Recently I learned of yet another teacher who had lost sight of her function as a spiritual guide and begun imposing her personal agenda on others. I first became aware of the numerous ways a spiritual teacher can misuse their power when the Zen master I’d been studying with turned out to be an alcoholic who was propositioning students in the interview room and having an extramarital affair with his principal female disciple.
Since then, I’ve watched a series of teachers take advantage of their position and leave confused and disillusioned students in their wake. Fortunately, there are also some excellent, ethical, wise, and compassionate teachers in the nondual tradition. But as students we would do well to to keep in mind some basic principles when we interact with those who offer us guidance. Here are a dozen guidelines I’ve gleaned from my years exploring this issue, framed as a description of the teacher who lives in alignment with truth.
I invite your comments, questions, and dialogue.
The true teacher doesn’t need anything from you, including your love, admiration, veneration, power, or money.
She does not require your loyalty or allegiance to anything but the truth of your being as you understand it.
Her primary purpose is to further your spiritual unfolding, not to build her organization or expand her popularity on social media.
The teacher does not attempt to organize, orchestrate, or control your personal life and does not purport to know what’s best for you on a personal level.
He doesn’t take himself to be a teacher and doesn’t take you to be a student, except as temporary roles in the dance of existence. In the absence of any projection, you’re free to realize who you really are.
The guru is an archetype or energy, not an individual person. Be careful about projecting this archetype onto a fallible human being, it’s a set-up for disillusionment and exploitation. The true teacher doesn’t take himself to be a guru but points instead to the true guru inside you.
The true teacher is aware of the tendency among seekers to idealize their teachers and project their own assumptions and expectations upon them. Knowing this, the teacher doesn’t (mis)use these projections for their own personal gain and aggrandizement.
The teacher realizes that “enlightened person” is an oxymoron and does not take possession of this identity. In the presence of enlightenment, the ego is absent—that’s why it’s called enlightenment.
The teacher is merely the finger pointing at the radiant moon of your true nature. Once you’ve glimpsed the moon, you needn’t focus on the finger.
The realization “I am That” reveals that there is only That, not that there is only me. The first is called awakening; the second is called narcissism.
The teacher has a responsibility to be impeccable in their dealings with students, because they represent a world of meaning that the student reveres and aspires to understand.
The true teacher, the one who dedicates their life to the awakening of others, naturally elicits our gratitude and respect.
Followup to the original post on Facebook:
Thanks to everyone for your sharing your insights, experiences, and opinions. This is actually a subtle topic that invites a deep appreciation of our absolute and relative natures. At a heart level it seems obvious that an awakened teacher who does not see others as separate from themselves would not exploit their students for their own benefit. Yet mistaken ideas about crazy wisdom and a childlike yearning to cede our power to a guru who knows what’s best for us often obscure this inner knowing. In the Zen tradition the deepest understanding of the 16 precepts that guide ethical behavior is that they are actually descriptions of how an enlightened person would act. This is why I offered the guidelines for teacher integrity not as a list of should and should nots but as descriptions of how a true teacher naturally behaves.
At the absolute level, whatever happens is what was meant to happen in the mystery of this human manifestation. At the same time someone who purports to guide others has a responsibility to lead a life in alignment with truth. Both are true, and we can’t be excusing abusive behavior, as some teachers have done, by claiming that everything is just happening in the absence of a doer. Yes, no doer, nothing done, no self, no other—now in the world of apparent time and space apply this understanding to your interactions with others and act from your deepest inner knowing. Otherwise, step back and take stock of your life.
Of course, students have a responsibility to pay attention, use discernment, and resist the temptation to give their power away. But we bring our vulnerability, confusion, and unresolved psychological issues with us on the spiritual path, and the teacher, by virtue of their role as a guide and examplar, must be committed to being impeccable as much as humanly possible. This means doing the nitty-gritty post-awakening work of allowing the truth we’ve realized to penetrate the dark corners of our life and turn them to the ruthless, compassionate scrutiny of the light. If you’re not willing or think you don’t have dark corners, please don’t put yourself forward as a teacher.
As for the question of whether spiritual teachers still have a role to play, which many folks raised, they seem to, because we’re still drawn to them. But those of us who "teach" need to be essentially transparent and dispensable, fingers to be ignored once the moon has been glimpsed, context creators that become unnecessary once the context has been internalized. And I believe the potential abuses of the power differential can be avoided if we aspire to the guidelines offered in this post.