Guru And Disciple

Adam Wes Namaste, welcome, everybody. I guess we're a small group today. I heard Ariella.

I have something exciting to share with all of you. I think I've shared it already with some of you, but I'd like to show you. I don't think Ariella knows.

Ariella, we have a special page. This page is our private, unlisted page, and it has all the videos with notes for literally the last 57 meetings. Let's go down here. January 6th, "Meditation Resolution."

You can read the notes. It's got practice guides, everything. These notes are just, like, quotes and things. Then, if you want to read the full transcript, the full transcript is available like it's always been. There's an essay edition, you can listen to the audio recording, and there are quotes right there as well.

If you haven't looked at the book yet, the book is 700 pages. It's a substantial book, and it is a revised version. I've improved pagination and added a few more sermons to it.

Just so everybody knows, this page is a private page. This page is not private. It has only the audio. The other page is private, and that's why it has pictures of us.

The plan is that every week, the next morning, you should have the next one up automatically. I coded this. It's not quite done yet, but it'll be automated.

What do you think, Ariella? Fun? You like that? Oh, I can't hear you. It's muted. I want to hear your words.

AriellaShira L That is amazing, Adam. I don't need to take notes anymore.

Adam Wes Exactly, exactly. I showed my mom, and I think she even said, "Oh, Ariella won't have to take notes."

Ariella, the link is in the chat. You can just take that link. That's the link, and it'll be really easy to find. In fact, I will soon have a new link, but that's the link for now.

It's interesting. If anybody wants to share a link in the chat, or anything in the chat, it will automatically be on the page. The chat is automatically referenced by the processor.

Hi, Mom. Hi, Andrea. Yay. Glad you came.

I'm really excited about today's discussion. I feel like it is the sermon for today. It's a nice focus, and I have a great deal of clarity to share about it. I think it'll be quite a revelation in a lot of ways because of our culture. Also, I think Kimberly kind of inspired me to focus on this. That was her question yesterday.

The sermon for today is "Guru and Disciple," or "Guru-Shishya." Shishya is the Indian word for disciple, the Sanskrit word.

I like talking about this because there's a lot of confusion around the topic. It's a very important understanding. In fact, it's extremely endemic to spiritual practice to understand what this means.

Guru and disciple exist in cosmopolitan spirituality. They exist in all the many vast manifestations of spiritual practice. There's usually somebody who is connected to God or to enlightenment, and there's somebody who's seeking, seeking to understand it, seeking to connect with it, to learn.

The root word of disciple is like discipline, right? They're part of the same word. It means to learn, to study.

Guru is a Sanskrit word, and it's beautiful because there's a lot implied in the word that isn't necessarily implied between, say, a priest and somebody who goes to church, or any of the other religious orientations. It's a little different. It has its own quality.

Guru literally means light-dark, lightness-darkness. It essentially says gu and ru. Gu is light and ru is darkness. What that means is dispeller of darkness or bringer of light. That's what the guru's purpose is.

Kimberly asked a really nice question yesterday: What is authority? When we work with a teacher, it's important to understand the potential of developing authority and the importance of not doing so.

I don't know if I want to start there, actually. I want to start with the heart side of this.

It's beautiful to find a guru. When you find a guru, it is the most buoyant, elevating experience, and you fall in love with your guru. You fall in love with these people who have devoted themselves to something that is so deeply profound within you, and you're longing for that thing.

This can apply in various practices as well. You might find somebody who really has devoted their whole life to gymnastics, and you fall in love with them because they're a kindred spirit. But with spirituality, it's even more so.

There's a sense that the guru is saving you, but not that they're saving you. They're showing you a way to save yourself in the most fundamental, important aspect of life.

They say that the gurus are many, the students are few. I think there's a lot of truth to that because, while gurus aren't many, there certainly are very few earnest students who understand this and have that really deep, sincere longing inside to discover enlightenment.

It usually comes with a great deal of maturity, multilife, deep spiritual maturity, to want to go beyond becoming, to go beyond attachment and desire, and to prioritize something eternal that is beyond individuality. It requires a great deal of humility, a great deal of love, and a great deal of insight into the possibility of enlightenment and what that even feels like.

Sometimes we just know these things when we're three years old. There's this feeling like, "Wow, I'm here to discover the universe in this particular way," and you can feel that.

There are some really beautiful gurus in the world, but many are problematic, actually. A guru cannot take advantage of their students. A real guru and a pretend guru are part of why this discussion is important. One must understand that not every guru is necessarily approaching it with a great deal of sincerity themselves.

A few notable figures, archetypal, exceptional gurus in human history, are Osho, who got a bad name. I recommend you listen to his words and make direct contact with his teaching through YouTube.

Krishnamurti, who ironically said there's no need for a guru, which was a very good thing to say. He was pushing back against something that people did incorrectly in relation to gurus. He said, "I'm not important." He used to say that to whole crowds of people. He said, "I'm not your guru."

They tried to create a giant organization around him when he was very young. It was a moneyed organization, and he dissolved it and gave away all the money because he said that truth is a pathless land and there should be no guru. But then he spent 60 years traveling the world teaching, right? So that's actually a real guru.

Although some people feel he took that too far, like Osho, even though he deeply respected Krishnamurti as well.

Both of those people have passed away. Somebody who's alive is Eckhart Tolle. I would say he's a guru. There's Sadhguru. That's his name. He's a guru.

I have a guru. It's nice to have a guru. Krishnamurti can be your guru, and you can actually connect with a guru through the inner realms. I think it's a little more difficult, though. It's nice to have a real-life guru whom you can sit with and have a relationship with, who knows you. That's a really profound experience.

Let's see, who else can I tell you? Anandamayi Ma, a female guru. She had a very sincere following, and she was so lovely, an Indian saint.

Jesus is a good example of a guru. Usually one doesn't put that title in his name, but if you were to go back and be around his 12 disciples, 13 total including him, you'd find a lot of the same elements.

A guru is somebody who's progressed along the way to enlightenment in a very real sense. Not Hollywood enlightenment, not wishful-thinking enlightenment, but really, they have had a transformation of consciousness in which they can make contact with light. They embody the light. Whether they speak about it, that's one aspect of it. Ultimately, they're moving toward samadhi.

There are different levels of gurus. The goal is to find the best guru, to find a guru at all, to find the person who you feel can help you along your path and who resonates with you.

What's the best guru? It's certainly not necessarily the most famous one, although it might be. It's somebody who has in their being a power to awaken you and help liberate you, to help you climb out of the hole of selfhood. They're helping you up, out of illusion, out of bondage. Their being, their aura, their presence, does that very powerfully.

A guru is further along the path of mysticism. It could be another name for it. You don't have to call it mysticism, but they have transformed their consciousness in such a way that they're further along the path, and therefore they can help you further along.

Some gurus are fully enlightened. Some are not fully enlightened. We've talked about the different levels of samadhi. There's Savikalpa Samadhi, Nirvikalpa Samadhi, and Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

Let me give you another example. Ramana Maharshi is a great example of a Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi guru. He was absolutely incredible. People would travel the world by boat, across oceans, to see this person.

There's an energy to this that I'm trying to share because I think a lot of people never feel that, especially in Western society. In Western society, we generally think of a teacher as somebody in a school. A lot of times, teachers aren't deeply respected. They're kind of an obstacle for a teenager: "My teacher gave me homework," that sort of thing. They may be respected in some cases, but there's a different energy.

I think there's a lot of egotism and a rogue quality in the West. Most people are very independent in a way that prevents them from thinking of another like this. It's too bad because in India, they get this. They really get this in India. I just love India. The energy is there. They understand this feeling that is in my heart.

Another person is Paramahansa Yogananda. He was a really incredible guru who came to the West and actually brought yoga to the West.

A guru need not be fully enlightened. If somebody can show you the light, help you access the light, and help you gain deeper clarity, there's this quality of helping people progress along the path. So I am a guru, and I do that.

I am not in Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi, though perhaps I will be one day, hopefully. I'd love that. I think I'd love that. Then I'll be able to share from that state.

Kimberly asked me, "What is authority?" I think this is an important thing to understand in the relationship between a guru and a shishya, guru and disciple, guru and student.

When we create authority, we prevent ourselves from connecting with the truth directly. We lean on somebody because we are either too scared or don't feel we're capable of standing alone and seeing reality directly.

There's this metaphor Bruce Lee shared in one of his films. He pointed to the moon, and the student looked at his hand. He said, "Don't look at my hand. Look at the moon in its heavenly glory."

The guru helps you look at the moon directly. If the guru becomes an authority, an intermediary, which happens with priests, they talk to God for you. The guru helps you dissolve into enlightenment.

This applies in mathematics, in science, in energy work, in tai chi, in mysticism, in everything in life. We need to be our own source of truth. Somebody may say the truth, and it may be absolutely correct, but if one does not see it for themselves, it's not yet truth for them.

These people who convey truth are pointing to truth so one may turn and look for themselves, apprehend it, and integrate it into their own being. That's what the guru does. They say, "Meditate. Focus on this. These are the things you can do to awaken."

They guide you in a world where you may feel deeply lost and there's nobody to show you the way. That's what it feels like for a sincere shishya. They find their guru and, oh my God, all of a sudden they feel that finally somebody can guide them in the way that they needed guidance.

They don't feel that they're leaning on this person. This person is not an idol figure to them. The right relationship is to see this person as a student who's come before you, and honor them deeply for their practice and their sincerity toward such a noble transformation within.

A guru oftentimes has a community form around them. The community has all levels of sincerity in the student body. There's a deep feeling of communion in the community, and there's a whole bunch we could talk about with that. That's another sermon.

It's called a guru kula, the guru family. You're part of this group of people, and they are devoted to what the guru is sharing. There's a lot of love. It's really beautiful.

It's hard to find these. It's very hard to find these. A lot of people are looking for a guru. Some people may see a guru right in front of them and miss it. Some people aren't looking for a guru and couldn't even imagine why they would ever do that.

Let's see if there's anything else that's critical to share.

When a guru meditates with students, there's something called darshan. This is an energetic transmission that helps the student feel, through an empathic transmission, more of what that state feels like.

Gurus also tend to have magical abilities. They can see where you are and know what you need to take the next step. It's like a really brilliant teacher who seemingly has a bird's-eye view because of how evolved and advanced they are. They can walk you through something that's so seemingly complex and show you the way.

Just imagine a mathematics teacher who's profoundly good at mathematics. They're like, "Oh, well, they need this and this and this and this and this, and in five years they'll be able to do that." They can just see this whole thing. It's incredible.

A guru is like that in a very esoteric capacity. They can see the inner state of somebody's consciousness, their ego, and the things that are challenging them. They tend to give them tests and obstacles, or little tasks or homework, to evolve them.

They can see it, so you really trust the guru. If the guru says to do this, you really should do it. If one can see into the heart of another and really apprehend that this is a true guru, then they trust the guru.

This is definitely an important part of this topic. There's a lot of trust involved, and there's a lot of vulnerability involved. A guru may be 90 percent good and 10 percent not, so you get a little good with the bad. Actually, that can happen too.

Sometimes, when you're walking in the dark and somebody has infrared vision, you have to trust them. They can show you the way, but they might make a mistake and you might trip. We just do our best.

A darshan is an energetic teaching. It's ineffable, subtle, and esoteric in the sense that there's a transformation that happens in you. You may just feel your heart all of a sudden open and have no idea why.

There's also something called shaktipat. Gurus will actually activate your energy body, and all of a sudden you can see light. All of a sudden you can feel chakras where you never felt chakras your whole life. They can do this in an instant.

My teacher did this to me. He reached forward with his hand. It didn't even touch my forehead, and all of a sudden I felt my third eye, from that point on. That's incredible.

It almost seems make-believe, magical, and whimsical from a Western mind's perspective. But he reached forward and did that, and I was energized. All the energy was there.

The kundalini awakens, and the causal planes, the light, awaken within us through the help of the guru. I hope to help all of you as much as I can, as somebody who's traversed the path to mysticism and is further down the road, to awaken energetically in these things.

It's a whispered teaching. One candle lights another candle, lights another candle, lights another candle. We're always students. We're always disciples.

Paramahansa Yogananda loved his guru, who was Sri Yukteswar, who loved his guru, who loved his guru. It actually goes all the way up to Babaji. The whole lineage is very well known.

Not all gurus are the same. They have different personalities. Sri Yukteswar was really severe and intense, pure truth, a really intense man. His disciple, Paramahansa Yogananda, was just warm and loving. Very, very powerful and clear, but just a different vibe.

My guru is my teacher. I call him my teacher, actually. He's a karma yogi. I'm a bhakti yogi. We're different. It's quite different. I'm all centered in the heart. He's very centered in discipline.

He likes to do the same thing every single day, in the same way, with consistency. He's very intensely disciplined in that way.

My guru has a guru who is my Param Guru. Param Guru is a guru's guru. He was a fully enlightened, Sahaja Samadhi individual. I come from a lineage, and this all comes from Tibet. There's a Tibetan lineage here in this sangha.

Both of my gurus are white American individuals, but my Param Guru's guru is from Tibet. My Param Guru was also just super-enlightened for many, many incarnations. He was going to become enlightened either way.

There are different kinds of gurus. Some people become enlightened for the first time in a life, and then they're a guru. Apparently, for thousands of lives, they've already been enlightened, and they kind of have to find their way back into it by the age of 30 or so. It's not necessarily that young. It depends.

My guru goes into Sahaja Samadhi as well, as far as I know. I do Savikalpa Samadhi. Sometimes I go into the Nirvikalpa Samadhi state, which is very rare, a very, very rare thing. I've encountered just a handful of people who know about that and do it.

So, guru: dispeller of darkness, bringer of light.

Any questions?

What do you think, Andrea?

Andrea P I'm just thinking this is so interesting, and there's so much information. You always talk about samadhi, and I try to write things down and look them up, but I don't understand some things because they're in Indian, or I don't know what the language is.

I don't know if there's somewhere we can read about it. Like you said, this is a Tibetan lineage. How can we learn more and go deeper into it in a more theoretical way?

Adam Wes I would highly recommend a few books you just have to read. You've got to read Autobiography of a Yogi.

Andrea P Mmm.

Adam Wes That one probably conveys the most because it literally talks about all the different gurus. In fact, in that story, he spends the first half of the book, or the first quarter of the book, looking for his guru.

Andrea P That's interesting. Okay.

Adam Wes He meets all these gurus. He meets this one guru who is called the Perfume Saint, I think. The Perfume Saint is literally able to make any flower smell from his hands. There's rose and then jasmine, and he can make you smell like that, or make a flower that has no scent smell like a rose.

When Paramahansa Yogananda met this guru, he said, "What use is that to me?" That's a great parlor trick, right? Even though it's a real magic trick. He said, "You're not my guru," and he kept looking.

It was interesting. He knew what it was, and when he met his guru, he recognized him immediately. He said, "You're the man from my dreams."

It's a really beautiful book.

Andrea P Okay, I will read that. I was reading Krishnamurti, but it's a whole different thing. He's very much like, "You don't need gurus." He's very practical in living, but not theoretical.

Adam Wes He doesn't get into the mystical side as much. Somebody else who gets into mysticism is Ramana Maharshi. I highly recommend Ramana Maharshi.

Andrea P Me too.

Adam Wes He doesn't talk about the light as much, but sometimes they talk about it briefly. Even Krishnamurti talks about the light briefly. He calls it a light without shadow.

Andrea P Yeah, but he doesn't go into the theoretical.

Adam Wes He doesn't emphasize it.

You know, I usually don't recommend this. Well, let's see. Paramahansa Yogananda has quite a lot. I mean, he was such a mystic. There's The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita.

Andrea P Yeah, I have heard of that.

Adam Wes There's The Yoga of Jesus, which is actually a mystic book by Paramahansa Yogananda as well. Really interesting. Those are some good ones.

It's kind of hard to find this in books. I haven't found that many books that talk about it this way. I really love my lineage. When I meet with my teacher and talk with my teacher, I almost never find anybody on his level. Even these famous teachers who have been world-famous for 100 years, they're not quite the same either, actually. My lineage feels really profoundly magical.

Andrea P What's the name of that lineage? I guess we are now part of it.

Adam Wes Even my teacher calls it cosmopolitan spirituality because we draw from many things, but ultimately it's like Tibetan mysticism.

There's no authority, so usually when there are real teachers and a real lineage, they tend to move away from that. This is not always true. They tend to borrow the language at the same time.

Sadhguru is real. Maybe he talks about these things, actually. But if you watch his YouTube videos, he almost never does. He sometimes says, "Oh, I talk about that, but you guys would think I'm crazy, so I'm not going to." He usually talks like that on the internet.

Andrea P Who did you say talks about this?

Adam Wes Sadhguru.

Andrea P Sadhguru, okay. Every time, there are so many things. A notebook helps.

Adam Wes I think Osho is one of the most powerful people with good videos. But Osho got a bad name because he was not very diplomatic, and a bunch of his students were misbehaving, so it kind of tarnished his name.

If you watch his YouTube videos, you'll be like, "Wow, this guy is incredible." If you read the comments, people just love him. Watch Osho. I highly recommend it.

There's a documentary that talks about a lot of bad things about him, but I would listen to his words. I'm not too fond of his conversation about marriage. He's like, "Never get married!" In a way, he's right. Don't get married unless it's right. Don't get married, but it might be right, so maybe then you should get married. I don't like his take on that.

But you see, not every guru is the same. They have personalities.

Andrea P Of course.

Adam Wes Osho is kind of a rock star. Krishnamurti is like a professor. They're different. It's funny.

Andrea P Okay, thank you.

Adam Wes Thank you. You're welcome. I hope that I can share much of this myself. You can ask me. I wonder if I've talked about it enough. If I haven't answered some of your main questions, I think I could try.

It's all about chakras and the planes of light. Paramahansa Yogananda talks about that, for sure.

Andrea P I think all the light, the meditation, and the energy, we practice it here. But all these more theoretical things, I think they're interesting because it's history and ways of thought. I'm interested in that.

Adam Wes We really should be in person. That's one of the major missing elements of our sangha. It really is good to be in person.

Darshan generally should happen in person. They say that when you get really sensitive and connected with your teacher, you can do darshan from far away when you're super-advanced. That's one of the things that's missing.

Come to LA, or I'll come to Mexico sometime.

Andrea P Yes, I already invited you.

Adam Wes Yeah, you did. She literally invited me to move into her house. This is so sweet. Thank you, Andrea. I still might take you up on that at some point. This sounds incredible.

Andrea P Yes. Open invitation.

Adam Wes Thank you. What did you say?

Andrea P Open invitation.

Adam Wes Oh, thank you, thank you.

I'd tell you my Param Guru's name, but he also got a bad name, like Osho. It happens with these people who spew truth a little too hard, especially if you don't listen to their words directly.

He was a really interesting person, one of the most powerful mystics I've ever heard of. He was relatively unknown, although people do know about him. He's written some great books too.

Look up Sufism. I feel a lot of resonance with Sufism. They're very powerful mystics. They're very focused on that.

All right, let's meditate. Sorry, I went a little long.

Ariella, I hope this was interesting for you. A rabbi is like a guru.

AriellaShira L It was very interesting for me. I came to you, and I wasn't looking for a guru. I never thought about that, but I wanted to learn to meditate. Yet I think you are my guru. Oh, boy.

Adam Wes I actually feel that connection with you very strongly. We should meditate in person. We should do that once a month, actually, because she's in Los Angeles. We should really do that.

We'll go to lunch, and then we'll meditate. We should do that once a month. Look at my mom smiling.

AriellaShira L Sounds wonderful.

Adam Wes I want to do that with you. Let's plan it. Next week, let's get together. I'm so serious. Let's do it.

AriellaShira L Okay, yay.

Adam Wes Kimberly, where do you live?

Kimberly M I'm in Arizona, so I could drive out and meet with you guys too.

Adam Wes I would love that! Kimberly, I feel a very deep, genuine guru-shishya relationship with you, which is also very much integrated with math, which is unusual. You're really meeting me in my math side.

Kimberly M I'm so glad you said that.

Adam Wes Kimberly tells me, "I'm going to do math for the rest of my life." Wow! She's coming to this later on in life, and it's a longing that's being facilitated. It's truly incredible.

I honor you. I cherish you. Thank you. We have to find each other, you know?

Kimberly M Thank you. I'm going to find a way to come to Los Angeles at least once!

Adam Wes If you can do that, I would love to spend a day with you, and you can meet Ariella too. That would be awesome.

Kimberly M I love that. Hi, Ariella! That would be great.

Adam Wes Cool.

I told you I was excited about this talk. It's just a good one that's been missing from the library. This is important. You see how it's very much the heart of the teaching.

Look, I know we're a tiny little group here, and I would like this to grow, but the truth is, I'm not sure what will help our sangha grow. I sure would love to have a group of very sincere, earnest people who are interested in light, love light, and center on their heart.

Maybe I need to have an in-person element to truly grow it. I think that's one of the things that makes it difficult for people to go longer than six months. There have been a lot of people who come for six months, and then they disappear.

Andrea, you have to make it over the six-month mark. Wait, you're about nine months now.

Andrea P Yeah, I already did! I think it was November the first time I joined.

Adam Wes Yeah. I really feel a wonderful connection with you. You're amazing.

We haven't had a call in a long time. We need to have one of those calls where you give me all your pointers. She goes over my website and gives really good advice. Amazing.

Another thing I should say is that, in the guru-shishya relationship, there's a sense that the student wants to support the guru's efforts and the guru's safety, and protect the guru. It's almost like a kind of family energy. Guru kula, that's what it means.

We work together to further the mission. The mission is love and light. That's why I called the Love Light Sangha "Love Light Sangha." It's about love and light.

How many organizations are about love and light, and how much better could it possibly be? Love and light, man! What could be more important? Yet people don't make much time for it. Too busy for love. "I'm trying to succeed, man." That's pretty much the attitude.

In India, it's the opposite. It's different. Half of my math students are Indian. Can you believe that? They get it. It's a very beautiful energy. Some of the other ones get it too. I've got this great Russian kid. He's cool.

All right, let's meditate. Sorry, Mom. Sorry, Dad.

Can you hear the music? We'll just do a 12-minute meditation.

That's not the song I was looking for. Incorrect song. There you go. The song sounds like gold light.

Always start with your heart, feeling the heart, attending to the heart, letting the heart expand, shine.

The heart is in the center of the chest. It's an energetic vortex connected with love.

A key meditation practice is to activate the three dantian, three primary chakras: the heart chakra, the third eye, and the navel center.

Let's focus on the third eye. If you feel it at all, that's a step in the right direction. You can accumulate vitality there until you feel a palpable sensation all the time. You use it. It's a faculty.

Bring attention to the third eye.

One thing you can do is put your hand in front of your forehead and feel the connection between the middle finger and that point about a centimeter above the point between the eyebrows.

You'll notice it makes your mind quite steady. You can feel the magnetism there, a literal energetic tether between the finger and the forehead.

Let the energy build.

Try to do your heart and third eye at the same time. You can even put your other hand on your heart.

You feel poised. Benevolence, vision, clarity, all together. It's an energetic movement within your very aura.

Now feel the navel center, one inch below the belly button. This is your willpower.

Engage your core. Pull in the lower abdominals. Feel strength, the stability it provides.

All three at the same time. We have this energetic tripod.

The navel center is our willpower, supporting and holding our third eye.

Our heart is our center, compassion, our being, our bliss.

The third eye is our steadiness, clarity, our vision, and the apprehension of truth.

You hold them all together, and then bring yourself into light.

Turn your attention to the luminosity within the mind. There's no space. There's no time. There's no after. There's only an eternal luminosity behind your eyelids, in your brain, everywhere.

Let the light be the foundation, a tripod of energetic stability.

Then be nothing, unaware of individuality.

Sat Chit Ananda: being, consciousness, bliss.

Namaste.

See, we still had a 12-minute meditation that's epic because we focused on something so beautiful. Can you feel how I feel so connected to all of you? Really, that sermon was me sharing my heart.

I long for a community of spiritual, heart-centered mystics. It's hard being a solo practitioner in the world, where people are so interested in facile things. Most of it is so facile.

I like math because there's a dignity in it. It's so far beyond humanity. But it's exploited too much, and therefore most people don't feel it the same way I do. I don't feel the exploitative aspect of it. I feel the godly aspect of it.

Homework is to look up shaktipat. Wikipedia has really great information on it. Also, you can ask an AI to talk about it in regular language.

Look up darshan and jyoti. J-Y-O-T-I means luminosity. It actually refers to the inner brightness that I was talking about.

Sometimes, when there's a word for something, you think, "Oh, Adam wasn't just making that up." There was literally a 3,000-year-old word for it. There's no English word for it, but there are other words for it.

Thank you, everybody. I plan to do longer meditations in the future, but this just happened this way today. It's too hot here. I had to turn my AC off so you guys could hear me.

Love you, love you. Oh my goodness, what am I talking about? Mom, how was your experience?

Colleen Did people go?

Adam Wes No, you first. We haven't heard from you.

Colleen A deep meditative state of total absorption, where the distinction between the observer and the object of meditation dissolves into pure consciousness.

Adam Wes That's what I meant by "be nothing." You see, I'm saying these things.

Colleen Beautiful.

Adam Wes How was your meditation?

Colleen That was very nice. I was sort of wanting to start it at 6:25. It was getting me. No, it was very interesting. What you said was fine.

Today I had a little bit of a different thing. I was in a tunnel with a little opening at the end.

Adam Wes Wow.

Colleen Then it changed color, but then it dissolved.

Adam Wes What color?

Colleen I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think it really was purple, finished with a red, so I'm not sure how it started.

Adam Wes I'm glad you have your red back. I was concerned last time when you didn't have your red. Your red is very much part of your spirit.

Colleen Thank you.

Adam Wes Because I focused on something else last time, I was more intense about it. It wasn't as heart-centered. It was a heart-centered discussion, but it was a little different.

I felt like you lost your red last time. You said it moved into a ball, dissolved into a ball?

Colleen Yeah, it was about three colors, and then it became a ball.

Adam Wes Beautiful.

You are a Mana Samadhi mystic, by the way. If you see the colored light, it's called Mana Samadhi. That's it. You could even be a guru because you could share the light.

Colleen Good. Okay.

Adam Wes It's nice to have her share because we're over. Namaste, everybody. Thank you. Bye. Thank you.

A guru helps dispel darkness and bring light, guiding the student toward direct apprehension of truth while honoring the sincerity, maturity, and trust required along the path.

• Guru means dispeller of darkness or bringer of light.
• A disciple is one who learns and studies. We are always students and always disciples.
• A guru points toward truth so the student may look directly, apprehend it, and integrate it into their own being.
• The guru is not meant to become an authority or intermediary between the student and truth.
• A real guru cannot take advantage of students.
• A guru need not be fully enlightened, but must be able to show the light, help others access it, and bring deeper clarity.
• The relationship involves sincerity, spiritual maturity, humility, love, trust, and vulnerability.
• Darshan is an energetic teaching or transmission through which a transformation may happen in the student.
• Lineage carries the whispered teaching from one person to another, like one candle lighting another.
• A guru kula is a spiritual family devoted to shared practice and the mission of love and light.
• The heart, third eye, and navel center form an energetic tripod of compassion, clarity, and willpower.

Spend time feeling the heart, third eye, and navel center together. Let the heart expand and shine, allow attention to gather at the third eye, and feel the strength and stability of the navel center. Hold all three together, then turn attention toward the luminosity within the mind and rest without a sense of individuality.

• Beginning with the heart, feeling it, attending to it, and letting it expand and shine.
• Noticing any sensation at the third eye and allowing vitality to gather there.
• Feeling the heart and third eye at the same time.
• Engaging the navel center and noticing its strength and stability.
• Holding the three energetic centers together as a tripod.
• Turning attention toward the inner luminosity behind the eyelids and within the mind.
• Remaining attentive to direct truth rather than creating authority.

• What does it feel like to see truth directly for yourself?
• Where do you notice love, clarity, and stability within your being?
• What does it mean to remain a student?