Golden Path

"... The great Tibetan teacher Marpa had to gather lots of gold dust before he went to India to see his teacher Naropa. Having collected gold dust and gold petals, he gave them to Naropa and just barely received the teachings he wanted. Then he had to go back to Tibet to make more gold. In those days, instead of talking about making money, they talked about making gold. The next time he was going to India, Marpa thought that if he made enough gold, he was going to receive the most important and highly powerful teachings. He was led to believe that by Naropa. So Marpa made a tremendous amount of gold. He went back to India, met his teacher Naropa, and presented him with the gold dust. An extraordinary thing happened. Naropa just threw the gold away, scattering it in the air, saying that everything is gold. Then he stamped his foot on the ground, and at that moment, Marpa suddenly saw that the dust, the trees, and the rocks in the vicinity were actually made out of gold. He actually saw it. So his small amount of gold was just a primitive approach. Naropa was already enjoying himself in a world of gold. That small quantity of gold didn't mean anything to him."

Chogyam Trungpa