Is it helpful to have a guru in your life, especially when you have a dark night of the soul to go through? I have read that we all need some kind of help to undo all that we have learned. That’s where Intercessory prayer comes in or a Guru with preferably a lineage that shows they have done this sort of work through the generation of their family. It all has to do with the energy of this individual and the group they travel with in spirit.
I study A Course in Miracles and find that I have grown tremendously in combination with all the other spiritual books and work I have been doing. However, I see now that even my guru has some unlearning to do. The Course teaches us never put anyone on a platform and I see now. It has taken me a year and another dark night to see that I have put aside me knowing that there was another way to handle my illness. It was due to this guru that I postponed pursuing this. I believe the lesson maybe that we all have the energy within us and when my guru speaks like any other in life I must discern the info and go within for the final a course in miracles answer. Whenever I push away that urge I find obstacles in my path. So I’m confused, I see a major change in me with this guru but at the same time I find the advice can conflict with my most inner beliefs and am forced to listen. I thought I must listen for this is the lesson: Listen to the REAL SOURCE- the one WITHIN. Please help me with see what else I may be missing.
Thanks for your heartfelt and sincere email. Role models (such as gurus or teachers or guides) are very helpful stepping stones as the ego is undone. They can be inspirational and very supportive witnesses to the mind’s desire to Wake Up. They can offer very helpful and practical advice, teachings, and examples. Yet accepting the Atonement (Correction) is THE sole responsibility and this is a decision of mind that transcends the concept of personhood. Persons do not become enlightened, for the mind that believes itself to be a person is asleep and dreaming of exile from the Oneness of Spirit. While the deceived mind believes in linear time, Awakening will seem to occur in stages. During the seeming “process” of Awakening, symbols are used by the Holy Spirit as stepping stones that reflect higher or more expansive states of consciousness. A guru can be a symbol of the potential for Enlightenment, yet the experience of Enlightenment is impersonal, unconditional, and abstract. The final dark night is always the temptation to retain a sense of individuality, privacy, autonomy, and uniqueness. All perceived darkness reflects the belief in private minds with private thoughts. Mind is one in forgiveness and One in Truth.
It is wonderful that you are seeing that the lesson of discernment always rests with the perceiver. Use your feelings as a barometer in this discernment, for how you feel is the one right use of judgment until it is apparent that any judgment is entirely impossible. Follow the Joy! Follow the Bliss! As you look within and make no attempt to protect or defend the ego, you will experience the Love the ego was made to hide. Love simply Is, and when the obstacles to the awareness of Love’s Presence have been removed only Love remains.
When you think of the concept of guru think of this:
Gee YoU aRe YoU
This is the gentle reminder: I am as God created Me.
This is the Power of Now.
This is the simplicity of Being.
Truth is simple. The ego was the illusion of confusion and complexity.
Read more David Hoffmeister ACIM blog posts like this.
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