Use Only Enlightened Teachers

In this day and age where there are thousands of so-called gurus, we have to be careful who we choose to listen to because if we make the mistake of following someone who is ego-centered in their true intentions, then we will lose time, money, and opportunity costs (among other things). -- Paul Lenda (Shift)

There are many false teachers and charlatans in spirituality. In all kinds of spirituality. The main concern in this blog is that of post-enlightenment, liberation, freedom from the ego and, even in those pursuits, there are many false teachers.

A false teacher is anyone who is trying to teach you something which they do not truly understand.

Some do it because they want money, or because they want fame, or because they want followers. All of them are lying to you. All of them are wasting your time, insofar as time exists. You need to be wise to find the true teachers and yet, until you truly understand enlightenment you are unable to separate the false from the true.

Take for an example: Buddhism.

There are many branches of Buddhism. From the Tibetan style to the Zen style and everything in between. I am sure there are many enlightened teachers in many of those styles, and yet there are more who are not. 

I have listened to teachers in Buddhism who obviously have no understanding of the enlightenment process, other than that which they have read in books, or been taught by their equally inexperienced teachers.

Enlightenment is not an experience for the ego, just to clarify that once again. 

Enlightenment involves a total absence of ego. The ego is that which is seen to be false, to never have existed, to be merely a convenient construct like all language.

If a teacher is not capable of looking at you and the world from beyond the seat of the ego, then they cannot teach you. If they want your money, or your loyalty, or your worship, or your body then you can be sure that they are not Awake.

I met a leader of a spiritual tradition a few years ago who was teaching workshops and trying to bring people to a point which we would term enlightenment, but had never discovered that they, themselves, did not exist. 

They said all the right words but they interspersed it with name-dropping and tales of their personal interactions with famous people. Some of those famous people truly are awake, but this teacher, this leader, is not.

It is easy to fool people because the people do not know they are being fooled.

Enlightenment is a paradox and only someone to whom it has occurred can understand that paradox. Much of our teaching on enlightenment is misunderstood because those hearing cannot grasp the viewpoint from which we speak.

It is not hard to wake up as long as you are willing to let go of all your baggage. 

There can be no conditions as you approach enlightenment. You cannot hold anything back. You must give up every opinion, every belief, every position, every story because only egos hang onto those.

It has been very hard to write this blog post, to try to clarify the difference between an enlightened teacher and a charlatan. I seek no followers. All my needs are met by the universe because I am the universe. I give instruction freely and I have no time for charlatans.

Truth is the most important thing in a post-enlightenment worldview. This is why the answer to many of the questions people ask me is often "I don't know.", because that is the truth.

In an ego-less world we embrace uncertainty. As a teacher of mine once said many years ago:

"You can either be right, or you can be Awake – the two are mutually exclusive."