/lit/ - Literature

>>21461206
You would probably be shown the door.

In Eastern religions and philosophies, among the seekers of Asia after spiritual enlightenment for countless ages, the tradition of a relationship between a “guru” and “chela” (disciple) to guide one on the path to enlightenment has been a trope for millennia now. It is their own belief that enlightenment without a guru is very rare, difficult, and unlikely, if it ever does happen.

This “guru” (a Sufi sheikh, a Hindu yogi, fakir, or wandering sadhu, a Tibetan lama, a Zen abbot, or whatever other form he or she may take) themselves has the precedent of a respected, established lineage from which it is assumed he likewise learned from other gurus or elders of the tradition in a chain directly and verifiably going back to the source of this Tradition in the original Guru, whether this source itself is conceived as or named Sadguru Brahman Swami Nathji, Allah, the Adi-Buddha (Primordial Buddha, the All-Encompassing Buddha-nature), or another name).

The purpose, rationale and means-of-working of what I would consider PURE (or at least PURER) Western esotericism, are similar to that of these traditions. There have indeed ALWAYS been and always will be, those who prefer the search after unusual phenomena or powers, occult excitement, and the like as a distraction from or a detour from the search for the Absolute Truth, whether conceived of as God or the enlightened-state-of-being.

The goal of the greatest and noblest of the Western esotericists is on the same wavelength as other traditions’ seeking the ultimate consummation of the human life, however, again, this is conceived (as revelation of one’s unity with God, as moksha or kaivalya of various Hindus, nirvana of the Buddhaits, or fana (dissolving in Allah) and baqa (permanent subsistence in Allah) of the Sufis). The authentic esotericist, or wayfarer on the path of the Mystic Truth, is searching for a same lofty goal, working diligently for the radical transformation of their own being and with compassionate desire to assist the rest of humanity towards Truth as best they can.

Not all esotericism has (only) such petty, sensationalist goals as to develop powers or experience things like clairvoyance, telepathy, levitation, “astral-traveling”/out-of-body-experiences, scrying into the future/precognition, spiritualist phenomenal, and so forth, just as the rare devoted seeker after nirvana in Buddhism or after moksha in Hinduism is not where they are just mainly to learn “magic,” develop siddhis or indulge in fascination over the more compelling, captivating phenomena of Maya or Samsara.