Spiritual direction

In order to guide a soul on the path of perfection, most teachings demand direction by someone further along that path. This will be a person not only having greater knowledge and insight but also greater holiness. Guidance may be through counselling, through confession (as in the Catholic church), and through spiritual direction. The guide is the archetypal intermediary between the material and the spiritual; passing the understanding of the teaching and spiritual discipline on to successors, both as written scriptures and as an oral tradition outside the written scriptures, is recognized as a vital and precarious process. In choosing an individual as spiritual director there seems to be an unconscious search for someone with whom one can relate or as compatible. Where no reaction occurs, no sparks fly, then there may be no real relationship through which guidance can flow.

It is the chemistry of personal relationship which makes the guidance valuable. Although much has been written down for the direction of others, the written word does not replace the personal guidance of another. "The Cloud of Unknowing", for example, written as guidance in prayer and contemplation, is clear about the discrimination required in judging how useful its contents are at any given time and assumes that the reader also has regular personal meetings with a spiritual director. Although written direction may be systematic and ordered, it lacks the immediacy, the give and take, of personal meetings. Where written direction is most valuable it again is based upon personal relationship, upon a two-way correspondence. Where this is not possible, it is clear again that even as one learns from the written word of one who lived centuries ago one is attracted by one spiritual master and not another as the personality of the teacher shines through the writing.

Many systems agree that there are very rarely those who have their teacher within themselves; disagreement arises as to whether this can be sufficient. In the Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist tradition, it is said that a self-awakened person cannot rely on teachers from outside; but others suggest that the inner guru leads the seeker to an outer guru, and the outer guru reveals the inner guru. Indeed, in Zen itself, a student's meeting totally confidentially and alone with his master to discuss problems in his training and [zazen]

practice - [dokusan]

or [roshi]

- is considered very important for spiritual progress. It is made clear, however, that a roshi is not a guru but a guide. According to Sufism, when a seeker has no guide (or [shaykh]

) then Satan becomes his shaykh. In the Catholic tradition, although the 14th and 15th centuries were times when spiritual guidance was practised extensively, following the Council of Trent (1545-1563) the practice narrowed to a role of guarding orthodoxy and avoiding both heresy and questionable mysticism.

The vocation of spiritual guidance has been considered one not to be undertaken lightly - mere age does not qualify, but spiritual discrimination and experience. In addition, having found a teacher the testing of a follower's resolve may involve him in seeming abuse or rejection before being accepted, particularly as the guide may be considered to become accountable before God for his disciples as well as for himself. While a master is not bound to accept an individual as disciple, once he has been accepted the disciple must not have concealed from him the spiritual chain represented by the master nor his spiritual predecessors.