Teachers, Teachers Everywhere

"When you really pay attention, everything is your teacher."

-- Ezra Bayda

Having a guru is so 20th century! To undertake a student-teacher relationship with just one human being is so limiting that it's nearly a type of psychological/spiritual slavery. Spirit exists everywhere, in everyone and everything, and Spirit is the ultimate teacher.

That doesn't mean that you can't learn specific skills (like woodworking), specific practices (like sitting meditation) or certain knowledge (like the history of the Catholic Church) from specific teachers. You can, obviously. And even though the Internet can provide you, with just a click of a mouse, the most human knowledge ever-assembled, there are still very good reasons to take face-to-face classes, engage in discussion, labs, apprenticeships, etc. But never, ever turn your spiritual life or human development over to any one teacher or system.

The downsides of guru-teacher relationships are well documented, especially here in post-modern Western culture. And the bottom line is that these traditional teaching relationships are no longer necessary in this, the third age of spirituality, the Age of the Holy Spirit. And this is simply because Spirit, as mentioned above, is available always and everywhere, even in its ultimate secret hiding place -- deep inside you.

So, learn from every teacher you can. Respect them, honor both their knowledge and their good character, but don't become their spiritual lackey. Surrender your attachment to your ego, surrender it on a daily basis. Just make sure you surrender it to Spirit, Itself, and not to some middleman, even if that middleman is seemingly well meaning.

No more second hand God! That's the ticket. God within, God without -- everywhere you look, you are surrounded by Spirit manifesting as teachers. Welcome to the School of Life...