Spiritual guidance
I am a child of God longing to come home. The human errors – corrupt priests, cruel beliefs, poorly translated scriptures – could destroy my faith like cartoon villains with big hammers.
How do I arrange it? I’m not an expert. The stern voice of my childhood whispers, ‘Who do you think you are? Others have studied this more than you. How can you question the scriptures? This church, temple or faith has stood the test of time. Who are you to question? You cannot know anything by yourself.”
It’s a big problem. People have been burned at the stake for this. For more than a thousand years, most faiths have taught that none of us can know the divine directly. They say we all need some kind of spiritual authority to teach us.
Yet two major spiritual traditions—Buddhism and Gnosticism—have argued the exact opposite for thousands of years.
This is what Buddha said about the importance of trusting your own spiritual guidance:
“Don’t believe anything just because a supposedly wise person said so. Don’t believe anything just because a belief is commonly held. Don’t believe anything just because it’s written in old books. Don’t believe anything just because it is said to be of divine origin. Don’t believe anything just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you test for yourself and judge to be true.”
Another important tradition, Gnosticism, is the belief “that direct, personal and absolute knowledge of the authentic truths of existence is accessible to human beings, and furthermore that the acquisition of such knowledge must always be the highest achievement of human life are.’
This means that I give myself permission to be the knower, and that I do not need approval from a superior. I meditate and listen to whatever direct knowledge comes. I know my intention is pure. I trust that my own spiritual guidance comes directly from the divine essence.
In many religions this idea is dangerous. Many faith organizations control people’s beliefs through spiritual authorities such as preachers, gurus, priests, or scriptures. It happens all over the world – for example in Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
Furthermore, most of us were taught as children that even a smart, good person needs education from someone who knows better.
It’s actually a trick question. When we surrender to a spiritual authority – any authority – what really happens is we give away the responsibility for our spiritual guidance and learning to someone else. But we do it because it is traditional and because it seems easy.
The fatal flaw is that no other person and no piece of writing can carry the weight of our individual spiritual knowing.
6 Ways to Trust Your Own Spiritual Guidance
1) We seek knowledge in our own hearts. We take responsibility for who we are at the deepest level. Being a true child of the universe means taking 100 percent of the responsibility for what we believe.
2) We can still refer to a faith tradition, if that helps us. Every faith has meditation and prayer practices for self-knowledge. Some people call these mystical practices. Another way is to learn Buddhist meditation in addition to our own usual practices.
3) We can learn more about listening within. We can meditate and pray more. In that silence the universe speaks.
4) If we want to study Scripture, we can study the earliest, most original versions available. For example, Christians can look at the Nag Hammadi versions of the gospel. We can study what changes were made in previous versions and trust our instincts about what is being taught.
5) We can still talk to our spiritual leader if we trust him or her. But to be honest, we always remember that he or she is just another person like us, just an ordinary human being, and not someone who bears the responsibility instead of us. Even though the leader has studied for fifty years, we are the last experts on what feels true in our deepest hearts.
6) Finally, we learn to be careful of cynics who say, “If you’re intelligent, you don’t need religion” or “I don’t have to believe in anything.” My thoughts are all just biochemical reactions anyway.”
Their experience doesn’t matter. We are the only ones who know what our hearts tell us.
The only authority we can fully trust is the pure, still voice within.
So if the minister hires a prostitute, what difference does it really make? If the meaning of Scripture changes, what then? We can learn. We can study a new meaning.
We are all children of the universe. We are all love in action.
I remain steadfast in my own knowledge of the divine. I hear the whispers in my heart and I trust that the universe will teach me perfectly. There is nothing better than that and there is nothing more than that. This is where I am whole.