Spiritual Teachers

[Shivani Devi]

With the population of this planet exploding out to almost 8 billion and with more people being interested in 'all things spiritual' due to an increased population alone; there are many more 'gurus' and 'teachers' and 'adepts' and 'blog writers' and 'spiritually opinionated' people who think/know they have 'seen the truth' and who also think their way is the right/only way than EVER before, in the whole history of the human race!

A Youtube search will reveal them all...millions and millions of them!

I was interested in a special program to cure my neurological seizures, caused by a kundalini awakening.

I looked at maybe a dozen videos "repair damaged nerves NOW...let me tell you" and "100% guaranteed cure for epilepsy" and "Boost your brainpower to convey electrical signals better"...yep, I watched many of these.

What they were, were just spoken videos in length from 30-45 minutes each stating what causes the condition, stating about their own personal lives and how they have developed a multi-million dollar corporation from nothing and then at the END of it, tell you about their own CD/program that costs $100- $200 to 'cure' the 'incurable'...yep, the whole thing was a bloody sales pitch - a half-hour long advertisment that did nothing to address what the title claimed the content of the video could do!...what a load of unmitigated rubbish!

So, with all of these "gurus" and with all of these "teachers" and with all of the "fakes on the spiritual money-go-round"...a lot of this 'spiritual stuff' is all lumped together within the online proliferation of mumbo-jumbo existing about it: "my 'guru said THIS'...'well, MY guru said that YOUR guru is a fraud and not to believe it"..."Well, MY guru SAID that your guru would say that because your guru is jealous that MY guru has twice as many followers as YOURS does" and on and on it goes...is it any wonder that many people go "screw the whole LOT of it! It is ALL a load of bull! So, I'm just gonna do what I do and follow nobody!" and THEN, they are on the 'outer' with everybody who does follow a guru, a tradition or a paradigm.

Back in the past, in the 'dark ages' and without global communications...without the internet, without publishing companies, without getting your idea 'out there' for the masses to reap whatever rewards/benefits come your way, there was NONE of this! Teachers were teachers, students were students who either meditated, taught, did their own thing and that is how it was.

So, it becomes easy to see, by comparison, the true nature of Maya or Illusion at work in regards.

[hallow]

There are "real" teachers. But the real ones often not obvious in your face or about marketing skeems. Heres an example, i work with disabled people, its in my job description to teach them daily living skills. But! These people taught me more than i could ever teach them. I've learned to fallow my path, i am not following following blind i receive a lot of guidance along the way sometimes its obvious sometimes its not. I love life to much to completely shut out any part of it.

[Shivani Devi]

As unfortunate as it is, there are also many of us who have been very deeply conditioned and ingrained to believe that everything out there in the material world is only designed to make us part with either our money and/or spiritual autonomy and once this has its grips around one's psyche, there's no easy way of breaking free...especially when it is being constantly reinforced through mass marketing and advertisments.

I ended up putting adblock on my Google Chrome last night...At first, a few years ago, when Youtube allowed ads, there was only one at the beginning of a segment and if the segment went for longer than 30 minutes, there was one half way through.

Last night, I watched a video that went for 20 minutes and there were SIX!!! SIX advertisments!!! through it and that was enough for me to go "Right, that's IT...adblock time!"

I can imagine it getting to the stage where there'll be like 5 minutes of advertising, one minute of actual content, followed by another 5 minutes of advertising...followed by another minute of actual content...and also, ad-hackers will work around the blocking programs of the time...until people say "what a stupid thing the Internet is". lol

[hallow]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

As unfortunate as it is, there are also many of us who have been very deeply conditioned and ingrained to believe that everything out there in the material world is only designed to make us part with either our money and/or spiritual autonomy and once this has its grips around one's psyche, there's no easy way of breaking free...especially when it is being constantly reinforced through mass marketing and advertisments.

I ended up putting adblock on my Google Chrome last night...At first, a few years ago, when Youtube allowed ads, there was only one at the beginning of a segment and if the segment went for longer than 30 minutes, there was one half way through.

Last night, I watched a video that went for 20 minutes and there were SIX!!! SIX advertisments!!! through it and that was enough for me to go "Right, that's IT...adblock time!"

I can imagine it getting to the stage where there'll be like 5 minutes of advertising, one minute of actual content, followed by another 5 minutes of advertising...followed by another minute of actual content...and also, ad-hackers will work around the blocking programs of the time...until people say "what a stupid thing the Internet is". lol

know exactly what you mean! I pay very little attention to the garbage out there i just have no use for it. I know that way of thinking can sound cold but...... wish you the best.

[Busby]

Originally Posted by django

Still we do need some sort of guidance. As far as I can see ideally we would come to be guided from within, but that's a lot trickier to set up than just blindly submitting to a dominant spiritual opinion.

Each of us is completely equipped to find our individual ways to the reason we are here. At the moment there are 8billion individuals finding their way. All of them different. There are no guides, there are only those who profess their own experiences and look upon them as being the 'truth'.

[naturesflow]

Originally Posted by hallow

Can everyone you meet be a teacher in a way? I've learned from negative what not to be,do ,or think. From others mistakes they didn't even know they made.

Yep. Life is the teacher itself when and where we look and notice.

Some of us notice more, some less, some don't even notice, most just get on with their lives and live it.

Even as one might choose the path of spirituality, where they focus on things beyond this earth realm, life will keep pulling you back into it to live in some way and grow through what is here and now..

"I always wanted to be a guru. What I really mean is, that I just wanted my voice to be heard, accepted, listened to considerately, as if it mattered, was important to somebody, helpful to others. In a way, that is everyone's ideal, isn't it? But when that doesn't happen, 'guru' then becomes the derogatory term for the person who has apparently somehow prevented us from becoming a 'guru' ourselves."

~Jyotir, 2012

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by Kioma

"I always wanted to be a guru. What I really mean is, that I just wanted my voice to be heard, accepted, listened to considerately, as if it mattered, was important to somebody, helpful to others. In a way, that is everyone's ideal, isn't it? But when that doesn't happen, 'guru' then becomes the derogatory term for the person who has apparently somehow prevented us from becoming a 'guru' ourselves."

~Jyotir, 2012

Following on from this, I have always wondered what it is that makes two people who have the same knowledge and experience totally different in terms of 'guru status'.

They may write a book each...go on talk shows...have a few 'followers' and one will go on to further their 'guru career', making millions, writing more books, building temples and hospitals and having countless followers, whilst the other will flop and fail miserably.

[hallow]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Following on from this, I have always wondered what it is that makes two people who have the same knowledge and experience totally different in terms of 'guru status'.

They may write a book each...go on talk shows...have a few 'followers' and one will go on to further their 'guru career', making millions, writing more books, building temples and hospitals and having countless followers, whilst the other will flop and fail miserably.

The pioneer is the one who rarely gets the credit for the work. The ones who are recognized are the ones who take the work from the pioneers and market it. But thats ok, i would rather put the work in an find something. The marketer's also put there work in and no matter how the idea gets out least you can have pride in yourself in being the original one.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by django

I think there's a fine line between someone who genuinely has something that needs to be shared about spirituality and someone who just wants their opinion to be dominant.

Submitting to someone elses idea of what is right without thoroughly examining the basis of their teaching seems inherently wrong to me, I admire the Buddha saying to examine what he taught to see if it was true, not just to accept it, slavish acceptance is what the Christians and the muslims demand, I suspect Buddhists don't require slavish acceptance.

Exactly.

Still we do need some sort of guidance. As far as I can see ideally we would come to be guided from within, but that's a lot trickier to set up than just blindly submitting to a dominant spiritual opinion.

Indeed, as the former requires truthfulness, and latter mere obedience.