Spiritual Big Shots
“The West has become a heaven for spiritual charlatans … without the guidelines and criteria of a thriving and full-fledged wisdom culture, the authenticity of so-called “Masters” is almost impossible to establish.” — Sogyal Rinpoche
Have you noticed how many people these days boast about some type of spiritual, self help, or self improvement type of system or program they are selling? And of course, how great they are, and how great their program will make you. Hhhmmm, yes indeed, you probably do detect a note of skepticism in my point of view here. I certainly do pride such skepticism as an ingredient to a healthy attitude, as long it does not get in the way of anyone’s ongoing progress.
Yes, our ongoing progress. Now, how does that work exactly? Exactly, is exactly the word. Meaning there is no perfection, no exactness, no wonderfully magic formula to spiritual growth and progress. No matter what all the spiritually self-important big shots say.
When I first began searching for a spiritual path, system, whatever, in my late teens I felt somewhat desperate. But I realized early on not to make such an important decision while in a hyper emotional state. Calm, relaxed, and focused discernment I felt would serve me better, even if not always easy to accomplish. So, I did not take the first spiritual prescription that happened along. My search wound up taking over four years, which granted is not very long in the span of a lifetime, but when you are young, impatient, and almost frantic, it sure seemed like it.
After I had checked out practically every system that was around at that time (late 60’s – early 70’s), I finally settled on one I could live with. But even so, the first few years were very difficult and I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I almost quit several times, but usually an experience, an understanding, a comprehension occurred that quenched my thirst for more. For I finally began to realize that what I really was .. was spiritually thirsty. But the problem for me was this. I wasn’t used to drinking what I was now drinking, spiritually speaking. In other words, when you are thirsty and need a glass of water, do you jump into a lake for a swallow? Of course not, but in this new world I was in uncharted waters. And I was thirsty! So I wanted to drink as much as I could as fast I as I could. Hey, what did I know? I jumped in the lake and almost drowned.
However, “All experience is ultimately spiritual.” That simple statement was something I heard early in my spiritual training. At first I wasn’t sure if I knew what it completely meant, but as I got older I realized I didn’t. Because as I got older, I actually began to comprehend more the varied ramifications of what it encompassed.
Over the years I learned how to swim, spiritually speaking, but I also learned how to crawl, walk, run and finally fly. Each series of those progressions required I make many, many mistakes, more than I ever would care to admit. In fact, if I knew then what I know now, that I would have to make so many mistakes to learn all this, I don’t know that I would have chosen this path. But then, that’s the point isn’t it? If we know at the beginning what we should only know at the end (or along the way to be more precise, as there really is no end), then what would be the point of taking the path, meaning living the life? Yes, as “every experience is ultimately spiritual,” of course I would have still chosen this path. I’ve learned way too many things along the way to have lost out on the opportunities availed to me. For in life’s final analysis, the problems we encounter and the mistakes we make are both brick walls and locked doorways in front of our future. Do we beat our heads silly against the brick wall, emoting and thinking it’s just too hard to work life? Or do we search for the key to the locked door, or maybe try to pick the lock? Either way, the obstacle and opportunity will be there until we decide what to do. I imagine we could wait until eternity to see what happens, but then I think life gets impatient with us and kicks us in the rear periodically.
I think it comes back to attitude again. One of the easiest things in life is to complain and find fault with everything, in essence being negative. It never really gets you anywhere, unless you finally realize it doesn’t get you anywhere and you know you have to change your tune and do something about it.
I don’t know if you are as thirsty as I had been, but it seems for the most part that we live a spiritually thirsty life on a spiritually thirsty planet. But what’s ironic is that we each have a place within us where we can turn on the spigot, and completely refresh and replenish ourselves to our spirit’s delight. But how do we do it right without drowning ourselves, or keep from crashing once we actually fly? It seems we may need another element.
When we go to school, to college, and even beyond, we have people there to instruct us. When we go to seminars, night classes, work-related training or take anything to increase our knowledge, there is always someone there to teach us, instruct us, guide us. This should be no different.
We need a teacher to teach us how to drink this nectar of life. Teach us to crawl, walk, run and fly. We actually do it, but they coach us. Yes, we need someone to teach us how to fly. Yes, teachers are needed, however …
Our leaders, our teachers, our gurus, our friends, are all not infallible. I think sometimes in our choices for spiritual teachers that we suspend our disbelief too much, and arise them onto flimsy pedestals. Rude awakenings await down the path, which on one extreme we may ignore to self-hypnosis and on the other we may throw the bums out. And neither may be the solution, for we were part of the problem from the beginning.
“The teacher points the way, but the student must make the journey.”
Just remember … The (your!) path is not about the teacher. It is not about the world. It is about you … always. It has always been so and always will be. If you cannot make it about you, then you will fail, over and over again. That may sound selfish, egotistical and quite simplistic, but search that more closely inside yourself. How much control of things do we have in the world? Very little. But we can start with the positive betterment of ourselves, for it is obviously the easiest and most accessible thing to begin with. And if we do, and we work hard and diligently at it, the world will be a better place for it. And if more and more people took that responsibility onto their shoulders, the world would continue to profit. Instead of each one of us either trying to save the world single-handedly, or the opposite of not taking on any kind of responsibility in the society in which we live, it starts with each one of us … one at a time. We are an army of one, each of us, an evolving, creating being, growing, expanding in this wondrous universe. And paradoxically, a universe exists inside each of us, awaiting the awakening of that noble explorer, that adventurous spirit who needs to rise up, fight for and take hold of its divine heritage, then spark it into the greater reality … that magnificent being who is you.
Uh, huh, but how do you get there from here, you ask? It begins with you, in you. Put the word out to the universe, and a teacher should come, will come, but …
When searching out any type of self-improvement system or method, always look at the fine print. Buyer beware. There are so many self-important charlatans out there. Again, it should always be about you, the student, the aspirant, the seeker. If it is about the teacher, it is another path to oblivion, it is the dog chasing its tail, it is the koan with no real answer, it is never getting off the roller coaster, and it is never about you. It must be about you, or it has no true reality for you. For in the end it is always more important how the actual teachings make you feel about yourself, not how you feel about the teacher.
Here are some basic guidelines to go by when searching out that system or teacher:
1) SENSE OF HUMOR: Make sure the teacher can see the humor in what you are doing. Laughing at sacred cows is good for your health. Watch out if irreverence is not allowed.
2) HUMILITY: The teacher should be honest about his own growth progressions, and not holding himself up as an expert of perfection.
3) GROUPTHINK: Be careful of a party line which overrides how people actually feel or think about what they are doing. Be an individual. Think for yourself.
4) SECRETS & TABOO SUBJECTS: Not a good sign if certain questions can’t be asked or shared, or problems voiced. The suppression of information, guarded by an inner circle, is not healthy.
5) GENUINE ACCESS: Can you sit down and have a regular conversation with your teacher? A good teacher will help debunk the guru myth.
6) SPIRITUAL CLONES: In its worst form of psychological stereotyping, a group of people manifest a narrow range of feeling in almost all situations, such as always happy or pious, or reduce everything to a single explanation. This relates to groupthink. Handle it the same way.
7) LOYALTY & DUPLICITY: Watch out for this. If you’re asked to prove loyalty to a teacher or system by doing something that violates your personal ethics, back off. A group like this usually has a hidden agenda whose public face misrepresents its unhealthy true nature.
8) ASSEMBLY LINES: If you’re not treated as an individual, but are part of an assembly line system where everyone is treated the same, no matter what their differences … question the teacher. Ask for the attention you deserve.
9) UNIFOCAL UNDERSTANDING: This is when a single world view is used to explain just about everything. If other explanations are not even looked at or considered, then consider another teacher or system.
10) GROWTH APPLICATION: Your teacher should be using the wisdom and knowledge they are acquiring from their own system to grow and meet the challenges of their own life. If they’re not even doing and growing from the system they teach, then why should you be doing it?
I would also add, ‘Avoid the Spiritual Big Shots.’ You know the ones. The slick advertised, all over the Internet, at every spiritual event, in every spiritual movie, with lots of spiritual books being sold all over. Oops, that could apply to most of those big names out there, huh? Hhhmm, all that seems to be about THEM. Yes, all those spiritual big shots. Out there, everywhere. But I doubt that gets them any kind of special place inside, on the other side. Actually, I have a feeling there are no big shots over there, right?
Yes, it has to be about YOU, and nothing else!
TMC