In the spiritual journey,
whoever travels without a guide,
needs two hundred years
for a two-day journey.
- Rumi
In Sufism, the teacher
has no face and no name. A lot of people are persuaded by the validity
of something when they see a large following attracted to one person,
such as with the hysteria around pop stars. Given more fame and more
publicity, more people follow them and feel justified in their actions
to do so – since everybody else is doing the same. The spiritual
path doesn’t rely on publicity or hysteria. In the beginning,
it’s about gut feeling – what the heart feels – but
thereafter you’re much more likely to experience constant hesitation,
continuously combating your progress.
I’ve mentioned
several times that in Sufism, the teacher is a facilitator, someone
who has experienced the path, who is aware of the pitfalls and the ups
& downs. But he or she is also a human being.
Unfortunately, in the West, we have been conditioned
to believe that the more intimate a relationship is, the more personal
it becomes. That is true in terms of relationships between individuals,
but spiritual relationships are not the same. The real intimacy is unification
experienced on the level of soul; that’s the most intimate it
can be. Because spiritual relationships are deeper than personal relationships,
personal intimacy can actually be a barrier to reaching that intimacy
– the ego could use that personal intimacy to prevent the spiritual
intimacy being achieved. It’s something one has to be aware of.
In the beginning, personal intimacy is important and it brings about
union, but it does not give the full union.
I would like you to reflect upon the experiences that
you have had so far with your teacher, to try to identify the part that
your ego and conscious play in your relationship with the teacher. Sometimes
the ego causes us to hesitate, question or look upon our teacher as
not being totally competent; it is the ego’s job to use the intelligence
to put those questions in to the mind.
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