This discussions gives rise to a memory I have which profoundly impacted me. It was a statement made by a Tibetan Lama, who was giving a dissertation on meditation. Simply stated, and I paraphrase, he said, “If one is aware of one's Buddha nature, she should contemplate her Buddha nature. However, if one is not aware of one's Buddha nature, she should seek out a teacher (Guru) and under his tutelage, come to recognize her Buddha nature.”

This simple statement really put the whole Guru, no Guru argument into alignment for me. I hope others find it helpful as well.

You have given me a place to start. Thank you.
Jen

just find a chair (or any other meditation position- just google them) and sit in straight position calmly for 5 minutes at first. you could just stare at a white wall during this time, if you have got one. set a timer (alarm clock, …) to 5 minutes and do nothing more than staring at the wall and trying not to think about anything besides your breath.

that’s it. everything else is in the post, which is very great btw!

Even though you have taken your leave I felt moved to comment based on your last post.

First, the interesting thing about meditation (or any practice) is how many people make pronouncements and judgments about it without themselves attempting the experiment. It’s really quite simple: Meditators make claims of the efficacy of meditation. To test the truth of their assertions all one needs to do is follow the injunction and meditate. If you don’t attempt to reproduce the results, and either fail or succeed, you don’t get to judge the efficacy. You are not qualified.

Second, most gurus out there, and the ones most loudly responsible for the public image of gurus, aren’t gurus. They’re salesmen. They have a product, and they want to economize on it. There reward can either be in ego gratifying attention or monetarily. They also tend to be of the type that make their disciples feel mostly goey good. A real guru, interested in your growth will constantly push against your limits in a way that should be both nurturing and extremely uncomfortable. In my opinion the whole system is outdated and very culturally specific. It gets very cludgy when you try to glue it into a Western modern (or post-modern) paradigm. I teach Aikido, and the dojo I train at is very conscious that we are not in Japan. You cannot handle American students the way you can handle Japanese students. In fact in my dialogues with Japanese teachers in Japan you increasingly cannot handle Japanese students the way you used to be able to. The whole movie picture Sensei thing is simply inappropriate here. Does that mean I don’t have valuable things to teach about Aikido, no. (You can check that with the proof of coming to one of my classes. ) What that does mean is that if I start acting like a comic book Sensei I will seriously curtail my own efficiency. The time of the Guru is not only over in this culture, it was never their time here to begin with.