Do we need a teacher? This must be one of the most frequently-asked questions in the field of spiritual practice.

Teachers of Enlightenment fall into three broad categories :

1. Those who use elaborate cultural and religious forms to establish their dominance over the student and justify their existence and their fees.

2. Those who have attained the intermediate stages of a path ~ such as a “showing” of the Nirvanic viewpoint.

3. Those who are fully-realized spiritual masters ~ Nirvaneans.

Obviously, the third kind is very rare and would probably only instruct the very ablest aspirants. For all practical considerations they can be eliminated from our discussion.

The first type, however, is all over the place like a prickly rash and almost certainly does more harm than good to those students who genuinely want to progress towards realization.

Assuming we manage to avoid the first category of teachers and find ourselves with the second, how useful are they for our aspirations? The answer will vary from student to student and teacher to teacher. As a general rule though, we may say that if they have a degree of self-knowledge and enough humility to recognize when students need to move on under their own steam, they may be useful … up to a point. Sadly, many neophytes feel the need for psychological support even when they have exhausted the resources of a particular teacher.

The fact is that the early stages of the path can be winkled out from books. Spiritual texts can act like Zen koans in consciousness, pushing it to the limits of intellect and over into Nirvanic experience. Provided one avoids over-elaboration ~ the major danger on any spiritual path ~ there is a possibility that progress will be made without external guidance.

The ultimate aim is a union with the Suprapersonal element in one’s own nature. Each has a personal way to this goal. Another person’s psychic pattern will not help at the higher stages, especially as some teachers have occult powers which reach to the psychic planes and no further. They can trap us into a fascination with psychic power games and fantasies. The Nirvanic connection needs a path crafted for our own individual “personal being” alone and which lifts us from the mundane levels to the Nirvanic.

Perhaps this is why lone mystics appear to have had greater success than people who follow institutionalized religions. The mighty Buddha rejected all his teachers and went on alone and unaided to his Enlightenment, as did many of the great spiritual masters.

That is why I say that the way of the solo mystic is not a lesser path than that of followers of the particularities of teachers. The final assault on the summit is always a lonely and arduous battle within an individual consciousness seeking to be worthy of all consciousness. Students should be wary of all teachers until they have proved themselves worthy to teach.

Part 3 looks at Jung and Suzuki.