Humility

Once in India a spiritual Master asked a group of his disciples the distance between man and God. One disciple stood up and said to the spiritual Master, "Please, Master, just wait." Then he took seven bold steps from where he was sitting to the feet of the Master. After counting these steps, the disciple declared, "The distance between man and God is only seven steps."

A few days later, the same spiritual Master was asked by a student a dry, complicated, philosophical question, full of Indian jargon. The Master said, "Since it is dry philosophy, I shall not be able to answer this question. It is too mental, too intellectual." Then he pointed to a philosopher disciple of his and said, "He will answer the question." For this disciple to have answered that question would have been absolutely nothing; it would have been like drinking water. But he came up with folded hands and said to the questioner, "How do you expect the son to answer the question when the father cannot answer the question? If my Master cannot answer the question, then I cannot answer it either. It is impossible." So here is humility. There were many in that group who would have been all too eager to come up and answer the questions on the Master's behalf. But the Master wanted to teach them humility, so he picked the right person.