, there are no hierarchies.

I have long observed the conduct of masters and disciples in our city, and I have not found much variety in their ways. Every master, it seems, generates three kinds of disciples.

There is the disciple who strives to imitate the master’s words, yet in doing so, ends up saying and teaching something entirely different. He believes that words are the essence of education.

There is the disciple who walks barefoot like the master, who renounces the superfluous and chooses to live with only a few essential things. He has seen in outward actions the true test of teaching.

And finally, there is the disciple who welcomes the master into his very being, without knowing how. He listens as an island listens to the sea: without resistance, without trying to hold onto it, letting the waves shape him. As the days pass, he discovers he has changed—he no longer thinks as he once did. And while he continues to perform his daily tasks—doing his work, caring for his family, assisting the weak—he educates others unknowingly: with a gentle gaze, with patient gestures, with few but precise words, spoken only when necessary. His life becomes a silent testimony, an example of an existence that has never accepted injustice, not even when it could have been to his advantage.

Why do I tell you this? Because if anyone among you today aspires to be a true master, know that his task is not to fill minds with notions, but to guide his disciples along the path of awareness through the power of his own being. Only those who allow themselves to be transformed by truth can pass it on to others.”*