Is it Useful to Have a Guru: Teachings from A Course in Miracles from jhnner's blog

Is it helpful to have a guru in your life, especially when you have a dark night of the soul to proceed through? I've read that we all need some kind of help to undo all that we have learned. That's where Intercessory prayer comes in or perhaps a Guru with preferably a lineage that shows they've done this kind of work through the generation of these family. It all has related to the vitality of the individual and the group they travel with in spirit.

I study A Course in Miracles and realize that I have cultivated tremendously in combination with the other spiritual books and work I have been doing. However acim podcasts, I see now that even my guru has some unlearning to do. The Course teaches us never put anyone on a platform and I see now. It has taken me a year and another dark night to observe that I've put aside me understanding that there clearly was another way to handle my illness. It absolutely was because of this guru that I postponed pursuing this. I believe the lesson maybe that we all have the vitality within us and when my guru speaks like any other in life I must discern the data and go within for the ultimate answer. Whenever I push away that urge I find obstacles in my own path. So I'm confused, I view a major change in me with this specific guru but at once I find the advice can conflict with my most inner beliefs and am forced to listen. I believed I must listen for this is actually the lesson: Listen to the REAL SOURCE- usually the one WITHIN. Please help me with see what else I might be missing.

Thanks for the heartfelt and sincere email. Role models (such as gurus or teachers or guides) are beneficial stepping stones since the ego is undone. They can be inspirational and very supportive witnesses to the mind's desire to Wake Up. They can offer beneficial and practical advice, teachings, and examples. Yet accepting the Atonement (Correction) is THE sole responsibility and this is a decision of mind that transcends the concept of personhood. Persons do not become enlightened, for the mind that believes itself to become a person is asleep and dreaming of exile from the Oneness of Spirit. While the deceived mind believes in linear time, Awakening will seem that occurs in stages. During the seeming "process" of Awakening, symbols are used by the Holy Spirit as stepping stones that reflect higher or even more expansive states of consciousness. A guru could be a symbol of the prospect of Enlightenment, yet the knowledge of Enlightenment is impersonal, unconditional, and abstract. The ultimate dark night is definitely the temptation to retain a sense of individuality, privacy, autonomy, and uniqueness. All perceived darkness reflects the belief in private minds with private thoughts. Mind is one in forgiveness and One in Truth.

It's wonderful that you are simply because the lesson of discernment always rests with the perceiver. Use your feelings as a barometer in this discernment, for how you are feeling is usually the one right use of judgment until it's apparent that any judgment is entirely impossible. Follow the Joy! Follow the Bliss! As you look within and make no attempt to protect or defend the ego, you will feel the Love the ego was made to hide. Love simply Is, and once the obstacles to the awareness of Love's Presence have been removed only Love remains.

When you think of the concept of guru contemplate this:
Gee YoU aRe YoU
Here is the gentle reminder: I'm as God created Me.
Here is the Power of Now.
Here is the simplicity of Being.

Truth is simple. The ego was the illusion of confusion and complexity.

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