Spiritual seeker.

SPIRITUAL SEEKER.

Is there a longing in your heart? A persistent sense that there is more to life than what you see? More to life than the wheel of repetition? More to you? More to relationships than the inevitable and predictable patterns of attraction and rejection?

Do you long for or perhaps “know”, that you have a greater purpose?

Perhaps you have found someone that you hope will answer these existential questions for you, and finally give you love, peace, happiness, and purpose? Someone special that appears to have transcended human doubts, hate, and despair, and integrated true being.

What do you really know about this being? Is he or she truly free? Have they attained profound compassion and love? Are they pointing you to freedom, love, Truth?

When taking a spiritual teacher, there are very important aspects to consider.

~ Your teacher. Experience how they conduct themselves around family, friends, and work- related relations. When there is a general atmosphere of mutual kindness, respect, and equality you are in good company.

~ Teaching. Do they have transparent teachings and purpose? Clear guidelines that you can practice regardless of their presence? Ask directly.

~ Methods of teaching. Aspire to understand how he/she works.

Red flags are.

– Family and friends. If isolation from family and friends is encouraged or alluded to, you are in trouble.

– Finances. If the financial situation around the teacher is obscure and enclosed in mystery, it is not a good sign.

– Sexuality. If the community encourages promiscuous sexual conduct or renunciation from sex altogether, or if the sexuality of the teacher is obscure and surrounded by mystery, you need very clear boundaries within your own psyche for protection.

– When a Spiritual teacher believes themselves to be a messiah, sent to save humanity, you are in for a rollercoaster ride. Do not shy from asking the teacher directly if they consider themselves to be a Messiah?

– Them and us. A tendency to polarize the spiritual group and the wider society is likely to increase loneliness, alienation, or feelings of being lost, rather than have you experience a sense of belonging.

Everyone needs to belong. If we are not aware of this natural human need, we are at risk. At risk of committing ourselves to a teacher or a community that imprisons the individual. Loving intention, profound insights, or supernatural abilities does not exclude a spiritual teacher from having personal agendas not beneficial to freedom and truth.

Spiritual seeker, are you interested in understanding the nature of your own seeking?

~ Stay awake. What are you seeking exactly? Know who you are. What underlies your spiritual search?

~ Is your spiritual seeking a way of avoiding engagement with the relationships of life? Or perhaps a way to find or build community of equality, support, and evolution?

~ Are you seeking to transcend your ego? To embody the highest potential a human being can become? Or something entirely different?

Dearest seeker, our spiritual search is as old as the human race is. We consider it a drive as powerful as any instinctive drive of ours. The spiritual drive is not something to intellectualize or disregard as childish. Spiritual seeking is a real thing. As far as we believe, it is a natural movement of evolution. Whether we feel it as spiritual or existentialistic, the question of who, what, why, and what we can become, is universal. Why not act with intelligence and gentleness in our search? Human beings have the ability to discern what is what. If we find that we are driven by dysfunction, old psychological pain, or heartbreaks, we can seek professional help. We can heal our psychological wounds with a professional, while engaging in spiritual understanding and devotion. There is no contradiction here. One thing supports the other. It is not a question of either or. It is a matter of integration. Wholeness.

Make sure that your teacher does not believe him/her to be an “all-inclusive solution” to all of your issues in life, attaching skills to themselves that are beyond their understanding and realistic ability to help you.

When we take the time to investigate the newest research and science, regarding spiritual teachers and teachings, we come to understand that awakened or/and enlightened masters are far from always psychologically and emotionally mature. When we place our blind trust in someone we do not really know, we might be walking a path of disillusionment with grave consequences for everyone involved. At best, blind trust in a teacher can end up being a waste of our time. Did you know that old Tibetan guidelines ask the seeker to spend 12 years getting to know a teacher before they surrender to them?

By all means, love your teacher, if this comes naturally to you. Love and devotion are a true way of being, and a profound spiritual path. Some would say the most direct path to enlightenment. But don’t be a fool unto yourself. Gain clarity on what they are, and what they are not. Know what you seek. Have a practice of an ongoing and honest inner inquiry. What am I seeking? The more honest we are with ourselves, the less chance there is that we commit to a cult-leader, that 25 years down the road, turns out to be a psychological mess. Know that all human beings are equal. We all carry the light of Source or God within. A spiritual hierarchy, as an obvious or subtle way to measure how far we are on the path to awakening is selling, at best, an illusion. All another being can ever be on to us, is one who walks ahead and illuminates the path. We each have to attend to our inner garden. Do our own inner work. Owning our light. Trusting and loving the sparkle of joy within the depths of our own hearts.

The ultimate protection in the search for Truth, is to aspire to The art of listing to the silence behind all thoughts and ideas. The profound Peace embedded in all phenomena.