Shining a light on where we least want to look…

vine Self-Condition, has the capacity to directly transmit her own enlightened state to you. When you are completely open and your ego has moved out of the way, the guru’s grace self-activates. In that clearing, the deepest part of the guru meets the deepest part of you, and the exhilarating force of the guru’s enlightened energy and awareness begins to light up your dormant spiritual potential and wake you up to your higher nature. In light of the extraordinary efficacy of the spiritual process in the company of a true master, postmodernity’s rejection of the guru is unfortunate. Being in direct relationship with a living guru is the most powerful form of spiritual practice we know. None of the aforementioned functions of the guru role can be found in books, received from a meditation instructor, or experienced by merely practicing a collection of Dharma tenets and techniques. They are all faculties of the direct relationship with the enlightened adept, expressing the awakening power of the living Mystery of Reality Itself – and every single one of them is unique, irreplaceable and indispensable. The Man and the Master At Manifest Nirvana we fully honor and embrace these four time-honored guru-functions – even as we recognize that some of the traditional ways to execute them have evolved over time. There is no doubt that several aspects of the mythic-traditionalist mindset in which the guru model was embedded when it was first con- ceived, are no longer relevant or applicable in today’s world. Guru Yoga came into practice thousands of years ago, when humanity still believed that the earth was flat and was the center of the uni-