OK, since this issue has reared it ugly penishead again, I thought I'd spend a few moments in this cafe pondering it.
It's always a touchy subject, and I have seen both sides of it, or at least two approaches to it. In the TMO, I was part of a movement that was so hung up about sex that it literally kicked TM teachers who lived "out of wedlock" out of the organization. And the prevailing myth, of course, was that Maharishi was a "life celibate," and never fooled around, and that to even suggest otherwise was grounds for getting kicked out yourself. In the Rama trip things were...uh...different. NOT better IMO, just different. He was single, he saw nothing wrong with sex for either himself or his students, and he openly had sex with his female students. Lots of them. In retrospect I think the latter approach is more honest *in theory* because it reduces the temptation in spiritual teachers -- who, after all, are human -- to feel that they have to LIE about their lifestyles. However, the Rama approach is in itself problematic. What do you do if you're a serious female seeker of enlightenment and the teacher you feel embodies enlightenment hits on you? What do you do if you're a serious male seeker of enlight- enment and the teacher you feel embodies enlightenment hits on your girlfriend, or wife? I can guarantee that this happened -- and with some frequency -- with Rama. He had no scruples whatsoever with regard to "committed relationships" or honoring them in any way. I can also guarantee that some of the women students he slept with got pregnant as a result, and that he not only told them to go get abortions, he made them do it by themselves. I know this because I was the friend that a couple of these women called upon to go with them to the clinic. So in retrospect I think that being open about having sex with your students is better in theory than it is in practice. I've seen far too many "walking wounded" damaged by this approach to believe that it works out in reality. Me, if I were ever silly enough to teach meditation or any other form of spirituality again, I would not touch any of my students with a ten-foot pole, much less my own. Never. I suspect the bottom line has to do with the teacher's actual level of self acceptance, not Self Realization. If you pose as celibate but aren't, that means that you're *lying to your self* as much as you are to your students. If you pose as celibate and "slip," ferchrissakes have the decency, honesty, and self-respect to 'fess up to it and tell your students that you "slipped." If you are married, be honest about being married. If you are married and fool around on the side, be honest about that. THERE IS NO 'UP SIDE' TO LYING ABOUT IT. Just my opinion...
