Not being facetious at all, you need to use "integral methods" to pick a spiritual teacher. By that, I mean assessing a potential spiritual teacher by constructing a psychograph of them. This may take months of direct experience, such as being around them, going to their classes, talking to people, looking at the types of students they have, etc, but it will be worth it. From long and hard experience, I've known a number of teachers that were way higher than me on the spiritual line of development, but lower in the moral, affective, interpersonal, or/and cognitive lines. You can learn from teachers like this, but you have to use discretion about what they say and have you do.
The main thing that has kept me out of serious trouble was that I have a good "bullshit" detector, so caveat emptor. I started my path in an Eastern Yoga tradition, which had a significant emphasis on obeisance to the guru. However, I'm not saying this is not necessary in certain situations. But it has to be a two-way street and in my opinion, that respect has to be earned by showing that they really are "up there" in many developmental lines. Way too many times I have heard of or personally seen a spiritual teacher do something weird and then been told: "The guru is doing it for the student's own good. Since the guru is "enlightened", they are not attached to this." Ring, ring went the bullshit detector. Again, this is not to say that all spiritual teachers are like this or that in many situations what is happening really is for the good of the student, but a person shouldn't be too credulous about this.
There are also a lot of line/level issues going on in the spiritual world and until I read Wilber's Integral Psychology book, I was starting to have serious cognitive dissonance issues. Thus, a person might have spent years in a monastery, be able to meditate for hours at a time, have had experiences of shunyata, etc, and yet still be emotionally and/or morally immature.
As far as I can determine, there are at least 2 reasonable reasons about why a certain amount of trust in your spiritual teacher is necessary. First is that it is a good way to help get the ego out of the way, if that is a problem. But I also see that as the most dangerous reason, because it is easily abused if the teacher is not of high moral character. Or perhaps not even abused, but if the teacher's culture is very different than your own, this can lead to significant mis-understandings. Hence the necessity to be sure the teacher rates high on the moral scale before doing this. A track record is a necessity for that, but you still need to continue to use common sense, since even high level teachers can develop spiritual pathologies. See Integral Psychology for details.
The second reason is the main reason why I think that most people need spiritual teachers, if only to have someone to check in with every few months. This way they can make sure you're still on the right path as well as have someone to turn to if you get up to your ass in alligators. One of the reasons this latter problem may occur is because after a certain point, if you're not psychologically perfect, you'll begin to become aware of of your imperfections, sometimes with untoward results (Zone 1 pathology). Or perhaps more seriously, you'll not become aware of your problems, but act them out (Zone 2 problems). This is where the real spiritual teacher is needed. This is not said to frighten people, but most of us tend to overestimate ourselves and often end up getting in over our heads. Sometimes this only means having to stop meditating for a while until you can integrate the changes. However, sometimes you may need the experience of someone who's been there to get you through it.
Please read Wilber's Integral Psychology before you pick a spiritual teacher! You'll be thankful you did.
I hope this is helpful and doesn't come across as too cynical. I've personally only had one bad experience, but it remainded with me for a long time and could have been prevented had I looked at things integrally.
Thanks Mike, this was helpful. I don't believe you came across cynically at all, it was very rational\reasonable and seemed imbued with experience.
As far as a bullshit detector goes finding a teacher with a good one is a plus because they can more readily call you on yours. That should be included in an integral psychograph. How often to they claim to see something that isn't there versus something that turns out to be accurate. A bullshit spotting ratio of sorts.
What kind of man or woman can God use to lead others to accomplish his goals on earth? The answer to that question just might surprise you.When I was in London for 220-601 exam preparation I often visit spiritual programms..Today our guest on the broadcast is Dr. Henry Blackaby, renowned Bible teacher and author. He has written several books on the subject of spiritual leadership.It's best to pass 70-649 exam.One, co-written with his son, Richard, is aptly titled Spiritual Leadership: Moving People on to God’s Agenda.Dr. Blackaby says, “Spiritual leadership is not identical to leadership in general.One of my N10-004 exam teacher is very spiritual and he guides me about religion.While spiritual leadership involves many of the same principles as general leadership, spiritual leadership has certain distinctive qualities that must be understood and practiced if spiritual leaders are to be successful
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Choose a spiritual teacher integrally
Posted May 6th, 2009 by Mike BrelandNot being facetious at all, you need to use "integral methods" to pick a spiritual teacher. By that, I mean assessing a potential spiritual teacher by constructing a psychograph of them. This may take months of direct experience, such as being around them, going to their classes, talking to people, looking at the types of students they have, etc, but it will be worth it. From long and hard experience, I've known a number of teachers that were way higher than me on the spiritual line of development, but lower in the moral, affective, interpersonal, or/and cognitive lines. You can learn from teachers like this, but you have to use discretion about what they say and have you do.
The main thing that has kept me out of serious trouble was that I have a good "bullshit" detector, so caveat emptor. I started my path in an Eastern Yoga tradition, which had a significant emphasis on obeisance to the guru. However, I'm not saying this is not necessary in certain situations. But it has to be a two-way street and in my opinion, that respect has to be earned by showing that they really are "up there" in many developmental lines. Way too many times I have heard of or personally seen a spiritual teacher do something weird and then been told: "The guru is doing it for the student's own good. Since the guru is "enlightened", they are not attached to this." Ring, ring went the bullshit detector. Again, this is not to say that all spiritual teachers are like this or that in many situations what is happening really is for the good of the student, but a person shouldn't be too credulous about this.
There are also a lot of line/level issues going on in the spiritual world and until I read Wilber's Integral Psychology book, I was starting to have serious cognitive dissonance issues. Thus, a person might have spent years in a monastery, be able to meditate for hours at a time, have had experiences of shunyata, etc, and yet still be emotionally and/or morally immature.
As far as I can determine, there are at least 2 reasonable reasons about why a certain amount of trust in your spiritual teacher is necessary. First is that it is a good way to help get the ego out of the way, if that is a problem. But I also see that as the most dangerous reason, because it is easily abused if the teacher is not of high moral character. Or perhaps not even abused, but if the teacher's culture is very different than your own, this can lead to significant mis-understandings. Hence the necessity to be sure the teacher rates high on the moral scale before doing this. A track record is a necessity for that, but you still need to continue to use common sense, since even high level teachers can develop spiritual pathologies. See Integral Psychology for details.
The second reason is the main reason why I think that most people need spiritual teachers, if only to have someone to check in with every few months. This way they can make sure you're still on the right path as well as have someone to turn to if you get up to your ass in alligators. One of the reasons this latter problem may occur is because after a certain point, if you're not psychologically perfect, you'll begin to become aware of of your imperfections, sometimes with untoward results (Zone 1 pathology). Or perhaps more seriously, you'll not become aware of your problems, but act them out (Zone 2 problems). This is where the real spiritual teacher is needed. This is not said to frighten people, but most of us tend to overestimate ourselves and often end up getting in over our heads. Sometimes this only means having to stop meditating for a while until you can integrate the changes. However, sometimes you may need the experience of someone who's been there to get you through it.
Please read Wilber's Integral Psychology before you pick a spiritual teacher! You'll be thankful you did.
I hope this is helpful and doesn't come across as too cynical. I've personally only had one bad experience, but it remainded with me for a long time and could have been prevented had I looked at things integrally.
Yours,
Mike Breland