This section contains essays and extracts from books or satsang discussions, from teachers and writers, past and present. In all cases, links to the author's site (if one exists) and to any related books are provided.
Choosing a teacher or even a book can be a dauting task. Whereas access to a genuine 'guru' was once very difficult, almost certainly involving travel to India, nowadays there are numbers of teachers with impeccable credentials who visit major cities throughout the world. Even finding a book expounding the truth of non-duality was no easy task but now there are many available.
The section on Teachers lists a selection of acclaimed gurus, any of whom would be worth investigating. Nevertheless, though there is only one truth, there are many ways of expressing this, with language being an inherent barrier to understanding. Part of the objective of this section is to provide short essays or discourses that will enable the seeker to guage the style of a teacher to ascertain whether there is likely to be an affinity.
It is also worth bearing in mind, however, that a true teacher will communicate directly to you what you need to know and not what you think you want to know. This 'prose poem' by Tanya Davis tells it all!
They are absolutely useless teachers.
They tell you there is nothing to learn.
They tell you that there is no need for you to be there.
They give you absolutely nothing to do.
They completely refuse to give you homework (believe me, I tried).
They answer questions with questions and tell you that you already
know all the answers even when you are damn sure you don't.
They tell you that they have nothing to teach.
They say that they are not even speaking to you because you don't
exist.
I don't think any of them has any recognised qualification to
teach about *this* at all.
They will empty you with love.
They will destroy you with compassion.
They will disappoint you again and again as you offer your trinkets
until you are revealed as the greatest treasure imagined.
And of course, this was always the case.
Tanya Davis, SatsangDiary Egroup, June 2004
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