By Rick Fields
Guru means instructor. A guru teaches you your personal true nature, which all gurus agree can’t be expressed in phrases. Lao Tsu stated, “Those that know don’t say.” Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped anybody from making an attempt, together with Lao Tsu.
A guru can act in some ways: as pal, mirror, information, God or psychic martial arts grasp. There may be additionally all the time the chance {that a} guru is even crazier than thou. A couple of excellent grasp has turned out to be an ideal con man. Solely you possibly can inform, and when coping with the mercury of your personal thoughts, it ain’t straightforward.
Gurus, like everyone else, seldom agree with one another. In the event that they did, every thing can be less complicated, however much less fascinating. This information is a line-up of the major-league gurus whose philosophies have develop into nationwide points. We’ve omitted numerous one-horse, 12-apostle gurus on the idea that folks will all the time go to the marketed model.
Selecting a guru is lots like voting for president. It’s an act that requires a leap of religion, to not point out Kierkegaard’s teleological suspension of the moral. What you’re about to learn could shock you. Look inside earlier than you look with out. Beware. And remember.
SRI CHINMOY
Bio: Born India, 1931. Entered an ashram at 12, spent the following 20 years meditating, got here to New York in 1964. Director, United Nations Meditation Group. Writer, 302 books. He’s additionally painter, composer and musician—his newest disc being “Music for Meditation” on the Folkways label.
Philosophy: Emphasizes love, devotion, meditation by the center and give up to the guru. Meditates with disciples a couple of times every week. “I enter into every particular person soul and see what the soul needs from me: peace, mild, bliss. Regardless of the soul needs I supply in utmost silence.”
Life-style: Purity and cleanliness are stipulations for Sri Chinmoy’s pupil. Alcohol, cigarettes, medicine and so forth, verboten. “Drug addicts, alcoholics or hippies” needn’t apply. Male disciples put on quick hair. “It’s my internal feeling,” says Sri Chinmoy, “that when males have quick hair they give the impression of being smarter, extra good-looking and extra charming.” Disciples reside in their very own properties, however should attend heart conferences, until they’ve excuse.
Drawbacks: His poetry, for one factor. Sri Chinmoy as soon as wrote 843 poems in 24 hours. The standard of the poetry, pious doggerel, exhibits it. Portray and music, ditto. Disconcerting behavior of signaling his entrance into the very best degree of samadhi by rolling his eyes midway up into his cranium.
Quote: “To illumine our life we want pure ideas. Every pure thought is extra valuable than all of the diamonds of the world, for God’s breath abides solely in man’s pure ideas.”
Entry: Sri Chinmoy, P.O. Field 32433, Jamaica, N.Y. 11431.
OSCAR ICHAZO
Bio: Born 1931, La Paz, Bolivia. Skilled paralyzing cataleptic assaults at six and a half. Studied martial arts, cabala, Gurdjieff, Buddhism, Confucianism, Zen and bought excessive with Andes Indians. In 1969 in Arica, Chile, he started instructing John Lilly, Claudio Naranjo and others in “a mix of ashram, monastery and boot camp.”
Philosophy: Arica identifies 9 “hypergnostic” methods that manifest on bodily, psychological and religious ranges. The 40-day coaching clarifies these methods through the use of “psychocalisthenics”—motion, respiration, weight-reduction plan, “yantras” (mandalic op-art diagrams) mantras and extra. The 2 penultimate steps—stated to result in full enlightenment—have to be taken throughout the protected house of a monastery.
Life-style: Aricans are inclined to reside collectively, often sharing flats or homes. When there are disagreements, or if deeper group concord is sought, they follow “trespaso,” gazing into the left eye of your accomplice with a purpose to contact important being. If plainly no settlement or unity is feasible, an individual may discover his ego “lowered” (instructed the place they’re caught in no unsure phrases) or “circulated,” requested to maneuver on until they will get it collectively. Intercourse, consuming, medicine—LSD excepted—cigarettes, alcohol and illness are permitted more often than not. Aricans are inclined to reside, costume and celebration in excessive type.
Drawbacks: You can’t acknowledge one other particular person’s degree till you’re there your self, and you’ll’t get there your self with out taking the coaching. The 40-day coaching—together with room and board in beautiful rural settings—can value as a lot as $1,400.
Quote: “A human being is greater than anybody believes.”
Entry: Arica, 24 West 57th Road, New York, N.Y. 10019.
BABA RAM DASS
Bio: Born Massachusetts, 1936, as Richard Alpert. Ph.D. in psychology. Harvard. In 1961, fellow psych prof Timothy Leary gave him his first hit of psilocybin. Skilled ego loss of life, panic and the calm heart behind and past all of it earlier than he and Leary have been fired from Harvard. Lectured across the nation concerning the wonders of psychedelics. Then found that it doesn’t matter what he took or how usually he took it, he all the time got here down. Went to India and met an outdated man wrapped in a blanket, Nirmkaroli Baba, or simply plain Maharaji. Maharaji swallowed a complete handful of LSD with no extra impact than a slight twinkling of his eyes—he was already “there.” He christened Alpert Ram Dass (servant of Rama) and put him on a strict yogic coaching program, then despatched him again to America, the place Ram Dass started lecturing, this time concerning the religious journey. Be Right here Now, a guide Ram Dass produced with New Mexico’s Lama Basis, has offered a whole bunch of hundreds of copies. Different books embrace The Solely Dance There Is and Grist for the Mill. His brother has referred to as him Baba Rammed Ass.
Philosophy: Ram Dass teaches Ashtanga, or eight-limbed, yoga together with bhakti-devotional music and dance, hatha yoga, meditation and doing good deeds each day. Dass’s fundamental curiosity, nevertheless, is to not educate one type of yoga, however to assist individuals perceive the religious path. His lectures have a tendency to emphasise the widespread expertise of that journey, usually utilizing himself as a humorous instance of what to not do. He has been referred to as the humorist of the karma circuit.
Life-style: Ram Dass doesn’t have a middle or maintain courses, and he claims to not have college students. Till not too long ago, he personally answered mail from anybody with a religious query. Final yr he slipped out of sight—rumor has him again in India, supervising a statue of Hanuman he’s constructing as a memorial to his guru—and all mail is being returned unopened. All people is just about on their very own.
Drawbacks: Whereabouts unknown.
Quote: “Will [life] ever be The Massive Ice Cream Cone within the sky?”
Entry: Hanuman Basis, Franklin, New Hampshire 03235.
BHAGAWAN SHREE RAJNEESH
Bio: Born India, 1931. Obtained realization at 21, whereas meditating in a tree. Taught philosophy at Indian universities and traveled round India lecturing, debating and usually inflicting hassle among the many extra orthodox Indian guru followers. Left academia and arrange ashram in Poona, India, in 1966.
Philosophy: Earlier than you possibly can attain the deeper levels of meditation, says Rajneesh, it’s a must to break by your psychological blocks. For that reason, encounter teams, primal remedy and rolfing are all a part of ashram life. Rajneesh’s distinctive contribution to meditation approach is “chaotic” meditation, which begins with ten minutes of fast exhalations, adopted by “catharsis” or freaking-out, adopted by leaping up and down shouting the mantra Huuu! This unblocks the sexual power within the decrease cakras. Then there’s a interval of silent meditation and eventually, dancing to sitar music.
Life-style: Rajneesh is extra involved with totality than with perfection. There may be an understanding that as you progress, impure habits like smoking cigarettes and consuming meat dissolve. Intercourse is considered extra as a plus than a minus. Disciples—referred to as neo-sannyasans—put on orange clothes and malas (rosaries) with a photograph of Rajneesh.
Drawbacks: Poona is a good distance off, and you discover that Rajneesh is so delicate now that individuals who arrive to see him for private interviews are checked on the door for offending odors. Even the scent of shampoo is taken into account an excessive amount of.
Quote: “One ought to reside spontaneously, naturally and never attempt to observe any proper or any mistaken.”
Entry: Shree Rajneesh Ashram. 17 Koregaen Park, Poona 411 011 India. Additionally: Ananda, 29 East twenty eighth Road, New York, N.Y. 10016.
PIR VILAYAT KHAN
Bio: Born London, 1916, son of Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Khan, who based the Sufi Order within the West, an adaptation of Sufi Islam as it’s practiced within the Center East. Named as father’s successor on the age of ten. Raised in England and France. Holds diploma in psychology from Paris College, studied music at L’Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris and comparative faith at Oxford. Non secular education in India and the Center East with Sufi masters and different esoteric lecturers.
Philosophy: “Any one that has a data of life exterior and inside is a Sufi. Subsequently, there has not been, in any interval of the world’s historical past, a founder or an exponent of Sufism, however Sufism has been all alongside.” Sufism emphasizes the unity of the paranormal core inside all religions. Thus, in Khankas—Sufi ashrams—Buddhist meditation could also be practiced on Monday, Hinduism on Tuesday, Zoroastrianism on Wednesday, Sufism Thursday, Islam Friday, Judaism Saturday and Christianity on Sunday. Essentially the most generally acknowledged Sufi follow is dancing, together with the quick whirling made well-known by the dervish faculty. Different Sufi dances are round and sluggish, stressing the opening-up of the center.
Life-style: Sufis are historically “hidden.” There’s a New Age Neighborhood, Abode of the Message, in New Lebanon, New York. They run a VW restore store, bakery, faculty and Aquarian Programs Pc Designs.
Drawbacks: The dancing is nice for opening coronary heart facilities, however it’s straightforward to get very dizzy. No dope allowed.
Quote: “If you don’t see God in man, you’ll not see him anyplace.”
Entry: Sufi Order Secretariat, P.O. Field 396, New Lebanon, N.Y. 12125.
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, RINPOCHE
Bio: Born Tibet, 1939. Acknowledged in infancy as a tulku, or reincarnation of the Eleventh Trungpa, one among a succession of enlightened Buddhist lecturers. Educated within the Kargvu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Abbot of a giant group of monasteries till the Pink Chinese language invasion’ of 1959, when he led a big group of followers by foot throughout the Himalayas into India, the place he realized English. Attended Oxford, based Samye-Ling Monastery in a distant a part of Scotland and married an English woman. A few of his conservative college students didn’t approve, and in 1970 he got here to the states, the place he discovered extra fertile floor for his seemingly radical, unorthodox strategy.
Philosophy: Buddhism begins not with the imaginative and prescient or promise of heaven, bliss and even enlightenment, however with the First Noble Fact, which is the reality of struggling. The basis of struggling is impermanence, which ends up in the Second Noble Fact, the reality of the origin of struggling. That is discovered by the follow of sitting meditation, which ends up in the Third Noble Fact, the reality of the cessation of struggling. This results in the Fourth Noble Fact, the reality that there’s a path—a path primarily based on dealing with the expertise of your life, each constructive and detrimental, straight. Buddhism additionally factors to the transciency of all we consider because the self.
Life-style: Intensive follow is blended in with a sophisticated life-style which may shock some extra conventional meditators. Fits and ties are de rigueur for formal ceremonial events: Tibetan or Indian costume is discouraged. Trungpa’s main contribution to the American religious scene has been his introduction of the concept of “religious materialism,” by which the ego makes use of spirituality for its personal gratification.
Drawbacks: Elusive, besides when educating at seminars and retreats. Sitting meditation is designed to carry you down, and to not get you excessive.
Quote: “Meditation just isn’t a matter of making an attempt to realize ecstasy, religious bliss or tranquility, neither is it trying to develop into a greater particular person. It’s merely the creation of an area by which we’re capable of expose and undo our neurotic video games, our self-deceptions, our hidden fears and hopes.”
Entry: Vajradhatu, 1345 Spruce Road, Boulder, Colorado 80302.
WERNER ERHARD
Bio: Born Jack Rosenberg, Pennsylvania, 1935. Left his spouse to construct an encyclopedia-sales empire in California the place he all of a sudden “bought it,” whereas sitting in his automobile—a pure setting for enlightenment in California. Via phrase of mouth and media protection, est (Erhard Seminar Coaching) unfold quickly.
Philosophy: Individuals are caught of their conditioning like rats in a maze of their very own making, for which they habitually blame everybody else. As soon as individuals “get” that, they will create their very own expertise and management their very own lives.
Life-style: For individuals who make est their path there are ongoing workshops in relationships, communications, and so forth. You additionally volunteer to work in est places of work, help at occasions and begin the method towards turning into a employees member or a coach. This sort of work calls for nice effectivity and a focus to element, plus a casually costly, razor-cut, sweater-and-slacks look. It’s OK to smoke or drink, although there’s often not time for something greater than “getting the job finished.”
Drawbacks: Coaching prices $300 for which the trainers insult you thru a three-day religious blitzkrieg. Graduates of est can share a somewhat glazed good-German, just-following-orders air.
Quote: “You and I possess inside ourselves, at each second of our lives, below all circumstances, the facility to remodel the standard of our lives.”
Entry: est, 765 California Road, San Francisco, California 94108.
SATCHIDANANDA
Bio: Born India, 1914. Labored in agriculture, mechanics, electronics, cinematography and enterprise. Met Guru Sri Swami Sivananda within the Himalayas and obtained the sannyasi (monk’s) vows in 1949. Got here to New York in 1966 for a two-day go to and stayed for 5 months, founding the primary of his Integral Yoga Institutes.
Philosophy: Integral Yoga’s purpose “is a physique of excellent well being and energy, thoughts with all readability and management, mind as sharp as a razor, will of metal, coronary heart stuffed with mercy, a life devoted to the widespread welfare and realization of the True Self.” The principle emphasis is on hatha yoga asanas (postures), however the Integral Yoga path additionally goes on to incorporate pranayama (respiration workout routines), selfless motion, chanting of holy names, mantra repetition, prayer, meditation, examine and reflection.
Life-style: The hatha yoga courses are open to anybody for a modest price, and they’re among the finest bargains within the religious market. Superior college students develop into disciples, taking sannyasi vows of celibacy, vegetarianism.
Drawbacks: Swamiji has met twice with the pope, opened the Woodstock Pageant, and together with a Zen monk, a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi, heads the Middle for Non secular Research. By together with everybody and every thing, he has developed a method so broad and inoffensive that nothing very significant will get stated. Nice for hatha yoga, however his solutions to extra sophisticated issues can get somewhat platitudinous (an English phrase which means boring).
Quote: “We educate undoism, not Hinduism.”
Entry: Integral Yoga Institute, 227 West thirteenth Road, New York, N.Y. 10011, telephone (212) 929-0585.
MUKTANANDA
Bio: Born South India, 1908. On the age of 15 Muktananda met the famend Guru Swami Nityananda. In 1961 Nityananda left his physique and handed alongside the facility of the Siddha lineage to Muktananda.
Philosophy: Muktananda transmits kundalini power, which awakens a corresponding power mendacity dormant within the disciple. As soon as kundalini is woke up, consciousness routinely expands. Some individuals expertise visions, robust rushes of power, spontaneous bodily actions.
Life-style: The ashram Muktananda runs in India is strict and disciplined. Celibacy and purity are the norm for individuals who go all the way in which to develop into monks or nuns, though this step just isn’t counted vital. Women and men sit individually throughout chanting and meditation.
Drawbacks: Calls for whole give up to the need. Overlook it when you can’t give up to the Guru Muktananda. In case you like intercourse greater than religious bliss, keep away.
Quote: “Kundalini is the supreme power, the supreme intoxicating drug.”
Entry: Siddha Yoga Dham, 324 West 86th Road, New York, N.Y. 10024, telephone (212) 873-8030.
HIS DIVINE GRACE A.C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI PRABHUPADA
Bio: Born Calcutta, 1896. Retired from married life at 54 to develop into a sannyasi. Charged by his grasp with the duty for bringing the Vedic teachings to the English-speaking world, Bhaktivedanta took a freighter to New York in 1965. Opened the primary Worldwide Middle for Krishna Consciousness in a Second Avenue storefront a yr later, educating the mantra Hare Krishna.
Philosophy: Hindu fundamentalism. There’s a God, whose title this time round is Krishna, the everlasting, all-knowing, omnipresent, omnipotent, all-attractive character of Godhead. We aren’t our our bodies, as we’d suppose, however everlasting pure souls, elements and parcels of Krishna. All actions needs to be carried out for Krishna somewhat than for our personal sense gratifications. Devotees chant “hare Krishna, hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, hare hare, hare Rama, hare Rama. Rama Rama.”
Life-style: Devotees are inspired to “extinguish” their senses—no intercourse until for functions of procreation, no meat, alcohol, cigarettes or medicine. Devotees put on orange robes, males shave their heads—aside from a knot of hair—and usually observe the traditions of orthodox Hindu monks.
Drawbacks: Swallowing India complete usually results in a foul case of pimples in addition to religious indigestion. Members of the general public typically take into account Krishnites cross-cultural casualties who block site visitors with their blissed-out incense-peddling on fundamental streets of huge cities.
Quote: “The title of Krishna is as {powerful} as Lord Krishna himself.”
Entry: ISKON, 340 West fifty fifth Road, New York, N.Y. 10019. (212) 765-8610.
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