Question:

 Fear is being used to keep me bound to my current spiritual teacher. I keep getting emotionally manipulated by others in this community with the fearful stories of losing spiritual grace if I leave. But my intuition keeps warning me against staying here. Is my intuition correct?

Answer:

The first promise of True Spirituality is liberation from fear. True Spirituality does not inculcate fear. Your intuition is correct. Follow your inner voice! 

 If you sense it, it’s there. Trust yourself.

Why people come to the spiritual path?

People have many fears in daily life. A spiritual seeker comes to the spiritual path to look for solace from his fears, from his suffering.

The job of a true spiritual teacher is to help one get out of suffering.

How?

• By enabling the seeker to recognize the root cause of suffering and
• Give him the mental strength to uproot the cause of suffering totally.

If a spiritual teacher is doing the opposite then:

• Recognize and acknowledge that Fear is being used as a weapon to bind you and
• Use your intelligence to uproot the uninvited suffering totally.

Why?

Because nobody has the right to inculcate fear into you… NOBODY! Inculcating fear into innocent spiritual seekers is not less than a crime. 

Look for a TRUE spiritual teacher instead. Here is an example.

Ramana Maharshi’s Enlightenment:

At the age of 14, Ramana Maharshi experienced intense fear, he explored within himself to find the one who was fearful and dissolved into the quiet nothingness of the Self. He experienced total Peace. He overcame fear. His Enlightenment came from absolute freedom from fear. This state of Enlightenment is described as the state of Abhaya [Absolute Fearlessness] in the ancient scriptures.

Ramana Maharshi teaches that the true Guru is within. He inspires seekers to look for the true Guru within themselves instead of looking outside. Supreme teachers like Ramana have gone beyond the greedy thirst for increasing followers that several others suffer from. Only a True Guru who has gone beyond craving can help others go beyond it. Thus a true Guru will never instill any kind of craving [even for grace] in a spiritual seeker. 

A true Guru like Ramana Maharshi would provide you with all the solace in the world so that you could explore the truth within yourself and attain the state of Liberation through Ultimate fearlessness. The one who does the opposite is clearly the opposite of a true Guru.

Beware the charismatic teacher and be wary of the community that inculcates fear into you, directly or indirectly [through storytelling], in the name of spirituality.

I do not know what kind of a situation you are in, but here are some additional practical tips if required:

You can raise your awareness with a little bit of Google search regarding:

• Cult organizations.
• Legal punishment for mental harassment in USA.

May you find your INNER GURU as explained by Ramana Maharshi and attain the highest potential of human lifetime soon dear.