Jeremy/Teachers...of Non Duality

[Guest guest]

Hi Jeremy,

 

> Does anyone know of any advaita teachers in the New England

> MA,NY,CT,RI,NH) area?

 

To my knowledge there are no active New England resident advaita teachers. I

run an email list for satsang announcements in the New England area:

Satsangs

 

> Is having a teacher along the path of advaita necessary?

 

Can there be a teaching or a path without a teacher? Or do you mean if one

needs to surrender to a living guru in order to be enlightened?

 

The short answer is " yes, it would be nice. "

 

Here is the long answer: Is falling in love necessary for Self-realization?

I'd never fallen in love nor expected to fall in love with a teacher but as

soon as I read excerpts from " I am That, " to my surprise, a love was born, a

type of love that I'd never experienced before. Of course I loved and

respected many teachers before Maharaj but this was something different.

Although having a guru helps, for Self-realization one does not need to

experience the guru love.

 

> I am somewhat

> frustrated as the only teachers I have come into contact with are either

> unknowledgeable or seem to be (either wittingly or unwittingly) a

> personality cult of sorts. Does anyone share in my feelings or experiences

> or am I an isolated case?

 

I've had similar experiences. Even the teachers who claim there is no guru,

after a while, if you're not a devotee, i.e., if the love has not happened

yet, then one is made to feel as if one is not welcome there anymore. When

the dating is over, then it's time to seek a new potential It may sound

paradoxical that dualistic love is required for a non-dual teacher but it is

true.

 

> I am extremely hesitant to join many groups as

> many I have come across appear to be manifestations of the guru complex.

Not

> that it is bad to have and respect one's teacher but...complete self

> surrender to another human being at the expense of one's own judgement can

> be a very dangerous thing.

 

Who really decides to surrender? Once the love happens, then surrender is

the natural result. I believe because of the issues of " guru " and

" enlightenment " Advaita has not become popular in the US. Just think about

it. In a group of friends one of them will one day claim that s/he is

enlightened and maybe endorsed/favored/certified by another teacher s/he will

start giving satsangs. No matter how knowledgable s/he is, if the new guru

is not particularly charismatic, there will always be questions of whether

s/he's enlightened or not. " Is s/he really enlightened? Is s/he enlightened

as my guru?? " The skepticism will be intense. As a natural reaction, the

defenders of the new guru may create a " club members only " environment where

the new guru can feel secure. In other words, it's very difficult to be a

guru especially in the US where there is no guru tradition. I believe that

in order for Advaita to become more popular, the new tradition in the West

has to solve the " enlightenment " issue. Maybe we should just delete it from

our vocabulary. Where there is no enlightenment then there is no enlightened

guru or a person. The only danger with that approach is that the new

tradition can be become scripture drive. Although it may sound more

democratic at first, scripture based teaching can lead to a fundamentalistic

version of advaita. Perhaps there is no solution for this dilemma and maybe

for that reason the mystics have always wandered searching for the city of

the heart.

 

Hur