Bronte, I'm going to try to define "guru."
To me a guru is someone with an unshakable point of view -- a POV that "calls to me" -- I want to stand and look from the same perspective -- a perspective that I intuit is THE place to stand when wanting to "see everything purely." All the below is poetry, caution is advised -- even poetry is understood to fall short of providing that POV labeled "Self." I think that anything can be a guru if one INVESTS in it-she-him being so, because my listening is a projection, and everything is, well, screen!!! To wit: I made Maharishi the guru he is -- to me. Below is a post about the spirituality of trikking which I've -- just now -- heavily re-written with TM lingo. I try to make a case for the Trikke being a guru of some sort. I'm not sure "my meaning of guru" will resonate with you without triggering your hard won precautions that en-vein your definition, but it might at least be a wall to bounce your think-ball off of. Considering this attempt of mine may give you insight into what a guru is to you. For me, the concepts below allow me to think about Maharishi and all I've done with my life with him-as-symbol, and . . . . wait for it . . . forgive myself. But your mileage . . . Below, I maintain the scenario that I'm writing to a trikking group, but this piece now is very much targeting FairfieldLifers. And, again, it's all poetry. One doesn't have to "know Trikkes" to get all the juice out of this piece. Trikke -- The Guru When we consider how much the Trikke "owns us," it demands a closer look. "Owns us" means that our minds effortlessly find the Trikke as an object of our consciousness -- spontaneously and regularly. It "had us at hello." Merely reading about the Trikke triggers us into wanting to mount up and carve out. I get back, sweating, park "Bronkk" in "his" "stall," sit at my computer, look at one trikking post, and, DANG, I'm mind-bugged to go out and gallop again. Isn't this the way it is for you too? Addiction? Well, yes, but maybe it's not merely addiction or infatuation -- maybe it's love. Loving an object is not something most of us are prepared to immediately think of as "healthy." For instance, keeping a new car polished and on display in the driveway is a good example of how we can signal that it is "important" to us on many levels -- and observers might judge that we've gone a bit too far in our attachment to our symbol. It can come off not as an actual love, but instead is seen as a creepy form of masturbatorial narcissism. All of us have had the experiences one gets when an object grabs one's mind, and a constant streaming of thoughts then churns on and on about it -- a song that cannot be easily evicted from the mind. Infatuation has a flip side, eh? Things become symbols that can trigger feelings when we put our awareness upon them -- and that's a psychological tool we're all using all the time. Cars, clothes, homes, bling-budda-bling -- all of them are personally constructed "mantras" -- symbols that, when "triggered," incite "thoughts and feelings" we want, but, unfortunately, so too, do we "decide" to "allow" that certain other objects/symbols will trigger uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. The object, "Hitler," triggers "negativity" in many nervous systems, yet, if one is the owner of such a nervous system, one counts this "pattern" as morally good and supports its existence despite the fact that the owner might insist that he/she doesn't want to voluntarily experience negativity. It turns out that we ALSO all cuddle up with our symbols that trigger negativity -- we've all "worked it" to turn on a passionate torrent of roiling just so we can have the energy to mount our high horses. Sometimes they're white horses ridden by knights, and other times they're black horses with sparking hooves ridden by a psychic lynch mob with lariats spun aloft like evil halos encrusted with ill-spilled blood. Oh, I've sinned against myself many a times -- using symbols from the past and working up a lather with dark memories. Toasting myself over my own spit, donchaknow. Maharishi was just such a symbol for millions of folks, right? Love him or hate him or inbetween him -- a symbol that triggers. Triggers in a way we have self-taught and sponsored. But, no, this "making things -- even persons -- into symbols that trigger one" is not how the Trikke can be a guru. Nope. Imprinting on a symbol is a mental fixation that sooner or later does not serve and bites us in the ass. Sooner or later, the meaning assigned is the wrong one. Racists have this happen all the time: they meet nice people of the race they hate -- the symbol betrays the assigned meaning. The power to assign meaning "on the fly" in real time is what is required for a fit and balanced psychology. If a rope in dim light is perceived as a coiled snake, fear arises unnecessarily - just so, can one become blinded by the illusion that is spun by one's own symbols. Once the racist locks into a concept-that-never-is-allowed-to-change, he's blind to anything else -- even if it would benefit him tremendously to at least see the "exception to the rule." Yes, we're all guilty of egoic pride of ownership, and of our mastery of the Trikke, but this is a common relationship to an object -- we all have had this kind of relationship with objects. Something more is required for the Trikke to be a guru. Hopefully, over years, trikkers will come to see that the Trikke is like a Martial Artist Master. It never lies to you, always corrects you if you're not in harmony with it, and it empowers you in endless ways -- the Trikke is a true guru for me. In India, they tell a tale about a man, Ekalavya, who wanted to be the best archer in the world. He went to the most famous archery guru of the time, Drona, but he was rejected by Drona -- Drona knew that Ekalavya would, indeed, become the best archer in the world -- and thus a danger to Drona's friends and family and society. Well, Ekalavya decided that he had to learn to shoot arrows no matter what, so he made a symbol -- a small doll that looked like Drona made out of clay -- and he began to worship this small idol and pray for it to teach him the secrets of archery. That is to say, he triggered himself to constantly manufacture "thoughts, feelings, intuitions, memories, facts" about archery by using a symbol/pattern to focus his attention its everythingness. Years later, Ekalavya, by using this mental technique, and of course, duh, practicing shooting arrows in real life, was so good that he was able to beat Arjuna, the best archer of all times, by shooting six arrows into the mouth of a dog. When Arjuna happened upon the dog, he knew someone was better than him, so he sought out the archer who could do such a feat, and he found Ekalavya, and he was told by him that Drona was his master. Arjuna then went to Drona -- who was Arjuna's own archery guru -- and told him about it. Drona approached Ekalavya and confronted him. The rejected student told the truth, that he had learned his skills verily from Drona himself via the idol. Drona had promised Arjuna that no one would ever be a better archer than Arjuna, so here was someone better than Arjuna, so what was he to do? He said to Ekalavya, "Since you have used my services, you must pay me my fees, and the price is your right thumb." Without a thumb, Ekalavya would never be a good archer again, but he swiftly cut off his thumb and gave it to Drona. Thus Arjuna remained the best archer in the world. To me, I am worshipping the Trikke like that clay doll. I attend the Trikke. Its form and function harken me to a subtle realm of my mind. The Guru Trikke tells me anytime I am impatient, unfocused, tired, lacking mind-body coordination, too rough, too weak, and on and on. It asks me to adjust the contents of my mind ALL THE TIME. This is a guru -- a way of having a mirror to see what one is doing with enough clarity to change one's ways. What is a guru? A guru is someone who has mastered his mind, seems to stand in a place far beyond it, and is willing to help you find a way to stand there too. When you decide to surrender to a guru, it includes your very mind and its contents. The guru gets to tell you how to manage mental operations such that the cares of the world cannot touch you. The guru teaches you ways to mentally move such that the travails of life are passed through just like one might walk "against the grain" on a crowded sidewalk and never even brush another's clothing by mistake. The guru will resist your stubborn imprinting with a might that cannot be overcome -- you will never convince a guru to take on your hates, your loves, your anything if it is not harmonious with his own mind. Whatever delusions you've build up over a lifetime will not find purchase in the mind of an enlightened master, and when you see that your fondest prejudices cannot survive in the guru's mind, your own mind begins to be able to resist the allure of indulging in them. Is this not the Trikke? Has not the Trikke taught you to pay attention to the here and now? Hasn't the Trikke corrected your every false assumption about it with such force that it seemed to "come alive" as it pushed back at your lack of harmony with itself? Hasn't the Trikke taught you so well that, now, you are enlightenedly fearless in the face of so much challenge immediately ahead of you on every surface you carve? Hasn't the Trikke allowed you to explore the range of your potential -- from delicate nuances to monster carves? Hasn't the Trikke given you its very self to play with, to attune to, to learn of, to experience Unity when a mind frictionlessly follows form following function? Has not the Trikke given you peace from the heated thoughts of the world and all that it is "out there" that can consume one so? Is not trikking a japa yoga meditation, a rosary, a Zen candle flame, a parade of mantra-carves that wholly sweeps us away from the utter hard work of "thinking about the world?" With that first carve are not a thousand cares left "where they are" until we dismount? While trikking, who wants to do their taxes or anything else other than trikking? Note that the difference between the words "carve" and "care" is A VEE SHAPE! How cool is that? Buckminster Fuller eat your heart out -- man, Bucky is THE ONE DEAD PERSON who should have ridden a Trikke. It would be an instant addiction. Trikking consumes the mind, and in doing so, it shows that a mind "filled to the brim on trikking" effortlessly prevents the mind from an indulgence in and perseveration of negative ideation -- there's no mental room for it. Which means that we are Trikke-taught and empowered to AVERT OUR GAZE from "all the stressosity" and direct it to "the good of the here and now." Taking a pill might calm some aspects of one's "nerves," but trikking accomplishes "peace of mind" without tamping down one's ability to be wholly "into it." Instead of allowing the mind to wallow in complaint, the Trikke guru takes us for a ride into the lightness of being where the past and future are mere words, and complaints simply cannot be entertained. If all of us learned to have a "trikking attitude" towards off-the-trikke life, that is to say, away-from-the-guru life, what could not be accomplished? If others see us as poetically trikking the surfaces of their psychologies will they not pause in wonder as we handle their pebble-challenges? Will not the traffic flow of human thought pause to gaze at our peaceful, empowered gliding though conceptuality? If we trikke up the psychic hills of others and soar over the curbs of their thoughts, will not passers-by stop us and ask us about the wonderment we are to them? If we have as much fun turning our minds on a dime as we do turning with the Trikke, will not this flexibility be a model for others? Does not the Trikke teach us all this and so much more? The Trikke is a therapeutic, spiritual, tool. One must, to some degree, conquer the mind to learn to trikke. Falling must be embraced even though from the very first step we took in life our god-like parents were actually instructing us to be fearful, telling us to be afraid when falling -- the Trikke demands that you dump so many of your traditional, acculturated, programmed, emotional responses to gravity's hug. Fear of falling is a mental construct that "doesn't work" when learning to trikke. Suddenly, we're in love, and one cannot abide any universe that does not have our new lover -- gravity. Like a racist meeting Oprah, we come to the Trikke with a falling-prejudice that does not serve. The Trikke guru will demand that you restructure your false assumptions about falling and the fears that these mental errors trigger. The Trikke guru will not hold your hand and say, "There there, Sweety, you can have your fears. It's okay. I'm here for you." No, it demands that you positively enjoy falling and embrace it with a completely open heart. If you are unable to do this, then you fail the Trikke -- not it you. Like this, a guru will send you out to life with a smile of empowerment. "I've got psychological traction baby! I love the surfaces of the minds out there, cuz my rubber tires got spiritual grip, and no one's cracked, pot-holed mind is too challenging to carve." To me, surrendering to the Trikke has been a personal odyssey of finding harmony with an object that demands not only my physical alignment with its engineering but also my mental attunement to its "demands." The more I trikke, the closer I get to the same kind of psychology I've gotten into using other mental techniques. Ask yourself, "If I learned to love falling, how hard could it be to love staring at, say, a candle flame, or a blank wall, or a sound repeated over and over again until the world drops away? Why, it must be just as easy to fall in love with silence as I did learning to dance with gravity! So, why not learn to love the silencing of all other thoughts? Can I teach my mind to love stillness as much as the Trikke teaches me to love letting go? Can I carve my mind by falling into it? In the end, it is about discovering that one can love anything, anytime, anywhere, and that as long as one is right there, right then, and loving what is, one's personal integrity is fully supported. If you want to learn to trikke, practice carving. If you want to learn to love, practice loving everything -- not just the easily loved. The Trikke will never rest. It will always support your focus, attention, and harmonious intent. It will forever allow you to see ever more subtle ways to work with it. It will never suddenly "run dry of entertainment value." Evolution, upliftment, empowerment -- these qualities can be endlessly amplified by a regular experiencing of the Trikke. If you trikke, to whatever degree you allow it to become a living metaphor, Trikke-love will increase everywhere else in your life, because the mind cannot leave its trikking lessons "out on the street." It forms us. It addicts us to paying attention to what is in our face. And this trikking attitude can be allowed to grow in us and to be magically integrating into all our personality traits. The trikking mind is all about loving, SIMPLY BEING AWARE of what is. And, no religion, no guru, no philosophy has ever asked us to do anything more. Life is a gift. Carve it! Edg --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bronte Baxter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > TurqB wrote: > > One of the values of working with a teacher who can > blast you out of your socks with shakti is that when > he does, there is nothing left. No beliefs, no opinions, > no you to even *have* beliefs and opinions. You're > washed clean, for a short time, and then the beliefs > and the opinions and "you" creep back onto the scene. > But even when they do, you find yourself (or at least > I found myself) not nearly as *attached* to my former > beliefs and opinions as I had been before. I'd seen > them dissolved into nothingness in front of me and > within me. So what possible substance could they have? > > Bronte: > > This is one problem I have with gurus in general: their ability to "blast people clean" of their opinions, desires and other aspects of their individuality. I find that scary. Let me rephrase -- I find that counterproductive to personal evolution. I no longer believe it's a good thing to surrender our minds to a master, never asking questions. Nor that it's healthy to lose my desires, which in my experience are the very motivating power of change, progress and increasing happiness in my life. Same thing with opinions -- they are the milepost I'm at on my road to greater knowledge. To be stripped clean of them is to be stripped of my humanity. > > If I don't have an opinion, I don't know anything. If I don't have a desire, I don't create anything. Knowing nothing, or having no opinions, and holding that state as a good thing is saying there's no objective relative reality. That truth (in a relative sense) can never be known or defined. Yet objective reality does exist, along with many perspectives on it. That story of the elephant and the four blind men trying to figure out this animal in front of them. > > Stripping a person of opinions, beliefs and knowledge is tantamount to saying there isn't any elephant, instead of knowing the elephant from one's own perspective and listening to the data feedback on the creature from others coming from different perspectives. But there IS an elephant. There is objective reality. For gurus to take that away from us dehumanizes us, IMO, and it is a sinister thing to do. > > It's the same thing for desires as it is for opinions, when it comes to the effect of being stripped by a guru. Telling a person to be desireless is to take away the greatest joy in being alive: inspiration and creation. It takes away our motive to act, replacing that with surrender to some cosmic force that will impersonally "make the right thing happen." This is the problem I have with Byron Katie. > > Tolle, the Buddhists, they all take this "detachment" as a good thing. I find it a very bad thing. I think the Hindus and the Buddhists have sold us up the creek and twisted spirituality into something even more horrible than Christianity has twisted it into. At least Christians are allowed to have SOME desires. Victims of Easternism are brainwashed to give up all desire, not just the "sinful" ones. So Christians have more fun! > > I'm making a joke there, but back to being serious, the Christians are more dynamic. Because they have desires, and opinions and beliefs, they are doers in this world. Obnoxious doers sometimes (like when they're proseletyzing), but doers. Hindus and Buddhists, on the other hand, are stripped of their ability to be dynamic by the bullshit they've accepted from the great ones on high. They just "allow Nature to work through them" and crap like that, or if they have a desire or opinion, they feel those are impurities and fail to act on them much of the time. I believe a desire or opinion is the power of God within us, expressing in the world. It is a holy thing. I am outraged at religion for making us believe otherwise. > > This is not to say I don't agree with your observation that some people react to opposition to their opinions like they have their buttons not only pushed but duct-taped down in the on position, and that the serene and humorous beings who shrug off criticism are a lot nicer to deal with. The second kind of person is more pleasant. But of the two character types, which one is more likely to create and do things in this world? I say the person with passion, not the person who has been stripped. > > A passionate, opinionated person may not be pretty at times, but they're sure as heck alive. Their soul has not been stolen or zombified. They don't blather "my guru says" in response to every life question or mutter mantras all day long, delivering the little that's left of their personhood to the gods. They're capable of making decisions, taking defined positions, and moving forward into action. They do stuff. They make a difference. > > All the above is IMO, of course. Now have at it, guru fans. I'm ready for the snowballs over here. > > > > --------------------------------- > Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us. >
