stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

MAKE IT BETTER 511
It should not take “Superman” to point out what the revered
avatars and theoreticians within the spiritual marketplace have so
clearly failed to put into practice for so long, messing up others’
lives in the process while congratulating themselves about their
own supposedly shadow-less, “perfect” and nondual enlightenments.
Of course, we all know that consideration for others is supposed
to be a prerequisite for the spiritual path. That preliminary,
however, is typically forgotten somewhere along the way to enlightenment:
[A]s I began to spend time with people who’d devoted many
years to meditation, people who had built their lives around
spiritual practices aimed at transcending the ego, I saw that
they had many of the same difficulties I did. Few of them behaved
more compassionately, sensitively, or selflessly than
the majority of people I knew who didn’t meditate at all
(Schwartz, 1996).
Robert Thurman (2004) told of his own related experiences
with an acquaintance of his, widely known for being calm and holy,
who had been excluding him from participating in the dialog at a
conference she was leading. When questioned by another friend as
to why he was not taking a more active role in the conversation,
Thurman replied:
“I’d love to, but So-and-so won’t allow me to talk. It seems
she has a bug in her ear about me!” I inflected my delivery in
a nasty way, knowing full well that the friend in question,
standing nearby, was overhearing what I was saying.
It was a petty and rude way to speak, it showed how
poor my own self-control was, and I am ashamed to tell the
story. However, the reaction of the leader was an even greater
shock. She rushed up to me, stuck her furious face inches
from mine, and shrieked at the top of her lungs, “F—— you,
Bob. F—— you! How dare you say such a thing about me!”
Further, any enlightenment which can be negated not only by
the consumption of alcohol (cf. Wilber, 2000a) but even by a bad
cold (or staph infection) is an interesting type of awakening: “I
used to be enlightened, but I caught the flu.” Indeed, that “fall”
fully disproves the idea that “Great Masters, having attained their
own enlightenment, meditate only for the good of others.” That is,
if the “permanent” realization of that highest evolution can be lost