Guru or Fraud?
Gurdjieff pointed out to Ouspensky that the poorest people always offered the most for their enlightenment, and the wealthiest offered almost nothing. He seemed to think that lack of spirituality or wisdom caused this. I think it was desperation. Gurdjieff was offering power over one's belief system--seeing things as they really were could give you more power over them. I am going to call a spade a spade here and say that the poor people probably offered all of their because they were so desperate for something positive in their bleak lives, they were willing to give it all up--much like many poor people spend all of their money on lottery tickets today.
There are gurus out there--people who are wise and honest who will allow you to rise spiritually. But how can you tell real from phoney?
1. A real teacher will not call himself a teacher. He or she may seem reluctant to answer your questions, because this person understands the answers may not bring only the joy or power you seek, but other problems and feelings as well.
2.A real teacher will not make you leave your friends and family behind for more than a few days at a time.You probably will need to take a more extended journey--but that will be up to you to decide you are ready.
3. A real teacher will not tell you what is real, and what is a joke. He may be joking with you the whole time, but the meanings are up to you.
4. He or she will not ask you for extraordinary amounts of money.If he or she is a leader in an organized group, or is devoting his time to you only, you will have to pay for his time, of course, but a) if he's spiritual, he will not need that much in the way of comforts, and b) making you poor is not his true mission
5. You may have many spiritual guides in your life. They may take many forms--a parent, sibling, co-worker, friend, therapist or doctor--anyone. You will know that you are guided spiritually by these people because you can't stop coming to them with your thoughts and ideas and questions, and while you may not always like the answers, revelations will come to you from within. That's right. They are not really going to tell you how the Universe works, or anything like that. They are going to help you figure it out for yourself.
Gurdjieff wrote some great books, but he really was kind of a dick, man.
There are gurus out there--people who are wise and honest who will allow you to rise spiritually. But how can you tell real from phoney?
1. A real teacher will not call himself a teacher. He or she may seem reluctant to answer your questions, because this person understands the answers may not bring only the joy or power you seek, but other problems and feelings as well.
2.A real teacher will not make you leave your friends and family behind for more than a few days at a time.You probably will need to take a more extended journey--but that will be up to you to decide you are ready.
3. A real teacher will not tell you what is real, and what is a joke. He may be joking with you the whole time, but the meanings are up to you.
4. He or she will not ask you for extraordinary amounts of money.If he or she is a leader in an organized group, or is devoting his time to you only, you will have to pay for his time, of course, but a) if he's spiritual, he will not need that much in the way of comforts, and b) making you poor is not his true mission
5. You may have many spiritual guides in your life. They may take many forms--a parent, sibling, co-worker, friend, therapist or doctor--anyone. You will know that you are guided spiritually by these people because you can't stop coming to them with your thoughts and ideas and questions, and while you may not always like the answers, revelations will come to you from within. That's right. They are not really going to tell you how the Universe works, or anything like that. They are going to help you figure it out for yourself.
Gurdjieff wrote some great books, but he really was kind of a dick, man.
posted by Sonja Kodiak Wilder at 9:15 PM
2 Comments:
I wrote that last night, and today I had a guru experience on the ferry.
To my ferry friend, I said, "Your favorite Looney Tunes character says a lot about you."
She is a huge woman, full of energy and partying. "Mine is Taz," she said. No surprise.
"Mine is Wile E. Coyote" he's a big thinker and planner and nothing comes out right, like me.
And she said, "What I don't understand about him--is if he can order all that TNT and stuff, why doesn't he order some food and forget about that road runner?"
And I thought...yeah, instead of dogging after one thing, that same idea all the time, why don't I look at other means.
It blew my mind.
She was in the Temporary Autonomous Zone.
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