PYRAMIDS and VINEYARDS
One morning I was thinking of an accurate analogy of how Truth flows from Divinity down to a spiritual master and then again down to the students who receive it from him. The following came to me.
Imagine a large number of wine glasses stacked in the shape of a pyramid. If arranged correctly, one can pour a large amount of wine into the glass at the very top of the pyramid so that the wine overflows past the rim of the top glass and down into the other glasses directly beneath it, which then also fill up, overflow and fill the glasses at lower levels. This goes on and on.
Of course, the glass at the top represents the spiritual master who is little more than a combination container/channel of the wine of Divinity which flows freely into him and outwards into whoever desires to receive it from him. Otherwise the wine will go to waste having no one to receive it.
Recall that Jesus spoke of himself in the gospels as a vine producing fruits. If no one receives the fruits, then they will simply fall to the ground unused. But that is no matter to a master for he is always producing fruits as long as he still has life in him. Further along these lines, when the master physically dies, the one who is most able to let the divine wine flow as freely as the master once did will become the new master at the top of the pyramid.
Of course, not only can a large wine glass hold more wine but the wine can flow much faster into it as well, and therefore there will be a larger volume of wine overflowing down to those beneath. The glass is representative of the ego. Spiritual teachings hold that the bigger the ego the student initially possesses, the more that student will be able to serve Divinity once he becomes enlightened.
