🤸♀️ TREE 404: Gurus aren’t real
One.
Rob Bell, John Michael Greer, Peter Rollins, Elizabeth Gilbert, Shane Parrish and his guests on The Knowledge Project, Ram Dass, Ramit Sethi, Ava Huang, Brother Lawrence – these are some of the people I’ve learned very important things from. (There are dozens more.)
As far as I know, they are/were all people of integrity. But none of them will ever be my guru. Because all gurus are fake.
Here’s what I mean:
Teachers tell you what to do. Some do it by saying do x and you will have result y. The best ones do it by helping you ask good questions to discover for yourself what to do. All of them have a thing – a formula, a mental framework, a way of being in the world – that they want you to adopt. If you think it’s worth adopting, do it. Follow their example, learn everything you can. But don’t expect to become them. Don’t make them your guru.
No matter how much integrity a teacher has, no matter how honest they are, you don’t have the same family, the same mix of talent, the same strokes of luck. You don’t have access to their network, their agent, their PA, their stylist.
Their thing, if it’s a good one, will help you. But their thing can never be the whole thing. There are too many variables. That’s why gurus aren’t real. The best teachers tell you that. The best students don’t expect their teacher to be the one, all-encompassing answer.
Two.
Clare Henpickle arrives at work after a long night of hard parenting: “Don’t even talk to me until I’ve had this bin juice. Derek found a dung pile on his way home from work yesterday. I’ve literally spent the entire night laying eggs. To be fair to Derek, it was a good dung pile. The kids are going to have a great start in life. I’m just not sure I’m cut out for this motherhood thing. 137 eggs! I’m completely hollowed out. Is that phlegm doughnut going spare?”
This is the end of FFOREST FFRENZY Chapter 1. Chapter 2 will start next week, I hope.
Three.
Proper Welsh rock.
I’ll probably revisit this thought sometime. I feel like if I try again in a while, I’ll be able to say this better. It needs a little more time and tumbling.
Grow slowly
Jeff
As an American Buddhist, I'm here to say amen. (The dichotomy of that sentence brings me joy.) And also to add that maybe I just haven't met a real guru yet. I am open to the possibility. But we are human -- how could we ever expect everything from a guru who is only human as well.
Eat the meat and spit out the bones of teachers 🌹❤️🙏