There will be always a cult of followers who would take the words of a teacher literally, but why should it cause us to completely negate the concept of a teacher and the importance of a belief. I was married to a cult follower. It was because of her that I was introduced to spirituality and my teacher, she took everything literally, used spirituality, astrology to paint me as "low vibe" "slimeball" materialist. Anyone else would have formed strong opinions against spirituality, teachers - however my teacher's love unknowingly bound me. Her attacks initially caused me to aggressively defend myself, cause a lot of pain and self-doubt. In spite of her "I-Am-Rightedness" I was intelligent and intuitive enough to not discard spirituality. With my own samskaras and the guru's grace I took greater interest and found the real value of spirituality, that was beyond any belief, in me. So this "I-Am-Rightedness" person, who caused me pain, torment was my real Guru, her aggressive behavior was a blessing in disguise, since it caused me to protect myself, my samskaras, my innate strengths. It led me on a path of incredible journey to find the real value of spirituality. From a spiritual perspective any person who causes us grief, pain, discomfort is indeed the real Guru.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > What is there about the I-Am-RIGHT mindset that seems to -- historically > -- go hand in hand with developing a cult of followers? It's as if the > only clear "career path" presented by the traditional spiritual path is > to 1) listen to your teachers, 2) believe everything they say and do > exactly what they say, 3) get all enlightened yourself by following > their advice, and then 4) set up shop for yourself and re-run the same > movie, but with you playing the role of the teacher this time. > > If the seeming certainty of the I-Am-RIGHT mindset is so certain, why do > those who wear that mindset often seem so anxious to get other people to > mirror it back to them by gazing at them with reverence and adulation > and saying, "Dude-ji, you are SO RIGHT?" > > I mean, not meaning to be disrespectful or anything, but haven't you > ever noticed that many spiritual teachers tend to be a > little...uh...needy? If they're so enlightened and all, why do they need > all these followers hanging around them saying or thinking 24/7 "You are > SO RIGHT?" And have you ever noticed a tendency in these same teachers > to...uh...not react gracefully when one of the students says, "Now wait > a minute...there is a point here I am not convinced you are RIGHT about. > Can we talk about that a bit?" > > My feeling is that the big problem with the four-step spiritual career > path I delineate above is in step #2. There is no need to believe > everything your spiritual teacher says is true or to do everything he > says to benefit from studying with him. I doubt you did that with your > high-school teachers or college professors; why do it with your > spiritual teachers? Furthermore, I would suggest that being brought up > in a spiritual environment in which #2 is assumed to be true tends to > "set up" new generations of seekers to expect that *for themselves* when > they get all enlightened. Other people, they come to believe, should > just be able to see the I-Am-RIGHTness radiating off of them -- as they > did with their teacher -- and automatically believe everything they say > and do exactly what they're told to do. > > I'm thinkin' that my spiritual career path is fucked up, because it > perpetuates the myth of the mindset of I-Am-RIGHTness always being > right. I am not convinced that it is always right. I think, in fact, > that we can safely dump not only step #2 but step #4. There are much > more interesting things in life one can do post-realization than go off > and become Yet Another Spiritual Teacher. >
