Some people who can cover up their mistakes get promoted.
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Do People Require Personal Guides?
- Thread starter SalixIncendium
- Start date
Some people who can cover up their mistakes get promoted.
Reminds me of:
"The coward believes he will live forever
If he holds back in the battle,
But in old age he shall have no peace
Though spears have spared his limbs"
There's much to be said for cowardice.
It enables old age. Peace is optional.
Last edited:
stvdv
Veteran Member
Yes, but some of us seem appointed, destined or unlucky enough to be guides for others. Some of us must blunder through every hornet's nest and step in every pile of dung in order to help others. Yes, people do need guides. We don't always get them, but we do need them.
"But?" you might ask "What hornet's nests? What piles of dung? Don't we live mostly in cities and drive mostly in automobiles?" To which I must agree. Yes, we mostly do. I am using a figure of speech.
No. it's not required, but it is helpful in certain circumstances. There is wisdom in listening to the wise, and if it's personal, all the better. Most people, when growing up, benefit from advice given to them by their parents.
Purely intentional.
People who work hard and demonstrate leadership potential get promoted.
I've promoted many. Every one of them has made mistakes.
Interesting question.
It seems to me that people do in fact need guidance, and usually but not always receive it in some form. There isn't really much of a choice; people require at the very least the ability to learn a common language and make mutual interest agreements.
Very often that role is filled to a significant degree by family and close friends, but not always. Some social environments expect some form of creed group to fill the gaps or even to be the first choice.
A significant complication is that people often don't like to talk very frankly about these matters, even to themselves. It is not unusual for strong, difficult feelings to be involved and to cause significant internal friction in closely connected groups.
Apathy isn't a goal.
I've been promoted many times. Every one of them a mistake.
Apathy is a goal the way atheism is a religion.
I only said that cuz it sounds clever.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
That depends if personal guides need personal guides and their personal guides need personal guides.
In fact, I'll need a personal guide to personally guide me through what I just said regarding personal guides.
I mean... This is how we have always learned as a species.
We've learned as a species by putting our fingers in fire, getting burned, putting our fingers in fire, getting burned and so forth
In Computer pseudocode for clarity
Until learning happens:
put finger in fire
feel the burn
That is certainly one way. We do often learn the hard way.
What makes something a personal guide? Depending on the answer to that question is it possible to not have such guides?
I question that a bit. We don't come into this world alone. We don't journey through it alone. And we don't finish that journey alone either.
I question that a bit. We don't come into this world alone. We don't journey through it alone. And we don't finish that journey alone either.
I have no need for a guru or personal master as is common place in Hinduism, but then again I'm not a Hindu.
I believe we all need others to help us along the journey but that's quite a different proposition to having a personal guru.
PearlSeeker
Well-Known Member
It depends on the area of life.
If we're talking about spirituality then I think we should not submit to a guru/teacher. Blind faith in anyone or anything doesn't lead to truth. I sometimes listen to them because they have something valuable to say. The have magnetic charisma, they can be good talkers but they are not allknowing or infallible.
Actually I am very dissapointed because famous gurus and "enlightened" people have been overhyped. Too often they turned out to be more interested in money, fame, luxury, drugs... and the worst of all: sexual abuse of their students than helping people. Or sometimes a teacher himself was too naive and optimistic about his own gurus and teachings... See link:
The 100 Year Experiment in Eastern Spirituality
DharmaCatLamp
Member
I think we live in an age where most information can be gathered without having a personal guru. It's not like it was thousands of years ago when you would have to find some guy or gal to teach them by seeking them out. Hell you can practically trip over the amount of gurus we have online.
Here is the thing, I don't think any guru really knows anything other than what worked for them. Any guru you run across will tell you what they think the truth is and try to get you to follow them to at least a certain point. To me this doesn't really work very well because different people will interact with the divine in different ways. M<y Kali worship and philosophy might work for you or it might not. Maybe instead of going to my school of thought you need something vastly different.
Then on top of that guru are ultimately human and therefore fallible. I'm not really sure if avatars are actually a thing. I think people like Ramakrishna had a great deal of wisdom but the idea that he was anything other than a man very close to the divine mother doesn't really sit quite right with me. There are also people I love like Thich Nhat Hanh for example that I think have a lot of wisdom but in their own way posses a certain naivete about the world around them. When I finish Thich's book and he said that the people in apartheid South Africa could just work it out if they talked I couldn't help but think that was more than a little silly.
That isn't even getting into the abusive gurus. Plenty of spiritual gurus have been more than a little abusive to the people around them. The emphasis on gurus in certain paths has lead to numerous damaging instances across history. Especially if those paths think you shouldn't question your guru. Crazy wisdom has been used as an excuse for all sorts of abuse in the past.
Look if you think you need a teacher go ahead and get one. I just refuse to give myself completely over to anyone. These days I think you can get by without one. This combined with my general lack of need for a spiritual community just makes it impossible to really have a guru. If I am honest with myself all my major spiritual and philosophical developments happened when I was by myself and mulling things over. They happened when I took the time to look at multiple sources and my own experiences of the world to come to a conclusion. In broad strokes I might think the Buddha has a lot of wisdom for example but I disagree with him enough to know I could not be one of his sangha. I don't think that works for everybody but hey it's working for me thus far.