Starting Spiritual Practice
Does visualizing lessons with a spirit guide remove a teacher’s responsibility?
English translation draft · Based on the Chinese article. This is not a word-for-word translation approved by Master Shengyuan.
Telling students to visualize lessons with a guide does not remove careful teaching. Images arising in practice still require understanding and discernment. Everything imagined cannot directly become something a deity genuinely taught.
A friend described a group meditating, invoking personal guides, and learning through visualized images. I asked how genuine messages could be distinguished from imagination. This was a question about that relayed account, not personal verification of every exercise in the group.
My concern was the risk that if problems followed, a teacher might say, “That was your imagination, not my teaching,” returning responsibility entirely to students. This was a possible risk I considered, not an accident already established. Teachers should carefully judge their words and assignments rather than disregard whether students understand or stray.
Do not become increasingly attached to images in pursuit of powers. Wise questioning of a feeling differs from endlessly extending it in imagination. My reminder is not to treat unclear imagination as instructions or allow teaching responsibility to disappear.