RE: Do We Need Spiritual Teachers? Or Can We Grow Alone?
A slight tangent from the mainstay of this discussion - we can indeed 'have a teacher present yet they may do nothing but observe our growth'. This is something I personally experience frequently. There comes a time when the young birds need to fly on their own - at which times the parents can do nothing but stand back and watch. We are all walking a path, we may get help to a point - but when it comes to the exams... we're on our own. After these exams, come more lessons in life, then more exams... it seems (for me at least;)) to be an endless procession forwards in learning and achievement. The only single inhibitor being my consciousnes now and again, taking too much control - and thus slowing everything right down...
Sol.
RE: Do We Need Spiritual Teachers? Or Can We Grow Alone?
The only single inhibitor being my consciousnes now and again, taking too much control - and thus slowing everything right down...
That is so true, Sol. We can have everything spread before us, all the tools and knowledge at our command and still foul up! A year or so ago a lady on a course kept insisting that I was being held back by my teacher...said she was bad for me and so on... I kept my peace, staying the course and afterwards, informed her that the only person who ever held me back... was me!!
moonfeather
RE: Do We Need Spiritual Teachers? Or Can We Grow Alone?
So often I hear of similar experiences; so often people who ‘think they know better’ – or ‘believe they are genuinely teaching or instructing others of the true way’… (or words to that effect) and yet so often the present pupils (Chelas) actually know more than their tutors…
However, it isn’t necessarily the 'instructors' fault – they are acting at the limitations preset by their own consciousness. When we falter and fumble with ‘attention’, ‘focus’ or ‘concentration’… we lose our grip on the developing thoughtform of the moment, this has a knock on effect of distraction by consciousness to ‘other things’. Things that consciousness believes to be worthwhile, yet in all honesty – they are highly unlikely to be so.
So what to do? How do we maintain our fixed discipline to the path? I guess there must be a myriad of answers, different for everyone and each experience to be had.
To my mind, it is the ascension away from ordinary consciousness to the awareness of the Higher Self (more accurately ‘True Self’) that is the goal, whatever clothes it wears. It is this which is, above all else in importance. So, when I am beset by trials and tribulations, problems and dilemmas… I try to call this thought to occupy my mind, and usually it helps me to mentally ‘rise above’ the ‘attention grabbing consciousness’ and I relax. The problems never seem to be so tough from this higher level.
Sol.
RE: Do We Need Spiritual Teachers? Or Can We Grow Alone?
Dear Venetian,
An interesting and thought-provoking topic! Love your answers particularly, Sol.
Surely all of life is about learning? Even an aboriginal tribe member, without textbooks (which is what I think of as my teachers) learns by the wisdom passed down from those who went before. I always think, that if others have already trod the path (nearly always more successfully than I could do myself) and have left us a map and a guidebook, then why should I waste time getting lost and learning lessons on my own when I could learn from others? Why re-do what has already been done?
After all, there have been individuals, like for instance Sir Isaac Newton, who made breakthroughs in understanding the laws of mathematics (and after all, these laws have always existed so therefore, any of us could access them, in theory) and wrote down his discoveries for posterity, so surely it is so much quicker and easier to learn from those who have already made the breakthrough?
My greatest teacher is Jesus not just his words, but particularly his works (plus other inspired experiences and wisdom in the Bible). My second greatest teacher is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, a book which unlocks the healing power of the Bible and explains the divine laws behind the power and authority that Jesus, the Hebrew prophets and the disciples demonstrated.
The reason I (and others) find such inspiration and practical learning from these teachers is that they were all taught by God, through inspiration and revelation, through a linking to the divine Mind. That is the only teaching I want to learn from. Human teachers may pass on much wisdom, but much of it is also human opinions. My benchmark of what is true is what can be demonstrated and proved in our own personal experience not just comforting words and promises about the future after the change called death, but practical difference in every aspect of our lives, here and now.
With my textbooks, I then need to go out and prove for myself that these teachings are true, by being able to demonstrate that this power was not simply bestowed on just a few individuals a few thousand years ago (or, as some like to maintain, simply fairy stories.) No good having the recipe for a cake unless you get the ingredients together and bake it! I also have individuals, like my Christian Science teacher, who have much deeper understanding than I and who enlighten and inspire me, but they will always tell me to go back to our textbooks for my inspiration and guidance.
Of course, how do you know that what you read or who you learn from are true teachers? Well, to go back to Jesus again and his words of guidance "By their fruits ye shall know them." If someone is taught of God, Spirit, then they can only love and bless.
I am forever being told by others (particularly those who come under the umbrella "New Age") that they dont need to read anything, that they have their own personal god, that is all given to them direct etc. Well, I rejoice with them if that really is the case, but I have to ask how effective their healing work (my benchmark of truth) is, without accessing the wisdom and inspiration that has been handed down over the centuries.
The bottom post of my "Healing through the Christ Consciousness" thread is a wonderful instantaneous healing of total blindness caused by an atrophied optic nerve in a woman who was sixty-seven years of age. The author I quote from was a lady called France Thurber Seal and she writes:
"I had been so constantly busy many hours of each day, that, while I read some of the books (she means the Bible and writings of Mary Baker Eddy) and studied the Sunday Lessons, it seemed difficult to lose my self and lay aside the problems of the practice and the church long enough to go into the mountain to refresh my thought, as did the Master of the hills of Galilee. After a time there came to me a sense of barrenness, together with spiritual hunger that could be appeased only by deep draug
RE: Do We Need Spiritual Teachers? Or Can We Grow Alone?
Agreed Sol coming home to 'true self' and being true to self is essential.
Agreed Judy "we can grow alone, but with the RIGHT spiritual teachers, we can soar!"
GOD provides the best teachers and by being true to self we able are be in direct communion and instruction with those heavenly teachers. Some say this is doing it alone, those that know say I am never alone.
Love beyond measure
kim xx