The Need Of A Mentor

[Max_V]

After being halfway into the book Way of The Peaceful Warrior, I cannot help but think 'How can one walk the path without a mentor ?'

Ofcourse, you do the work all by yourself. But a mentor helps guide you in the right direction when you fall into traps, etc.

When you are completely on your own, how can you see your own mistakes and traps that you are not even conscious of?

Self doubt is inevitable

Edited August 28, 2017 by Max_V

[Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj]

Maybe you could go and meet up with a spiritual teacher once or a few times per year or something like that? Many people find that to be a helpful thing to do and in my own experience that has been true as well.  

[AlwaysBeNice]

Transmission/human contact with a master is probably the easiest, fastest and safest way to enlightenment, maybe next to psychedelics, but that's just so different/optional and much more tricky (esp. without a teacher), and  teachers are too good to miss out on anyways. It's like meeting a future self in a sense. Not surprising all the traditions mention it.

It's also different than youtube, because they are easier to attune to IRL and they can attune to you as well and help you accordingly.

-

I'd like to share my experience so far: living in Holland, they are really quite a big good amount of good teachers, and also a good amount of mediocre teachers, which you want to avoid.

So if you live in a somewhat evolved/populated area, imo, it shouldn't be so hard to find a really good teacher, simply by going around, and looking at the different teachers.

In my view things to look out for to spot a good one (it gets easier as you progress too): Presence, the love/openness/directness you sense in eye contact, uniqueness, fearlessness (but not faked), their experience/life story, the desire you sense in them to help you awaken and that they talk about the end of suffering/absolute joy that's possible with confidence.

To avoid; Arrogance, lack of empathy, being needy for students approval, not being happy about life and social fears.

By the way, sometimes good open teachers can take over some bodily fear twitches related to other people's twitches (just like animals), simply due to them being open/focused on you, related to evolution/survival.

 

 

Yet the biggest things to be aware of is the pessimistic cynical of the scarred ego, projecting it's fears on the teachers/this process, sabotaging you.

[Max_V]

1 minute ago, AlwaysBeNice said:

Transmission/human contact with a master is probably the easiest, fastest and safest way to enlightenment, maybe next to psychedelics, but that's just so different/optional and much more tricky (esp. without a teacher), and  teachers are too good to miss out on anyways. It's like meeting a future self in a sense. Not surprising all the traditions mention it.

It's also different than youtube, because they are easier to attune to IRL and they can attune to you as well and help you accordingly.

-

I'd like to share my experience so far: living in Holland, they are really quite a big good amount of good teachers, and also a good amount of mediocre teachers, which you want to avoid.

So if you live in a somewhat evolved/populated area, imo, it shouldn't be so hard to find a really good teacher, simply by going around, and looking at the different teachers.

In my view things to look out for to spot a good one (it gets easier as you progress too): Presence, the love/openness/directness you sense in eye contact, uniqueness, fearlessness (but not faked), their experience/life story, the desire you sense in them to help you awaken and that they talk about the end of suffering/absolute joy that's possible with confidence.

To avoid; Arrogance, lack of empathy, being needy for students approval, not being happy about life and social fears.

By the way, sometimes good open teachers can take over some bodily fear twitches related to other people's twitches (just like animals), simply due to them being open/focused on you, related to evolution/survival.

 

 

Yet the biggest things to be aware of is the pessimistic cynical of the scarred ego, projecting it's fears on the teachers/this process, sabotaging you.

Well tell me about some teachers in Holland since I live there too  

I go to a zen.nl gathering every week, but I've noticed people are not really working on waking up, but more so of just talking about daily life etc. Not really sure if that's something good.

Also I'm planning  to go to a Rupert Spira talk in Amsterdam next month so that is my first real interaction with a teacher, quiet excited about that.

[Mario]

12 minutes ago, AlwaysBeNice said:

Transmission/human contact with a master is probably the easiest, fastest and safest way to enlightenment, maybe next to psychedelics, but that's just so different/optional and much more tricky (esp. without a teacher), and  teachers are too good to miss out on anyways. It's like meeting a future self in a sense. Not surprising all the traditions mention it.

It's also different than youtube, because they are easier to attune to IRL and they can attune to you as well and help you accordingly.

-

I'd like to share my experience so far: living in Holland, they are really quite a big good amount of good teachers, and also a good amount of mediocre teachers, which you want to avoid.

So if you live in a somewhat evolved/populated area, imo, it shouldn't be so hard to find a really good teacher, simply by going around, and looking at the different teachers.

In my view things to look out for to spot a good one (it gets easier as you progress too): Presence, the love/openness/directness you sense in eye contact, uniqueness, fearlessness (but not faked), their experience/life story, the desire you sense in them to help you awaken and that they talk about the end of suffering/absolute joy that's possible with confidence.

To avoid; Arrogance, lack of empathy, being needy for students approval, not being happy about life and social fears.

By the way, sometimes good open teachers can take over some bodily fear twitches related to other people's twitches (just like animals), simply due to them being open/focused on you, related to evolution/survival.

 

 

Yet the biggest things to be aware of is the pessimistic cynical of the scarred ego, projecting it's fears on the teachers/this process, sabotaging you.

Can you find good teachers on the internet? Like you contact them / their temple and you take an appointment ( i'm talking like they're doctors ? )

Edited August 28, 2017 by Mario

[Max_V]

@Mario hahahah that'd be awesome. Sadly most spiritual teachers are not that into modern technology, social media, etc

(Except Sadhguru) ;p

[Mario]

Well , i'll have to rely only of the internet for my pitfalls for at least another 4 years

[AlwaysBeNice]

2 hours ago, Max_V said:

Well tell me about some teachers in Holland since I live there too  

I go to a zen.nl gathering every week, but I've noticed people are not really working on waking up, but more so of just talking about daily life etc. Not really sure if that's something good.

Also I'm planning  to go to a Rupert Spira talk in Amsterdam next month so that is my first real interaction with a teacher, quiet excited about that.

Yeah Rupert is pretty nice I think.

Many of the teachers on the satsang site are good, you can see interviews with them if you click on their names. http://www.satsang.nl/agenda-sep17.html

Specifically I like Ad Oostendorp and Naropa a lot, both old timers with a proven long dedicated path and nice personalities (imo), Nicky Verbeek is also really unique and nice, but there are so many good ones and just like with picking friends, some resonate and some do not.

I'm also still exploring by the way, I'm visiting Max Rettu, Philip Renard and JanKees Vergrouw and maybe some more new names next month (I'd like to get a taste of most of them before sticking to a few teachers also being in the presence of masters is always uplifting and reassuring).

I personally would not recommend Randolph or Hans Laurentius, albeit they are probably awake (on some level), they both seem to have some undealt stuff and seem to carry arrogance.

And there are 100's of interviews with primarily Dutch teachers here, or non-duality enthousiast, though many do not qualify as a good teacher, it's interesting and exciting to see it being so alive in our country https://www.youtube.com/user/NonDualiteit/videos

2 hours ago, Mario said:

Can you find good teachers on the internet? Like you contact them / their temple and you take an appointment ( i'm talking like they're doctors ? )

Of course, yeah, their presence should is visible on videos too (though 1 to 1 is still deeper to me), en plus they are on your side, you have nothing to fear.

[Real Eyes]

Edward Muzika gives his perspective of the role of the guru here, even though the main thrust of the article is awakening vs enlightenment.  It's an interesting read: 

http://www.wearesentience.com/awakening-vs-liberation.html