Gurus and Lineages

For many years I thought I needed to become part of a lineage and find one guru.

I had picked up the idea that one has to stick to a single method of teaching at some point, otherwise you end up burying different holes but never find water.

And so I was always visiting schools, meeting teachers, diving into scriptures, looking for my final station, where I would continue to study and drop all else.

It was impossible.

I was finding so much insight in different traditions, so much inspiration from different teachers, my heart so expanded in different retreats.

But I was also often left feeling incomplete when I stayed with one school too long. It never gave me all the answers I was looking for and made me stagnate.

Yet, there was huge overlap between the traditions. And when combined, it deepened my understanding.

It was Advaita Vedanta teachers that opened my eyes to nonduality, but it was only Tibetan Buddhist methods that gave me practical guidance on how to integrate this powerfully in daily life.

It was Yoga and Pranayama practices that gave me the needed strength to stick to my Vipassana meditation discipline at home.

It was Neo-Tantra and modern polarity teachings that allowed me to work on the integration of intimacy, relationships, and sexuality, which I didn’t find anywhere else, which I consider crucial work for anyone that pursues awakening.

And now I am here, with no lineage (or an unofficial 100+), practicing and teaching a synthesis of everything I learned, absolutely uninterested in secret initiations.

I believe it is time for this synthesis.

Internet and air-travel has removed many of the ancient limitations for learning.

Once secret teachings are now freely available on Youtube.

And so whenever I hear people debating the oppositions between schools, I get very bored. It’s something from the past. It is religious.

It believe it is time for a modern, non-religious synthesis without dogmas.

To benefit from the opportunity we have, unique in history, to study so widely.

A model that connects dots and brings together the insights of different lineages, into a practical framework for modern practitioners.

To be continued…