No One Guru
By Caroline Knight
It is common that people feel the need to subscribe to a particular ideology or teaching, but when I listen to followers talking, I often pick up on an egoic need to form an identity, or associate with a tribe. People love to talk about the teaching or teacher they subscribe to. They will sometimes even argue about the validity of other teachings as if there can be only one worthy perspective. This is a watered-down version of the same impulse that triggered religions to wage war on one another.
For me, the mark of a true ‘guru’ is that he or she doesn’t identify as one, and likely doesn’t care to be one. I have chosen just a few teachers in my time and the Sufi teachings were once influential for me; as was Gurdjieff, Adyashanti and even Osho (his public character and message, at least). Osho openly told people not to ‘follow’ him (although it is debatable whether that was sincere); he and Adyanshanti both claimed that to worship anything or anyone is to give your power away; it is to see yourself as less worthy, and to feel that the answers are not within you. These days I would say that none of these teachers address the fundamental issues in life as I see them, but that is a topic for another article.
Nobody else can think for you
Through discernment, I also learned not to take on board everything my favourite teachers said. For instance, I once very much liked Mooji’s words (not any more, I should add), but I noticed that at a Satsang, he answered questions about ayahuasca when he didn’t seem qualified to do so. It was clear that his advice was not based on any direct experience of this complex substance, and he ostensibly lacked the humility to admit it.
Similarly, Osho appeared to be a real human being with issues and blind spots. He might have had a very real dark side, even. So do you and I, and it doesn't mean he had no genuine wisdom, but it probably does mean that his every word should not be 'taken for gospel', indiscriminately. Thinking for yourself has and always will be key, but it can be scary, since it makes you accountable for your own mistakes. On the other hand, it makes you see that you are powerful, capable, creative... and perhaps even the master of your own destiny, though that is another subject entirely.
Nobody on Earth has the answer to everything
This is self-evident, and yet, every day people behave as if they have found the one who does, spouting their theories online as if they were fact. A true teacher does, as Khalil Gibran wisely said, “not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind”.
Once we start subscribing to only one teaching or teacher, we become exclusive. We tend to forget that the message is more important than the messenger, and that the message tends to evolve over time, with new information. Even if the chosen messenger’s message does not change, any authentic truth seeker will find that their own conclusions will.
When we pledge allegiance to say, only Buddhism, we dismiss new information and look to this one teaching for all answers. Can you think of any person or teaching, historical or otherwise, that definitively had the answer to absolutely everything?
What’s more, some of the famous teachings we still subscribe to today seem to be more relevant to the time period in which they were created; they’re no longer a reliable reference for this modern world.
Our teachers are fallible human beings too
We tend to put people with apparent wisdom on a pedestal; yet each ‘guru’ revered for their wisdom is or was a fallible human, just like the rest of us. They still possessed quirks, made mistakes, etcetera.. How do you think they attained such wisdom? They probably weren’t born with it; nor are they immune from error, even after 'enlightenment'. I would argue that enlightenment is both abstract and subjective, and is certainly not provable or communicable. In my opinion, what poses for it these days is a bit of a joke, and a fluffy, unfunny one at that.
So disconnected is the modern world that we’re not taught to utilise our true capacity for knowledge and wisdom. We become stuck in unhelpful mental habits, focusing on trivialities and only ever looking outside for the answers. We aren’t going to find the secrets to the universe in any one book or teacher. They can be great guides, but they work better synergistically; the more perspectives you consider, the more open-minded you are, and the more likely you are to develop your own wisdom.
you will learn most from experience
This is called gnosis: personal, empirical knowledge resulting in awareness and ultimately wisdom. This is a far cry from the intellectual and academic understanding that poses as the holy grail of knowledge. Experience is probably your best teacher, provided that you honestly evaluate it and transmute it into awareness, ideally so that you do not make the same mistakes repeatedly. Please do not think that I am saying that challenging experiences are a gift or opportunity; rather, an inevitability that you may wish to avoid repeating unnecessarily. Having said that, wisdom does often come from learning from mistakes. Did you ever feel on top of your game, like you’d really grown and understood... invincible, even? Then, BANG! Curve-balled out of nowhere – you’re back in a mess again. Depending on how you process and manage the cyclical curve-balls, you might be able to retain a level of peace even through strife.
If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice the impulse to respond in a similar way, but this time you’ll have the awareness that you’ve been here before and that you can now act differently. Choosing a new way is how we navigate life without contributing unnecessarily to our own suffering through dogged attachment to our own neuroses. Developing wisdom does not mean life gets easier though - oh no. In my experience, the challenges just get more complex, but I don’t lose the plot. Ideally, you will get better at handling complexity, and responding in more effective and compassionate ways. A guru might proffer all manner of wise directions, but it is only life that will take you beyond the conceptual.
listen to your gut to find worthy teachings
In this world, duality prevails, and that can make balance difficult. Yet if we run to a trusted teacher for a solution to every problem, we dampen our innate ability to understand and resolve. We become very out of tune with our own senses, usually in favour of being excessively head-centric. Some things just don’t adhere to logic, and the gut is more aware than the head. That unnerving twinge when a new person walks into the room… they might smile attractively but something tells you: AVOID! If you don’t, you will find that ignoring intuition is increasingly painful.
Conversely, sometimes our problems are just ghosts. No resolution may even be necessary. They seem real, but it's just the ego looking for something to fix. After all, that is its job.
The ultimate method is to simply remain open to new ideas and information, and closed to dogma. For those who haven’t seen the controversial documentary Kumare, I highly recommend it. Charming ‘Kumare’ impersonated a spiritual leader to exemplify the point that people are too willing to hand over their power. This came out in 2011, and sadly, the issue seems to be at saturation point in modern spiritual communities. Perhaps we are not ready to let go of our gurus and blaze our own trails just yet, especially if it means having to pull ourselves out of life’s quicksand alone. I would say that is a skill worth developing.