Debating in Felchville writes, I am thinking of taking someone as my guru. Can you tell me why I would do this?
I have been mulling this over for twenty-four hours because I did not trust my immediate response. Your question had a physical response on me—it knocked the wind out of my body. I was suspicious of myself. This was an innocent enough question, so why all the drama? To figure this out, I did what I always do when I don’t trust myself: I locked myself away in my Anti-Meditation Room and allowed my mind to run wild. This is where my mind went: Life is too precious to be guided by one person. You are your own guide. You have your own wings.* But no! Wait. I’m wrong. Life is also difficult to navigate, and if someone is better at reading the map than you are, it doesn’t hurt to take a few lessons in map reading. And then my mind bounced around from do it to don’t do it to do it to don’t do it. I allowed this argument to tire itself out and then I exited the Anti-Meditation Room and wrote the following: There are many journeys for us all to take. Some will be on foot, some will be by road, and others will be in flight. No one person can take you on all the journeys, no matter the method of transport. But what is consistent here is that you will be making all of the journeys, and so you can decide when and/or whether you want a companion or a pilot or if you would rather take a solitary stroll. When considering your decision, know that you will not always want the same answer. So the most important thing that you can give yourself is flexibility. Would taking a guru offer you flexibility? Would taking a guru offer you a legend to the map? Would taking a guru offer you a companion for the journey? If the answer to these questions is: Yes, Yes, and Yes, then this might be why you would do this. But if taking a guru means that you have to be piloted everywhere, what will you do on the days when you would like to drive down route 100 all by yourself?
* Wings here are not being used metaphorically. They are real. Trust me. You have done the work necessary to earn them.