Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

The more personal the teacher is, the closer to his
or her heart that he allows his students to come, the
more intense will be the needs, jealousies and angers;
as well as the intensity of love that these relationships
will ignite and sustain.
When the guru is more distant and not so open, all
the infighting goes on in the background, if it goes on
at all, and few have any sense it is even happening
except for a felt sense that a certain situation is odd.
The spiritual process is one of constant
deconstructing of one’s ego and belief systems and a
progressive surrender to the teacher; once you realize
that you and the teacher are not separate from the
overall process of consciousness “evolving” in and
through you. In fact, spiritual “progress” is
surrendering to the process of losing what inhibits your
awakening, and this is extremely painful and
frightening such as letting go of your concept of the
perfect guru or how the spiritual process should look.
Many students want the teacher to create a
situation where it is easy to wake up, but in fact, it is
up to the student to do the work, to practice self-
inquiry on why the feelings of wanting to run away are
coming up. “Why do they come to me,” one should
ask. “Why am I so angry with the teacher? Why do I
feel hatred towards X, Y and Z? What is my part in all