Our Guides

One major problem with Guides, seems to be a series of doubts to do with how our spiritual or religious leaders have presented themselves.  There are many sources of some hard questioning, now that we have the worldwide spread of the Internet. We can delve into subtle, (and not so subtle), truths about those who practice religiously, or spiritually, in the public domain.  There are questions about why, many of such persons, have not been able to achieve what may be considered to be a balance, harmony, or even sanity.  Was there is something intrinsically wrong with the person to start with, or did some “pollution” occur? Is it an ego somehow being bolstered up by spiritual or religious kudos and acclaim? Even looking at older historical records of activities of great religious leaders, there have, at times, been prompts for disgust. The modern media will spread gleefully, gory or outrageous accounts of the doings of major charismatic religious figure heads, be they of any religion. Christian pastors, Buddhist leaders, and of course some really power crazed, but charismatic leaders of brand-new sects, where even mass suicide has occurred. Totalitarian ministries, profligate sexual practices, or stupendous consumption of wealth is not uncommon. Where then is a serious seeker of truth to look, when seeking a path, or guru, or teacher?

There is instability engendered by building on one’s fears and doubts about spiritual figures. Even if they have some reality, and need to have some prominence in the seriously seeking, enquiring mind.  In all life it is best to avoid naive mistakes. and blatant errors of judgement.  There is also a need for some critical judgement, as to whether normal human behaviour is realistic, for those with an expression of higher spiritual endeavour. Our journey is similar to a major journey or an expedition overseas. To go travelling with any company or guide, some enquiry and checks are needed. Find out about where you are going, or why you want to go.  Spiritual need can be at times overwhelming, and propel a person directly into acting rather than thinking.

So, it is probably not realistic to expect that the spiritual enlightened are all going to be fully virtuous models of society, and paragons of morals – or even nice people! It would be nice to think so, but the reality is that anyone, even at the higher levels, will still be inhabiting a human body. If they are dead and long gone: E.g. Jesus or Buddha; then we are not going to get much “dirt” on them, which makes things easier. However, we should not shun “live” teachers of any description, and in fact, a lot of our life is built around having living teachers, so we can reap benefit in all types of learning journeys.  We need our many guides, as long as we realise what we are using those guides for and avoiding being sucked into some game.  It is probably realistic to think that guides to higher level philosophy or spiritual practice, are only going to be relatively free of behavioural problems, addictions, and negative personality traits.

We do know that many in the world follow religious teachers who exhort their followers to go out and kill others, and it doesn’t seem to put those followers off in the slightest. I would not see such persons as being teachers having any degree of spiritual sanity. Religion it may be, but then religion has always been associated with acts of aggression.

It seems that at some stage of the spiritual journey, a conscious stock taking has to be done of all the subtle and more obvious mental, physical and emotional tendencies.  Those which seem reasonably benign, (and yet set in concrete), may even be left unchanged, as the spiritual goal is not human perfection, in spite of what organised religion may try to thrust upon people. The individual may choose what is a relatively saintly path, with or without outward display. On the other hand, the individual may simply take a don’t care attitude with regard to how the world responds. The spiritual journey is not about walking through a desert wilderness. There are times when there can be many temptations, as benefits may accrue from being on this journey, and temptations may be just what the ego is putting in our way to knock us back a bit.  Only at the higher stages of divine practice, and at the end of the journey. does the light of perfection shine clearly.