SATCHIDANAND
- Are Gurus Necessary?
SATCHIDANAND
- Are Gurus Necessary?
Better is not necessarily perfect. We need to learn from better people in order to become perfect ourselves. We need to forgive ourselves and others for not being ferpect!! If you find someone who you think is better in the things you need to learn then stay with them for a while and test them out. Be aware that they are usually also testing you out, sometimes by mirroring, your ability to become enlightened - If you have a Heart to Forgive, If you have Mastery over your Emotions, If you have Mastered Relationships, If you have One strong Soul Infused Personality.
Enlightenment is only the First Dan! But it is a Quantum Leap in advance of normal sleepy human children.
Q: Many believe that
the guru has become an archaic relic of the past, no longer required for our
spiritual life. Do we still need gurus?
A: In most cases, the Guru or genuinely enlightened master is the only person capable of creating a field of highly charged spiritual energy which can feed the spiritual bodies of the students. As this changes the students, so they will suffer the reactions of the energy blockages of the ego which do not want to be integrated with the soul. These Ego Energy Blockages, the cause of MPD, will try to cast the student out of the Buddhafield.
Satchidanand
"In most cases, the Guru or genuinely enlightened master is the only person capable of creating a field of highly charged spiritual energy which can feed the spiritual bodies of the students. As this changes the students, so they will suffer the reactions of the energy blockages of the ego, the cause of MPD, which do not want to be integrated with the soul. These Ego Energy Blockages will try to cast the student out of the Buddhafield."
"The essence of what I'm teaching is black and white. The issue doesn't really have to do with the particular individuals, it has to do with the enormity of the task at hand"
A: Well, at this point, I'd say yes. Having a guru/teacher/mentor/guide is
essential if we truly aspire to evolve to a higher level of development. Without
the kind of positive evolutionary tension created by an authentic living example
of a higher level, transformation is unlikely to happen, because most of us
simply don't want to change that much. With my own students, so far, these
powerful surges of evolutionary enlightenment have only occurred as a result of
my putting a lot of pressure on the individuals involved, continuously exerting
a living demand to evolve now. Without this kind of demand most human beings
simply won't remain awake to the evolutionary context for very long. It's just
not in our nature to consistently push the edge of our own individual and
collective potential. So at this point I see the role of the teacher as an
essential part of the movement of evolution itself. But eventually, I believe we
will get to a point where that role would no longer be necessary. If enough
individuals reach a level of maturity where they're able to consistently remain
beyond ego as the authentic self, this higher consciousness or enlightened mind
will actually emerge as the foundation of their relationships. When such a point
is reached, then the role of the individual teacher is going to become a thing
of the past. When this new potential becomes stable, I feel that the traditional
function of the guru is going to work through the collective in a miraculous way
that has never happened before. But until that point, having a living teacher is
essential.
video
Q: What about all the
corruption so prevalent in spiritual authority today?
A: Better is not necessarily perfect. We need to learn from better people in order to become perfect ourselves. We need to forgive ourselves and others for not being ferpect!! - Sorry about the joke!! If you find someone who you think is better in the things you need to learn then stay with them for a while and test them out. Be aware that they are usually also testing you out, sometimes by mirroring, your ability to become enlightened - If you have a Heart to Forgive, If you have Mastery over your Emotions, If you have Mastered Relationships, If you have One strong Soul Infused Personality.
Enlightenment is only the First Dan! But it is a Quantum Leap in advance of normal sleepy human children.
I remember the story of Milarepa and his first Master who was not enlightened and was fooling everyone. He told Milarepa he could do anything just by chanting his name. Milarepa told all the other students but they did not believe him so they tested him out and asked him to jump over a cliff on the top of the highest mountain in Tibet. So he jumped and all the students went to see his broken bones at the foot of the cliff. When they got there, there was Milarepa sitting in the Lotus posture chanting his Masters name with a beautiful smile on his face!
The Master saw Milarepa walking on Water on the top of the deepest and coldest lake in Tibet. He asked his student, "what is that?" and the student explained that Milarepa was doing this chanting the Masters name. The Master thought he then was so powerful! So he went down to the lake and chanting his own name he walked on the water and was drowned.
When Milarepa heard this he shrugged and moved on to find his real Master, Marpa, who made him enlightened after much struggle and many trials and tribulations.
Now the 1000 songs of Milarepa are still sung in Tibet and his shining radiance as an Ascended Master still warms all who are truly interested in enlightenment - even now!!
Satchidanand
A: Well, obviously integrity in the spiritual teacher is absolutely crucial. But
we've got to face the fact that unfortunately, the failure of so many gurus,
priests, lamas, and monks over the last thirty or forty years may have become an
easy excuse for us all to let ourselves off the hook. They have made it all too
easy for us to become cynical, to arrogantly conclude that we know better and
don't require any help from anyone. You see, the problem is that when we lost
our faith, we also lost our humility.
It's also important to understand that the main reason that the concept of a
guru is such a tough one in our culture is that we postmodern narcissists just
hate hierarchy. We don't like anyone to be higher than us! It's often hard for
even very intelligent people to admit that higher levels of development actually
exist. Why? Because if they do exist, then that could mean that we may have some
evolving to do ourselves, and that we may have something to learn, God forbid,
from people who've actually reached those levels. So if a spiritual revolution
is to happen, I think the biggest challenge is for us to cultivate
humility—enough humility to enable us to recognize those who have genuinely
reached a higher stage of development, and enough courage to aspire to meet them
where they are. You see, if a teacher is authentic they will never finally be
satisfied until the student either equals or surpasses them. A true teacher is
someone who doesn't want followers, but rather wants authentic partners in this
great task of evolutionary transformation.
Satchidanand
commentary on an interview with Andrew Cohen
The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda - A Separate Reality
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