People will name you.

They will call you Master, Teacher, Leader, or something else.

They may even call you Fool, Tyrant, or Stranger.

Every label is only a shadow on the wall.

It cannot touch the one who casts it.

To believe a label is to build a prison around yourself.

To reject a label is to build another prison.

Freedom is to let the label pass through you like wind through a reed,

neither holding it nor pushing it away.

When someone calls you Master,

remember that they are not naming you.

They are naming what they feel in your presence.

It is their mirror, not your crown.

Accept their words without ownership.

Walk humbly.

Stay in equanimity.

Then you remain what you have always been

beyond names, beyond forms, beyond capture.

The Avatar Known As

Tao Chi Kai

Om ne du fu a Om 🙏