Your books contain all these wisdoms for better living. Do you have a mentor or is it all selfstudy?
Yes, I do have a mentor – better saying, I have several mentors: my neighbor, the taxi driver, the stranger that starts a conversation with me and it is not a stranger anymore, or the person that I crossed on the street, or the book that I open by chance, or a music that strikes me at the right moment. My mentors are people that I meet on the course of an ordinary day.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
It is written “be ready and awaken, ’cause you don’t know neither the hour, nore the day”.
Maktub.
Ciao
Cristina
I loved U saying that Paulo*
I totally agree
Dear Paulo,
As munrocea says it’s a lovely answer Paulo.
That “school of life”s poem I wrote a while ago keeps coming back to me over and over. I still believe there is some potential in it. Call it intuition, a sign, pure chance, whatever.It is a very strong feeling that I have.
Do you mind commenting on that please, I know you are a lyricist too – I didn’t not relate to that for a while though.(a spot of blindness)
Thank You.
Love
the poeple around us- each one has a life story- so when we listen to one-2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,we learn sssso but so many life stories and we can understand our flow of life by looking- and observing the around us.
i can tell u that in the last few month – since i joined this blog- i just read and learn so many new ideas- that if i was a writer- I would have sso many ideas for my book!!
but i am not a writer and i just love to enjoy the reading and listening to all of u VIA BLOG!
take care and happy spring
orly
We collect nector and pollen from many flowers on this blog-and I am grateful to all involved in the ‘behind the scenes’organisation and hard work to keep it all running smoothly for us : )-including Paulo for being our crystalis helping us to reflect on our lives and growth.
Breda
But,you were talking about your guide in one of your books about the pilgrimage ,that person was not a mentor,more than others?If you say so ,must be that way.
My opinion is that from some people you can learn more than from others.
im 31 and my mother is still my greatest mentor…
but im learning to listen to the soul of the world a lot more and better too ;o)
To collect the .. nectar and pollen from every flower in God’s garden.
LOVE,
Thelma
This is similar to the path of the Buddha. Initially, he had a guru, but then he realized that the teachings of his guru represented only part of the larger truth. So, realizing this, he set out on his own to discover the path for himself. Many were his teachers. And many of his teachers were not “gurus” by any definition of the word. One was a woman, of questionable repute. One was an aged ferryman who ushered passengers back and forth across the river on his raft. One was the river itself.
The Buddha learned much from many, as he did not label any man or woman as unworthy of holding some truth that might be relevant to his journey, nor did he settle at the feet of any one teacher or spiritual guide and declare, “Here lies the whole and singular truth, contained in this one teaching…this one teacher.” Because he did not exclude any as potential guides on his spiritual path – from the highest to the lowest, from the nobleman to the outcast, male or female, young or old – he was able to attain the goal of his journey, one piece of the puzzle at a time.
It is easy to stumble upon a piece of the truth and to become stuck on that one piece, declaring it to be the whole. In yoga, as well as in Hinduism in general, there is the tradition of the “guru,” and along with it, the concept of membership in a “lineage.” Six years of my life I spent studying under one such guru, and I learned much, gained much from the experience. But there came a day when I knew that it was time to move on, to set out on my own and look beyond the confines and limitations of that one designated path. I did not leave due to any form of dispute or any doubt in the abilities of my guru. If I had, that probably would have been a mistake. Rather, I left simply because I sensed that, at least for me, there was more out there to be learned than was contained in that one room, sitting at the feet of that one teacher, listening to and practicing the precepts of that one path.
People still ask me from time to time, “Do you have a guru?” or “Is he still your guru?” I hesitate in answer, because he is, in one sense, still my guru (though one among a multitude) – the teachings he passed on to me are still within me. I did not merely cast out the wisdom I gained from him, did not merely toss it into the rubbish bin and declare it useless. Yet these teachings, within me, are not “pure,” because they are now mingled with everything that has come after – the wisdom of the stranger on the street, the wisdom in a poem I read somewhere, the wisdom in a piece of art I beheld and reflected upon, the wisdom from a passage in a book that I opened at random, wisdom from the Bible, the Koran, the The Tao, and so on….
And now there is this modern technology: if I so chose still to follow this same guru, I could listen to his teachings daily, in the form of podcasts beamed directly to my computer. But do I? No. That was a period in my life, and it had its purpose, but my life is something else now, my path is much more winding and complex. I still feel great reverence for my guru, and for the lineage of which he is a part, but I do not look to him now for continued guidance, as my guidance comes in so many diverse forms, each directly issued forth from the same one source – the Eternal Divine.
I am still friends with many yogis, and am still in touch with some of the disciples of that same guru. And there is one thing that I have noticed, that I deem as a real danger in pursuing a path whereby one clings to a singular mentor, teacher, guru or lineage. There is a kind of pride or self-righteousness that sometimes develops, whereby one is led to declare, “My guru is the very famous Swami So-And-So. Surely you must have heard of him.” Or they might say something like, “I am a disciple of Swami Z, who was a disciple of Swami Y, who was a direct disciple of the legendary Swami X,” implying that the lineage they are a part of is very strong, and thus must be the wisdom they hold. There is nothing wrong with having a mentor or a guru, but I think it is not meant to be like this. Guidance, in whatever form it arrives, should not be the equivalent of putting on a pair of blinders such that ever after one sees only this one way – this one path to truth. Rather, if it is genuine truth and true wisdom, it should open one’s eyes to the Divine guidance which lies everywhere, which takes on so many diverse forms, and which is available to us wherever we are, whatever we are doing, on a moment by moment basis.
Thank you for sharing this with us, Paulo. And thank you for your question, Edwin. I had wondered the same thing myself.
Sincerely,
Savita
It’s a lovely answer.
It is called the school of life.
Love :)