[inavalan]

Originally Posted by Raven Poet

Hello SF family! It's been a while!

I've come to a conclusion that seems fitting for me - that spiritual leaders/gurus are helpers but ultimately we have to do the work ourselves.

When I first began nurturing my spiritual self, I assigned absolute power to the spiritual leaders who came my way. Big disappointment when they turned out to be human! I learned (for me) that this is a "normal" phase in SD (spiritual development) - assigning absolute power to spiritual leaders. I understand that yes, there are people who have put in more time/effort into SD and can offer guidance or coaching.

But the big "aha" for me has been that ultimately, my SD is up to me. I have to be the one to make the connections and learnings for my own understanding. I've been disempowering myself by giving too much authority to others instead of doing the work myself and learning about who I am and what this life means to me.

When I first came to this conclusion I felt disillusioned and defeated. But now I realize that this is just part of my own SD.

Can anyone else relate? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!

I want to make two points:

1. I believe we can't develop spiritually using our intellect. Intuition, inspiration, imagination can help.

2. I believe we should follow neither gurus nor dogmas because there is no way to pick the right one. The only way is for each one to turn inwards and tap into their own inner-source-of-knowledge-and-guidance, leaving aside all their beliefs and expectations of what they'll find.