My Master Tells Me To Start A Bridge Club....

I met with Michael at my home, once before, and we talked about many thinks. I was testing the water, trying to get a sense of him, away from the crowds. I felt he was sincere, direct, uncomplicated and clear. I felt very at-ease. I met with him again yesterday. This time we went deeper, and I talked about my confusion over my friend Rich telling me I was awake. And that he was too. I needed to get the heart of this matter. Did I not know what awake really was?

Michael told me I was awake, but that there were many levels of being awake. Enlightenment, he said, was the wisdom of knowing the awake state through many experiences though helping others to understand the same in themselves. I told him I wanted his as my teacher. he agreed and proceeded to tell me, not ask me, that he wanted me to start a bridge club. "Bridge?" "You want me to start a bridge club?" "Yes", he said. I was floored.

Why? Why a bridge club? What did that have to do with enlightenment? I didn't even like card games, and bridge sounded very uncool, very unsexy. Bridge!?! I drove him back to Jan's house and we went inside. As I was sitting at the kitchen table he asked me how I was doing. I said I was already feeling resistance to his direction. He said, "good, that means we're getting somewhere". I felt sorry for myself and slunk out of the house and back to my home.

I was not going to be knocked over by this, I said to myself. It is "just a card game", I said to myself. I drove into town later for a couple of meetings, and stopped at the local bookstore to see if they had any bridge books. I bought, "Bridge For Dummies." It was exactly how I felt, like a dummy. I was being tested, I was convinced, to see how gullible I was. Would I play into the old game of being controlled by a guru. I was too aware for this, I thought. I felt uneasy and sure I was going to waste a huge amount of my time with something completely useless.

Later that night I spoke with Rich on the phone and told him all about my three hour meeting with Michael, me asking him to be my teacher and his telling me to start a bridge club. "What do you think about all this?", I asked. He said, "It sounds good to me." I said, "What? You think this is a good idea?" "Sure", he said. I was glum again. Rich was an experienced person spiritually. He had traveled many spiritual roads, and had had a number of important teachers himself. I felt ungrateful. Here I had asked Michael to be my teacher, and already I was regretting what I had gotten myself into.