Agreed - its a matter of trying to get reality at large to corroborate one's
own personal reality. If you took some unknown and got a couple people in any
community (esp. Fairfield) to claim he was enlightened, people would flock to
him. Just look at the film Kumare, and that guy didn't even claim to be
enlightened or "awakened"
Try this on for size:
10 Signs of A Fake Guru: Weeding Out the Psychopaths from the True Teachers
1. Let’s start with the big one – money. A real guru often won’t ask
for a dime. In fact, some of the most powerful healers on this planet
are explicitly instructed by the elders of their tradition that they
cannot take monetary compensation for their healing ‘gifts.’ In a
documentary about a nameless Chinese healer in urban Java, he told filmmakers
that he was not allowed to even talk about how he
healed people with his hands (using qi), and that he could lose his
powers if he charged for them. This being said, many real gurus take
donations, and many healers need to eat and pay rent. If they charge
exorbitantly or live opulently while ignoring those in need around them, then
they are fakes. Walk away.
2. Just because someone is psychic, doesn’t mean they are realized. We
ALL have psychic abilities. Some of us have just advanced this particular
ability more than others. It isn’t the sign of a true guru just because they
can read your mind – a little or a lot.
3. Someone who lives a real dharma won’t preach about it. They show it
in their ‘works’ – that is the way they live their lives every day. If
someone is ethical, virtuous, kind, giving, patient, harmonious, has
integrity, and lives with a sense of serving others more than
themselves, then you can likely trust them. Someone who teaches these
principles but does not live them – isn’t a real guru. Obviously someone who
steals, lies, and manipulates, or stalks women or children for
their own sexual perversions is not a guru. They are psychopaths. If you even
get a sniff of this – run and run fast. Tell as many people as you can to save
them from being sucked into a fake’s power-lair.
4. Real gurus never claim it’s their way or the highway. There are many
paths to a righteous mind, and elevated consciousness. True enlightenment
happens to every day Joes and Sarah’s just as much
as someone who lives in Nepal, or India, meditates in caves or only eats
vegetarian foods. There are many paths to realization. If a teacher
offers you a path, and also tells you that there are many – they are
more trustworthy than someone who claims to have a direct connect to God or
your own higher consciousness.
5. They don’t use disinformation to convince you to follow their path.
Indulgences given out by the Catholic church would be an example, as well as
gurus claiming to give diksha (the transference of wisdom from guru to
disciple), when this can truly only be given by very few teachers and to
students who are properly prepared to receive it. While some gurus really can
lighten your karmic load,
you usually have to do this on your own through a real emotional
breakthrough and with plenty of trial and error and, unfortunately, some real
struggle. Pain is a tool for transformation. Any guru who says
they can take all your pain away is probably lying. A true guru wouldn’t want
to. They know how well pain can teach you. It’s called being a spiritual
warrior for a reason.
6. There are different levels of realization – Samadhi, is the
Sanskrit term. While you can have a very high level of consciousness,
being completely enlightened means you would be pretty immune to most
things ‘of this world.’ Even Muktananda, Paramahansa, and Osho were still
struggling to achieve full enlightenment. While we can learn from those in high
stages of spiritual evolution, if they are still on this planet, they are
likely still somewhat
unenlightened. Some cultivation is not complete ascension. Beware of
those who have made a little progress but claim to have lassoed the
moon.
7. A true guru, or master of this world will have few desires. In Zen
they
call this the pure mind. A pure mind doesn’t want for anything because
it already knows it is everything. In Sanskrit this is called Sat Chit Ananda.
It means All Knowing, All Pervading, Everywhere Present. If you really, truly
know that you are all knowing, all pervading, and everywhere at
one time –what could you possibly need ten mansions, a new Maserati and
countless women (or small boys) for?
8. You will always be allowed to read holy books from whatever
tradition suits your fancy. In fact, a true guru knows that this
elevates your consciousness, and that minimizing the information you
seek can ‘dumb’ you down and make you single minded. Reciting mantras,
reading the Bhagavad Gita, A Course in Miracles, The Tao, The Life and Prayers
of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Upanishads, the Christian Gnostic writings,
Sufi poetry, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Dead Sea Scrolls, The Pali
Canon, etc. are all expressions of the divine and a true guru knows this.
9. Enlightenment takes effort. Every wisdom school will tell you this.
You can’t sit on your ass and expect to wake up fully. The path of
wisdom takes courage, perseverance, and a humble ability to screw up
often and then apologize to others and yourself, and start again. Any
guru who offers a magic pill, book, session, etc. for instant
enlightenment is a charlatan.
10. No matter if you call it the Godhead, the Tao, your Original Self,
your True Nature, the Realized Self, etc. it’s all you rediscovering the
Perfect You. Read what you want, but ultimately the work is to remove
much of everything you’ve ever learned. A real guru will dismantle much
that you’ve intellectualized in order to install true wisdom.
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/05/21/10-signs-of-a-fake-guru-weeding-out-the-psychopaths-from-the-true-teachers/
________________________________
From: turquoiseb <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, June 24, 2013 1:34 PM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: A culture of PR and Spin, ending with...uh...more
PR and Spin
--- In [email protected], "sparaig" <LEnglish5@...> wrote:
>
> I just don't understand people i guess.
>
> BTW, all you folk who feel a need to seek out the awakened...
>
> When was the last time you got checked?
I was having similar thoughts earlier today, on the train
back to Paris. Buck cites some "new gun in town" as some-
one who is supposedly awakened. And why? Because he *says*
he is, probably.
If you look at it rationally, that is the *only* evidence
we have that an "awakened" state actually exists -- people
interpreting their subjective experience in terms of some
past or present dogma about enlightenment or awakening
and saying, "Yep, I'm there."
Yet many people find these *claims* both inspiring, and
believable. Go figure.
Personally, I think that the reason people think this
way is to Justify Their Investment In A Lifetime Spent
Believing In Woo. To me, it's the *same* phenomenon we
see in Nabby hoping beyond hope that crop circles are
the result of Woo, or that a supposedly spinning statue
is an example of Woo. Any Woo Will Do.
It's as if they feel that if they can find even *one*
example of Woo -- no matter how anecdotal it may be, no
matter how based on hearsay and subjective claims it
may be -- that one example of Woo will justify all the
time, money, and energy they spent pursuing Woo.
TM "checking" isn't going to do anything to get rid of
such longings, and such hopes. Neither, it seems, is
the presentation of rational thought, or the scientific
method. The desire for Woo is all-consuming, whatever
form of Woo it is that the seeker seeks.
If they can find even *one* person they can convince
themselves is awakened or enlightened, then (they think)
awakening or enlightenment EXIST, and their lives spent
believing that they exist were not a waste. If they can
find even one example of what they consider real magic
or Woo, then magic and Woo EXIST, and again their lives
were not wasted pursuing it.
That's the only rationale I can think of for why so
many New Agey people (in which category I definitely
class most TMers) think, and act. If you have other
explanations, present them.
