It's kinda laughable to have the unenlightened make rules for the
enlightened. Yogis and Buddhist monks will certainly find it good for a
laugh.
Music teachers often teach students that achieve far more in their
careers than their teachers did. Music teachers teach techniques and
methods for achieving success in music. Similarly gurus do nothing more
than teach methods and techniques for achieving enlightenment. AND they
don't NEED to be enlightened to do so. You just need to know the
techniques to teach.
No greater example of this than TM where teachers were given techniques
to give many of whom were still experiencing "lots of thoughts" during
TM and little enlightenment. BUT they may have taught people who did
begin having experiences of enlightenment.
I think Doug has it right. Some of you are looking for saints not
enlightened teachers.
On 07/25/2018 08:09 AM, [email protected] [FairfieldLife] wrote:
A core ethical issue for the non-dual community is whether teachers
are offering something of value, if they are delivering what they
promise, and if they can speak with high veracity and confidence
supporting these claims. That is,
a) have they achieved the states and live the attributes that they
claim to be able to teach others,
b) are they able to effectively teach others to attain them,
c) if so, what time frames are required, how much commitment is
necessary (time and money), and
d) are all, or only a subset of students, able to attain these states.
It seems reasonable that there may be a correlation between teachers
and organizations pursuing unethical actions and the degree to which
they are more bluster than bliss, more talk than performance.
Addressing performance could in turn address unethical actors in the
community.
A strong objective framework for evaluating a teacher’s attainments
and their method’s effectiveness is testing and measurement by the
tools of cognitive science. For example, a lot could be gained if the
teacher, along with their top 10 or 25 students offered to undergo a
standardized set of evaluation measures (fMRI, advanced EEG, blood
work, comprehensive sophisticated batteries of cognitive tests, etc.)
While the results of these tests do not, at least per current models
of consciousness, provide definitive proof of any Enlightened state,
they can provide insight into whether the practitioners have achieved
various markers of achieved by other advanced practitioners. And
possibly exceeding thresholds or prior studies, and or novel brain
activity or cognitive responses.
If on the other hand, the results of the test showed nothing special
or unique of the normal non-practicing populace, one would question
what the practice is achieving. If no change in brain, cognitive,
neurotransmitter or other activity is observed, then claims of refined
mental, cognitive or emotional capabilities would be in doubt.
I would think that a group called Science and Non-Duality would be
aggressively seeking to validate non-duality states with
state-of-the-art research (and help identify / weed out,
non-performing teachers and organizations.) Yet I don’t see any
research agenda on the SAND website. SAND or other non-dual groups
could become a powerful conduit of advanced practitioners to the many
university and research centers doing research on meditative methods.
How to facilitate and fund such research is a larger topic which I
may try to address in a separate post.
At a minimum, core ethical values and codes of conduct revolving
around full disclosure and a culture of transparency would be of
value. Some useful areas of for consideration:
1)Encourage all non-dual teachers and organizations to provide
evidence of the teachers’ attainments and the effectiveness of their
teaching methods.
2)Guidelines as to what to do when witnessing or experiencing ethical
breaches by spiritual teachers and/or organizations. Possibly
implementation of hotlines or database of unethical reports.
3)Full disclosure of possible adverse effects of the practices.
4)Financial transparency. Ability to audit the financials.
5)Ethical considerations of requesting or promoting “Surrendering to
the Teacher”
6)Disclosure (or some indication of) what’s in the back rooms
(the esoteric teaching, the weird and wild stuff that may not become
evident for several years after the student has made substantial time,
effort, identity and financial investments in the teachings,
practices, etc.)
7)Seva -- work/study/service practices.
A time-honored and useful tradition in many circumstances and
implementations where students work at ashrams, retreat centers,
teaching centers, etc. for room and board and often reduction of
tuition and fees for courses and instruction. However, over time, in
some situations, this may evolve into a type of indentured servitude
or guilt-driven labor bondage. Some ethical guidelines would be useful
in this arena.
