Now, not all spiritual teachers are alike, and I'm certainly a specific type of spiritual teacher in how I am in this work (You can read more about the topic in "What Is a Spiritual Teacher?"). So when I'm writing this blog, I am speaking more towards how I and others like me work. Many other spiritual teachers are actually very helpful in preparing students for the deep work I offer. So many people often really benefit in working with me after having worked with other teachers and learned about other spiritual traditions. Then I can help them understand it all in a holistic way--heart, body, mind, and spirit. This is not a prerequisite, however--there are no prerequisites in this work. It's just something I've observed for many people.
1. The Student Knows All Her/His Answers Are Within
This is a really important idea to have come to terms with. Until this happens, individuals come to a spiritual teacher and get really turned off when the teacher doesn't answer their questions. It can be confused as thinking the teacher is stupid, uninformed, or willfully trying to undermine them. It's a little ridiculous. If you add in a super cynical attitude that has been augmented by a few spiritual teachers abusing their authority for money and power, many of these individuals barely last any amount of time in working with a true teacher. Which makes it difficult for much inner work to happen for that person.When the spiritual student realizes that the teacher doesn't have their answers, a lot of beautiful things can happen. If a teacher sends a question back to the student like, "What is my life purpose," then the student is more willing to grapple with the question. The teacher can sit with the student and help show how the student's thinking is creating her/his reality. And energetically, the student is much more open to connect to the teacher, which often brings issues, feelings, and ideas up into the student's consciousness that otherwise would have hidden out or lain dormant.
2. The Student Is Willing to Be Vulnerable
I'm not sure we're ever quite fully ready to be vulnerable because each time it comes, it always feels brand new. It doesn't matter how many times I've opened up because each time I open up deeper, it feels brand new, exhilarating, and terrifying. But the student has to at least have this attitude and willingness to be vulnerable. Without it, the conversations and the work will dance along in the shallow end, and all the big mountainous issues in the room will be avoided. The teacher may touch something, and the student will retreat. It becomes a game of freeze tag. The teacher tags the student, "Tag! You're it." But in freeze tag, the taggee is now stuck. The work gets stuck.And for all those who want to hide out in higher truth (please read this blog about "Higher Truth Versus Truth of the Moment") and say that ultimately it is all unfolding as it should, I would say absolutely. But there are definitely ways where working with a spiritual teacher will be far more rewarding in the daily life of the physical world when a student can open up and be vulnerable in the safe space created by the teacher.
3. The Student Is Ready to Work
Without self-discipline, going to a spiritual teacher for a session, a retreat, or workshop is kinda like going to the movies. You have a blast for a couple of hours, feel a little bit of an energy high, and then come back to the reality of your life where nothing has changed. Because you haven't created the space to change. Energy connections go on in sessions like this with me, but they can only do so much. It's like if a little surge of water comes to your fields. If you don't till the land to receive the water, most of it just runs off. Sure, some seeps in, but the fullness that you could have received is otherwise unappreciated and unabsorbed.This is part of why I named my ebook "Everyday Spirituality: Cultivating an Awakening." The idea is that you are actively doing work to create space for spirituality in your life. You are cultivating your life. That means getting out the hoe and shovel to remove rocks and debris and anything that is going to impede your growth. Then when you call a spiritual teacher into your life, you can absorb and guide this energy into your life more deeply. It also can help you unearth some things you did not know were there. But since you're ready to work, now you can use this as opportunity to go deeper where others would have run away.
4. The Student Is Ready to Be Humble and Courageous
Somehow, it feels like humility and courage go together, so they come in at number four together. It is incredibly humbling to see how much inner crap a person can carry. When you see this, you may want to runaway and avoid it. This is most people's conditioning. Consequently, we all have to learn how to be humble and accept what we see. We also have to be courageous to face fears, anger, and sadness. It is a new level of taking responsibility for our lives. Because most people haven't been paying any attention to their inner world, they may have no idea what it feels like to take responsibility for thought patterns and feelings. Instead of justifying an unconscious statement as, "This is just how I feel," you have to learn how to unravel these feelings and the things you say and do. The teacher will point these out to you, and each time, it will require new humility and new courage.5. The Student Is Ready to Embrace Love
Oh, this one looks like the easiest one, but it is often the hardest. People have so much self-hate that they have no idea what love looks or feels like. Love can be the MOST threatening thing a spiritual teacher ever offers to someone. It can challenge a person to look at all their darkness. It can challenge a person to redefine their ideas of love and learn how it can be present in deeply connected ways in many relationships. Many students who are unready to really embrace love think that they are in love with their spiritual teachers. Others may decide that they absolutely hate the teacher, which can seem ironic. But if the unconscious ego is still in too much control of the show, it'll see kindness as having ulterior motives. It'll think that the teacher is trying to torture it by bringing up painful memories, or will otherwise assume that the intense discomfort that has come up in connection with the spiritual teacher is somehow the teacher's fault. Then it will runaway.These things happen. They are all part of the many layers of defense mechanisms that people have learned to create. Love destroys those mechanisms. I know it may sound shocking to think of love as destructive, but love is here to teach us important and often hard lessons. It is also like water. Anywhere there is dam between a student and me, love is pressuring that dam so that we can connect. The more blockages there are, the worse love can feel. And it isn't just the teacher's love, it's actually the student's love. That's what students are really feeling. They're feeling the pounding of their own love trying to burst out of the dam to connect in a real and true way, potentially for the first time. And when that connection is made, now the individual can begin to learn how to bring that love into all aspects of their life. That's one of the greatest gifts a spiritual teacher may offer.
Trepidation and Fears About Connecting With a Spiritual Teacher
I am sure that some of this words may bring up some concerns and fears if you are interested in connecting with a spiritual teacher. That is actually okay and normal. The important part is knowing that fear is coming up. The important part is knowing that this is not you and that you are doing something very healthy and helpful in connecting with a spiritual teacher. There will be some really fun and amazing moments, but because so many people think that spirituality is a new way to non-stop ecstasy, I have to set up the framework in the way that I do. If anything, it'll make the fun stuff more fun because there won't be quite so much expectation that this is what you should always feel with a spiritual teacher.
And of course for those of you in spiritual awakening, well, this is a whole other kit and kaboodle. Much of what I wrote still applies, but there's an added element in that we are engaging with your awakened awareness together. It's a whole other feeling, and usually in awakening, it's pretty clear if you're ready or not to work with a spiritual teacher or if your inner teacher is ready to run the show. Although, the benefit here is that in connecting with me, your energy is learning from my energy what it can look like to embody awakening and not just be floating off in the ether.
Contacting a Spiritual Teacher and Continuing on Your Spiritual Path
For those of you interested in working with me, feel free to click over to the contact page. And then continue on your path. I may or may not respond as I work from my intuitive guidance about who and when to connect with someone. As I mentioned above, what matters most is that you are developing practices in your daily life. That's where the greatest benefit can ever come, and if you are sincere in those practices, a lot of beauty in you will finally be let out to thrive and flourish in your life.
Today's photo comes from my friend and reader, Becky Stiller. Please feel free to check out her beautiful work on this flickr link.
Source: http://www.spiritualawakeningprocess.com/2012/10/5-signs-youre-ready-to-work-with.html
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Public release date: 1-Oct-2012
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