do you have a teacher?

[ranjana]

Hello all,

I am curious how many people in this part of the forum have a teacher, or guru, or what your thoughts are about having one or not...

I met a teacher when i was 15, in a meditation class in my local community centre (which was a total fluke- as she had never done a class like that before and never did again!) she moved back and forth from india and i travelled the world after high school, but our paths would always reconnect. i always knew she was teaching me the most important information about myself that i could ever learn, information that set me free from the terrible bonds of identified ego. (well momentarily at least! i am still practicing!!! hahahaha)

when she announced 2 years ago that she was moving back to india (she is very old now, probably her last move) I knew immediately that i would have to visit her and sit in her guru's satsang. I got to do just that last february, and i felt my wick of consciousness roaring with fire when i listened and spoke and meditated with her guru.

I never had been comfortable with the idea of a guru, i think having been born into western identification with total independence (which is the antithesis to how i perceive myself now!) but once I met him all those ideas fell away and i am just so thankful that I have these teachings to spur me on in life!!!!

What have your experiences with/without a teacher?

 

[zenzero]

Friend ranjana,
about GURU:
Have heard that if anyone has to have a guru, he will come.
have also heard that one needs a guru to be enlightened.
Have also read that one in a few million can be enlightened without any guru.

What is true and is is false, have no idea, nor bother about it.
To me, EXISTENCE itself is my guru as all my questions get answered by it sometime or the other. Personally do not make any effort to find someone, except read few books that I come across and allow existence itself to decide what it wants to get done through me.

Love & rgds

 

[zenzero]

Friend ranjana,
about GURU:
Have heard that if anyone has to have a guru, he will come.
have also heard that one needs a guru to be enlightened.
Have also read that one in a few million can be enlightened without any guru.

What is true and is is false, have no idea, nor bother about it.
To me, EXISTENCE itself is my guru as all my questions get answered by it sometime or the other. Personally do not make any effort to find someone, except read few books that I come across and allow existence itself to decide what it wants to get done through me.

Love & rgds

 

[Aupmanyav]

I abhor gurus. I prefer books. Upanishads, Srimadbhagawat Purana, Geeta, and Rama Charit Manas have given me whatever knowledge I have, and they were sufficient for me. I am an atheist advaitist hindu.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

Presently, I do not have a guru. I am sure that if the need arises for one, and if the causes and conditions are conducive for it, my guru will find me.

 

[Phasmid]

Nope, I'm my own teacher and that's just spiffing.

 

[Engyo]

I have several teachers. No guru - that isn't emphasized in the tradition and school I practice.

If I were to take ordination vows, I would need to select a master (and have him or her accept me as a disciple). However, the realtionship between master and disciple in our order is not like that with a guru, if I understand it correctly.

 

[Scarlett Wampus]

This guy.

Edit: He's not my guru, just a big influence and I have much love for him.

 

[3.14]

wel i have many teachers plato, monty phyton, schoolteachers,people i meet at the buss stop. most just don't know there teaching me

 

[ranjana]

However, the realtionship between master and disciple in our order is not like that with a guru, if I understand it correctly.

so how do you understand the relationship between master and disciple, and that of with a guru?

i think there are many forms of the teacher-student relationship, some helpful, some not. but many many people have an idea of what a guru is based on sensational stories. To me a guru is someone that lights your awareness with the truth of who you are. There is no devotion to the person, (although of course you see it, but that is a pitfall) only devotion to the realization of knowledge. which to me, means the knowledge that i am pure, free, forever, dependent on nothing, defined by nothing. i am pure existence, and yet here i am, a human. Which opens up a million questions and a million opportunities to understand what exactly is a human being and what exactly am I?

 

[ranjana]

wel i have many teachers plato, monty phyton, schoolteachers,people i meet at the buss stop. most just don't know there teaching me

wow :bow: to see the teacher in every person!!! what a gift!

 

[ranjana]

Friend ranjana,
about GURU:
Have heard that if anyone has to have a guru, he will come.
have also heard that one needs a guru to be enlightened.
Have also read that one in a few million can be enlightened without any guru.

What is true and is is false, have no idea, nor bother about it.
To me, EXISTENCE itself is my guru as all my questions get answered by it sometime or the other. Personally do not make any effort to find someone, except read few books that I come across and allow existence itself to decide what it wants to get done through me.

Love & rgds

i think its all true! but i also have no idea, only all three statements strike a chord as making sense to me. if i as existence, do not depend on anything, am not defined by anything, then why should I need anything like a guru? But if it has to be, then it will happen! if its not needed, it wont....

if i had never met my teacher (god forbid!) i dont know how many millions of years it would take me to begin to realize that i am pure existence.

maybe it is all karma, which i dont understand so much, only to know that what is unfolding in the here and now is preparing the seedbed for the garden of eden, which paradoxically was never not there!!! it always was and always will be and always is, so it only appears that I am working towards something, but that is what my human mind sees. The knower has never known non-existence, so why should it be bothered with getting anywhere? I know you know what I'm trying to say!!

 

[ranjana]

I abhor gurus. I prefer books.

I agree with you that the knowledge is already there, it was always there. It is only up to us to tap into it or not. But why do you abhor gurus? I have only met one, but he had a wonderful way to apply the knowledge to me, to my understanding. My teacher did the same, and made me examine my concepts to see where they arose from. Much like many on this forum!

 

[zenzero]

Friend ranjana,

maybe it is all karma, which i dont understand so much, only to know that what is unfolding in the here and now is preparing the seedbed for the garden of eden, which paradoxically was never not there!!! it always was and always will be and always is, so it only appears that I am working towards something, but that is what my human mind sees. The knower has never known non-existence, so why should it be bothered with getting anywhere? I know you know what I'm trying to say!!

Beautifully said. Agree. Personally too, have no idea but who cares. Just being here-now is so fulfilling, living in this garden of eden that do not bother even about enlightenment.

Love & rgds

 

[Aupmanyav]

But why do you abhor gurus?

Most are charlatans, most would talk about a God, a thing which is not there, most charge fee or take donations, most talk about superstitions (mantras, astrology, etc.), many are embroiled in sex rackets. They weaken the religion. Jesus weakened Judaism, Mohammad destroyed the tribal religion, Guru Nanak and his followers, and Dayanand Saraswati weakened hinduism. Many reasons to abhor Gurus. My line is 'Guru ko maro goli' (Shoot one who claims to be a guru). (Shyam Shadows - The Truth About Swami Shyam)

 

[doppelganger]

Everyone is my teacher. And I guess, by extension, nobody is as well.

 

[Aupmanyav]

There is a baul song (Baul - Mad - Bengali mendicants), I do not remember the name of the writer, nor the lines, I have tried to locate it and failed, but I do remember the purport:

Why do I need a guru,
the mountains have taught me,
the rivers have taught me,
Why do I need a guru.

the day has taught me,
the night has taught me,
Why do I need a guru.

the birds have taught me,
the fish have taught me,
Why do I need a guru.

the tiger has taught me,
the deer has taught me,
Why do I need a guru.

the flower has taught me,
the bee has taught me,
Why do I need a guru. Etc.

 

[Heneni]

Life is my teacher, but I have met one person on another forum who has greatly inspired me with his views. He joined this forum in 2004 but does not come here anymore.

I wouldnt say his my teacher, but i often read his posts and have a light bulb moment.

There are some pretty good posters on this forum as well. The most unlikelky people grab my attention.

Like minded people always attract each other. So im not sure teacher change our mind, but rather affirm what we already believe or reitterate what we feel we should believe. Sometimes they give us answers to questions we have, and it seems like when the time is right and you are really searching the answer allways comes to you in one way or another.

 

[methylatedghosts]

I try to learn something, or discover something everywhere I go, whether it be about my self or about the world as it is, or about other things entirely. Everyone has something to offer, and no one person is more qualified than another to teach something in this way. That's the beauty of being relative to everyone/everything else.

The trick is perhaps to see it.

The difference between a "guru" and everyone else, is just that you choose to focus your time with that person, as opposed to taking just one thing from another.

The first question I always try to ask myself, upon meeting a new person, is "What can I get from this?", not "what can I give?"

 

[zenzero]

Friend Aupmanyav,

Why do I need a guru,
the mountains have taught me,
the rivers have taught me,
Why do I need a guru.

the day has taught me,
the night has taught me,
Why do I need a guru.

the birds have taught me,
the fish have taught me,
Why do I need a guru.

the tiger has taught me,
the deer has taught me,
Why do I need a guru.

the flower has taught me,
the bee has taught me,
Why do I need a guru. Etc.

Do not take it exactly that way the difference is
Take everything as waking up call. even a birds call wakes me up as if in a deep deep sleep and the bird call wakes me up.
The distinction between guru and sishya remains when it is stated that have learnt from the tree/birds/mountain/river/etc. Here, everything is the same be it in this body or that body.
Love & rgds