Look at the Moon

Huineng, Sixth Patriarch

The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. 

[I once posted a quotation from a former teacher/guru of mine. That posting  generated questions and comments about teachers, gurus and spiritual directors. This week the quotes will focus somewhat on the subject of spiritual guides. I studied with gurus and spiritual teachers, and have been both served and hindered by their advice and their behavior. Sometimes God uses these people only to show us what not to do! 

I had the good fortune of knowing Bernadette Roberts for more than 30 years, spent personal time with her, attended her retreats and studied her books, so sometimes people ask if she was my ‘teacher’. She was not my, or anyone else’s, teacher. In fact she would be the first to tell you (and does tell us in a quotation coming later this week) that she never let people relate to her as teacher. She insisted that anyone who gets between you and God will have to be removed at some point, and that all spiritual direction ultimately comes from God. This doesn’t mean we don’t learn from others, or that God doesn’t send people into our lives to inspire and motivate us – God sends everything in our lives to do exactly that. But we can never let anyone come between us and God, however benign their expressed purpose. I learned this the hard way.

"A good spiritual director is one who stands next to you, 

facing the same direction, toward God."

Sr. Wendy Beckett