A guru is a cooked goose. A guru is done. The difference between a cave and a city makes no difference to a guru. To a teacher it makes a hell of a lot of difference. Because a teacher is pointing the way, while a guru is the way. It’s a very different quality. What a guru does is mirror for you where you aren’t. That’s all they do.
If you try to dilettante your way through, it doesn’t work. You’ve got to become “a meditator.” But if you end up “a meditator,” you lost. You want to end up free, not a meditator. There are a lot of people who just end up meditators. “I’ve meditated for 42 years!” And they look at you with intense… with earnestness, you know? It’s the golden chain of righteousness that caught them again.
I was trained as a psychologist. I was in analysis for many years. I taught Freudian theory. I was a therapist. I took drugs for six years intensively. I have a guru. I have meditated since 1970 regularly. I have taught yoga. I have studied Sufism and many kinds of Buddhism. In all that time I have not gotten rid of one neurosis. Not one!
We live in illusion, the appearance of things. But there is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing. You’re nothing special anymore. You’re just part of it all. And being nothing, but you are part of it all! You are everything. The minute you gave up your specialness, you’re part of all things. Then you’re in harmony, you’re in the Tao, you’re in the way of things, you’re in the moment. But you’re not anybody anymore. You’re just part of it.