Guru

Literally "heavy" or "weighty" – and thence "great" or "respected" – a guru, or teacher of spiritual truths is one who possesses sacred knowledge and who passes that knowledge on to others less far on the spiritual path. Such spiritual knowledge, received by direct experience, is deeper and more fundamental than intellectual knowledge gained second-hand by study; and is taught in a practical way so the pupil may acquire similar experience or realization of truth. An alternative interpretation of the term guru is "obstructing of darkness".

In particular, a perception of the unity of the individual with the universal will draw others with a glimpse of such a vision towards the teacher. They see God through such a teacher and see the teacher as God. It is for this reason that the Hesychast disciple behaves in the presence of his teacher as in the presence of Christ, that the Tibetan looks upon his lama as the Buddha himself, that Hindu teaching identifies the guru with God, the direct representative of the sad-guru. This is in line with the belief that the wholly enlightened being is literally identical with God, beyond ego-identity. Such an adept will not have an individual teaching method but will respond spontaneously to any situation, totally in the present. He will use any method to dislodge the self-inflicted limitations and complacency of his disciples' egos and allow them also to direct their attention away from personal concerns and to glimpse the truth of their own inherent enlightenment, the transcendental "I am".

Such direct experience of a guru's teaching allows progress on the difficult path to freeing attention from attachment and reaction to externals to be achieved considerable more quickly than the individual could achieve by his own self effort. This is because self effort is inherently based in the ego which the individual is trying to transcend. Spiritual identification with the samadhi of an adept is the practice of satsang, the depth of response achieved naturally depending upon the stage of spiritual life of the devotee and of the adept. Although direct experience such as described is independent of time and environment, a guru's interpretation of such experience will depend on the local language, symbols and social and religious structure. This accounts for apparent differences of perception as "Buddhist", "Christian", "Islamic", "Hindu", and so on. Nevertheless, the vision transcends such differences, and is essentially one. A spiritual master with be aware of both the relativity of forms and their necessity, so his knowledge must transcend form. Although he may not have practical familiarity with other traditions he will not be limited by his own. No true master puts himself outside a tradition or religion, he knows its divine origin.