"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." I have found that this is perfectly true. I would add that a personal teacher is not necessary. It is helpful I am sure. My search was intense, but I was also a householder, so I did not go on retreats. I never felt I needed a personal spiritual teacher. I always felt that the seeking was guiding me and the light was in me. I needed to search, and I did. But I never felt I had to have a personal teacher. I needed to know what they said, how they lived, what they did, but this was available in books.
I did spend a lot of money on books and it was very rewarding. A book could be read and reread many times. I studied many great teachers. When the Internet arrived I got on forums. Sometimes a teacher would be reading the forums and I had several jump in and send me personal emails suggesting a book I was ready for. This is how I came to read Nisargadatta before he was well known.
When I tuned in and resonated with a book by a great teacher, I felt no separation. Reading them to me was like being there. When truth resonated, it filled my soul with joy, peace, and sometimes teachers. I remember reading Nisargadatta. He was there in the chair with me. When I read about his funeral there were tears streaming down my cheeks. Yet he had died years before.
Now we have the Internet and youtube. When I watch a batgap video, it is as if I am in the room with them. I feel no separation. How could there be? If they are speaking truth and I am attuned to truth, it will resonate. I have been to several lectures by David Hawkins. Most were free, but I did pay to go to an all day conference in Sedona to hear him. I did not get more out of the personal presence than I did out of his books.
If I have enjoyed a book by a current teacher I have never found that if I emailed them I did not get a response. I have called several and just talked. I did not pay to talk, and I have not felt inclined to talk to spiritual teachers that charge. I am not against a popular teacher charging. But there are teachers with just as much truth that do not.
The energy of truth is not limited by proximity to a body. Truth is everywhere and unlimited. If the text you are reading is true, or the video is full of truth, and you are open, truth will resonate in you and rain on you with grace. Bottom line. I don't think as a spiritual person, a seeker, that we can complain. There is so much that is free, you couldn't read it all! There are youtube videos by and about all the great teachers. If a person's search is genuine, there is enough available free spiritual material to gain the insight you need. Because there is also a lot of BS out there, you will learn discernment. If you are serious, that discernment will develop and you will not be led astray. We will get out of our search what we put into it. Period.
The energy of truth is not limited by proximity to a body. Truth is everywhere and unlimited. If the text you are reading is true, or the video is full of truth, and you are open, truth will resonate in you and rain on you with grace. Bottom line. I don't think as a spiritual person, a seeker, that we can complain. There is so much that is free, you couldn't read it all! There are youtube videos by and about all the great teachers. If a person's search is genuine, there is enough available free spiritual material to gain the insight you need. Because there is also a lot of BS out there, you will learn discernment. If you are serious, that discernment will develop and you will not be led astray. We will get out of our search what we put into it. Period.
4 comments:
I've been reading your blog since I watched your interview on batgap, your writing really strikes a chord with me, thank you.
Sean
Nice to hear from you Sean. Glad to hear there is resonance with you. Email me if you have any question you feel I might shed some light on.
Hi Maury,
Good post. I think that for some people though a teacher does have value - a good teacher has an energetic presence that suppresses one's stray thoughts and negativities and quietens one's internal "busyness", thus making it easier to work on oneself.
Great to see that you seem to have made it without the physical presence of one though; shows that one isn't really necessary.
Hi Graham, I am not opposed to having a guru or teacher to study with. Many, perhaps most who pursue enlightenment choose a teacher. I just happen to have an affinity for home study. Books and videos were my primary source. A few emails to teachers I thought were accessible was also of great benefit. I did talk to a couple on the phone. I just always had a strong intuition that the truth was in me. I just did not know how to access it, acknowledge it, or grasp it in a concrete way without outside help. The true teachers pointed it out to me as the presence awareness that is always here. Where else could it be. My path is not the Rx. It's just one of many. I didn't figure this out on my own. Many teachers helped. I honor all of them.
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