by Eileen Maceri

How does one know a genuine teacher? The spiritual marketplace of the modern West — always crowded, never quiet — has always offered more choices than guidance. Every era produces its teachers; most of them are not what they claim. This problem, as old as organized religion itself, becomes acute for a seeker who refuses to settle.

This post was written by Eileen Maceri, a software professional at The Santa Cruz Operation in Santa Cruz, California, in June 1991. It is a personal retrospective on her search for an authentic teacher over the preceding two decades — a search that took her through candle-flame concentration, breath-watching, thought-watching ("the thief pretending to be the policeman," as Sri Atmananda put it), and affirmations, before arriving at a teacher she describes as answering every question "to my complete inner satisfaction."

What makes this account valuable is not the destination but the method: a set of discernment criteria derived from hard experience. The wrong teachers were identified not by their claims but by the gap between their claims and their lives, or by the buzzer that sounded in her heart when something "rang false." The right teacher was identified by the same instrument — the heart that "always recognizes when something is off," like the difference between a crystal bell and a game-show buzzer. She closes with a critique of teachers who rank the Maharshi at the "sixth level" and themselves at the seventh — and with the Maharshi's own answer to the question of whether reality has grades: "There are no grades of Reality."

Maceri quotes from Nisargadatta Maharaj's "I Am That" and Sri Atmananda of Trivandrum's "Spiritual Discourses" — both teachers in the Advaita tradition she found most luminous. These passages are included as part of the original document.

I have been following with great interest the various postings on Gurus, and the excerpts from some of their teachings. With all the different teachings and teachers abounding in the spiritual realm, it seems very important for a sincere seeker of Truth (or Enlightenment) to know how to discriminate which teacher to follow. I would like to share a little bit about my own trials, tribulations, and successes in this area.

In the early 1970's, in the midst of trying many paths and practices, I was introduced to a book which was a compilation of many of the spiritual discourses of Sri Atmananda of Trivandrum. These discourses, like those of Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (whose teachings I discovered at about the same time in the form of "The Spiritual Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi" and "I Am That") began to clear up some of my confusions. Their teachings were very clear, reasonable, and logical, and they spoke to my heart.

I agree with Roger Adams' posting that a guru/master is necessary. Very few have awakened without such guidance. To me, this makes perfect sense. If I want to learn to play a musical instrument, I go to a master of that instrument, someone who has complete knowledge of that instrument, rather than just reading instruction books and hoping I can come up with the right kind of sound just by fooling around with it. If someone is able to teach me how to play in the most direct manner, helping me to avoid long, strenuous, and unproductive methods, it makes sense to take lessons from him. Many times, just the master's presence and encouragement communicates itself to the student and hastens his practice along. If this is true in relative situations, it seems to me that it would apply even more so when one is seeking spiritual Truth.

I myself spent several years in fruitless practices and useless disciplines. I knew what I wanted — to realize what the Maharshi, Atmananda, and Maharaj spoke of as "the Self" or ultimate Peace and Love, and I wanted a teacher like them — but what I found were many who taught all sorts of techniques, none of which seemed to lead me closer to my goal.

On Candle-Flame Concentration

For instance, one teacher taught me to stare at a candle flame, concentrating my mind on it, with the goal of ridding the mind of thoughts and thus "calming" it, so I could experience peace. The problem for me was no matter how much I calmed or controlled it, the thoughts always came back, in seemingly even greater force than before, because I was trying to get rid of them. It was a most frustrating practice, and it did not lead me to the peace I desired. It didn't occur to me at the time to ask why I was seeing the mind as my enemy. Why try to still something whose very nature is motion? It was just doing what was natural. And it is a good tool for performing the relative functions of everyday life and for getting things done well. But I didn't see my error at the time — I only knew it didn't work.

I read, re-read, and even wrote down the instructions of the Sages I trusted. They said that, instead of trying to do something with the mind, one should look directly into the nature of the mind itself. They said that the mind has no separate existence from thoughts; and thoughts arise from, appear in, and return to the Pure Consciousness or Awareness that is our real nature. About mind control, the Maharshi said: "There is no mind to control if the Self is Realized. In the Realized man, the mind may be active or inactive, the Self alone exists. For the mind, body and world are not separate from the Self; and they cannot remain apart from the Self."

This all sounded just right to me. It made sense to me that the mind was not something to be done away with, and my own life was an active one, requiring that I participate in everyday activities of the modern western business world — with constantly moving situations in which the thinking process comes in very handy. The peace I was looking for would not be one that required retreating from the world...and, anyway, I could see how tenuous that kind of peace would be. A peace dependent on a quiet, serene environment is very fragile. I wanted something deeper, something that would be always steadily there, in the busiest hustle-bustle days of my life.

On Breath-Watching

Another teacher I came across in my search proposed breath-watching. This was another manipulative way to control the mind, and, like the candle-flame technique, it didn't work, either. It had the added disadvantage of being very dependent upon the state of my body. For instance, if I had a cold or hay fever, it was harder to breathe, and the breaths did not come at even intervals. A friend of mine was asthmatic. Although he tried, the practice was not even possible for him. My deep intuitive feeling about Enlightenment was that it had to be available to anyone at any time, regardless of the state of their body or mind. My heart told me that it had to be possible for everyone to realize.

On Thought-Watching

Thought-watching (or taking the stand of the "witness") was another technique I heard about. It was a very popular practice among some of my friends at the time. When they described it, it sounded very much to me like the mind watching the mind (or what Sri Atmananda — himself a policeman in India — referred to as the "thief pretending to be a policeman who promises to catch the thief"). He and the other Sages taught that Enlightenment was transcendent of the body and mind. So I asked myself, how could watching my thoughts, which are transient, changing, and oh-so-fleeting, take me to a changeless and eternal state of absolute peace? Atmananda said that the witness is really the changeless principle inside oneself, something you are, not a mental function that you "do." He said it is a "knowing" that is not separate from you — changeless and infinite, innately free of the body and mind. He called it "Pure Consciousness." This ever-present Witness is not only the witness of one's individual thoughts — it is the witness of the entire universe.

On Affirmations

One other teaching I ran into was the practice of affirmations. I told myself so many "good" things, it took me an hour each night to say them all! Of course, each "good" affirmation was a substitution for a "bad" thought, and as I came to find, with all such "pendulum" techniques, it only served to strengthen my belief in all the "bad" things about myself. The more I affirmed, the more I discovered I really believed the opposite! Another dead-end street.

Criteria

Although I couldn't seem to find a teacher who seemed "just right," at least my experience was helping me to become more discriminating about the teachers who were "just wrong" (for me). I realized my criteria for a teacher were very high, but I couldn't settle for less. My teacher would have to be like Christ, whom I revered in my heart as the most compassionate and loving of masters. He would also have to be like the Buddha, unmatchable in wisdom. And like the Maharshi, radiating supreme peace. I wanted a teacher who would answer every question to my complete satisfaction on all levels. Someone who would be available for me to see him and talk to him. And someone who was living the teaching, who would be an inspiration, like the Maharshi.

I saw several teachers in the spiritual marketplace who used the words that spoke to my heart, but whose lives were not reflective of what they proclaimed. When I asked myself the question, "Would I like to be like this one or that one?", my answer was a decided "No"! It would all have to "match up" in my heart, which I had learned could not be fooled.

You know that "Oh YES!" that leaps up every time you hear something that feels exactly right? When you say, "Oh YES! I always KNEW that!" Well, that's what I call my "heart," and I absolutely trust it. It always recognizes when something is "off." (Sort of like the difference between the ringing of a clear crystal bell and the sound of the BRRZZAACCCH!! buzzer when a contestant is wrong on a game show.)

Sri Atmananda suggested that one should "put all your doubts and difficulties plainly before the proposed Guru and listen to his answers patiently, relying more upon the response of your heart than upon the intellectual satisfaction you receive from his answers. If he is able to satisfy you both ways, you may without hesitation accept him and follow his instructions."

This is the way I have followed. Every teacher I met (and there were many of them), I would ask my questions of. Although some of them said a few statements that my heart recognized with the "Oh YES!", not one of them consistently answered all questions to my complete inner satisfaction. It seemed there was always an "Achilles heel" in either the teacher or his presentation that would become obvious to me, and I would drift away from that teacher. I began to realize that when a teacher said something in one place that rang true — but then in another sentence said something that buzzed BRRZZAACCCH — to pay attention to the warning signal. The BRRZZAACCCH's were indicative of his or her real teaching.

Finding a Teacher

Finally, through an invitation from a friend, I attended a satsang (literally, "being in the company of the wise") with a teacher who claimed to be an enlightened disciple of the Maharshi. That was several years ago, and not once — then or at any time since — has this teacher ever said anything with which my "heart" disagreed. Everything he said had the clear ring of Truth. This was so amazing to me, and refreshing beyond belief. His teaching corresponded perfectly with that of the Maharshi, Atmananda, and Maharaj. Spontaneously and effortlessly, the answers to my questions poured forth from him, as if from an ever-flowing fount of wisdom. Never a hesitation. Always sparkling, beautiful Truth, verifiable by my own heart — exactly what I had been searching for through those many years.

My own experience has shown me that when one earnestly seeks the Truth, unwilling to settle for anything less, the Truth will come in the form of a Realized Sage — a Guru (the meaning of "Guru" being "one who leads you from darkness into light").

On Grades of Realization

Sometimes teachers will come along who speak of "stages" or "levels" of realization. I have noticed they always put themselves at the highest level and others at lower levels. I have seen the teachings of one man who puts the Maharshi at the "sixth level" and himself at the "seventh level." The lives of such teachers usually provide ample evidence for evaluation of their teaching and realization. Anyone who looks at the Maharshi and his life can evaluate for him or herself just how much credence to lend to claims of this nature.

It is obvious that the Maharshi's teaching arose spontaneously from his own direct experience. He was the living example of his own pure, Absolute teaching. As for his clear teaching on the subject of "levels," it was given in reply to the question, "There must be stage after stage of progress for gaining the Absolute. Are there grades of Reality?"

Maharshi: "There are no grades of Reality. There are grades of experience for the jiva (individual) and not of Reality. If anything can be gained anew, it could also be lost, whereas the Absolute is eternal — here and now."

From Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That

"The words of a realized man never miss their purpose...the word of the guru is a seed that cannot perish. Of course, the guru must be a real one, who is beyond the body and the mind, beyond space and time, beyond duality and unity, beyond understanding and description. Mistrust all until you are convinced. The true guru will never humiliate you nor will he estrange you from yourself. He will constantly bring you back to the fact of your inherent perfection and encourage you to seek within...you are never without a guru, for he is timelessly present in your heart...The outer guru gives the instructions, the inner sends the strength, the alert application is the disciple's...In reality, the disciple is not different from the Guru. He is the same dimensionless center of perception and love in action. It is only his imagination and self-identification with the imagined that encloses him and converts him into a person....Liberation is never of the person, it is always from the person....In the end you reach a state of non-grasping, of joyful non-attachment, of inner ease and freedom indescribable, yet wonderfully real."

From Sri Atmananda of Trivandrum, Spiritual Discourses

"It is the law of nature, without exception, to provide the environment necessary for the fulfillment of the spiritual thirst for perfection in an individual in any part of the world, if the aspirant is sincere and earnest enough. If you really want to know the truth, you shall have it!"

Colophon

Written by Eileen Maceri ([email protected]), The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc., Santa Cruz, California. Posted to soc.religion.eastern on 12 June 1991. The post quotes Sri Ramana Maharshi from The Pictorial Biography; Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj from I Am That (translated by Maurice Frydman, Inner Directions Publishing); and Sri Atmananda of Trivandrum from Spiritual Discourses (Adyar Library). Original Message-ID: [email protected].

Preserved from the UTZOO Usenet mirror (shiftleft.com) for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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