Trusting you spiritual teacher!

I do meditation with two spiritual teachers (only ones that I could find in the city I live in). After the meditation the husband sits on a chair and talk about spirituality, reincarnation, etc. How do I know if I can trust these people. Things that they say make sense most of the time, but there are times that I am not sure!
I know a little bit about their background, but not much and I can't be a detective and ask them lots of personal questions. Even if I do, I am a beginner and I don't trust my own judgement. Spiritual teachers do not necessarily have a degree that I can see!
All I am saying is that they seems to be nice people, they claim that people need a teacher and can not do it alone, they are the only ones I could find and I don't know how to make sure they are the right teachers.
I appreciate any suggestion! Do you think I can go without a teacher or I may get lost? I have many unanswered questions.

satil,

Just ask your question...that's what I do. It almost always get answered one way or another.

For instance one time I was reading the book "Conversations With God" because it was recommended by a friend. I was a passenger on a long road trip at the time. I read in the book "God is everything", at that moment I took an infrequent break to rest my eyes and a vehicle pulled in front of ours and emblazened on the spacious back window in white paint was written "God Is Everything".

I was wondering if and how I should "love my enemies" and my question was answered in a rather miraculous and indisputable way via an amazing experience.

I was wondering about abortion and when the spirit enters the body. Months later after I asked the question, I saw a white glowing orb float down and enter a coworker's pelvis. I knew she was pregnant and she announced it the next week!

I have many other examples but I think general point is you can ask your questions and have them answered directly.

Also, everyone can be our instructor. Animals and children have been my greatest teachers!

This isn't to say I have anything against gurus, especially if you feel a deep connection with the person as if drawn to them like a magnet. Just saying you have inner wisdom you can rely on, so don't be intimidated!

[Samana]

Hi satil,

Be very careful about 'teachers' and always investigate carefully because there's no rush. You should also investigate the core teachings of the historical Buddha first and be wary of supersitious beliefs, teachings and practices.

from the late Ajahn Buddadasa;

Teachers Are Prison

Now we come to the prison called "ajahn" (teacher, master, guru), the famous
teachers whose names reverberate afar. In Burma there's "Sayadaw This," in Sri
Lanka there's "Bhante That," in Tibet there's "Lama So- and -so," in China
there's "Master Whoever." Every place has its famous teacher whose name is
bouncing around. Whether national, regional, provincial, or local, every place
has got its Big Guru. Then people cling and attach to their teachers as being
the only teacher who is correct; their teacher is right and all other teachers
are completely wrong. They refuse to listen to other people's teachers. And they
don't think about or examine the teachings of their own Ajahns. They get caught
in the "Teacher Prison." They turn the teacher into a prison, then get caught in
it. It's an attachment which is truly ridiculous. Whether a big teacher or a
small teacher, it's upadana just the same. They keep building prisons out
of their teachers and gurus. Please don't get caught in even this prison

http://www.suanmokkh.org/archive/arts/ret/prison1.htm

This is a good article by Ajahn Sumedho called "Attachment to teachers"

http://amaravati.org/abmtrial/docume...a/15attac.html


with kind wishes,

Aloka

Originally Posted by gentledove

satil,
you have inner wisdom you can rely on, so don't be intimidated!

Well I am not sure how reliable our inner wisdom is and that is why people need good teachers. You may believe your inner wisdom or heart is telling you the truth, but many people who commit crimes because of religion may feel the same way and never realize how wrong they are. You may have hallucination and interpret it as reality or you may be totally right, but how can you yourself tell the difference for sure?

I totally agree Aloka! It makes a perfect sense. That is what I am trying to avoid. But still we need good teachers like Dalai Lama that have more experience and insight for help, right? About the attachment to teachers, I totally agree.

Ask your questions. No teacher is perfect or a saint, so ASK!
As for trust... first trust yourself. Then give them the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.

Originally Posted by Enya

Ask your questions. No teacher is perfect or a saint, so ASK!
As for trust... first trust yourself. Then give them the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.

I like what you said a alot.

Originally Posted by satil

Well I am not sure how reliable our inner wisdom is and that is why people need good teachers. You may believe your inner wisdom or heart is telling you the truth, but many people who commit crimes because of religion may feel the same way and never realize how wrong they are. You may have hallucination and interpret it as reality or you may be totally right, but how can you yourself tell the difference for sure?

I can tell for sure by the effect they have on my life. I was healed and enlightened by my experiences. If they were hallucinations, then all I can say is...bring them on!=)

I have much more faith in direct experience than I do a book or someone else's beliefs.

The experiences I've had were very profound and unquestionable to me. For instance after the Light experience I wrote a fantasy book for my then 13 yr old daughter. One of the characters in the book was named Justin. He was 2 yrs old and had long curly locks. In the book a sonographer scanned him and found a Wilm's tumor (kidney cancer) in his right kidney. He almost died and had a near death experience, but was healed from that cancer.

Almost immediately after I finished the book I went to bring back a patient named Justin (I am a sonographer). I didn't think anything until I saw him, then I recognized him instantly. He was 2 yrs old and had long curly blond hair. The scan was for a right upper quadrant mass. I already knew what I was going to find...sure enough he had a Wilms tumor. I talked with his mother a few months later and she said he had recovered from the cancer.

I began that book one year before he was even conceived!

To demonstrate to you how rare Wilms tumors are, I've never scanned another child with a wilms tumor before or since and I've scanned thousands of children's kidneys. In addition, I know of no coworker who has scanned a Wilms tumor.

My experiences are meaningful and enlightening to me. I trust them as they've never misled me.

If you feel the inward guidance for a teacher, then please disregard what I say...You asked and so I shared my perspective that you don't need a guru to gain spiritual awareness.

As far as teachers, they are people we can learn from, and they are all around us...blessings all!

[Internal Queries]

i followed a guru for awhile and the most significant knowledge he ever provided me was ...

"Oz never did give nothin to the Tin Man that he didn't didn't already have."

I LOVE the title of your post. It might be more revealing than you might imagine. You’ve actually answered your own question, albeit perhaps inadvertently.

➣➣➣Trusting you spiritual teacher!↵↵↵ (My bolding.)

Increasingly develop confidence in trusting you to be in charge of your journey. TRUST your own emerging wisdom. When we begin to trust self we can make progress very quickly.

It can be productive to work w/ others, but keep in mind that even the best teacher have their strengths & weaknesses as they are also on their own continually changing journey. If they aren’t on a continually changing journey they aren’t growing & are stalled!

We are moving out of the era of the student/guru where one would be the devoted student to a single teacher for a lifetime. Explore ALLOT of teachers & their writings. When you begin to get the gut feeling that you’ve absorbed as much as you can from one, move on. You can honor what you’ve learned & experienced from that person. If they have a problem w/ this that doesn’t show wisdom. Explore whatever appeals to you. What works perfectly for one person may do nothing for another. There are many pathways one can take to get to the destination. All are equally valid.

✰✰✰ I can’t emphasize enough how you should rely on your gut instinct about what seems right or not. ✬✬✬ You don’t have to know it all to develop this TRUST in your instincts. We can develop this trust regardless of what level we are at in the present or what our goals are. We never know it all if we are continually growing & expanding. The more we learn the more we realize is out there for us to explore, experience, learn. Even when we get to the 12D (1-12D) level of reuniting w/ the Universe, we will then have the option to learn more by voluntarily deconstructing our energies & doing it (The creation process.) all over again.

It really jumps out at me that they ‘claim that people need a teacher and can not do it alone.’ Many have explored this territory successfully w/o a direct teacher. If you have questions about this statement I’m not surprised. Even if these teachers aren’t paid, to make this type of statement raises many questions for me. It might be valid that THEY couldn’t do it w/o a teacher, but to not realize that this has nothing to do w/ your journey gives me considerable pause.

In this day & age of accessing abundant information via the Internet, we can have at our disposal 100s, even 1000s of teachers. Expect to get tidbits that will fit together from many different people. Some may not be official mentor types. Of course, some information from the Internet will be nonsense or outdated, but this is really no different than being face to face. There are allot of 'teachers' who think they are very advanced when they have just begun to awaken.

You'll have no trouble sorting this stuff out. It really isn't all that difficult. Don't let it throw you if you encounter information by a teacher you have a good gut feeling about that doesn't make sense. We often encounter an article that will be the missing puzzle piece that will all of a sudden make previous information fall into place & make sense. Don't hesitate to put unfamiliar information in a Hmmm? category for as long as needed while it is under consideration. One can freely peruse new information w/o accepting it as a personal belief or rejecting it.

A site w/ abundant well written information about numerous subjects involving our journey is Suzan Carroll’s multidimensions.com. She has free downloads for her books. All of her newsletters are archived on the site. Read from the start for the best understanding.

You have more than sufficient ability to navigate this journey w/o getting lost. It is likely that you’ve accomplished much more than you might imagine. There is abundant help from others.

A suggestion- Start asking those questions you are curious about. There are probably others who also have the exact same questions & would like to read what others say about them.

Enjoy the journey as it is a journey of joy. Explore this territory fearlessly.