Guru Yoga

If the purpose of having a guru is that your teacher can reflect yourself back to you, then people who do not have a living guru can get off track more than most. Wow! Who prides herself on clear thinking here? Let me try and bumble through this. I need to get this straightened out in my own mind.

As Lama Marut tells it, the goal of having a beloved teacher is not to soak up his every word and thought. It is not to lose yourself and your discernment. He tells of teachers in ancient India who taught their students to live a moral life. The students all loved his teachings and agreed with his every word. One day he asked them to go steal some food. Three went and one just sat there. When the three came back, he sent them away. "You have learned nothing from me." That was a test.

If we don't have a teacher, who is there to tell us that we have become prideful or judgemental in our practice? Who can reflect our own tendency toward spiritual pride? One thing he points to is the notion that if we can become aware enough, our teachers come to us by way of everyone we interact with. Sometimes we can see this after the fact."I shouldn't have lost my shit on that person, he was just being himself. I was the one who got weird. I'll try to do better next time." With the understatement of the century, I'll admit that I could use a little work in this realm, like when I go off on the Mormons or the Israelis, or other kinds of rapists. I know that the people historically who have been effective in bringing about positive change have done it through staying centered, staying moral, staying in their highest self. I picture Gandhi's fast that ended the British Empire in India. "No naked nigger is going to dictate our policy." said one British Parliamentarian. How wrong he was.

So, a good teacher can tell you to steal or not to steal and you will stay in your morality. You can't obey anything that is against your truth. That is the picture of the good student. Gandhi is a picture of a great teacher. With his morality so high, anyone sitting at his feet would have to be measuring his own actions against one of the highest living examples.

In Liberation Theology there is a term that states a "preferential option for the poor". I met a nun in El Salvador who was the living embodiment of this. she lovingly chose to live and work among the hardest hit humans that you can imagine. Her face was always beatific, her actions always loving, her smile curative. I loved her.