Looking For A Spiritual Guru

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Relativism keeps the teacher's voice from being truly heard.

 

Spiritual Crap

When the student is poorly prepared,
The master may be rudely awakened!
For we are all, our own worst student,
And, beyond all doubt, nobody's master,
Setting ourselves up for a rude awakening,
When we assume we already have the answers.
Ask not what a guru can do for you,
But, what have you ever done for a guru?
Would you put up with your own spiritual crap?​

 

That actually supports my statement. Thank you.

 

Real Gurus are extremely rare. They don't grow on trees.

Then there are a different class of teacher. They are just people who have extensively studied and practiced their religious path. They become "senior students" who are capable of helping and guiding other students.

An academic analogy might be that Mahatma Gandhi was like Albert Einstein...a spiritual genius. But only a handful of people really got to join his ashram and have direct guidance from him. But, if you have a graduate student in math, even though he is not Albert Einstein, he can still help get you through freshman calculus.

That kind of thing.

And those folks? They are around. Also, not everywhere you look, but they are around.

Zen Buddhism had a bunch of those folks. That developed out of the 1950's, when soldiers who had been exposed to Japanese culture, developed an interest in Zen Buddhism.

So, there was John Daido Loori, who ran Zen Mountain Monastery. He passed, but I am the sure the institution is still quite good.

I met him before he passed. Very very very nice man. Strong, wise and just a human truly filled with love for other people.

Roshi Bernard Glassman was another one. He also passed. There are a lot of videos of him online.


Generally, if you take a retreat at a Zen community, or at a Trappist (Catholic) community of monks, you will find an inspiring place and likely meet inspiring people.

They could be an aid to folks, a guide.


Finding an actual true saint, a real Guru...that is not that common. But we do the best we can.


If we pray and meditate and practice the spiritual disciplines daily, we are going to get results.

Beyond that, as far as daily life problems, the discipline of counseling can help a lot. I am not sure why, but there are a number of counselors who are actually practicing Buddhists. That is a nice mix.

So, if you do good, solid daily spiritual practices and do some counseling...you are going to get some good and accurate guidance. And then, run some problems by some members of an actual, long standing spiritual monastery.

 

The Buddha said that "spiritual friends" were the whole of spiritual life, because such friends encourage one another in their practice. This is why sangha (or congregation) is so important. Whether the Zen Precepts or Matthew 25:36, spiritual practice is always in relation to our interactions with other people; they can't be practiced in isolation.
A teacher is simply another "spiritual friend" who's been walking the same path as you for a bit longer than you have.
May you transcend all suffering and know peace.