Is it Beneficial to Have a Guru: Teachings from A Course in Miracles

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

I study A Course in Miracles and see that I have cultivated tremendously in combination with all the current other spiritual books and work I have been doing. However, 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 brought me per year and another dark night to note that I have put aside me realizing that there is another way to take care of my illness. It was as a result of this guru that I postponed pursuing this. I believe the lesson maybe that individuals 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 visit a major change in me with this particular guru but at the same time frame 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- 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 very useful stepping stones whilst the ego is undone. They can be inspirational and very supportive witnesses to the mind's desire to Wake Up. They are able to offer very useful and practical advice, teachings, and examples. Yet accepting the Atonement (Correction) is THE sole responsibility and this can be a decision of mind that transcends the concept of personhood. Persons do not become enlightened, for your brain that believes itself to be a person is asleep and dreaming of exile from the Oneness of Spirit. While the deceived mind believes in linear time, Awakening will seem to happen in stages. Through the seeming "process" of Awakening, symbols are utilized by the Holy Spirit as stepping stones that reflect higher or even more expansive states of consciousness. A guru can be a symbol of the potential for Enlightenment, yet the knowledge of Enlightenment is impersonal, unconditional, and abstract. The ultimate dark night is always the temptation to retain an expression 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 since the lesson of discernment always rests with the perceiver. Use your feelings as a barometer in this discernment, for how you're feeling is the one right use of judgment until it's apparent that any judgment is entirely impossible. Follow the Joy! Follow the Bliss! As you appear within and make no attempt to guard or defend the ego, you will go through the Love the ego was created to hide. Love simply Is, and once the obstacles to the awareness of Love's Presence have been removed only Love remains.

Whenever you consider the concept of guru think of this:

Gee YoU aRe YoU

This is actually the gentle reminder: I am as God created Me.

This is actually the Power of Now.

This is actually the simplicity of Being.

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

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