FROM A SITE VISITOR: i seek a sadguru, finding your site i read of different teaching methods, different appraoch, different yoga. I have study teachings of hinduism, buddhism,even islam,now find advaita vedanta. How to find in all this the sadguru who is for me? Anwar
F.: Hello, Anwar. Your question is one that has been asked in one form or another for what is likely thousands of years, and there is little question that the challenge is more daunting now than ever in the history of humankind.
Your query will be addressed in the typical Advaitin manner which often involves looking at any particular subject from an entirely different angle (from “the back,” if you will, rather than from “the front”…so to speak).
Rather than, “Who can guide me to where I would go?” consider: if there is a sense that you would go somewhere, is it possible that the drive is really to “go back” or “to return,” not to “go forward” or to “go higher”? (Certainly, there is plenty of talk—and there are plenty of talkers—about that “going higher” if you think that is the goal.)
However, might there be some sense that you really want to “go back,” to “return home” (that is, go back to a time or place of peace and comfort and joy and solitude)? If that is the case, then would it not be helpful to first determine “where that is” and why you are no longer there?
What has happened that you must now seek? What do you sense that you need? What do you sense that you are separated from? Is it possible that the sensation is not real and that you are separated from nothing and that the only requirement for the search to end and for peace to manifest is to be aware of the unicity that is? If you "feel broken," is it possible that the feeling is an illusion and that wholeness already exists?
The now-commonplace restlessness of humanity has inspired most to engage in a search, or in multiple searches. For all, the most basic search is for food…for survival…for continuity. Fifty-percent on the planet will not be successful in even that most basic of all searches. Half of all humans on the globe will starve to death before reaching the age of an adult.
For some, the search is for sex. Whereas the original drive was based in physical satisfaction and the instinctive motivation to procreate in order for the species to survive, too often now the drive is warped with psychological games involving manipulation, control, or a search for unconditional acceptance. The latter is often inspired by a desire to assuage the ego or to try to mend the effects of earlier rejection.
For still more, the search is for relief from stress, anxiety, worry, and/or depression. For others, the search is for relief from the effects of trauma, insanity and/or personality disorders.
For some, the search is for something as infantile as a surrogate mother or father figure to provide in adulthood (1) some sense of security or (2) an opportunity to re-enact a childhood that was plagued by mental, physical and/or emotional suffering that was generated by incompetent parents.
(The subconscious goal in case #2 is to try to re-create that earlier set of circumstances and then try to “rewrite” that painful history and bring about a different, happier outcome. The search there is, of course, a search for happiness…the happiness that was “missed” then and which is, therefore, missed now.)
For others, the search is for the unconditional brand of love they did not receive early on. In the search for happiness and love and peace, most—just like you—have come to believe that a quest which reaches that level must involve the study of “holy writings” and the guidance of “holy leaders” (as with your study of hinduism, buddhism, and islam) or guidance from “a spiritual leader” (as in your search now for your sadguru).
When the search reaches that level, the dilemma that you face manifests, and never in the history of humankind have the waters been more muddied, what with so many paths and so many guides and so many methods and so many practices.
Global confusion has become the norm, and as persons seek to move beyond the confusion, the systems and the people who now claim that they can provide Anwar with all of the answers only compound the confusion.
Thus, you are invited to take today for consideration and see if something is revealed about what “the real problem” is before you continue with any further seeking of “the real solution.” Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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