Having a Teacher

This weekend my spiritual teacher is visiting Portland as he does every year. It’s amazing to me for two big reasons.

First, in the history of spiritual paths, usually the student has to travel to the teacher. Often at great personal sacrifice. The particular Sufi lineage I’m in has story from the earliest days of how a student travelled up a mountain three times to try to engage his teacher, but was told to three times to go down again and wash and purify himself once more.

Sidi Muhammad al-Jamal ar-Rifai ash-Shaddhulli lives in Jerusalem, and yet travels to the U.S. once a year for several months to visit his students here. Very amazing.

Second, he is an Islamic imam, and I’m Jewish, although at this time I’m more accurately described as a Jewish Sufi Muslim- a Jufi. 🙂 How does that happen?

I have such deep gratitude for his teachings. In his presence I’ve had incredible experiences of having my heart torn open and light poured in. I read his books and I experience what I call “light” to be pouring off the pages- sometimes I just open a book without reading it and I can feel it palpably in my heart.

The practices and teachings I’ve learned in this lineage have been lifesavers for me.

(By the way, if you’re in the U.S. and you want to meet Sidi, here’s his travel schedule. These events are general open to any sincere seeker of the heart. Some are free or by donation, some are more intense events that ask a tuition.)

And yet, and yet…

In the nature of things, because I tend to see Sidi once a year at an event like this, and because he has thousands of students all over the world, I don’t receive much direct personal guidance from him, except in short interviews when we meet.

This was an okay situation for years, because I was a student and then later a faculty in the sufi school where I still received mentorship and guidance.

However, it’s been a few years, and I haven’t taken the pro-active steps to have someone in the tariqa (lineage) guide me personally. I do receive support and guidance, but not from just one person, and I’m starting to really yearn for that.

How Important Is It To Have a Teacher?

Some people say teachers are unnecessary, that we have everything inside us. Some folks have had very bad experiences with teachers who were false in some way.

My experience has been that there are very, very challenging things that come up on the spiritual path. Very uncomfortable, transformational, annihilating things that turn one’s world upside down. Without a teacher, I wouldn’t know how to navigate them. Also, I’m not sure I would trust myself to face and go through the really uncomfortable challenges of spiritual growth without a teacher.

In all of Sufism, there is only one saint that didn’t have a teacher and still attained to divine knowledge of Love. Everyone else had a human teacher.

I know I have some sterling qualities, but I don’t think I’m so special that I’m the second exception to the rule. I think I’ll look for someone this weekend, one of my teachers under Sidi.

In Business, Too?

One of the most important things I’ve learned in Sufism is the power of lineage, of being a part of the chain of life, from the past into the future. A lineage can carry a powerful transmission, bestowing generations of insight and wisdom onto those who inherit and receive from the lineage.

We spend an entire day working on lineage in the Path to Profitability Retreat (early-early bird discount ends July 31st!) It’s that important to momentum. I’ve been blessed to have some incredible business teachers, too.

And you?

Do you have a spiritual teacher? Do you have a business teacher? Or have you ever? Have you had a teacher and then gone for periods without guidance? How have you found or chosen a teacher? I’d love to hear about your path with teachers and lineage.