YOU ARE NOT THE DOER - THEME OF WEEK 14 - 2020
From wise and good friends, I hear "you don't need a guru". The reason is that we live in an educated time and that I, myself as others, are responsible for our own development. Such answers sound really reasonable, but I do not agree.
For many years I have recognized and taken responsibility for my own development. I have studied, learned meditative techniques and traveled internationally to gain more knowledge. I have understood that I can take part in the development of my own consciousness. I have been and am active in my own development process. Despite the fact that I find my life rich in new confessions and that I dare to push boundaries every day, I have felt lonely in my process. For many years I have longed to find 'my teacher' - my guru. He or she would reach out a hand and give me this extra promise that needed to move forward. Do you recognize yourself?
The word 'guru' is often used also in the western countries, but not everyone knows that the word should be translated by teacher. Most people in the western world seem to understand the 'guru' most closely with a religious magician. A magician who, by magic, will save and change us for the better, by means of abilities we believe must belong to some form of divine kingdom. We also have examples from western countries that 'gurus' from the east have led people astray and made mistakes. It's not the kind of 'guru' I've been searching for for years and longing to meet.
I have sought the wise woman or man, that is mature and balanced in hers/his own great consciousness. He or she who listens to me openly, accommodates me and supports me in my own work. He or she who can help me pull the veil aside so that the larger me can appear on stage. For me, this help is about something other than copying someone else's world of imagination. My search for a 'guru' is about access to a wisdom I can listen to benefit from, based on my free choices.
I have searched in sources of knowledge from the great cultures of wisdom in ancient times, I have searched among prophets and philosophers up to our time, in the beautiful Vedic texts, in Buddhism, in the peaceful and at the same time rebel Taoism, and not least in the esoteric sources and especially now more recently, in Pythagorean understanding of reality, the "Hylozoic". I have read, trained and traveled. I have found great thinkers and have enjoyed their contributions. On the other hand, I have not found 'he' or 'her' who in living life today, has given me what I have been seeking. Therefore, my search continues.
In reflections on my search for my 'guru' - the teacher who, along with me, helps to pull the veil aside for my Higher I, my old school teacher from primary school has come to me as a memory. Let me tell you.
School was not a happy time for me. I often changed school as a result of my parents switching places. Since my dialect did not fit into the environments I moved to, contact with peers was rarely a good experience. My encounters with the theoretical subjects were also not very successful and I often felt lonely. We had a subject in primary school that I succeeded with and which gave me affiliation and well-being; the subject of working with wooden art. I was really good at that subject. My teacher was an old man, of few words. From time to time he gave me recognition. To this day, I remember his blue work apron, his glasses often dusted with wood chips from the machines, and his hands that were large and marked by a long life in working with wood.
On a special occasion I was going to carpenter a birdhouse and I needed to cut over a plank. I diligently pressed the saw to split the plank in two. Then the teacher came to me, released my hand leading the saw and said "Jon, let the saw do the job". Then he showed me how to cut a plank in two, without using force by letting the saw run over the tree by itself.
What this old teacher meant to me and means to me today, you can understand. Now, in retrospect, I understand that in his experience, though not in his theoretical knowledge, he knew the old wisdom "You are not the doer" ... and that way I can look at him as a my 'guru', at least for an important realization in my life. I don't have to use force to create results. I will open up and give the situation access to find the solution that is my intention.
Today I can understand that my old teacher came to me to tell me that I can move in life from a forceless inner to a powerful outer. For this realization, I needed a ‘guru’ and he stills follow me.
Jon
