Don't idealize spiritual teachers or put them on pedestals

There are thousands of religions in the world. But I believe that the one I belonged to for thirty-five years, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), which is headquartered in India, could have the most grandiose conception of its spiritual leaders of any religion.

For the RSSB teaching is that not only is the organization's guru God in Human Form, but the guru is greater than God, since the guru manifests on our planet to initiate "marked souls" and guide them back to the highest supernatural level of reality, while God just sits up there, letting the Perfect Living Master do the work of saving souls.

Note that word, Perfect. The RSSB gurus are considered to be just that, notwithstanding their evident human flaws, such as the current RSSB guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, being embroiled in a financial scandal that reportedly has enriched he and his family with hundreds of millions of dollars.

So when I read a chapter this morning in Joan Tollifson's book, Nothing to Grasp, that included warnings about viewing spiritual teachers as way holier than they actually are, I thought, "So true." I've seen plenty of problems with people looking upon the RSSB guru as infallible, never to be questioned, beyond criticism. 

Actually, Dhillon is just like everybody else: flawed, imperfect, with strengths and weaknesses. Here's what Tollifson had to say about spiritual teachers.

There is a widespread tendency to idealize spiritual teachers and put them up on pedestals, especially dead gurus. And many living teachers are only too happy to accept these projections and pretend to themselves and everyone else that they are beyond all forms of human error, uncertainty, confusion, or unhappiness.

But whenever teachers start insisting they never make mistakes or get upset anymore, or that anything scandalous they do is some form of "crazy wisdom" that they are doing for your benefit, hide your wallet.

It's completely possible to be fully enlightened in one moment and totally deluded in the next. In fact, that fluctuation is the very nature of life.

...The thinking mind loves to rank and compare, and you'll hear some people insist that their teaching, or the teaching they identify with, is the highest, most advanced, most profound, most radical teaching of all. There are those who claim to have reached a stage of enlightenment that surpasses anything previously known to humankind.

If such talk sounds suspiciously egotistical, dualistic and reminiscent of the most competitive aspects of society-at-large, it may be because it is.

This is not to say that every teacher is equally clear, or that all paths are identical or that they all lead to exactly the same place, nor is it to deny the relative reality of evolutionary development. But I'm always wary of those who claim to have risen to a level never before reached by anyone else.

The clearest teachers I've met are the most ordinary. They have humility, not grandiosity.

They don't claim to possess something that the rest of us do not possess. They empower those who come to them to be their own best teachers rather than encouraging dependency or the tendency to idealize authority figures and put them up on pedestals. The best teachers throw you back on yourself.

...Liberation doesn't mean having The Answer. It doesn't mean that we've figured out how the universe works, but rather, that the itching need to figure it all out dissolves. The bubble of separation and encapsulation pops and there is simply this inexplicable happening, just as it is.

There is no one apart from it trying to figure it out, control it, fix it, or get something from it. There is simply what is, as it is. This is not an achievement. It is the recognition of what has always been so.

The most deeply enlightened figures in Zen are often portrayed as carefree fools holding on to nothing at all. They see clearly that there is nothing to grasp and no one to grasp it.

Comments

[um]

>>Don't idealize spiritual teachers or put them on pedestals<<

THAT is exactly what we as human beings do, by attributing meaning and value to things, people and activities that do not have any meaning and value at all.

We appreciate things, people and activities and so they become famous, end up in history books, musea, concert halls .. you name it ... even science is a matter of attributing meaning and value to that what has not

Non duality movement is a new branch and in incorporates all elements that are generaly religions etc blamed for.

So .. back to the coffee and an the window to see if there is some crow around.

See how far you are able to deconstruct value and meaning in your OWN life to find out how easy it is to make what is dear and near to others seen as deprived of meaning and value and how much you are still attached to your own stuff, material and mental

[um]

Whole day you are busy making things attractive, from food to aranging flowers, mintaing the house, the car, the garden.

You find pleasure in reading and writting and watching Tv

Whatever you do is selective attributing meaning to the world, yourself and what you do

Even an recluse, does it although he is more of an warrior type ... hahaha

https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/11/9/7177553/why-australian-atheist-philosopher-moved-to-egypt-became-coptic-monk

Hahaha .... and this one tells the tale of an reporter that tried to live as the monk
Hahaha .. one can almost smell the bodily excrements of his fear going through the proces
Hahaha .. that is something else than writing and reading in a cosy house about nod duality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VjU_505i6E

Walking the talk
or
Talking the work

[um]

P.S.

One can detach ONLY by attaching to something else ... that is what he said and how it proves to be.

A wise one seeks to attach himself to something lasting, something that cannot be taken away from him, nor be lost.

[sant64]

Someone tell Toliifson that Zen Buddhism is a deeply hierarchical religion. Unquestioned submission to authority (the Roshi) is the cornerstone of the practice of Zen. Moreover, the Roshi is deserving of the authority given to him, because he himself practiced under a teacher for many years, experienced satori, and thus he can tell a hawk from a handsaw when it comes to authentic realization of his students. The Roshi then most definitely "has something" that his students do not have -- real experience in discerning genuine progress in Zen.

Yes, we all get that gurus like Da Free John are no good. But perhaps its a mistake to conclude that no one can be any kind of teacher, and that, whee, we're all our own teachers and we're all enlightened and we're all the same and no one is any wiser than anyone else.

[777]

Pedestals

Wouldn't t this change
when a The Person°
shows you a kind of begger under a bridge
next
reveal in 99 dimensions what S/he was
long ago,
I mean a trillion big bangs ago
when S/He s creating a billion universes per second
and
now S/He is under that bridge

I mean :
What about this Guy showing U all that
did S/HE deserve a Pedestal

777
(yes. . . . . why I m writing less )

[umami]

The zen of 777

[GurusarenotGods]

True. True. True.

You speak the TRUTH here.

[777]

Nice Joke UMAMI

There is no path so simple as Swami JI's
so no Zen, involved
only a tiny bit of Love , better say: Some attachment on the right target
which is God in a human,. . . a human that already unified
That eating of Jesus flesh in churches is a good symbol
Q E at work
Each if the 7 vertical Spheres has it s own Q E
Do no harm is the basic and that is not really difficult
No exercises, no ascetic stuff as lower deities require
Just a fine feel and hearing sponsored by the 5 Words
To learn swimming is more difficult

Zen is a nice compliment

777

[arun marwah]

Truth

[Trez]

GURINDER SINGH DHILLON is a role model of deceptiveness, corruption and greed. This loser has nothing to show or teach anyone, just look at his own life its a Disaster. Just look at him in the news running around holding hands with the so called Spiritual leadrs of orher faiths these are the very people he talks against in Satsangs contradicting donkey
His sons are living of Gurinders dirty millions smugging that they are living it now but karma will come for them to.
As for Gurinder Singh Dhilion he's already dying from cancer and there's not long left as people are saying too. God man or clown man it's nearly over and the fat lady is about to sing

[um]

@Trez

You make me laugh .. as long as even the launching of the moon landing project in India is impossible without an religious ceremony ... dera's, ashrams etc will flourish and they do.

And as long as visitors of an historical movie on Arjuna, or Krishna come to the door of the actor to beg his blessings and force him to act on their wishes .. what ever you write is of importance not to them.

Hahaha what have you to offer these people??
What do you have that can compensate THEIR capacity of their imagination.
After seeing movies their imagination makes them believe that they can fly and jump of the roof.

Hahahaha ..trez you must drink a miserable brand of coffee.

[Kranvir]

Gurinder Singh dhillon thinks he can bring other cults together into one mega cult with him on top as the super guru. His ego is bigger than anyone on planet earth , yet his sangat are told to put up, shut up, stay in line and be humble - hypocrite in every way. The sangat are also told to surrender everything to him, and the greedy self centered guru takes it all willingly - he must be laughing at how easy it is, the amount of power and control he can excersise over stupid people who do anything for him without any questioning. This fake ass guru is a çriminal mafia boss, with his minion security seva (who are all hand picked with carbon copy egos like their lord and master, gurinder). They have been given the powers to bully , harass and control the sangat to stay in line as they are made to think they are more special, privileged and are the chosen ones - they have more access to have the beast, dhillon. Gurinder, you are nothing but a bad virus, a pest that have fooled innocent people into a new brand of Hinduism after all Radha swami means radha Krishna, so rssb is Hinduism in disguise. Gurinder singh dhillon your days are numbered and karma will be served you evil monster.

[um]

@ Kranvir

Kranvir, Kranvir ..to get rid of ashrams, dera's guru's etc you have to change the DNA of the indian population.

In India NOTHING goes without religious ceremony. There is nowhere in the world that has developed and refined and made to use in any field of cultural activity the concept of guruship, as in India

The idea of you presenting yourself before the sitting sangat and him sitting on the dias, telling the audience what you write here ... make me laugh and makes you seen for what you realy are. ...you might use your own words for it ... but instead you come here. ... it is like going to a democrats party and telling how bad Mr. Trump is.

Hahaha