This week we tackle a very tricky subject. We are talking about Gurus. During this episode we discuss the origin of the concept of Guru (with a little help from our Enneagram 1 friend, founder of the podcast, and religious studies major- MATTHEW LAUDER). We also talk about the psychological concept of the “guru”. These are people that we attribute power of absolute/ omniscient knowledge to. There are people in our lives that we subconsciously subscribe too much knowledge or power which enables us to shirk responsibility for our own lives. Very interesting!
First of all here is a big resource where we get some of our inspiration for this episode. Its an episode of the Robcast featuring our friend Peter Rollins ( who was a guest on No Small Thing a few weeks ago!). In this episode Peter gives a talk that he has become sort of famous for called The Last Guru. Much of we discuss in this episode is in response to the material covered in this podcast. Highly recommended! https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-h73gy-c250ba
Scott gives a “guru journey” and discusses some “intellectual gurus” that influenced his life. The list includes C.S. Lewis, John Piper, and N.T. Wright.
We then move on to have a conversation about how our personal “gurus” are often used to end conversations or debates. Sometimes the books and people we surround ourselves with (or articles, podcasts, youtube channels) are things that we hide behind to prevent us from having to really think through our own thoughts and opinion and it also prevents us from learning from others as well.
Macie then moves into a deep dive of their camp experience at Hume Lake summer camp. Over the course of few years your pal Mace developed a bit of a fixation with a camp counselor (the “spirit person”). This is a very humorous story of funny things Macie did to get this counselor’s attention and how much influence they had over Macie’s life.
After that we get really wonky and talk about transference, envy, and scapegoating. Another resource we highly recommend is this podcast on scapegoating from The Allender Center with with Dr. Dan Allender. Here is a link to the episode that actually also includes a transcript if you want to skim over that! https://theallendercenter.org/2019/07/scapegoating-part-1/
Macie then goes super hard on the Age of Aquarius and shares a fascinating article that explains the shift that we are all experiencing. This shift syncs up perfectly with the content of this episode of NST because part of what is happening in the Age of Aquarius is more of a sense of shared knowledge and humans getting in touch with their own inner wisdom…which is sort of what we hope this episode gets people to do! https://www.3ho.org/3ho-lifestyle/aquarian-age/aquarian-shift-what-will-be-different
Finally we close with a beautiful blessing from Jan Richardson called “Pentecost Blessing” and we’ll leave that for you here. Blessings and thanks for listening!
Pentecost Blessing by Jan Richardson
On the day
when you are wearing
your certainty
like a cloak
and your sureness
goes before you
like a shield
or like a sword,
may the sound
of God’s name
spill from your lips
as you have never
heard it before.
May your knowing
be undone.
May mystery
confound your
understanding.
May the Divine
rain down
in strange syllables
yet with
an ancient familiarity,
a knowing borne
in the blood,
the ear,
the tongue,
bringing the clarity
that comes
not in stone
or in steel
but in fire,
in flame.
May there come
one searing word:
enough to bare you
to the bone,
enough to set
your heart ablaze,
enough to make you
whole again.
NO SMALL THING 