Many teachers, one Master - many signposts, one Way

Thinking today about teachers and the Master: I see that there are many teachers and many that have taught me many subjects - maths teachers, language teachers. Science teachers, religious teachers and so on, and many teachers with more than one subject. Even lifestyle teachers and teachers of good or even bad manners or skills.

But even if each teacher had 8000 students it would need a million to teach the world and even with classes of 100 a year it would take 80 years! And how many adults even have a teacher? And how many teachers would remember all their student' s names or students remember their teachers, if that is important?

And how many teachers could actually teach?

It surely takes a student to recognise and appreciate a good teacher.

In many schools we have a head teacher. If the maths teacher teaches maths, what does the head teacher teach?

So what is a Master? Can a person have more than one master at a time?

Ram Dass and others have said that a teacher points the way but The Master is the way

We can surely follow many teachers at a time but maybe best to follow one way at a time to avoid confusion and make progress.

And for me a teacher may instruct through repetition but a Master by example. The student needs practice and effort. For the Master it is natural

So I come to recognise so many can teach me so much but I have only one Master (way).