The Concept Is Not It
The whole motivation of a spiritual master is to help the people give up their attachment to their emotions, their selfishness, so that they may come towards the realisation or love of the mystery – instead of loving their self.
In so doing, any master will have to give concepts, because that’s the only thing the brain or mind can understand. As soon as I say, ‘I’m pure intelligence’, the question is: 'What do you mean?’ And I have to give a concept. So the spiritual master gives concepts that dissolve other concepts, so that the person takes on a larger concept. The spiritual master is always luring whoever he’s speaking to towards the realisation of the pure intelligence that he or she is – which is God.
It is a terrible thing for a spiritual master to see the people that come to him conceptualising beyond the concepts he’s given them. And so Barry Long says: 'Please, if my teaching is the truth for you, any part of it, live it!’ You see, the living of something gets rid of the concept. But people will not live it; they would rather think about it.
I Am East and West