Tags
Commercial yoga, Cynicism, Cynics, Direct experience, Guidance, Guru, Yoga, Yogis
Readers of this blog might’ve noticed the occasional remark in my posts about my Guru.
Thanks to a particularly cynical comment from a blog friend in response to a recent post (which wasn’t the one I wanted him to read anyway… oh never mind!)… in reflection I realise I haven’t been very clear about some things.
The rant
I’m just a little angry.
Far as I can tell, there’s unwarranted suspicion around the concept of Guru. What’s it based on exactly? Personal real life experiences? Third or fourth hand stories? Reading a book or some random online account of some unknown person(s) about their ‘bad Guru’ experience? Stereotypes?
Please, do tell. Coz I’d love to know if it’s just another form of ignorance, discrimination or bigotry or similar… or based on something real?
How many of the cynical amongst you have ever met a bona fide Guru in the flesh? How many have spent any time studying with one? Huh? Please, do tell!
What is it? Do ya think I’m gonna to try and covert you? (Just so… not!) Is it fear of something that’s not easy to comprehend? Fear of the unknown? Does it sound to you like bondage instead of freedom?
I’m absolutely sick to death of people thinking (not that I really care, but y’know…) that I’m brainwashed, or mindless, or lost, or in someway retarded because I happen to have a profound connection with an accomplished spiritual being (not that he’d ever say that about himself mind you…).
Do you see me suggesting to anyone do what I do? No! So what makes you feel the need to criticise my choices without understanding where I’m coming from?
And trust me, unless you’ve taken initiation into a traditional yogic lineage of some kind, you’re simply NOT gonna get it. You can’t. You haven’t been there. It’s not like going to another city on the other side of the world. It’s like visiting another planet. I’ve tried to explain but much gets lost in the translation.
Most people simply can’t and won’t have the same experiences going to a commercial yoga class. You may learn the same asana, but you won’t learn them for the same reasons. And you certainly won’t be receiving the same kind of meditation instruction – if you get any at all. And if you’re not, I don’t know what you think yoga actually is! Its certainly not just a series of ‘yogaerobics’ to – keep you flexible or tone your body – as I’ve seen yoga classes advertised. Eeewwww.
I don’t need to be saved or woken up. I’m more awake than you can possibly imagine despite my frailties and insecurities.
And do you wanna know why I can say that? Because I see who and what I am in this limited world view and I don’t deny any of it. BUT I also have direct knowledge that this experience is far from all I am. Far from all anyone is…
I sometimes exist in the open spaces – the gaps in between – where it’s possible to see the whole friggin’ world as non-dual, everything as one. And yes, there’s a huge difference between theoretical/philosophical knowledge and practical experience where irrevocably, you gain intimate first hand knowledge.
So here’s where I get my love and respect for my Guru – there’s no one and I mean not a single person I’ve ever met who sees reality as clearly as he does. He lives in that world and for those willing to stick around, he’s happy to share what he knows. But in return he insists that his students strip away ALL bullshit romantic fantasies around how we see ourselves and other people. Dismantle that house of cards.
He’s the captain of my spiritual ship. Or rather I’ve tied my ship to his flotilla. Because we’re going into waters he’s traversed many a time and I’ve never been there myself. I don’t know the territory. The wind and the waves work differently there. He trains us and he wants us to be capable, but it can only be learned over time due to its complexity.
His advice is not used to work out what to wear or eat or do with my day. I’m not a child, he’s not my parent or saviour and I don’t rely on him for approval. I’m independent as a person – where I do rely on him is to explain the territory if I hit a part of the map I’ve never seen before.
When nothing looks familiar and my own resources fail me… when self reflection has taken me as far as I can possibly get… when I’ve talked to my more experienced yogi brothers and sisters and they can’t help me either… its then that I need my Guru’s guidance.
And that’s kind of where I’m at right now.
Svasti says: don’t generalise, don’t criticise what you don’t understand. Fine if its not for you, but just get on with it and let us ‘loony’ off-the-chart yogis do what we do best… Om namah sivaya!
~Svasti
Svasti: A Journey From Assault To Wholeness 
yowza! You have expressed your anger very well here, dear Svasti! And if your being judged for a relationship you have that no one else can have a clue about, I can’t say I blame you!!
I’ve never been fortunate in finding a guru – or even a true mentor, teacher, guide, etc, for that matter. It’s too bad that others feel it necessary to impose their own experiences or suspicions on another (you), rather than accept your experiences purely as you present them. Personally, I don’t know how to speak from a place I haven’t experienced myself – and then I can only speak specifically from that place! So, I say lucky you for having such a blessed relationship to learn and grow from, and lucky me for getting to read your stories as you share them here.
much peace and love to you, Karin
Om to that!
People seem to forget what the word guru means. although I do understand that many people have negative ideas about gurus because of a few ‘big name’ shysters.
However, I suspect some Western apprehension towards gurus is cultural: there’s the contemporary trope of ‘do it yourself’, ‘be an individual’ etc. Not to mention the fast food mentality that some people seem to have adopted towards yoga and spirituality.
Also, we have been culturally programmed to recognise some kinds of experts, ie. priests and reverends, and not others (gurus, shamans, high priestesses).
Anyway, just my 50 cents worth.
I suspect some Western apprehension towards gurus is cultural
ha ha ha too right. I bloody hated guruji culture in India. i got thrown out of almost every ashram in Rishikesh. What for? Asking questions.
I think to Westerners like me a lot of spiritual Indians seemed to have gurus to “believe things for them” and the westerners who tacked on to this seemed as you say,lost really.
Certainly when a suposedly egoless person is spouting on and on surrounded by a group of fawning disciples you really stick out if you ask questions and dont fawn. I thought it was hilarious.
This is no comment on what you have posted here. I am not assuming anything, just posting my experieneces of gurus in India. Maybe I’ll have a guru myself one day. God knows.
@Karin – [a little sheepishly] yeah, I know! The anger it was a-flowing. And not that I’ve got much time to myself right now (that’s coming) but I did manage about 3.2 seconds of reflection today and noticed… damn, I’m still really angry. Like, super-seriously. Unlike me at all.
So… I realised there’s more to it than my over-reaction to Dr Jay’s comment (We’ve sincerely apologised/apologized to each other, and we’re still friends) and to the general experience I’ve had of feeling like I have to hide that I have a Guru coz people get weirded out by such things. I’m not usually ever that angry, and there’s something else going on there… more on that in another post perhaps!
I am truly lucky to have met my Guru – not as some sort of personality/cult thing… but because he embodies compassion and love like no other and because he expertly provides the tools for his students to reach those same places. On their own steam, not his.
@Amanda – its true, most people don’t know what a Guru really is. Even some initiated yogis I suspect don’t have a clue. From what I’ve seen anyway.
There’s also definitely a ‘fast food’ approach to yoga. A modular, Ikea-style idea of self-assembled yoga. Hmpf! I’m not actually opposed to that in some ways, because at least people are practicing ‘yoga-like exercises’ and it just might lead to a deeper interest… but the thing is its not the whole picture at all. Its like getting a stick drawing and comparing it to fine art. Its not the same thing at all!
@davebones – thanks for visiting here and commenting. I do know what you mean, but I’d challenge whether the “guruji culture” is perpetuated by the Guru or by the snivelling initiates around him? Often alot of ashram politics are created by the underlings. I’ve heard tell many reasons that goes on, something I might go into in another post.
Anyway… that stuff definitely sucks.
I can’t speak for other Gurus or other students at all – but in my experience, my Guru has taken the best of the many philosophies he’s studied over 30 years, and applied it to them his white man’s New York/Brooklyn view (yup, he’s an American by birth) and taken another path – the no bullshit one.
He specifically doesn’t want fawning students or anyone around him projecting an air of elitism or ‘better than thou’ or whatever. He’s most likely to throw people out for that sort of behaviour.
Anyway folks – thanks for the comments. There’s more to come here, as denoted by “part 1” in the title. But the next part won’t be so angry, I promise.
Namaste
~Svasti
Hey Svasti girl, I wish you all the best, patience, love and a amount of massive dust mite endurance for your moving weekend.
Should I say I hate moving? Everyone hates the actual moving, packing, unpacking nightmare …
You know, this time last year, we moved house. Stupid us decided to save $1000 and do it ourselves, afterall, it was only a couple of streets away…
Stupid, stupid us moving a whole house on our own!
Hugs & strength
Groan! I loathe moving with a passion.
I have this fantasy that one day I’ll get to live in a house – a home of my own perhaps – for a long time. Perhaps even for most of the rest of my life!! Perhaps…
After 18 moves to date, I have no desire to be a DIY removalist any longer. Its the pros for me – and here’s hoping there’s some burly eye candy in it to sweeten the amount of $$ I’m paying them! 😀
Dust mites – yeah… I’m allergic to those things!
Yeah ashram politics. I saw that in Pune which was the biggest dissapointment of the lot as I quite like some of what Osho says and his place in history. I think I have the anti-guru prejudice that you describe. Actually I knew I had when I got chucked out of Vipassna on day nine-and-a-half out of ten. I have been back twice since then though! You have a very interesting blog I will pop by.
@davebones – LOL! I’m afraid I’d get chucked out of Vipassana too! 😉
There’s alot of crap going on in the ‘spiritual’ world, even and especially in India. But not limited to India and not limited to people who say they have a Guru either.
Which reminds me, that’s something else I intend to write about some time soon… well, its a half-finished draft actually. Sort of a parody on my time on the ‘pagan’ scene before I eventually found what I was looking for. Not that I knew I was looking for it at the time.
Thanks again for visiting 🙂
Hello Namaste!
I have several spiritual advisors (gurus?) throughout my 15 year journey of recovery, including one that taught me much about Buddhism and meditation. Probably the person who has influenced me the most, spiritually, is a Native American medicine man named Jim, whom I met while studying psychology at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. He embodies the same qualities that you describe in your guru–and has gotten to that place through a lifetime of hard, hard knocks (his makes my life look easy). He taught me much about the spiritual path I found.
I appreciated hearing your experiences as well.
Melinda
@Melinda – I think this is a topic I’d like to discuss further with you and I at some point in the future. As you’ve said on your blog, there’s a number of parallels in our spiritual view points.
My Guru is pretty interesting in that he’s studied far and wide with spiritual teachers from traditions all over the world, (including American Indian). He just happened to find his Guru in the Indian tradition. And whilst I haven’t studied as widely as that, its pretty much what happened to me – I didn’t decide or wake up one day and plan on having a guru. I plan to discuss this further in ‘part 2’ actually… coming soon!
Svasti:
There are people around who are teaching Yoga commercially who could also be Gurus if they wished.
I’ve met a few of them and being around them has helped me to know how to get to where they live.
It was hard to describe looking at two Yogis chattting and realizing that they were so fully present that they were not there.
They were running a Yoga studio, living a ‘normal’ life and doing so entirely from a place of non-duality.
Sometimes I wonder if this Guru business boils down to recognizing that someone knows shit that you don’t and you’d rather quite like to be with them.
@Mike Hinsley – That’s probably true. I’ve had the privilege of meeting a number of very fascinating and amazing people in my life. Sounds like you have, too.
My Guru was asked by his Guru to teach – he wasn’t self-appointed and half the time I wonder when he’s going to tell us all that he’s finished teaching and is off to complete his own path. Hopefully, that won’t be for a long time to come.
Incidentally, my Guru is a ‘householder’ yogi, and not a monk or a hermit. He has a family and I agree, non-duality can and does operate in that environment just as much as it does in a cave or an ashram.
I do know of other people who have teachers they are very involved with, but because they are not from an Indian tradition, they are not called Gurus.
I agree with your last sentence, and that’s really how it was for me. On some level, I recognised something in my Guru. That something has been fleshed out time and again over the years, so I can see more fully the value of having him as my teacher. And yeah, I always quite like to be with him, its like nothing else!