By Cyrus Ryan
Should students have to pay to receive Esoteric teachings?
Most students who study the Esoteric tradition feel that true knowledge should be free. Teachers who run schools or give workshops should not charge students any fees. What do you think?
In a certain way this is correct! There should be no financial charge for esoteric teachings.
But is this correct esoterically?
History teaches us, if you read the stories about yogis and lamas from Tibet and India, that in fact students did pay for the privilege of studying with a guru or lama. The difference in those days long past, is that the student had to make some form of an offering to the teacher/guru. In those days the student may offer a piece of gold or some gem stone, food, or some helpful item. If a student was very poor, they would offer themselves as a servant disciple in training.
The key here is the word, ‘offer‘. The student had to make an offering. Today we would call that a ‘donation‘. This is the correct method. Why?
An offering/donation represent ‘Dana Paramita’, the act of giving. In the Voice of the Silence, The Seven Portals, (HPB Theosophical Company, 1889, pg. 52) ‘dana paramita’ is seen as the first step, the first requirement to entering the perilous (esoteric) Path. Giving willingly for esoteric teaching, from the heart, represents a little-known occult law, called, ‘the Divine circulatory flow’. A real esoteric teacher is constantly giving, teaching, guidance, even protection on the inner planes. A real esoteric teacher can link the student to their Master, or the ‘Ishta devata’, the deity best suited to the student. Because of this, it cannot be a one-way street. This circulatory flow is the way of dharma. The offering represents ‘shakti’ which flows from the student to the teacher. The teacher returns the shakti and so much more.
‘Dana paramita’ is a very important aspect of esoteric service that few aspirants realize. Giving, especially spontaneously, opens the heart. Giving, but calculating, or expecting some recognition (a return on one’s investment), feeds the dweller on the threshold, creating a blockage in the heart. There are many types of giving. Learn to listen to your deeper feelings, they will guide you.
A short story: quite a number of years ago, I was about to give a talk on a Sunday at the New York Theosophical Society. I arrive too early, so I decided to take a walk to pass the time. I was walking along with a flowing crowd of people. There was this guy sitting on the sidewalk with his hand out. No one was giving him any notice or money, including me. As I walked by, I felt a light spark in my heart, like an inner warmth directing me to turn around and give this poor guy some money. I could feel some inner resistance, but I did turn around, and reached into my pocket and gave him some money. He started crying, he told me he didn’t think anybody in the world cared about him. He was very thankful.
The above story doesn’t mean you have to give to everyone asking for a handout, but it tells you to listen carefully to your heart. It is the same if you study with an esoteric group. Donations are part of your group service, along with giving your time and expertise in the group effort. If you sense the inner feeling to give, but then almost immediately, you doubt whether you should, know that this other voice is the same force that holds you back, keeping you from entering the door to the deeper Path. In the teaching of the Five Dhyani Buddha, Ratnasambhava (see picture below) the golden-yellow Buddha, represents, Dana-paramita. His right hand is in the Dana Mudra. His power through giving creates balance and equanimity. Study the ‘act of giving’, you will learn a great deal about yourself, it’s part of ‘Self-Inquiry’ (Atma-vichara).
