“Awakened” people don’t compete with each other, they are trying to help each other. That’s why they talk. Often times it’s very productive, often times that’s how progress is made.

Completely awakened people (Buddhas) see illusions of everyone claiming to be on the spiritual path for as long as they’re not completely awake themselves, and they try to help them by pointing it out, give advice or invoking a reaction in them. In the context of spirituality, there is no other reason they would talk to them at all, so they only do it because they want to help. Every Buddha tries to help people, it’s unavoidable, whether recognized or not, it makes no difference.

But from the outside, it’s impossible to see what’s going on, and it often times does look like competition, yes. More importantly, it looks like competition to the “under-awakened” person who often times becomes defensive and sees “ego” in the person who is trying to help. If both aren’t completely awake, it looks like competition to both of them, and both are under impression that it’s the other side that is trying to prove their “spiritual superiority” to them, and they themselves, of course, are not.

I am a Buddha, so I don’t see competition when someone tries to help me spiritually. I cannot experience both superiority and inferiority, so the notion of personal competition is empty to me, leave alone “spiritual” competition. Since I am beyond any kind of help from anybody, I can only see it as an invitation to help the other person and give advice, give them what they crave by agreeing with their judgments of me, make them uncomfortable by reflecting their judgments back at them, or make them frustrated by not succumbing to their emotional violence. I can also just say that they can’t help me and leave it at that. I can also say nothing. If they continue to engage, especially judgmentally or defensively, that means they want my help whether they admit it or not. They do that on their own volition, there’s a reason for it. As long as they’re willing to look into themselves, or think before they speak, I will talk to them. If they constantly keep shifting the focus on me, or start going in circles in their defense, I will disengage, because it’s not productive for them.