seeking

The buddhas, christs and other prophets and masters throughout the ages had profound inner encounters which they then began to project outward, most visibly in the form of their words and actions. Consequently the rest of us become captivated and preoccupied with these words and actions of theirs rather than looking inward as they themselves did.

This is one of the great ironies of organized religion and spiritual seeking in general. Rather than doing as the masters did, the rest of us seek outside of ourselves by looking to them. They themselves often rejected what came from outside, the established religious and societal norms of their times, and instead found guidance and wisdom and God and truth within themselves.

If there's something to be learned from them it isn't in their words but in how they themselves came to understand.