RE: Do We Need Spiritual Teachers? Or Can We Grow Alone?
In a sense we are all the spiritual teachers of each other.
We watch, listen and learn to others and take from it what we feel we need.
This enables us to follow our own hearts and guidance, yet have others to question in those times when we feel lost.
The viewpoints of many teachers is better than the many viewpoints of a single teacher. A tree does not grow from a single drop of water but gains nourishment from all that surrounds it.
Love and Reiki Hugs
RE: Do We Need Spiritual Teachers? Or Can We Grow Alone?
If your teacher is a Self-Realized Master, you don't need anyone else. Sadly, they are all too rare in this world.
RE: Do We Need Spiritual Teachers? Or Can We Grow Alone?
NoPatterns
If your teacher is a Self-Realized Master, you don't need anyone else. Sadly, they are all too rare in this world.
Can you name a few, including some who are alive still? [sm=banghead.gif] There are so many to chose from.
RE: Do We Need Spiritual Teachers? Or Can We Grow Alone?
To approach the subject from another way of looking at it, this is a part of my perspective. And it is not easy to convey to someone unless it has happened to you, as I'll try to show by analogy.
I don't know if this is the same for the gals, but I know it is for most guys, that when you are about 14 or 15 you tend to scoff with your friends at the idea of marriage. 'Marriage? Gawd, I'll never get married!' -- but then at some point in time and at some age, for most of us, Miss Right comes along, and we don't want anything but to be with that person. Perhaps we can't imagine not being with them. Or at least we'd certainly prefer to spend our lives with them. And we love them for who they are and for their qualities. Until we love for the first time, we can't really understand what that is - romantic love, in this instance.
Most people I know who have found a true Guru who was worthy of them, and whom they have stuck with, and who has transformed their lives greatly for the better were never looking for this before it happened. They often didn't expect it, and they may even have scoffed at the idea of having a spiritual Teacher.
If or when it does happen, it often comes out of the blue, and yet there's not really any doubt, even from early on. Of course, one cannot generalise, but this is a pattern I have seen over and over. It's not romantic love, and although Love is certainly there and a part of it, the relationship isn't only, or even primarily, about Love. But it is an event that comes often when least expected, and one's world is turned upside down. To put it another way, whole new vistas which one never suspected about how life can be, and how life can be lived, and what can be accomplished, open up to oneself. These are radically different to how one thought life was going to pan out. These new vistas make one's previous ideas or plans for one's life appear limpid and two-dimensional. So there's never any question of what one will choose to do.
Imagine meeting someone, or somehow coming into contact with someone (and for some, yes, the person may be in fact distant or even a past figure, but often it will be face-to-face in the here-and-now) - and you simply have never seen before anybody remotely like this. You never imagined that anybody could be so whole, so complete, such a humanitarian figure, or have such wisdom and virtual omniscience. They also love you and 100% selflessly are willing to help you - not only for your own sake, but so that you yourself might later help others. I could go on 😀 - but suffice it to say that such people do exist.
This experience truly is radical, which is why it cannot be imagined unless and until it happens. We can only imagine people of the calibre of those we already know in life. But it is possible to come into contact with somebody who just transcends all that we ever thought a human being could ever be or become. As one friend said to me that she instantly felt at such a moment, she felt first, 'I want to help that amazing person'. And then only later when she realised that it was possible: 'I want to be like that!'
I don't mean that they are the famous public names or figures one will find speaking at a New Age Fair. No way. And I don't mean that they have the most popular books in the bookstores under 'Spirituality', 'Religion', or 'New Age'. One or two might, but this is not for the most part the case.
If anyone should wish to get more of an idea of what it is like to find such a figure, I'd point to a book with such a true account (the names are changed ) in the book by the composer Cyril Scott, who wrote of his meeting and early experiences with 'Justin Moreward Haig' in 'The Initiate'. There are two further books to the series.
It is said, 'When the disciple is ready, the Teacher appears.' This is completely and undeniably true, I find. The Teacher will just about find you if you are earnestly ready, truly willing to tread that Path, willing to sacrifice for a good cause, and possessed of discer
RE: Do We Need Spiritual Teachers? Or Can We Grow Alone?
Thank you Venetian
I was sort of looking for a list of names and a run down of how they are as teachers, enlightened people etc, [sm=angry-smiley-035.gif]
When looking to buy anything major, I have always been told to get two or three quotes and references from past 'customers'.