On Mar 22, 2010, at 8:06 AM, TurquoiseB wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jst...@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote: > <snip> > > To believe that their records of what he said and > > what he meant by what he said were either accurate > > or unbiased is like believing THE CORRECTOR > > (who, like Saint Paul, was never even in the same > > room with her teacher) when she claims to know > > "what he really taught." :-) > > If St. Paul had just bothered to study the videotapes > and audiotapes of Jesus's lectures, and to read all > his books, we could probably be a lot more confident > that he *did* know what Jesus really taught. > > Heck, we might even just want to check for ourselves. > > <snicker> For the record, and replying to the issue, not the claimant, THIS in my opinion is what is wrong with most humans' approach to the enlightenment process -- they honestly believe that they can "know" enlightenment as a result of intellectually examining and pondering enlightenment. IMO, they cannot. It's an experiential process. The intellect is of use only to clarify or build upon experience; it can never replace experience.
One common external and behavioral sign easily observable to the public and generally accepted as a criterion for enlightenment is ethical behavior (or lack thereof). As a couple of recent documentaries on India have demonstrated, the saints in India seem to universally agree that those pseudo-saints who succumb to money scandals or to breaking their vows of celibacy, spiritual incest, etc. are not the real enlightened ones, no matter how well they dress for the part or no matter who convincingly they "talk the talk".
While generally believed to be inscrutable in some cases, ethical behavior belies one of the paradoxes of enlightenment, the paradox of the absolute and the relative, the Two Truths: ethical behavior is dualistic behavior ('"do this, don't do that") so dualistic behavior will not "cause" you to become enlightened--but without ethical behavior, you will not become enlightened!
What creates further confusion is the fact that while some legit. masters will use unconventional behavior as a way to help their students "wake up" to their own ever-present condition, other less reputable "masters" will use this fact as a cover for their own bad behavior.
Ultimately the only way to navigate such a paradox and begin to grok the actions of "avatards behaving badly" is too have grokked the paradox of our own ever-present natural state ourselves. Then and only then can you claim a POV where you can no longer be fooled by "gurus behaving badly".
But even then, some teachers are truly inscrutable. But in general, such teachers are few and far between; a rare breed.
The "I'm a crazy wisdom master" excuse has become the spiritual equivalent of 'innocent by reason of insanity pleas' in the court of common laws. Such realities of genuine "crazy wisdom masters" are in fact so rare, like their real law counterparts, it's probably safe to assume when your guru starts claiming he or she acted badly out of the unconventional need to wake you up using you (or your children's) genitalia or your banking account (or what's left of it), that it's time to keep the kids off of guruji's lap and rescind that donation form you signed. Time to call the lawyer.
