Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization

Hi Ed,

I read the recent post on having a living guru and your reply.

Boy Ed! You aren't making this easier!

You say that neither Ramana nor Robert are available, find yourself and you find them.

Then you say that it's a hundred times better to love and serve a guru, and that it MUST be a living guru.The problem is how do you find a living guru, and how do you know that he is a Jnani.

You keep looking--but not too hard. Attend to your own self. Find the subject, the looker, the listener.

I know that it is up to the student, but it doesn't make it easier. Enlightened individuals don't say they are when asked about it.Yet it seems to me that those that followed Robert, like you, KNEW that he was a Jnani. Doesn't it make it easier when you know?

Of course it makes it easier. But though I was struck by Robert in the beginning, it was well over a year before I really knew and trusted.

Ramana, Nisargargadatta and some others, those that went to India for example, KNEW they were meeting Jnanis.

No, they heard that from others. Many who stayed with these gurus never accepted them as such. It is all a game anyway; they don't exist and neither do you--not as you think.

What about us here in North America? Do we have to go to India?

I would never go to India for a number of reasons. I met all of my teachers--ALL--right here in the USA and Robert in LA. If you can find a true guru in Los Angeles, you can find them anywhere.

I would not put much stock in gurus who do workshops, seminars, traveling circuses. Ramana, Nisargadatta, Rajneesh, Robert became nailed down sooner or later. You can go see them that do not do side shows, or wait for one of their students to do a side show in your town.