Do You (Really) Need a Guru?

Many traditions say you do, and that’s going to cause some problems… whether you find one or not.

The two spiritual traditions to which I am most attracted and which most directly inform my practice are about as far from traditional Western religion as possible. Vedanta and Tibetan Buddhism are, in just about every sense, quite non-traditional. Sure, they have moral precepts and ritual practices, but these aren’t the kind of ‘because we said so’ dogma that is so strong in, say, Catholicism. Rather, they are psycho-spiritual strategies to free ourselves from the grasp of ego, and they make quite a bit of sense (not that my deluded self follows them all the time).

Yet there’s one thing that they both tend to insist on, and that is to really be free, awakened, enlightened, one needs direct transmission from someone who has already attained it — a guru, more or less. That brings up a whole series of issues.

Having Searched the Mall and Online Retailers…

Finding an enlightened being is not the easiest task. It’s probably not made any easier by living on suburban Long Island, but I have my doubts about other locations, as well. Trips to the Himalayas are known to produce equivocal results.

Mind you, there are plenty of folks who claim to be awakened, but a good deal of them seem to be selling hooey. There are reputable organizations that teach in the spiritual traditions, but they tend not to promote themselves as having enlightened beings ‘on staff’, as it were.

Of course, we can go by the old, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears” edict, but that means that all I’m doing is getting myself ready for the teacher to appear.

Even If One Finds a Guru…

One of the greatest advocates of the guru path was Ram Dass. Along with Krishna Das and a number of other spiritual seekers, Ram Dass was a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba, a guru who continued to attract devotees even after his death (he is credited with influencing Steve Jobs and Julia Roberts, for example).

Everyone who was around Neem Karoli Baba had a great experience, and many of them changed the path of their lives. To my knowledge, no one has talked about the guru experience with Neem Karoli Baba more than Ram Dass. If we accept that Maharaj-ji, as his devotees called him, was a fully enlightened being, then we still have to acknowledge that few of those devotees attained enlightenment themselves. Ram Dass was particularly candid about his status, and certainly did not set himself up as awakened. Rather, he presented himself as a spiritual seeker, with all the hang-ups and wrinkles that we all have.

I don’t mean to imply any doubt as to Maharaj-ji’s enlightenment — I’m the last person to be in a position to judge. I only want to point out that the most prominent devotees of a very prominent guru only got so far. Naturally, we could say that that’s down to them rather than the guru, but it shows that the guru path isn’t a fast-track, at least not for us slow kids in the spiritual class.

There Are Exceptions…

On the other hand, it seems like there are some exceptions to the need for a guru. As I read it, Eckhart Tolle had his awakening without a guru, and he has a stable, ongoing sense of awareness that may or may not count as ‘enlightenment’ but is surely a mark of real spiritual progress. The key here is ‘ongoing’, because that differs from the occasional peak experiences that many of us have.

In his book The Translucent Revolution, Arjuna Ardagh argued that spontaneous awakening experiences were becoming increasingly common, and that they were visited upon both meditator/spiritual seekers and folks that were not seeking or even necessarily aware of awakening. It’s perhaps worth noting the Ardagh had his own awakening experience after visiting a guru (but just once, for a brief time), but he is clear that gurus aren’t necessary.

Lama Surya Das has an interesting perspective. He was a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba, and later went on to study Tibetan Buddhism under enlightened masters, yet he seems to recognize the difficulties involved in finding a reputable and capable spiritual teacher, and has suggested — somewhat in contrast to his tradition — that we can find our teachers in the teachings, while the guru is not necessarily that important (he cites the Zen and Theravada traditions of Buddhism in his book, Awakening to the Sacred). He is also very aware of the many problems that have arisen around gurus, particularly, but not exclusively, in the West.

Every time I mention Ken Wilber, someone tells me what’s wrong with him. He is indeed a controversial person and I have a few issues with him myself, but Wilber is very direct about the awakening experience of nonduality. As far as I can tell, Wilber’s own experience came during a period of intense study and without the aid of a guru. While you may or may not like Wilber (or Tolle, or anyone else I’ve mentioned), I admire the rare courage that these folks have shown in saying, “This is my experience.”

I should mention that Tolle, along with many of the people that Ardagh talks about, had their awakening experiences during very low periods in their lives. In a sense, it seems that they ‘gave up’ from an ego perspective, which makes perfect sense. This is just a shade different from surrendering to Jesus or a personal god, which is the basis for salvation in many Western religions. It’s different, but there are similarities worth noting, and there are implications for the guru path.

Not To Mention…

I don’t include psychedelic experiences in this article, although I’m a great fan of the use of psychedelics for psychological and spiritual growth. The main reasons for my hesitation are that there is such a variety of powerful experiences — all of which could be considered some form of awakening — and that the numinous, ‘special’ quality around them requires careful inspection. Besides, the temporary quality of psychedelic awakening is well-known, and is often an incitement to deeper spiritual practice.

What To Do Now?

I’ve written this article to survey a few ideas about the necessity of a guru for spiritual awakening. As a Westerner — and a Leo, to boot — I don’t find the idea of devotion to a guru particularly appealing. Within our culture, we’ve seen things go terribly wrong with this sort of thing, and I’m not about to give up my critical thinking. To the extent that means I’m not giving up my ego, I guess I’m just chasing my tail in the whole endeavor.