The Guru Game

The guru game is about throwing concepts out into thin air. Concepts and more concepts. It is about piling up concepts that point to a not knowing that is sometimes described as liberation. I call it love. Look at this site. Look at my book. Look at all the sites and all the books on non-duality. Nothing wrong with any of it. It’s like a field of flowers and weeds. You look for the flowers (the clear concepts) and avoid the weeds (the unclear concepts) until you realize that the weed is the flower and the flower is the weed. The flower and the weed are dualistic reflections in the mirror of Oneness, to use a metaphor. "Clear" teachings do not exist unless there are teachings that are "unclear." They are dualistic flipsides of the same coin. So if you hear a teacher saying that she has an uncompromising nondual expression, or if you hear her constantly criticizing other teachings or lineages as "not non-dual enough," you know it is a dualistic dream. What does it mean to say something is not non-dual enough? That is absurd on its face. How does one express non-duality using dualistic terms? Taking pronouns out of sentences is not enough. The truth can't be expressed.

Words like awareness, no self, and no choice are simply pointers. They are not the truth. Liberation sees through the dualities between self v. no self, choice v. no choice, awareness v. thought, unborn v. born. The absolute and relative are also just ideas made up by the dualistic mind. Use them as pointers, then allow them to drop. Adherence to that duality can keep a mind stuck for years in something called "the unborn" or "the absolute." As I like to say, realize your true nature as emptiness then enjoy form. They are not two. Wake up and then go to work. Repetition of one dualistic idea, such as "no choice" or "no self" can be a useful pointing strategy or an indication of attachment to ideas, beliefs, pointers, lineages, or traditions. The mind can get stuck even after seeing or an "enlightening experience."

It is just a pointing strategy to use the words "no self" or "no choice" to help the seeker's mind relax out of its dualistic position that there is a self with choice. If those words are being expressed by the teacher as if they are the ultimate truth, that teacher is stuck. The truth can't be expressed. Self v. no self, choice v. no choice, path v. no path, awareness v. thought, absolute v. relative are all dualistic positions that are seen through in this realization called non-duality. Some teachings will tell you that 'This' is about the unknown and then in the next sentence tell you with absolute certainty everything they know, including that there is no self. This is an innocent error. To negate the existence of something is to know something. The extent to which a teacher believes her own bullshit is the true mark of a good teacher. Don't trust the ones who always defend their teaching or way of pointing. Be careful of lineages. They can be wonderful as a sort of conveyer belt in which certain pointers are passed down from student to teacher. They become "group think" and collective egoic identities when there is attachment to a lineage or the belief that my teacher has it and others don't. There is nothing to defend in 'This.' There is nothing to know. There is only life living itself. Liberation is THAT free.

Most non-duality teachings are saying the same thing with different words. Many will point to emptiness or awareness or nonconceptual awareness only. This is wonderful and helps the mind relax out of its identification with form, story, thought. Other teachings do not point to awareness because of a tendency in the mind to fixate there or in being "the witness." These teachings will sometimes use the words Oneness or beingness or even nothing appearing as everything. This "nothing" is the same as the "awareness" in other teachings. In liberation, it is realized that this nothing is none other than everything. Form is formlessness and formlessness is form. Some teachings "get you there" by pointing only to formlessness first. Other teachings see that as a trap that can result in identification with something called "awareness" or "formlessness" that is separate from something else called "thought" or "form." The notion of being "stuck in nothingness" is a very real occurence in non-duality. Essentially, however, all these teachings are saying the same thing. Ignore the criticisms that certain teachers (including the ones that say they aren't teachers) hurl at other teachers. Many are trying to sell books, trying to make a living (nothing particularly bad about that), and some feel downright threatened because they actually believe that their pointers are true. They are selling something even while saying they have nothing to sell. This is also totally innocent. It is how the dualistic mind works. When we believe our own thoughts, we defend those thoughts, suppress dualistically opposite beliefs within us, and attack the others that do not agree with our thoughts, all in some unconscious attempt to strengthen a "me." This is ego 101: "I'm right, you're wrong." Ignore all that. Simply notice which pointers and teachings you resonate with. Trust that resonance, not the promotional ads and mud-slinging around the teachings (including any mud-slinging that may appear in this writing, even though none is intended).

A true guru doesn't know. She is love. Period. As Nisargadatta Maharaj once said: the most that can really be said is that "I am" and even that fades away. All knowledge is ignorace. The "knowing" that is talked about in nonduality is not a conceptual knowing. It is more like a heart knowing, a sense of absolute love and Oneness. It is not anything to argue about, defend, or make a religion out of.

If your guru calls you arrogant because you question pointers or "don't get it," that has nothing to do with you. The sense of love and oneness in the body/mind of the teacher has been usurped by some strange notion that some get 'This' and others don't. No one gets 'This.' 'This' is what you are, and even that is saying too much. There is either a seeing or there is not. There is no one to own either situation. Not seeing 'This' is completely innocent. There is no one to blame or call "arrogant. Those are images in the teacher's mind.

A true guru doesn't speak from stored memory or past spiritual insight (except as a coincidence). If a way of pointing arises repeatedly, it is not coming from belief or attachment. It is arising purely from presence. She has no dogma. Nothing to teach you. She is merely pointing you away from adherence to identification with story. She is just the loving light of emptiness expressing itself in whatever words happen to appear in the moment they appear. In one moment, 'no choice' may be just the right pointer. In another moment, a pointing to the appearance of choice may arise--the invitation to notice, for example, an attachment to thought. The expression of 'This' is totally free to respond in whatever way appears true in that moment. That is how 'This' moves. It moves in the timeless present, mysteriously. It cannot be understood, rehearsed, or known.

A true guru is concerned about waking up the seeker from the dream of self, above all else, including above making money, selling books, and having others follow her around or believe what she says. That is not to say that true gurus don't charge, but rather that their motives are clearly love and compassion above all else. The only teachers (including the ones that don't call themselves teachers) that will argue with what was just said are the ones who are more interested in your money or in gathering followers. The true guru lets you go when you are ready to go to another teacher. There is no attachment there. Unconditional love is just that--unconditional. If your guru gets upset when you go somewhere else, you are better off somewhere else.

A true guru knows that ultimately there is no 'guru' let alone 'true guru' and yet, on the level of thought, there is. She knows that to even take a position on that is to claim to know, to land in dualism. Non-duality is not about knowing lots of stuff. It's ultimately about knowing much, much less.

For every idea to which the mind attaches, there must be a weaning off. Like the junkie and the drug dealer engaged in a relentlessly dependent embrace, the seeker and the guru are just two ideas that feed off of each other. It's a relationship that is not real but that appears real until it is seen through.

There is just ‘This.’ What is “This?” It is whatever is happening. Whatever is happening is your true teacher. If non-conceptual awareness is happening, that is your teacher. If noisy thought is happening, that is your teacher. If oneness is realized, that is what is happening. If separation shows its face, that is what is happening. What are all these things teaching you? They are teaching you what is. Every moment is new. Let it teach you. It is begging to show you that there is nothing to teach. There is only life happening.

‘This’ is not about finding pure awareness. It is not about realizing beingness or Oneness.

It is about ‘This’

What is ‘This?’

It’s what is happening. The guru only pretends to teach life. How does one teach what already is? How does one learn it? What happens simply happens, whether we consent to it or not. The most a "guru" can do is point to that.

Expose the seeker game. Expose the guru game. See that they are nothing but the dance of abundance and lack. You lack nothing. Lack is a story. The guru has nothing that you do not have. When you see that, you see that there is, in the absolute sense, no guru and no seeker. There is only a dance between images to which the mind attaches. The image in your mind may be that you lack something. The image in the guru's mind may be that he has something. Both are false images.

Once that is seen, love is just dancing and playing. It may even continue playing the roles of seeker and
teacher, yet the roles are seen to be paper thin (like children playing "dress up").