Guru Model

[Guest guest]

This may not be the time or the place for this, but I came across it and it

would be relevant to some, controversial to others, but food for thought for

all:

The guru model works its spell on an immature mind not a seasoned

one. Yes, we will still follow gurus, teachers, prophets, masters

long into the future (it is an epigenetic predisposition), but

hopefully with one important caveat: the gurus are NOT perfect. We

finally realized that lesson during the Protestant Reformation

(remember the Pope is not infallible!) when it came to Christianity

and guessed what blossomed because of it? SCIENCE.

 

Now the guru world must undergo its purge, its protest movement, its

Lutheran revelations. And when the dust settles, mysticism can be

divorced from myth, masters acknowledged as mortal, and enlightenment

understood as progressive (not permanent) insight. Until that is done

we live in a truly CON-fused time, where rationality flirts with

silliness and sincere devotion with gross gullibility. The Guru is

DEAD. And, to echo Nietzsche, we have killed him. We killed him by

taking his turban off, by shaving his beard, by seeing him naked. And

what did we find? Ourselves.

 

The guru is a poser and, as along as we make pretenses about who and

what we are, we will hide behind these projected "masks," these

guises in which we cloak our weaknesses and our fears. The guru is

dead and we killed him.

 

But fear not, we will invent another guru in his absence, just as

Voltaire warned that man would invent religion even if none existed.

Why? Because we have to. We cannot stand the silence of our own being

when confronted with the silence of the universe screaming back at

us. Lonely creatures looking for a way out, for a meaning, for a

purpose, for a father.... And the guru is merely us projecting all

that we wish and desire upon another. God forbid we do cast such

projetiles upon our own being. We couldn't withstand the intensity;

we couldn't withstand the responsibility.

 

But what we couldn't withstand the most would be our severe

disappointment. Because no matter what, our "image" would be less

than our "reality." Far easier to shatter the image of another than

to shatter the image of ourselves. And in pieces and in ruins we will

find our fallen gurus and like shattered shards from a reflecting

glass we will once again see our own face, our own psyche, our own

soul. And in those broken pieces the abyss awaits us--infinite,

eternal, unknowing.

 

The guru is a temporary fix, but based upon an eternal need. For that

reason, dead gurus don't decompose. They resurrect in new forms: from

Zorasterianism to Judaism to Christianity to Mormonism to Scientology

to Eckankar to Radhasoami.

 

The killer of the guru kills his idealized self and along with it any

hopes of a dreamy paradise. There is only one solution to all of this

yin and yang dread, but the honest guru (oxymoron alert) is rare. How

many gurus would commit the image suicide that is necessary to

liberate the disciple from his "idea fixe"?

 

It is a riddle of course. Because any guru that would allow such an

image in the first place has already betrayed the disciple.

 

The guru image is suicide, a cutting off of one's own integrity,

one's own power, one's own responsiblity.

 

And, yet, the guru image is nowhere outside. It is part and parcel of

our own neurological make-up.

 

We are both the disciple and the guru and until we stop

distinguishing the two we will languish in the half-way house for the

devotionally mad. And in that madness we will split the universe into

two and our own psyche into compartments.

 

Why?

 

Because our very need to understand, to grasp, to model is itself a

communicative lie.

 

A bubble's efforts will always be exploded when it tries to encompass

the ocean.

 

Pop! Burst! Break!

 

Broken

 

from a post by Dave Lane,

re-posted here: Avram, of course

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Ammachi, sprose1@a... wrote:

> The guru is a poser and, as along as we make pretenses about who and

> what we are, we will hide behind these projected "masks," these

> guises in which we cloak our weaknesses and our fears. The guru is

> dead and we killed him.

>

>We cannot stand the silence of

> our own being when confronted with the silence of the universe

> screaming back at us. Lonely creatures looking for a way out, for

> a meaning, for a purpose, for a father....

 

This is an awesome statement. Resembles J Krishnamurti in the

sentence, and thought structure (I know u said David Lane is the

author). Recommended reading for every sadhak: Commentaries on Living

by Jiddu Krishnamurti. WARNING: It is a very disturbing jnani-outlook

to life, very different than how a normal bhakta would look at it.

(IMHO, it is different, but not fundamentally so).

 

In our setup, Amma has also consistently said that what matters is how

well we cultivate the 'inner Amma'. It is the outer Amma's gentle hint

to her beloved children to go beyond the form of the outer Amma and

internalize Her in us.

 

She has also told us that if She removes all the veils right now, then

we will not be able to withstand the intensity of Her true nature.

 

And what do you think the veils are? the pose of the Guru (our

projection of who she is INSTEAD OF WHO SHE REALLY IS); she has a

unique pose for each one of us.

 

And what would do you think Her true nature is? Silence. The intense

silence of the Supreme Witness.

 

 

What I agree with in the para is that we imperfect folks have our own

projections into the world which are the cause of the guru-shisya

model.

 

What I do not agree with is the subtle hint in that para that ALL

gurus are INTENTIONAL posers.

 

This is what I believe.

1. Some gurus are intentional posers. i.e. the fake ones.

 

2. Some gurus are genuine posers, i.e., their pose is the reflection

of our mental make-up. When our make-up is destroyed gradually in

their presence, the deafening reality of SILENCE speaks up to us.

 

3. Some gurus have no patience for poses. They are ruthlessly blunt,

like Krishnamurti and other avadhutas like Nayana Swami in Nealu

Swami's book (I consider Krishnamurti as a relatively socially-

friendly avadhuta!)

 

To Amma who I strongly feel comes under point 2 above, I bow down

again and again with gratitude for coming down to my level, being

patient with me still, and helping me to get over all useless mental

make-ups which hide me from Her.

 

Jai Ma!

 

> And the guru is merely

> us projecting all that we wish and desire upon another. God forbid

> we do cast such projetiles upon our own being. We couldn't

> withstand the intensity; we couldn't withstand the responsibility.

> from a post by Dave Lane,

> re-posted here: Avram, of course