"The greatest form of ego for an individual is to present himself as a teacher and become a guru."
--Ramana

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"These teachers and gurus are experts on vision because the blind have declared them so."
--Jed McKenna

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"He noticed that his cats seemed to have the quiet mind he wanted.
So he started eating cat food and staring at birds outside the window."
--Michael Markham


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As some of you know, my foot saga continues and apparently more surgery is needed. Once again I am gathering info to help make decisions for next steps (little pun there, har har.)

The doctors dramatically disagree on what surgery will be right for me.

So it is up to me… me, the one with zero medical training or expertise in this field…

to choose who can help so that I can be done with this situation.

A lot rides on my making the right choice. But I have no idea how to do that.

So I’m forced to depend on factors like if the doctor has a good background, and good reviews, and do they seem like they know what they’re doing, do they seem trustworthy?

Though background, reviews and seems-likes are not what does actual surgery. And none of that tells me which of them is right.

Which is why I understand as I watch a new friend navigate the spiritual scene.

He’s been following Sadhguru, Osho, Ramana, Ravi Shankar. He knows of Rupert, and Nisargadatta, and Krishnamurti.

These people are famous, known all over the world, with books, reverent quotes, and podcasts. So naturally my friend considers them authorities.

Though if we think about it, what has to happen for that level of fame to happen? How much marketing, hustling, getting the word out? A lot of promotion of the personality has to be done in order to achieve big fame.

Still, my friend wants truth too, and these people claim to have it.

So he’s terribly confused.

Because while the many wise ones often use similar words (such as “Self”,) they seem to mean very different things.

And quite often they completely contradict each other.

Maybe they mean the same thing, but the language makes it confusing.

Or maybe they don't mean the same thing.

In which case, enlightenment – what it is, how to get it, how you know it, what the results are- is a matter of opinion.

And opinions are not truth.

Opinions, as many of us know, are like a**holes; everyone’s got one.

And yet, crazily, who is it up to, to determine whose opinion makes the most sense?

Well that would be the seeker- the one who is looking to supposed experts for guidance- to figure out who’s right.

Brilliant set up. Let’s leave it up to folks who are trying to learn something, to figure out which teacher to trust, based on… well, nothing useful.

And of course, no one is helping my friend see his blocks to clarity, either.

Because it doesn’t serve anyone’s purposes for him to see it.

Every answer to every question drags him deeper into gobbledegook.

Hello confusion, depression, personal failure, and anxiety.

All in the name of enlightenment seeking.

Great!

So does this mean no one should turn to anyone else to help them learn something new? Does it mean no one should ever get new ideas from any outside source, read anything, listen to any podcast?

How does anyone know whom to trust and follow?

Well of course I’m not famous, I’m nobody, and what do I know? But unsurprisingly, I do have an opinion (aka a**hole) about this.

And hey, my opinion is worth as much as anyone else’s.

So I would say to my friend and to any lovely Mind-Tickler readers who might also be having a similar experience, if you want outside guidance to help with new input and new ideas, fine. Pick a teacher.

But just one.

Not every single “authority” who happens to have access to a microphone and a publisher.

Just so that you don’t end up with whiplash.

Choose someone whom you understand.

Choose someone who doesn’t require unending financial deposits in order to get access to that great wisdom.

Most important, choose someone who doesn’t leave you feeling like a failure. Check how do you feel.

If after the initial lovely AAHHH wears off, you feel bad about yourself, then not that one.

Choose your personal peace.

May as well. It’s not like there’s an actual right answer.

Because truth is movable, variable, and dependent on point of view.

So no teacher is right. Whomever you turn to is just as good as the next guy.

And if you’re concerned that if you choose wrong, then you’ll miss out, allow me to help you with that.

Yes, you will indeed miss out.

You will miss out on someone else’s ideas, someone else’s choices, someone else’s truth, someone else’s life.

You’ll miss out on pain and self hatred and failure.

What you will not miss out on is your own life, your own experience, your own wisdom.

Besides, really, no one needs enlightenment.

No one.

No one needs feet either.

And that is the great liberating, exhilarating, truth

Which no podcast or guru or foot surgeon

can, or will,

ever provide.


“You are rewarding a teacher poorly if you remain always a pupil.”
--Nietzsche


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Watch Judy and Shiv Sengupta discuss spiritual anarchy

Click here to watch Judy on Buddha at the Gas Pump 

click to watch Judy and Walter have fun chatting about about nonduality, the self, consciousness, awareness, free willand other light and breezy stuff

watch Judy and Robert Saltzman talk nonduality
1- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAa3UCEyROQ
2- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fv_vsvaejshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DAn8Rqg3I0