Enlightenment Teacher or Coach or Guide – welcome to our latest Discernment Jamboree
Photo by Kamran Abdullayev for Unsplash+
Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide. Let’s explore the difference between these spiritual specialties? Find out here. Then ask your questions.
Like all Discernment Jamborees at this Energy Spirituality Blog, yes! Quite possibly, what you learn here can prove indispensable. At least, after you know what each of these three specialties means in the first place.
At any point while reading through this article, COMMENT below with your reactions and questions. Also, toward the end of this article, I’ll explain how you can add something else.
To be clear, this blogpost aims to help seekers of all kinds who are seeking Enlightenment. (Or whatever it’s called. Keep reading to find many alternate names for Enlightenment Coaches, etc.)
First, Why Pick ANY Enlightenment Expert?
Many wise people today… are wise enough to know they could use expert help for seeking Enlightenment.
However, they’re not certain which kind of help would be best. Due to that need, this Discernment Jamboree offers you consumer assistance. Clarity, coming from an expert with 50 years of experience as a spiritual teacher!
Of course, I’m hardly THE only expert. Living now, in the Age of Awakening, so many people have stepped up to serve as experts. But what are their qualifications, other than their skill at branding?
For Perspective, Before We Continue
How come this short woman, five feet and change, has stepped up as 2 of these 3 kinds of expert? Exactly the three kinds we’ll be discussing in this Discernment Jamboree.
- First and foremost, I have a track record at helping students move toward Spiritual Enlightenment.
- Or, for some, helping to validate that they’re really-truly living in Enlightenment.
- Personally and currently, I am Spiritual But Not Religious.
- However, I’ve helped Enlightenment students who are religious. Or have been strongly commited to a religion. Just look at all the religious affiliations of folks I’ve helped to move into Enlightenment.
- How can you learn about my standing to lead this Discernment Jamboree (and more)? The link just provided can give you a decent overview.
- Important to know, what do I mean by Spiritual Enlightenment? Using your full potential in life. Self-actualization. Self-realization. Plus, many other flavors within today’s Enlightenment Establishment. (For details, just keep reading.)
- By all means, add your own favorite term in a COMMENT below. In case you’re not sure whether or not that’s the same thing as Spiritual Enlightenment.
Now let’s get started with categories for our Discernment Jamboree.
Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide?#1.
What is an Enlightenment Teacher?
This expert lives in Spiritual Enlightenment. Rather than being a scholar or devotee, which is lovely but not adequate for helping others. Since direct knowledge is required, seems to me, for any authentic Enlightenment Teacher.
In addition, an Enlightenment Teacher also needs technical knowledge to assess a student’s consciousness. Helping at every step of the way along that student’s path. Systematic teaching must be available for those who wish to know:
- What to do or not do.
- And WHY.
Unlike other kinds of expertise, such as working as a master plumber, hello! Knowledge from an Enlightenment Teacher must have a High Truth Value.
As this Discernment Jamboree continues in our COMMENTS, you’ll have a chance to compare and contrast. Then decide for yourself who deserves to be called an Enlightenment Teacher. And your participation can help all who read this article + comments.
Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide?#2.
What Is an Enlightenment Coach?
An Enlightenment Coach helps one person at a time. Attaining and maintaining Enlightenment can be compared to other kinds of coaching. Be it tennis coaching or empath coaching, or training a singer in the bel canto style.
Certain skills require development. Developing the sense of self that isn’t mood-making but qualifies as the real deal? That’s going to take longer than watching a YouTube video.
Besides that have you noticed? Today we live at a time when many people learn just a bit of this or that. Shamelessly, they go and hang out their shingle as an EXPERT. Like what the great spiritual novelist Hermann Hesse, called “The Age of the Feuilleton.” Ergggg.
Seems to me, it would be a significant breach of integrity for such a person to help others as an Enlightenment Coach. Unless maybe you think something like this? “Heck, nobody needs an enlightenment teacher.” Double ergggg!
Incidentally, just now, that turn of phrase got over 24 MILLION hits on my Google.
Like me, do you wonder how many of those writers have the standing to decide? And for those who believe those skeptics, will anybody face consequences? Your thoughts, Blog-Buddies?
Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide?#3.
And What Is an Enlightenment Guide?
This is a relatively new idea. It’s akin to how you can find a ton of books with titles like:
- A Dirty Guide to a Clean Home
- A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
- Dummies Guide to Starting Your Own Business
At this time, with spiritual interest running high, some authors are claiming to offer something of spiritual value with books like the following. (By all means, ask about any of these authors in our Discernment Jamboree.)
Sure, a guide. Like a reference book. But for Spiritual Enlightenment?
How to become enlightened – A detailed guide to enlightenment . (A YouTube Video)
Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide?#4.
The Big Game Changer Many Experts Ignore
Do you know the most important thing — bar none — that has changed in your lifetime? What has changed about the very nature of human consciousness, in a subtle way.
That would be the Shift into the Age of Awakening. December 21, 2012. To learn more about the significance, I’d recommend reading:
The New Strong:
Stop Fixing Yourself—And Actually Accelerate Your Personal Growth!
(Rules & Tools for Thriving in the “Age of Awakening”)
For smaller bits of understanding, presented as best I can…
- Learn about your new Consciousness Positioning Superpower. Inspiring!
- And try some Teaching Tales for the Age of Awakening.
Maybe Consider This Big Consumer Idea, Folks
Anybody who aims — or claims — to serve as an Enlightenment Expert needs to know what has changed since the Age of Faith ended.
Expecially important given that all traditional Enlightenment teachings come from that now obsolete Age of Faith.
Unquestionably, folks! So do you have any COMMENTS these two big statements?
Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide?#5.
What Is the Enlightenment Establishment?
Smart consumers of Enlightenment services, it’s worth knowing that there is definitely an Enlightenment Establishment. This includes authors, bloggers, and vloggers on:
- Passionate yoga teachers.
- Devoted meditation teachers.
- Ultra-serene mindfulness advocates.
- Faithful leaders of the religious establishment, all of it, every single religion.
- Undoubtedly advocates of nudism.
- Clearly, all the popular experts on sex as essential for fulfillment, including fans of polyamory.
- Significantly considered “spiritual” today, strangely: Boosters of health, fitness, self-care, weight lifting.
- Without a doubt, positive they know what matters most: Psychologists and Pop Psych experts.
- On the other hand, life coaches of all varieties.
- Undeniably trippy advocates of drugs, like Ayahuasca tours, magic mushrooms, CBD gummy bears, and so much more.
In addition, you might want to follow up on certain references to the Enlightenment Establishment. In the index to “Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening”! You’ll find a ton of truth talk about today’s Enlightenment Establishment.
Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide?#6.
Is that Expert Even In Spiritual Enlightenment?
In a previous Discernment Jamboree, we discussed how different Enlightenment Teachers validate Enlightenment. Maybe you’ll be as shocked as I am with what appears in that article.
If possible, you may be even more shocked at what passes for “guidance about how to tell who is living in Spiritual Enlightenment.” Likewise, this latest link takes you to an Energy Spirituality® Discernment Jamoborees. Quite a doozy!
Enlightenment Teacher OR Coach OR Guide?#7.
Does It Matter If that Expert Is Energetically Illiterate?
In my opinion, as an Enlightenment Teacher and Enlightenment Coach, guess what? Enlightenment shows most clearly in our auras. But discerning that with accuracy demands a very advanced degree of skill at aura reading.
Yet what degree of energetic literacy is common in today’s Enlightenment Establishment?
Although it won’t seem this way to an enthusiastic newbie, Stage 1 Energetic Literacy is relatively inaccurate and incomplete. Although a sweet start.
Next, Stage 2 Energetic Literacy offers more. Since doing this means giving a chakra reading. Unfortunately that’s nowhere near the degree of discernment needed to tell who’s in Spiritual Enlightenment.
What if you develop Stage 3 Energetic Literacy? At least, you can read chakra databanks. Utterly life changing!
Especially Notable: Until the Shift into the Age of Awakening, none of today’s 44 Stages of Energetic Literacy were possible. And that means, it wasn’t possible to do precision research on who was living in Spiritual Enlightenment.
After the Shift, I began using energetic literacy skills from Stage 3 onward. Exploring many hundreds of aura readings before I began to develop enough skill to discern Enlightenment. Since that’s a separate skill from regular aura reading. As well as counting as a grave responsibility. Don’t you agree?
Due to what auras show about Enlightenment or not, hello! Regarding each expert you ask about below, when you include a link to a good photo for reading auras, oh yes. I’ll include reading that person’s consciousness lifestyle. Essential for a Discernment Jamboree of this kind, don’t you think?
If the best photo available only shows that person’s forehead, I may choose to research this only: Third Eye Chakra Databank for Connection to Spiritual Source.
Now let’s get to the fun part. Where you come in!
How Can You Add to this Discernment Jamboree?
Although any COMMENTS on this article will be helpful, yes! Only certain kinds of commenting will actively add to our Discernment Jamboree. For that, here are the ground rules, Blog-Buddies:
Choose a person to ask about in a COMMENT from you, at this thread.
#1. Find an Enlightenment Specialty to Ask about in our Discernment Jamboree
Any of the following would count:
- Enlightenment Teacher
- Enlightenment Coach
- Also, Enlightenment Guide
- Spiritual Teacher
- Awakening Teacher
- Awakening Coach
- Awakened Guide
Find that person’s name, the one used professionally.
#2. Where to Find Specific People to Ask about
Search on one of the seven topics just listed:
- On YouTube
- At Amazon.com. (Then choose BOOKS from the dropdown menu.)
- Or on Google
Find someone who works, in some way, as a teacher of Enlightenment.
#3. Next, Find a Front-Facing Photo of that Enlightenment Expert
- Face is fully facing front.
- Shoulders are facing front.
- No sunglasses being worn.
- From forehead to neck, nothing is cropped off.
- The person in question is not touching any other person. (Since otherwise auras would intermingle.)
- And the person isn’t holding a dog, a cat, a dead fish… You get the idea.
This photo should have a url. Or else it is obvious at the website belonging to the Expert.
#4. Also Find Something (at that Website or Video) about What That Expert Teaches
Some credential. Something!
#5. Ready to Go Now. Simply COMMENT with:
- That person’s Enlightenment specialty.
- That person’s name.
- What is a website, or book, or video connected with that person?
- Send a working link with the url for a suitable photo. (Suitable for aura research.) Alternatively, send a link to the person’s website, where a photo shows prominently.
- Finally, what does that expert teach? Quote something about that person’s approach to teaching or coaching or guiding. (If you find extra quotes that seem interesting to you, add them as separate COMMENTS following your first one.)
There you go! Have fun.
Also, Helpful for Regular Commenting Below
Just in case you’d like to ask something and, so far, you’re not sure what… Consider yourself encouraged.
COMMENTING is the life blood of this blog. Feel free to ask anything.
Afterward, wait for your comment to go live. Because this one-person blog doesn’t have the staff of Facebook. Not does my staff of one include the amazing volunteer librarians of Goodreads.
This IS a monitored blog. After publishing your comments, I’ll respond.
Consumers can expect to receive some discernment. You might even call it free Enlightenment Coaching. And Enlightenment Teaching. And even, if you insist on calling it that, Enlightenment Guiding.
Just give me time. Please, after you put your comment into one of the boxes below, wait for me to get to you.
Meanwhile, How about Some Questions You Might Wish to Ask?
These topics might be fun for you to bring up:
- What is a spiritual side trip? Who’s to say what counts as a side trip and not just The Hand of God? You know, working in mysterious ways.
- I’ve heard about the great World Gurus, like Yogi Bhajan and the one you used to teach for, Maharishi. Were they able to serve as Enlightenment Coaches to some of their followers?
- If you’re seeking Spiritual Enlightenment is religion really optional? A lot of teachers, like Maharishi, claim that no religion is involved. But is that really true?
- How about the idea that people who are serious about seeking God must be renunciates and not householders? As an Enlightenment Teacher, Rose, do you believe that is true?
- Popularity is a strong value for many spiritual seekers. How can the desire for popularity help a person to reach Spiritual Enlightenment?
- Alternatively, could the desire for popularity be an illusion that doesn’t serve those who seek Enlightenment?
- Does truthfulness matter in an Enlightenment Coach? If so, how can you tell?
Enlightenment Teachers, Enlightenment Coaches, Enlightenment Guides
How many of them have I researched so far at this article?
36 Enlightenment Teachers, etc.
And how many of these teachers have actually attained Spiritual Enlightenment? According to consciousness lifestyle research — in contrast to their own opinions of themselves!
So far? Just 3. That’s right, ONLY THREE. Out of 36.
What’s with that?
Awakening Teachers, Awakening Coaches, and Awakened Guides
Below Is a List of Those I’ve Researched Here
- A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), starting with Comment #185: Human-Based Spirituality (a very stuck version of this, unlikely to grow much in the rest of this lifetime).
- AleksM at Actualized.Org, researched at “Enlightenment Teaching Versus Enlightenment Porn,” starting with Comment #245: Spiritual Shutdown
- Alexey Navalny, starting with Comment #796: Extreme Spiritual Addiction
- Anna Heimkreiter, starting with Comment #593: Spiritual Shutdown
- Bob Ferguson, starting with Comment #1073: Spiritual Shutdown
- Courtney Beck, starting with Comment #138: Extreme Spiritual Addiction
- David Benner, Dr., starting with Comment #1274: Psychological Overwork
- David Doyle, starting with Comment #874: Extreme Spiritual Addiction
- Douglas Harding, starting with Comment #824: Spiritual Shutdown
- Eckhart Tolle, starting with Comment #57: Extreme Spiritual Addiction
- Eknath Easwaan, starting with Comment #939: Traditional Enlightenment. For him, God Consciousness.
- Franklin Merrell-Wolff, starting with Comment #1256: Human-Based Spirituality. (Of a patrician, intellectually proud, and thoroughly stuck variety.)
And Here’s More
- Ganesha Ma, starting with Comment #449: Spiritual Addiction
- Jeddah Mali, starting with Comment #1007: Spiritual Addiction
- Jem Bendell, starting with Comment #928: Spiritual Shutdown
- Harold Klemp, starting with Comment #377: No consciousness lifestyle is assigned, since he does not have normal mental functioning. (This is not something to aspire to, Blog-Buddies.)
- Jason Shulman, starting with Comment #572: I can’t place him in any of the usual categories, Blog-Buddies. He seems like a good man, hardworking and spiritually sincere. Yet he is nowhere close to Spiritual Enlightenment.
- Joseph Goldstein, starting with Comment #69: Spiritual Addiction — A surrendered lifestyle in Spiritual Addiction, a variation of that consciousness lifestyle which involves a very pure renunciation. Still, this is nowhere close to Spiritual Enlightenment.
- Karen Johnson, starting with Comment #287: Spiritual Addiction
- Karen Shanley, starting with Comment #101: Traditional Enlightenment, Flavored by Nonduality
- Linda Clair, starting with Comment #1718: Spiritual Addiction
- Ma Prem Zareen, starting with Comment #323: Spiritual Addiction
- Mary Terhune, starting with Comment #891: Spiritual Addiction
- Matt Gangloff, researched at “Enlightenment Teaching Versus Enlightenment Porn“, starting with Comment #223
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, starting with Comment #467: Traditional Enlightenment
And Here’s More
- Paul Rezendes, starting with Comment #1,106: Spiritual Shutdown
- Richard Rose, starting with Comment #505: Human-Based Spirituality
- Shakti Durga, starting with Comment #408: Spiritual Addiction
- Shawn Nevins, starting with Comment #758: Spiritual Shutdown
- Swami Medhananda, starting with Comment #861: Spiritual Addiction
- Tess Hughes, starting with Comment #1,132: Spiritual Shutdown
- Yvonne Kason, starting with Comment #912: Spiritual Addiction
- Bernadette Roberts, starting with Comment #1,324: Spiritual Addiction
And Still More, Researched at Different Blogposts
- Toni Petrinovich, at “Avoid 7 Common Growth Stiflers” starting with Comment #118 and following.
- Mooji, starting with Comment #1676: Spiritual Addiction
- David Hoffmeister, starting with Comment #1768: Extreme Spiritual Addiction
- Adyashanti, starting with Comment #1774: Extreme Spiritual Addiction
I like this idea. Thank you for starting this discernment jamboree.
MELISSA, you’re welcome. This topic does seem important to me.
For instance, what do you think we’ll find if we google the main seven Enlightenment specialties listed in today’s article? These would be found under the heading “How Can You Add to this Discernment Jamboree?”
Googling isn’t an exact measure of interest in things, of course, but it’s one of the best resources available to us.
Besides, the popularity of ideas — as shown by the number of search engine hits — does reveal ways that “Collective Consciousness Subconsciously Grabs You.”
Currently it is my belief that when people feel stuck, or are yearning for something better, or want something and they don’t know exactly what…
Ideas with 1 MILLION Google hits or more… will just “come to mind.” Becoming an interest, way in advance of having any discerment whatsover.
Okay, let’s research.
How many hits today when I google Enlightenment Teacher? Anybody want to guess?
Oooh, we’re off and running. On my Google right now, nearly 25 MILLION hits for Enlightenment Teacher.
The top Google hit on my computer is about Buddhist Enlightenment Teachers.
My second hit this morning for Enlightenment Teacher comes from Quora.
“Their prime qualificaiton [sic] is Humility. A teacher of enlightenment should be humble and recognize that they too have limitations and do not have all the answers. They should …”
In my opinion, Quora is the exact opposite of this Discernment Jamboree.
Quora has been ingeniously constructed to attain high SEO, yet it’s a free-for-all of opinions offered by people with no particular standing to hold those opinions.
“Humility” as the most valuable attribute in an Enlightenment Teacher strikes me as the call of the truly ignorant.
As if the point is, “Tell me something that flatters me, and don’t ever challenge me or teach me anything authentically new. Just impress me with how humble you are. It’s a plus if you’re willing to admit you are wrong, and I know more than you do.” Geesh!
Next, many hits today when I google Enlightenment Coach? Anybody want to guess?
As of today, the answer is nearly 10 MILLION hits for Enlightenment Coach.
Regarding the first hit that shows up on my computer, that would be…
Mysite: Home. The owner of this website has branded it as an Enlightenment Coach.
“I can help you design the life of your dreams. Together we can. Increase your self-worth and self-love. Improve your self-esteem.”
Curiouser and curiouser, as Lewis Carroll once wrote. Who is this Dawn O’Neale?
According to her “About Me,” she’s an Accredited Life Coach & Professional Development Mentor. She’s even “Accredited by the Association for Coaching.”
As a life coach, she might consider it a branding coup that she, a personal life coach and professional development mentor… managed to score the url “www.enlightenment.coach”
But from the standpoint of actual Enlightenment Coaches, what she’s done might seem a bit pesumptuous. As if she, a fine baker of cupcakes, nabbed a url like http://www.weddingcakes.com.
With Dawn O’Neale, as with all others who appear in this Discernment Jamboree, I’m going to copy the results of my consciousness lifestyle research into comments at our most popular post, “Spiritual Enlightenment Made Practical.”
The only picture of her that I could find of Dawn O’Neale was the one at her website.
Before doing that bit of aura research, I’d like to note that she seems like a very sweet person, very service oriented.
Excerpting from her bio at her website, here’s how she aims to help people as an Enlightenment Coach:
“I have always worked in roles supporting people, and coached people in the workplace, as well as being the go to person for family and friends.”
And “So here I am, an accredited life coach, with a wealth of knowledge and know how. I have completely fallen in love with the coaching process, and with a guiding hand want to help support others on their journey of self discovery.”
Does this seem to you to qualify well-meaning Dawn to help her clients or students to reach Spiritual Enlightenment?
Sometimes people don’t know what they don’t know, you know?
Here’s what I find at this chakra databank belonging to “Enlightenment Coach” Dawn, her “Third Eye Chakra Databank for Connection to Spiritual Source.”
SYMBOLIC SIZE
1 inch. (Close to complete shut down, at the time of this photograph.)
QUALITY
A belief in God as good. But no direct experience of the Divine shows in this chakra databank.
Nor does any curiosity, or longing, etc.
Although I can’t find enough to tell you anything conclusive about her consciousness lifestyle at the time of this picture, she is clearly not in Spiritual Enlightenment.
This would show in the size of the previously read chakra databank, and the quality.
Next, let’s research popularity further. How many hits today when I google Enlightenment Guide? Anybody want to guess?
Do you think there will be more hits or fewer, compared to Enlightenment Teacher or Enlightenment Coach?
Surprising or not, this search is the winner so far: Nearly 40 MILLION hits on Enlightenment Guide.
Of course, this includes experts on the Age of Enlightenment, long ago, an era that represented some improvement to social ideas about and using one’s noodle, but in no way related to Spiritual Enlightenment.
On the first page of hits on my Google, there is actually a how-to guide about Spiritual Enlightenment.
It’s “Kundalini Awakening: 5 Books in 1: Expand Mind Power through Chakra Meditation, Psychic Awareness, Enhance Psychic Abilities, Intuition, and Astral Travel” by Jenifer Williams.
What is offered by this Enlightenment Guide?
“Kundalini Awakening is the number one ultimate guide that will teach you everything that you need to know about unlocking your hidden powers and living a more meaningful life. For years, this body of ancient and secret knowledge has been kept a closely guarded secret revealed only to a few chosen individuals. Now is the time to unveil the techniques and practices that can unleash your true power…”
This book is, thus, a kind of guidebook. An earlier edition of this book did have the subtitle “Ultimate Guide to Gain Enlightenment, Awaken Your Energetic Potential, Higher Consciousness, Expand Mind Power….”
Far as I can tell, the scope of this guidebook is to provide readers with a kind of tour. Akin to somebody who can say, after taking a tour of England:
“I’ve seen everything important in England. My tour bus stopped off at The Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Stonehenge, and the White Cliffs of Dover.”
Does a tour guarantee in-depth knowledge, let alone experience, of something that is spiritual?
Besides, to be a bit technical — since this is, after all, a Discernment Jamboree — which of the following is SPIRITUAL, rather than PSYCHIC? (IMO, even beginners at seeking Enlightenment need to know that psychic is not spiritual.)
* Chakra Meditation — Might be spiritual but most likely is psychic.
* Psychic Awareness — Definitely psychic
* Enhance Psychic Abilities — Definitely psychic
* Intuition — Probably psychic
* and Astral Travel — Also psychic.
Oops!
BTW, I was unable to find a photo of Jenifer Williams. Personally, I think it’s a pretty important idea for Enlightenment Guides, Enlightenment Coaches, and Enlightenment Teachers to make their photos available, don’t you? Considering that, with good aura reading skills, you can read auras from regular photos.
Next, Seekers of Discernment for help with Gaining Enlightenment, how many hits today when I google Spiritual Teacher? Anybody want to guess?
Right now, on my Google, 177 MILLION hits for Spiritual Teacher.
Makes sense that this would be largest number of hits for anything on this list, although surprises may follow. Plenty of Spiritual Teachers don’t know about Enlightenment, or believe in it. No particular standing is required for this title either, is it?
On my Google, the top hit came from Sandra Pawula and her article on Medium about “How to Find a True Spiritual Teacher.”
Could be her version of today’s Discernment Jamboree.
Quoted on Google is this advice: “Concluding Thoughts. Use discernment when you look for a spiritual teacher. Don’t fall head over heals [sic] in love and give your whole heart to a …“
The lede to her article is compelling:
“False spiritual teachers abound in this world.
But they can be hard to suss out. A wayward spiritual teacher can be irresistibly charismatic, promote an exciting vision, and already have a crowd of enthusiastic followers.“
True, true, true.
Blog-Buddies, there in a nutshell is my biggest reason for offering today’s Discernment Jamboree.
In the main article here today, I’ve summarized my qualifications. I’m an Enlightenment expert, and also an expert at aura reading and discerning consciousness lifestyles.
What might be Sandra Pawula’s background? Let’s note right away that this article on Medium has already received 1.1 THOUSAND likes. After just four months: Impressive!
Is that because she tells readers something really useful? Or groundbreaking?
Or might it be more a matter of telling readers what they already know? Many folks LOOOOOVE that, especially when the topic is any kind of personal growth.
Having read this article just now, I do find it practical. Sandra Pawula offers three different criteria for selecting a spiritual teacher:
1. A True Spiritual Teacher Walks Their Talk
Sandra lists personality attributes, including:
They have a relaxed air about them and rarely get uptight, stressed out, or anxious because they know everything changes…. Whatever spiritual quality you can imagine, they possess it in abundance.
Any comments there, Blog-Buddies?
That’s certainly the stereotype of a spiritual teacher from the Age of Faith, when people grew very slowly spiritually… if at all. A placid temperament then might have been a job requirement. (Unless one dared to act like that gadfly Socrates.)
More good advice from Sandra Pawula:
2. A True Spiritual Teacher Does Not Steal Your Spiritual Authority
Pretty wise, imo.
My version of this teaching is to encourage every student and every reader, every chance I get, to use their own spiritual self-authority.
Sandra’s version is to describe what she endured, learning the hard way, how to NOT choose a spiritual teacher. Sigh! Learning the hard way is awful.
3. A True Spiritual Teacher Is Learned and Wise
A true spiritual teacher has done his time as a student, according to Sandra Pawula.
I agree.
Sandra’s perspective is excellent, far as it goes, and she’s a talented writer — very persuasive.
However, she doesn’t include other criteria for having credibility as either an Enlightenment Teacher or an Enlightenment Coach, etc. As I’ve attempted to lay out in this article, and to elaborate on as we continue with this Discernment Jamboree.
Next, Seekers of Discernment for help with Living in Enlightenment, how many hits today when I google Awakening Teacher?
Anybody want to guess?
How many results on my Google right now for Awakening Teacher? More than 28 MILLION hits.
Before I proceed to discuss the first example that shows up here, let’s clarify something really important.
My point of view here may not be the popular one these days, but if you’re brave you’ll consider it anyway:
Spiritual Awakening Is NOT Enlightenment.
By contrast, What IS Spiritual Enlightenment?
It’s a whole lot more than one or more sweet experiences of “Awakening.”
Granted, to many people, new words for old things may always have a greater allure just because the currently popular words seem newer and fresher.
A related example would be to proudly declare, “I have a partner.” Or “I am partnered.”
Seems so superior, to many, than old-fashioned “I am married.”
Only guess what? After considerable aura research, my opinion is that any marriage ceremony — even a no-frills civil ceremony with a local justice of the peace — brings the married couple a spiritual blessing.
Partners miss out. Including those who slide into “common law marriage” after the requisite number of years.
Incontestably, spiritual seekers miss out — in my view — when they equate “Awakening” with “Spiritual Enlightenment.”
Exhibit A is this state-of-the art book about “Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening.” You could read that entire book as a refutation of the seductive appeal that being “Awakened” equals living in Spiritual Enlightenment.
Furthermore, “Awakening” comes with another drawback, a serious one. It’s far easier for Awakening Teachers to provide teachings with little truth value, compared with spiritual teachers or Enlightenment Teachers.
Since “Awakening” could mean just about anything, these teachers can get away with offering whatever the traffic will bear.
Top hit on my Google search, under “Awakening Teachers,” is an offering from rich-and-famous Eckhart Tolle. Four days ago he published this YouTube video:
“The Role of Teachers in Spiritual Awakening: A New Perspective with Eckhart Tolle.”
To research his current consciousness lifestyle I’ll use his screenshot 0:03 minutes into that video. Okay, here we go. Arguably the most famous and revered Awakening Teacher and Enlightenment Teacher in the world!
Here goes whatever, Seekers of Truth.
1. Tolle’s Root Chakra Databank for Connection to Objective Reality
SYMBOLIC SIZE
Extremely, extremely large.
QUALITY
Tolle’s connection to objective reality, his experience in consciousness, is filled with discarnate beings: Not just a few of them, a ton of them. Astral entities and E.T. entities.
These opportunistic entities are running him in the manner of the consciousness lifestyle called “Extreme Spiritual Addiction.”
Tolle is their mouthpiece. Their puppet.
With this consciousness lifestyle, Tolle knows less about living as a human being… than any sane two year old.
Earlier, back in his glory days as Beloved of Oprah, this man did live in Traditional Enlightenment. However, that hasn’t been the case for many years. Sigh!
2. Tolle’s Third Eye Chakra Databank for Connection to Psychic Guidance
SYMBOLIC SIZE
Extremely, extremely large.
QUALITY
Tolle takes his orders from discarnate beings. Beyond merely being interested in astrals, he takes his orders from them.
Does this make him a valuable teacher of Spiritual Awakening, let alone Spiritual Enlightenment?
Just the opposite. This man’s aura does contain plenty of astral-dazzle in his auric modeling, but that has nothing to do with anything Divine.
3. Tolle’s Third Eye Chakra Databank for Connection to Spiritual Source
SYMBOLIC SIZE
1/8 inch. Completely shut down.
QUALITY
The entities who run Tolle, and the little bit of personal individuality within him that’s still alive? This is Eckhart, for all practical intents and purposes, and Eckhart’s contempt for “God” is stunning, equal only to their sense of superiority over God.
Consciousness Lifestyle of Eckhart Tolle at the Time of this Screenshot?
Extreme Spiritual Addiction, sigh!
Hey, how about the second hit on my Google search for “Awakening Teacher.”
This time, Google delivers another YouTube video, “Questions About The Path to Awakening with Buddhist Teacher Joseph Goldstein“
On that video I didn’t see any image of him that I could use for research, so here’s a very aura readable photo that I’ll use instead.
By all means, if you have good skills of energetic literacy, check out those same three chakra databanks that I’m researching for these little profiles of consciousness.
1. Goldstein’s Root Chakra Databank for Connection to Objective Reality
SYMBOLIC SIZE
1/8 inch. Completely shut down at the time of the photo.
QUALITY
A beautiful detachment from human life has been won through a great deal of personal discipline and sacrifice. To this Enlightenment Teacher, the quality of scar tissue here is utterly beautiful.
Clearly, this is the Connection to Objective Reality of a steadfast renunciate, one who has insisted upon following his path of wrecking-immobilizing-shattering any spontaneous human impulse.
As if laying his humanity upon the altar of God. Offering it up as a kind of sacrifice, a burnt offering.
2. Goldstein’s Third Eye Chakra Databank for Connection to Psychic Guidance
SYMBOLIC SIZE
1/8 inch. Completely shut down.
QUALITY
This ardent spiritual seeker has zero interest in astral flash or psychic anything. For Joseph this is a matter of discernment. Once one understands clearly that Astral is not Divine, that’s it. Astral energies for their own sake… simply have no further allure.
3. Goldstein’s Third Eye Chakra Databank for Connection to Spiritual Source
SYMBOLIC SIZE
Out into deep space. As large as it could be, at the time of this photo.
QUALITY
God is Joseph Goldstein’s all in all, his one and only.
In order to do this particular research job right, I’ll need to include one further chakra databank belonging to Joseph Goldstein:
#4. His Heart Chakra Databank for Emotional Self-Awareness.
SYMBOLIC SIZE
1/8 inch. Completely shut down.
QUALITY
No trace is left of emotional experience: This has been destroyed, lovingly sacrificed, just like all the other defining characteristics of Mr. Goldstein’s humanity.
Consciousness Lifestyle of Joseph Goldstein at the Time of this Screenshot?
Would I call this Spiritual Enlightenment? No. But it does seem to me that he’s living a close equivalent: A surrendered lifestyle in Spiritual Addiction, a variation of that consciousness lifestyle which involves a very pure renunciation.
In the Age of Faith, only the very bravest-and-purest renunciates — of a certain kind — have achieved this way of living. Yes, I have researched auras belonging to a very small number of them.
Offering the very deepest respect to Joseph Goldstein and those who are following the path that he teaches, this version of renunciation is now obsolete.
We’re living in the Age of Awakening now. Whereas his Age of Faith path is beautiful but also relentlessly cruel.
Living now, even if fully committed to life as a renunciate, a person can reach Spiritual Enlightenment without this harsh choice for a spiritual path, a path that does not culminate in the bliss of Enlightenment but stops short at a life of dutifully extreme reununciation:
Pain-free. Joy-free. Equanimity without any lingering humanity.
Look, Blog-Buddies, I have definitely read auras of many other renunciates in Traditional Enlightenment.
They are not walking around like this — to put it bluntly, like devotees of Yama. Or whatever the equivalent would be on a Buddhist path like that followed by Goldstein.
But life is large enough to include innumerable paths.
Still, I would feel sorry for any seeker of an “Awakening Teacher” who hears words that resonate idealistically like “equanimity”…
While conveniently not being informed about the Olympic level of personal sacrifice that is required to succeed at a path like Goldstein’s.
I appreciate the Discernment Jamborees so much. Thank you this latest one.
I’m really looking forward to all the learning.
Thank you so much, SIMON. Me too.
Couldn’t anybody be my perfect enlightenment guide? I mean if God sent him my way.
I remember reading a book by Dan Millman about a spiritual teacher who didn’t seem outwardly like a spiritual teacher but he was the real deal. Couldn’t my car mechanic or whoever be my own personal Enlightenment guide?
MANDY, that’s a great question. Welcome to my blog.
When we meet random strangers, it’s up to us whether or not we interpret that as meaning, “God sent him my way.”
If we want to grow slowly, these random strangers are perfect. Just how folks grew in the Age of Faith, actually!
What’s so special about living now is that we can do something that others before us haven’t had the chance to do. We can aim toward Spiritual Enlightenment and we can reach it.
In contrast to following whichever sweet-and-serene people who might come your way, here’s an idea.
For yourself, on your own, get a copy of “Seeking Enlightenment in the Age of Awakening.” It contains a Program for Spiritual Enlightenment.
Follow that program. It’s simple and won’t take much time.
Besides that, enjoy your life. Grow really fast, emotionally and spiritually.
At some point, if you think you might have moved into Enlightenment, book a session with me — or any quality Enlightenment Teacher, Enlightenment Coach, or Enlightenment Guide who has skills for validating Spiritual Enightenment. Such as you might learn about at this Discernment Jamboree.
You know, you could grow a fabulously yummy loaf of bread with one packet of yeast, just one packet.
No need to make your whole life about living at a yeast factory!
Good morning, Blog-Buddies. Let’s resume our overview of the seven Enlightenment specialties in the main article.
Here I’m referring to the heading “#1. Find an Enlightenment Specialty to Ask about in our Discernment Jamboree.” How many hits today from googling the 5th of the 7 specialites there? Awakening Teacher.
Awakening Teacher scores a bit over 31 MILLION hits, just now, on my Google.
Yowza, let’s recall that previously — in Comment #6 — I googled “Enlightenment Teacher” and reported a bit under 25 MILLION hits. Considerably fewer!
As a sample of what’s on offer on that first page of hits, I found a wise article by Karen Shaney, “Do You Need A Spiritual Teacher To Reach Enlightenment?”