How To Find A Teacher (Guru)

[Aknaton]

To find your true Guru is easy, just ask the Creator... He knows best. That's all.

[Starman]

Yoga is the alchemy of the east while alchemy is the yoga of the west. Spiritual alchemy is the esoteric science of transforming base metal into gold, and this is what is attempted in most western nations, but it is generally done materialistically, while ”yoga” is a Sanskrit word that literally means “union.” Most notably union with God.

In my opinion, generally, western nations are more oriented towards the outside while eastern nations are more oriented towards the inside. I have lived all over the world and have found that people in eastern countries, like India, Sri Lanka, etc., have and easier time accepting gurus and meditation than do people in western countries, like the U.S.

But people in western countries, like the U.S., do rely on religious clergy, priests and ministers, for religious and spiritual teaching; so their priests and ministers are similar to a guru. They rely on religious clergy to help them in their relationship with God. To me this is no different than a person who may follow and eastern practice seeking a guru to help them with their spiritual pursuits.

I would not tell a Christian that they do not need to go to church, or they do not need to read the Bible. I would not tell a Buddhist that they do not need to ever see a monk. I believe that some people need a guru and some do not. I strongly feel that God lead me to my guru, and when it came time for me to leave my guru, the divine also bought me to that place as well. Not everyone needs, or wants, a guru; it is a personal choice, but that does not mean that no one needs, or should want, a guru.

[FairyCrystal]

I've always found the right teachers for me by looking from intuition. When you're aligned you come across them when searching or even when not searching. I found many via the internet, either by going through these startpages that we used some 15 yrs ago, intuitively picking the right links.
Or I happened upon them via an article, bumping into a YouTube clip, a post from a friend on social media and so on.
Sometimes also by doing a workshop somewhere and hearing about someone there.
When your tuned in Spirit always finds a way to guide you to the right ones for you at that moment, whether online or in real life.

[Altair]

It's not for everyone. I think it takes a certain personality type to actually see someone as a ''guru''. While I can accept good advice from others, that is not the same as actually surrendering to someone else. That's something that I won't do, not even if it could reveal to me the biggest secret of the universe. I do not bow before a human, be it a guru, a president, or a king. In my country we also have a narrow distance between leaders and followers, and nobody is free from criticism. I wouldn't want to have it any other way.

I would question and challenge and if anyone tells me to abstain from all of that, and that questioning is ''ego'' than that's a huge red flag for me. Humanity improves things by asking questions and experimentation. If they (''guru's'') share useful practices and ethics than we can of course learn from that.

[Miss Hepburn]

Great thread Shivani!
This might interest some people:?

Before D. Trump became president - I read part of a book of his.
I learned an imp thing - Go to the one in charge.
Don't ask for a discount from someone that has no authority to give it...
Go to the top person...don't even waste time.
That being said..
Whether exact or not the point is made in the (possible) story of Vivekananda searching for a guru.
Many of us have heard diff versions.
So he asked every guru 1 question,
" Have you seen God and can you show me God?"
I won't go on with the story...but, Ramakrishna, sweeping the floor -
was the only one that said, "Yes".

If I want to learn surgery - I want to be taught by the best surgeon.
Period.

I don't want a mantra,
I don't want to learn diets and rituals, tho they are nice. I don't want nice.

My 2 cents on the subject.

Another 2 cents: SURE, you can get off the train in Paris all by yourself and even have a map of the city.
BUT, how much better to have someone that lives in Paris to guide you -
to the shortcuts and past the bad areas of town...and even better
into the exclusive Clubs! See?

[Jyotir]

A common discussion here, invariably introducing a few subsequently established camps:

1) the (authentic) master is a necessary or a very significant expedient.
2) I am my own master
3) you don’t need a master (see #2)

All representing different needs at different times in the broad scheme of evolution and therefore all valid per individual exigency; the OP relating to #1. Nevertheless there are some general trends.

Originally Posted by Aknaton

To find your true Guru is easy, just ask the Creator... He knows best. That's all.

Yes, it’s as simple as that. Also @ Miss H's post, same deal.

Create the inner necessity for God…which is the next step and response to God’s Grace in providing awakening as a recognized opportunity. One then becomes God’s necessity by responding to that call. On a practical level this means that the master will find you - even though it appears that the inverse is the case, but that is the ego perception, e.g., “I did it”. But key is that a sincere response is necessary in order to continue the dialogue that real spiritual practice is - otherwise there is no need for a master (you're doing fine without them) - and therefore conversely, that the master has no need for you too!

Why make it complicated? Well…

Many do not take the offer after awakening - or at least not immediately - often engaging in an intervening process of varied duration, choosing to remain comfortably within a post-awakened dream-limbo of intellectual complacency and self-satisfaction which may last for lifetimes. It’s like staying in bed after the alarm goes off.

They interpose all kinds of mental/intellectual reasoning as pre-qualifications and rationales for not pursuing a concentrated and accelerated spiritual life represented by the necessity of a teacher - social, moral, ethical, legal, conceptual conditions, restrictions, prohibitions, limitations - primarily because still in the (unconscious) thrall of the sovereignty of ego which is the source of all those qualifications, and will not submit to such a scheme, seen as too much of a sacrifice of those conditional expectations and demands.

The problem is that by pulling back-on the covers, by clutching tightly to present conditions, we cannot have access to and enter into what is essentially unconditional - a daunting hurdle for the inherently conditional ego-mind.

So reasoned conditions and rationales are employed to justify essentially what is a fear of relinquishing control, and the risk of accessing the presently unknown, in defence of, and deference to what is well-known. That includes a fear of that scary lack of control that a master (to the ego) seems to embody and represent as exclusive or dominant principle.

Of course that fear of phantoms foolishly misses the real import of the relationship - , i.e., that the (true authentic) master is really a proxy and fully operative symbol for, facilitator and mediator of the individual’s highest self which supersedes the false little-self of ego-mind presently running the show. As such, the master effectively represents God in this process that unfortunately although these rationales and preconditions all make perfect logical reasonable sense, they actually contravene the process, thus becoming barriers to approaching that which is inherently unconditional. Therefore, “I don’t need a master, because___,____,____,___.”

Meanwhile, the master isn’t going anywhere. They’re just waiting for a sincere and coherent response to this challenge of opportunity offered, and for many this is a transition that often takes much time and often requires all kinds of trials, tribulations, boredom, self-induced confusion, imbalances, resistance, and frustration - as part of an oscillation that eventually leads to the required orientation, a narrowing of focus and importantly, surrender to the unconditional.

~ J

[Starman]

Love what you shared Miss. Hepburn

It is usually beginners in meditation, or those who know nothing about meditation, who seek out the help of a guru.
They don't know about intuition or how to quiet their mind. I knew nothing about meditation, or my inner teacher,
when I decided to follow a guru. And there did come a point when I no longer needed the help of a guru. I feel blessed
to have had the help of a guru; it did help to facilitate my inner journey. But I do acknowledge a guru is not for everyone.
The incredible thing I enjoyed about having a guru were the other devotees of that guru. We all hung around with each
other, almost daily. It was a great support system on the path, much better than just online support.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Starman

Love what you shared Miss. Hepburn

The incredible thing I enjoyed about having a guru were the other devotees of that guru.
We all hung around with each
other, almost daily.
It was a great support system on the path, much better than just online support.

Yes, Holy Company - instead of the bozos around me now!!!!

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by Starman

It is usually beginners in meditation, or those who know nothing about meditation, who seek out the help of a guru. They don't know about intuition or how to quiet their mind. I knew nothing about meditation, or my inner teacher, when I decided to follow a guru. And there did come a point when I no longer needed the help of a guru. I feel blessed to have had the help of a guru; it did help to facilitate my inner journey. But I do acknowledge a guru is not for everyone.
The incredible thing I enjoyed about having a guru were the other devotees of that guru. We all hung around with each other, almost daily. It was a great support system on the path, much better than just online support.

Indeed, I followed a guru back in the 1970s/1980s, with a strong emphasis on long hours of meditation. Devotion to the guru plus the spiritual companionship of other disciples and the sense of shared purpose pushed me to go far beyond anything I might have managed on my own. I have followed my own path since, but I have never had the same level of commitment and discipline as in those days. There are times when we are helped by an external guide, there are times when we have to rely on our inner guide.

I see a difference between being a teacher and being a guru, although people may flock round a teacher and consider that teacher as their guru. For me, if you are sitting in a hall with hundreds of others listening to someone talk about spirituality, then that person is a teacher. Whether it be Rajneesh, hugging Amma, Ravi Shankar, or any other well-known teacher, if they are not able to guide the devotee to spiritual realisation then they are a teacher, not a guru. While there are a lot of teachers, there seems to be very few genuine gurus.

So what is a guru? I do not consider a guru as only needed for those new to meditation. I suggest that a true guru is someone who has attained spiritual realisation and can guide others to that same state, understanding the processes and pitfalls along the journey. This implies a close relationship between the guru and the disciple. The guru knows where the disciple is at, and guides him or her accordingly. The disciple trusts the guru and obeys the guru's instructions. Nowadays this is not a popular idea. Too many teachers have been discovered to have feet of clay, especially when it comes to the opposite sex. The idea of obedience is associated with being brainwashed. The idea of surrender to the guru is alien to many who wish to assert their independence. But it is this illusory independence which is holding people back from realisation. Eventually the disciple attains the same state as the guru, and may then become a guru to others. But such gurus are rare.

Anyway, while we are reminiscing on teachers of the last century, let us not forget Neem Karoli Baba and Anandamayi Ma.

Peace.

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by FairyCrystal

I've always found the right teachers for me by looking from intuition. When you're aligned you come across them when searching or even when not searching. I found many via the internet, either by going through these startpages that we used some 15 yrs ago, intuitively picking the right links.
Or I happened upon them via an article, bumping into a YouTube clip, a post from a friend on social media and so on.
Sometimes also by doing a workshop somewhere and hearing about someone there.
When your tuned in Spirit always finds a way to guide you to the right ones for you at that moment, whether online or in real life.

This is also true for me. I don't seem to have any problems in that regard and all it takes, is being ready to reach out and make the connection...however, if people are anything like me, they will put it on their "to do" list and it stays there for some time.

About Gurus and famous people...

I read a while ago where Steve Jobs had an Indian Guru...Steve Jobs' Guru was Haidakhan Babaji. What an amazing person! Both of them were...and Haidakhan Babaji would be "my type of Guru"...it is a shame that all the best people (with exception) lead a very, very bright but brief existence here.

There are a few teachers on YouTube that I respect deeply...I like Igor Kufayev, Sally Kempton, Swami Sarvapriyananda, Pema Chodron, Gabor Mate...many others out there who talk the good talk and walk the good walk and all I need to do is learn how to drop the concept of a "digital barrier" which seems to separate people under the premise of bringing them closer together because it seems that my dial for being able to "tune into energy fields" is broken or faulty...I haven't been able to do that for quite a while now.

There are quite a few inspiring documentaries on the lives of the great teachers of the last century.....

There is one called "Jnani"...all about the life of Ramana Maharishi:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hVYv9ktilQw&t=1s

There is another called "Ma & Me" - a documentary about Anandamayi Ma:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ALmrh3mjBy8&t=16s

Now, if there ever was a beautiful, shining soul...that would be Anandamayi Ma....she was just slightly before my time though...but I would have sat at her feet..most definitely!

I am not suggesting in this thread in any way that people need a teacher/Guru...not at ALL.

Some do, some don't and it isn't a "one size fits all" thing...but I also cannot help but feel, for those who say "I got this myself", what part of them doesn't believe they require spiritual instruction...could that be their ego?

I will reply to more posts as the day progresses and I thank all for their wonderful contributions which are warmly appreciated.