Have you met your guru?

[Plenum]

In reading "Autobiography of a Yogi," I found a sudden longing for a master-student relationship.

That's odd!  The evening before you posted this thread, I had actually downloaded that Book, as it was something that I've had a desire to re-read for a couple of years now.  I just wanted to revisit it, as it was such a door-opener for me when I was just getting started on my own spiritual journey, all those many years ago.

So anyway - a nice synchro.  On that evening, I had actually read through the preface and introduction, and was actually on the first page of Chapter 1, when I put my tablet down, and said "I'd come back to that another day'.

Someone's signature on here is "When the student is ready, the master will appear."

Sure thing.  But not all teachers are incarnate as such.   Although it's much more tangible when they are.

Have any of y'all met your spiritual guru in this life?

I can't say that I have.  But I've not desired such a relationship, either.

According to Ram Dass, everyone has one, but not everyone meets them in this life. For those individuals, the guru acts as the higher self.

Like a lot of these things, the key word is Facilitate.  Someone with more experience can help facilitate understandings, processes, and remappings.  It's an invaluable tool, and is a service to both giver and receiver.  Obviously, the person doing the teaching/giving is acting in a service role, and the one 'receiving' is moved further along their path towards positive understanding/expression.

/ /

Perhaps even the guru could be considered one's higher self, incarnate.

Sometimes there is a desire to meet someone who has 'completed' everything, so they somehow know all the answers.  But it's almost like an exaggeration of the desire to find some small Resolution in one's current state, to help kickstart the Process.

So I think, deep down, the deeper desire is to get things in motion, at least in the right direction.  You don't need a fully enlightened individual to facilitate that.  Sometimes all it takes is your Peers, who may know a few things that you don't; and likewise, you have insights and experiences that they haven't had.

My most important (and valued) friendships and relationships are working on this peer-to-peer level.

It's enough to keep me progressing.  Which is, I think, at the heart of all Seeking.  The sense of movement, progress, dealing with issues so that they are less harsh/obstructive than they have been.

Without that sense of movement, one can become quite despondent, and feel that doing anything doesn't make a single bit of difference to the world/oneself.

With that sense of movement, even the most personal, small-scale insights can be powerfully rewarding.

Again - it's having a sense of trajectory, as well as feeling that one is moving towards it, in some fashion.  

A 'guru' as a symbol/reality, may represent both those aspects in the one thing.  In that here is the 'Goal' - the guru - and here is the means/method - his teachings, interactions, trust.

Anyway - just my personal thoughts on the matter

take with as many grains of salt as needed.