(Originally published in Just Breathe Magazine, February 26, 2020)

When one is focused purely on the material aspects of life, eventually an inner vacuum is revealed – the feeling that something is missing. We all long to come ‘Home’, whether we know it or not.

The journey ‘Home’ is what life is all about – and it has everything to do with not getting lost in illusion and the myriad dramas of the ego. Many understand this and dedicate their lives to this, whereas most people in the world proudly count their worldly belongings (homes, cars, watches, careers – you name it!) and refer to this material accumulation as success.

Sorry to say, but most people live in illusion.

The Call to Come ‘Home’ Will Find You

That life is not about having the most riches or things when one dies, or even the most amazing experiences during one’s lifetime, but about the transcendental journeying ‘Home’ is an understanding that will dawn on each and every one sooner or later – and, if not in this life, then in another.

So, What is This ‘Home’?

Call it freedom, bliss, or a deep joy smiling at you from the place of your soul within. Call it what you like… when the longing comes knocking, you will know it. And while standing on the doorstep to freedom and bliss, you will feel your own tenderness. At first you may want to reject it. However, once ‘it’ has knocked on the door of your soul there is no way back.

Going through the process towards making your inner world as important as your outer world has the potential to make you fall in love with your life (again), and through progression, with the entire world. You are on your way to becoming one with life…

I heard my longing come knocking and nurtured it for years, unable to call it anything else than ‘something’. This ‘something’ has turned my life upside down and taken root in me as a mission: To help others to open up to their ‘something’ – the call to come ‘home’ – too.

People who have read about me ‘coming out of my spiritual closet’ often ask how they too can find the ‘right’ teacher in the midst of the dizzying number of ‘gurus’ – as some teachers call themselves – out there.

My feeling, and therefore my standard answer, is this:

Once you are ready to embrace a teacher to help you navigate your way out of illusion and the myriad dramas of the ego, he or she will appear.

I’d only add, ‘as if by magic’.

Isn’t it wonderful… that as we are called to return ‘Home’ there is also a mechanism (or many) to help us heed the call?

While we rest assured that the teacher will appear, it will be good to ensure it is the ‘right’ teacher i.e. a ‘wise’ teacher. And based on the teachers that I have met along the path, I can confidently say that a wise teacher (i.e. a right teacher) will always point you towards seeing that:

The guru you need to meet is the guru inside yourself.

Finding the Right Teacher For You

In addition to ensuring that the teacher is leading you back ‘Home’ to yourself rather than attempting to make you in any way dependent on him or her, I offer some further guidance:

• A wise teacher doesn’t give you advice. Instead s/he ignites your awareness from a place of love and deep caring. This way, s/he helps you see through your own illusions or assumptions you make about yourself that are not true.
• If you do receive advice, and especially unasked, ask yourself from what place this advice is coming. Try to feel if the advice sits well with you. Take a deep breath, connect with your heart and ask your inner teacher, “Does it feel right for me?”. If it doesn’t, it may be because the teacher is unconsciously displaying some of her/his own unresolved issues, and this teacher can’t be referred to as wise enough.
• A wise teacher encourages you to find your ‘own’ ‘right action’ yourself. Because he or she knows that, deluded or not, nobody knows your own life better than you do.
• A wise teacher doesn’t judge.
• A wise teacher doesn’t project fear.
• I repeat: Co-dependency is not the goal here, far from it. If you feel that it is developing, be very mindful! Ultimately, the wise teacher is the teacher who resides within you. We all carry within the seeds of intuition and wisdom. Our intuition can show us a way out of personal chaos. Our wisdom can kick in and help us calm the sensed chaos enough for our intuition to be heard.
• It may also help to ask others who are associated with this teacher or guru. Try to be open to how you feel as you interact with these ‘students’. They may believe, limited by their own awareness, that they have moved beyond the ego (if only by inches), but is it so?
• Does not name, fame or claim: What is this teacher like behind the curtains of performance either physically or digitally? What is their relationship to their friends, family, community or meeting a regular person on the street? How does s/he interact and behave?
• Ideally, a wise teacher will be able to transmit energy to help you rise to an elevated consciousness. You will know when this is happening, whether it’s a sigh of relief escaping you or a palpable shift in your body, both being signs that obsolete energy is leaving you, freeing you. This will be a lot more helpful than allowing another person into your life who ‘tells you what to do’.

These, essentially, are the checks to make. If you, on the contrary, meet a teacher or a guru who tells you that you need them, be wary. You need them only to guide you to your own inner guru; this must be made clear.

Why do I issue this warning? During challenging times of confusion, fear and chaos, the search for spirituality increases. I feel it is relevant at a time when more and more ‘spiritual teachers’ are appearing, as if out of nowhere.

I wish you all the best for hearing the Call and for Your Journey ‘Home’!

I bow to my wise teachers and thank you for your unconditional love and wisdom:
Vijay, Bea & Lazo

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Just Breathe is an online magazine by Healing Hotels of the World that was created to change minds, habits and hearts on the most important topics: health and wellbeing. Find further articles in my column Food for Your Soul.