The Student-Teacher/Guru Relationship

Written by Lorell Frysh.

The Purpose
The role of the spiritual teacher or guru is to mirror and reflect the true nature of awareness. The teacher’s presence should remind the student of their own essential nature.

It is the love for the guru and the freedom that he/she represents, that triggers the unfolding of the spiritual journey.

The whole of the success and validity of the relationship depends on who the teachers and who the students are, and on what each of them is willing to bring to the relationship.

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The Value of Discernment

In this video clip, part of a larger interview, Adyashanti talks about one of his central pillars, not abdicating authority. Discernment is important in our relationship with spiritual teachers. Ethics matter.

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Trauma as Spiritual Potential

This article, written by Helen W. Mallon, points toward the need for a broader discussion on the topic of trauma. We hope this stimulates your thoughts and encourages a fresh conversation in the comments below this blog post about trauma within the context of spiritual teaching and guidance: Try telling a goldfish that it’s wet. Assuming you speak its fishy language, it’ll probably say you’re nuts. The water it depends on is so inextricable from its goldfish self that it can’t perceive water as a separate thing. It’s like what the spiritual teacher Adyashanti says about enlightenment. Our consciousness is our arena for awakening, yet consciousness so permeates our being that we can’t feel or grasp it. We can’t experience how obvious enlightenment is until our preconceptions are utterly confounded. The goldfish has to be tossed out of the bowl.

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Replay: Spirit + DIBE – Connecting the Spiritual to the Cultural and Political (Feb 8/21)

Thank you all for joining us for our online meeting event with our host, Rev. Dr. Kikanza Nuri-Robins. Please scroll down to watch the video replay.

In this ASI online meeting event we discussed our role as spiritual teachers in the context of a divided world.

  • Learn the current terms and meanings of acronyms like DIBE and BIPOC
  • Understand what it means to acknowledge tribal lands
  • Unpack the ramifications of connecting spiritual values with social values
  • Share best practices for leading meetings of people with disparate views
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Humility and 12-Step Recovery: A Prolegomenon for the Empirical Investigation of a Cardinal Virtue in Alcoholics Anonymous

By Stephen G. Post PhD, Maria E. Pagano PhD, Matthew T. Lee PhD & Byron R. Johnson PhD (2016). Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) offers a live stage to study how humility is worn by thousands for another day of sobriety and more freedom from the bondage of self. It has been the coauthors’ intent to emphasize the significance of humility as a cardinal virtue across the 12-Step program and as essential to all its key elements. The coauthors have placed this emphasis in the context of a wider theological history of thought as this converged on Bill W. and AA. In addition, the coauthors have offered a constructive developmental interpretation of the 12 Steps that relies on a model of four modulations of humility. Finally, the coauthors have reviewed in brief some approaches to the measurement of humility in this context, and suggest several aims for future research.

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Kundalini & the Subtle Body

By Dani Antman. “Come closer,” he said. I moved in toward him till our knees were touching. He pressed his thumb into my third eye, and my whole body shook rapidly as light spiraled up my spine. Then he chanted the bija mantras in Sanskrit, which are the seed syllables for each chakra. “Lam, Vam, Ram, Ham, Yam, Om…” More intense light spiraled up my spine, exploding in my head. I opened my eyes and stared into his. Then he leaned over and kissed me on my lips. I was shocked. And also flattered. I just sat there, not knowing what to do. Then he told me to leave the room.”

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SAND’19 Panel and ASI Meeting Videos!

Two videos have been released featuring the Association for Spiritual Integrity at the Science and Nonduality Conference held in San Jose, California in October 2019. SAND Panel on Sex, Money, Power, Trauma & Ethics in Spiritual Communities Meeting of Founders …

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Conversations on Spiritual Bypassing and more with David Buckland & Craig Holliday

Join David Buckland and Craig Holliday from the Association for Spiritual Integrity as they explore spiritual bypassing, the student-teacher relationship, renunciate vs. more inclusive spiritual paths, and how to face ethical challenges along the spiritual path. David and Craig share some of the intimate details of their paths and how they worked with these ethical challenges in their lives.

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Loch Kelly and Craig Holliday: Awareness in Action

Join Loch Kelly and Craig Holliday from the Association for Spiritual Integrity as they discuss in great detail the student teacher relationship, ethics and having a mature relationship with the spiritual path. Loch Kelly explains with clarity and wisdom the dangers of projection, transference, counter transference as they relate to the spiritual path. He goes on to explain the various traps and detours on the spiritual path such as hiding out in the “witness protection program, psychological underpass and cognitive overpass.” With humility and great wisdom, Loch offers a clear map on awakening and integration in a loving, healthy, adult, mature way. 

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