A game of telephone

A true Jnani [roughly: saint] creates an atmosphere of detachment and holiness around him and draws innumerable people towards him. Such great Jnanis have arisen in the world, from time to time, no matter whatever religion they professed. All these prophets and saints proclaimed the same Truth, each in his own way, and if they happened to come back to life now and meet together, there will be perfect unity in their messages. It is the followers that have put into their mouths more than what they said and wrangle with others, freezing the original teachings, mangled in their hands into institutional forms, which foster narrowness and bigotry.
[emphasis mine]
from http://www.kamakoti.org/acall/ac-acquisition.html

Every spiritual leader was teaching something that was attractive to the folks that became his followers. They followed what was taught. He/she stopped teaching — usually as the result of death (and no, that’s not an invitation to the christians to go off about resurrection).

Then, having been cut off from the day to day contact, the teachings become codified, the fountain of wisdom drains, and you are left with what looks and sounds like the original teachings, but is not…

Remember Metaphor? The truth is wrapped in it. Likewise, the truth is wrapped in the teachings. The teachings are not truth. This is really important, so try to work with it… The fountain of wisdom is what makes the teachings able to be wrappers for truth, without it the teachings are like nuts without nut-meat.

Assuming that there is some reason for this god stuff, why are we not more often searching for a new wellspring? You don’t trust second hand gossip for making decisions about anything in your life, do you? At least I hope you don’t!

“I heard from someone who knows someone that you can get herpes from a hampster.” Is not the kind of info that should keep you from getting a hampster for your nerdy little brother.

Why should our spiritual life be different? We invest a lot in building up a clerical caste to keep alive the flame, but there are really no qualifications to choose the best candidates. Father Joe and Reverend Lisa might be specialists in religion, but are they drawing water from the fountain themselves?

If you won’t go to the fountain to draw you own water, find an Acharya, a Guru, a Saint — anyone who can go to the fountain, until you figure out how to draw it yourself.