The Way and the Guideposts
Last Friday we had the last evening of the series of evening topics on Meditation – Experiment and Experience. 11 Persons had come, and again there was another quality of atmosphere: Somehow a kind of group spirit had formed, there was a familiarity which had not been there before. I spoke about The Importance of a Teacher on the Path:
Without guideposts or a map you can easily get lost on the way. (See the blogpost on Guru Phobia or the Need for Guideposts.) The wisdom teachings give us an itinerary of the journey. And a teacher helps, gives information and support.
A teacher who knows the way and can explain it to others is called „Guru“ in the East. Today the term is totally distorted. For us, a guru is a wrong teacher and a deluder. That is why many don’t accept any teacher and prefer making their own experiments; out of ignorance they make many detours. Some therefore pretend that teachers or masters of wisdom don’t exist.
A teacher or a master becomes visible for those who are seriously seeking to realise the self. Many are searching in vain, since they are not willing to take the first small steps to right living. We spoke about true and wrong teachers and how to distinguish between them, about guidance from within and about experiencing the presence of the Great Ones. This can give us help from sources which we cannot touch by ourselves.
It is important to get an outline of the journey and understand the goal, but then work with the next step lying ahead of us:
“Man can overcome all hindrances if the goal of his journey is clear to him. When he sees the Light in the distance, he will pay no attention to the hardships of the journey. He will not count the steps to this Light, for it shines also in his heart.”
(Supermundane III, 634)
Dawn on Mount Rigi, Switzerland, Summer Solstice 1999
