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"The Spiritual Master's attention to his
devotee naturally transforms the devotee into Bhava
Samadhi. But the devotee's attention must also rest
in the Spiritual Master. You become what you
meditate on. Thus, if your feeling-attention is
made a sacrifice, so that it becomes absolute
feeling-attention, love, or sacrifice to the
Spiritual Master, then there is a perfect link
between you and the Absolute or Divine Condition.
By this means you are lifted out of all the
conditional states of life and birth in any form.
Therefore, spiritual allegiance to the Spiritual
Master is the highest function of existence. It is
the single advantage not only of human beings but
of all beings. It is a unique function in
nature". |
On reading the above excerpt from The Way That I Teach is seems like the answer is yes, but the full question of whether or not a Guru can enlighten individuals/devotees is more complicated and subtle than it appears. The question can be answered in both the afirmative and the negative. But in both cases the subtle aspects of the question still remain.
"The devotee is constantly
given the intuition of the Absolute. But because
he, or she, adheres to the ego and to apparent
divisions of the body-being, he/she does not
recognize fully the significance of his intuition
of God. It is too ordinary an experience. He may
feel a little relieved, a little blissful, but
still he is unable to be completely given over to
the translating Force of the revelation of the
Spiritual Master. Therefore, his practice is a
matter of growth in the Divine Company of the
Spiritual Master. The initiation into Communion
with God is given constantly, but it is not fully
realized by the devotee. He is initiated piece by
piece. "
THE
WAY THAT I TEACH - Talks
on the Intuition of Eternal Life - Chapter 14 - The
Secret: of Divine Translation
It is said in the traditions that a Guru or Teacher is
necessary because "Enlightenment is virtually impossible
without the guidance and Grace of a God-Realized
Teacher".1 It s also said, "that which is to be
Realized is in the Divine Self Position. And It is to be
Realized not by appealing to something outside
yourself".2
The answers then can fit both common types of misunderstandings. One group of people will say 'yes' and then follow any teacher or guru in a child like manner. And the other more independent type of individual will say 'no' and try to enlighten themselves, or better yet, claim they are already enlightened!
Can we address this question without the traps of childish beliefs or adolescent arrogance? Is there a mature approach that is not compromised by self-emptying nor self-assertion?
"The Gurus" presiding
presence, the most powerful force, can do wonders:
save souls, give peace of mind, even give
liberation to ripe souls. Your prayers are not
answered by him but absorbed by his presence. His
presence saves you, wards off the karma.....The
jnani does save the devotees, but not by sankalpa,
which is non-existent in him, only through his
presiding presence, his sannidhi (Divine
presence).''
'Talks'
is from S.S. Cohen from his book Reflections on
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Ramana Maharshi
A disciple and devotee of the Great 20th Century Indian Sage, Ramana Maharshi, Sidney Cohen asked this question to his Guru. He asked, "can the Guru make his disciples realize the Self", Sri Ramana answers it in this way:
"...the Guru does not bring about Self-realization, but simply removes the obstacles to it. The Self is always realized. So long as you seek Self-realization the Guru is necessary. Guru is the Self. Take the Guru to be the real Self and yourself the individual. The disappearance of this sense of duality is removal of ignorance. So long as duality persists in you the Guru is necessary. Because you identify yourself with the body (and mind), you imagine the Guru to be the body. You are not the body, nor is the Guru. You are the Self and so is he. Th(is) knowledge is gained by what you call Self-realization".
In his comments on this Cohen says, "Bhagavan does not recognize the possibility of transmitting a power to a person to make him realize the Self. In fact no such power is at all necessary. What is necessary for the cognition of the Real is not an addition but a subtraction - the removal of the sense of duality with covers the One consciousness."
The
Perfect Alternative - Kanya Samatva
Suprithi
It is clear that the Guru can awaken and individual who puts his or her attention on the Guru. Is this then a permanant change? is the devotee now awakened? Of course the answer is NO, the devotee is not awakened, permanently. As Cohen says, "All that the Guru can do is to help (the disciple) correct (his) false identification (with mind, body and self)."
Destiny - Karma
The Guru activates and initiates the student/individual/devotee. The Guru can't 'remove' karma's of lifetimes. The Guru can not permanently change the destiny of the individual, and magically change ones life into a divinely enlightened condition.
In an early talk4 Adi Da (then Bubba Free John) says:"If your approach to me is wonderful and full of love and sacrifice, as it should be, then all the karma that must be seen, that must become your responsibility, can be shown to you easily. I am willing to it to be shown to you in a dream or in just a brief moment, some little circumstance that come and goes. I am perfectly willing for you to understand that dimension that you must understand in yourself on just such an occasion. I am willing for these karmas to pass in easy ways, in dreams and simple circumstances. But if you approach is not whole, not direct, not one of service, consciously lived all the time, to the degree that you do not live such sadhana in my Company, you must suffer your karmas as they stand. They will still be awakened in you by the force of this Company that you keep with me, but they will be awakened in gross ways, as they tend to appear outwardly in your life, outwardly in the waking state. Then the process has to be very dramatic and heavy."
In this Process of Translation, we pass as if
through a point in space, at the root center of the
heart. All awareness converges on that point in a
kind of spiral or vortex. And that point is so
small it is without dimensions, or any conceptions,
or any objects. The independent self seems to
dissolve in this narrow Passage ..It is a
Transition through the infinitesimal space of the
Heart."
Adi Da Samraj,
1978
"....it is not me putting my attention on you, it's you putting your attention on me".
In a little phamplet put out by Kanya Samatva Suprithi called "Your Suffering Is Your Own Activity", Kanya Samatva describes her one aspect of the process of understanding and resource to the Divine One, in the form of Adi Da Samraj:
"In this moment I heard the Teaching for the first time. I understood the difference between one who really practices the Way of the Heart and one who entertains the concepts and ideas of Spiritual practice. I also saw that the only real alternative to my suffering stood before me - in the Form of Sri Da Kalki. In the Way of the Heart, I only had to turn to Him and call upon His Grace, apply His Teaching, and relinquish my self-made efforts.
Here we have a testimony to the 'process' of Spiritual Awakening in the context of the Guru and Disciple relationship. This process is a progressive one, over time (could be years or lifetimes) but still a process.
Kanya Samatva Suprithi goes on to describe the second aspect of this process, which is Grace, or Divine Help. This Divine Help is necessary since "Understanding" or True Understanding can not occur on our own 'creature power'. Divine Help is absolutely necessary.
The beginnings of the
spiritual process in a devotee are simply his being
lifted experientially into the non-conventional
order of perception and cognition, in which there
is no ego, no separated existence, no dependence on
the self-limiting perceptual drama, no confinement
to conventional forms of cognition. Then he seems
to come back, through the same media of
psycho-physical experience, to his ordinary humdrum
life......This going up and coming down becomes
ever more rapid, to the point where there is no
more apparent coming up and going down. Then there
is simply direct realization, happiness under
conditions of all possible functional states, high
or low. That is the perfection of the devotee.
Adi
Da Samraj
Chogyam Trunpga - The Role of a Teacher
"In the vajrayana, it is absolutely necessary to have a teacher and to trust in the teacher. The teacher or vajra master is the only embodiment of the transmission of energy".
In the Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa, Vol 4 (Shambhala Press 2004) is the first of three volumes that presents Trantric Buddhism, a subject Trungpa was reluctant to talk about in his early teaching years. He was reluctant because of the immaturity and materially based mind of the young American mind set.
In Buddhism the role of the Guru is paramount, absolutely essential for one on the path of the Buddha. In fact the Guru is the principle by which the tradtion is kept alive, the lineage. Without the Guru there is no living tradtion.
In the beginning stages the Guru is not called a Guru but a Spiritual Friend. Someone who works with the student in a manner of 'meeting of minds'. He describes it as the mind of the teacher expanded to include the mind of the student and vise-versa. And as the student advances the role and function of the Guru become more and more important in the development of the student and here is where the Spiritual Friend becomes Vajra Master.
"Relating with the vajra master is extremely powerful and somewhat dangerous".
"The vajra master could be quite heavy-handed; however; (s)he does not just play tricks on us whenever he finds a weak point".
".... the vajra master is a human being, someone who has a karmic debt to pay as a result of the intensity of his compassion. The dharma cannot be transmitted from the sun or the moon or the stars. The dharma can only be transmitted properly from human to human. So there is a need for a (Guru) vajra master who has tremendous power - power over us, power over the cosmos, and power over himself - and who has been warned that if he misdirects his energy he will be cut down and reduced into a little piece of charcol (burned up).
It is extremely important to have a living vajra master, someone who personally experiences our pain and our pleasure. We have to have a sense of fear and respect that we are connecting and communicating directly with tantra".
Function of the Spiritual Master
In The Whole Body of Enlightenment, Adi Da (Da Free John) writes "The human Spiritual Master is an agent to the advantage of those in like form". If a disciple enters into the company (not just the physical presence, but the spiritual presence of the Spiritual Master), then the 'literal physics' of ones existence begins to change.
Here is the key to understanding this complicated and paradoxical question. We begin to see and hear, that this is not a 'one time', 'do it and get it over with deal'. It is a process that has transformative powers far beyond any possible logical or scientific explanation, yet absolutely true.
This fundamental understanding must ultimately rest in Ignorance. Because the summation of our existence is Mystery, absolute, unqualified confrontation with what we cannot know. Any movement to 'know' is a contraction of mind on feeling, a feeling of fear and the action of 'grasping'. Enlighenment is, in the end, an private and isolated matter.
1. Enlighenment and the Transformation of Man. Selections
from talks and essarys on the spiritual process and God
Realization. Editors notes p. 152.
2. Adi Da Samraj, The Parential Deity and the One to be Realized, Feb 7, 1983
3. Sidney Cohen's book, Reflections on Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi (1959, p.96)
4. The Dawn Horse (Vol 1 Number 2, Dec 1975), entitled "Lay It At My Feet"
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