Mind fuck games

In a foreword to Andrew Cohen's book, Living Enlightenment, Ken Wilber gives us an interesting look at the kind of spiritual teacher he thinks we will need if we really want to climb to the top of spiritual mountain.  Here is an excerpt.  

"When it comes to spiritual teachers, there are those who are safe, gentle, consoling, soothing, caring; and there are the outlaws, the living terrors, the Rude Boys and Nasty Girls of God realization, the men and women who are in your face, disturbing you, terrifying you, until you radically awaken to who and what you really are. 

And may I suggest?: choose your teachers carefully.

If you want encouragement, soft smiles, ego stroking, gentle caresses of your self-contracting ways, pats on the back and sweet words of solace, find yourself a Nice Guy or Good Girl, and hold their hand on the sweet path of stress reduction and egoic comfort. But if you want Enlightenment, if you want to wake up, if you want to get fried in the fire of passionate Infinity, then, I promise you: find yourself a Rude Boy or a Nasty Girl, the ones who make you uncomfortable in their presence, who scares you witless, who will turn on you in a second and hold you up for ridicule, who will make you wish you were never born, who will offer you not sweet comfort but abject terror, not saccharin solace but scorching angst, for then, just then, you might very well be on the path to your own Original Face."

Wilber is telling beginners that if they really want enlightenment they need a Rude Boy or a Nasty Girl guru.  In other words, we have to find a tough spiritual guru, sort of like a spiritual version of a Marine Corps Drill Instructor whose job will be to strip away our ego.  Only when our egos have been sufficiently humiliated, abused and stripped away, will we finally see the jewel of enlightenment.

However, there is a certain irony to this prescription for enlightenment.  From what I have read, neither Cohen nor Wilber ever formally submitted to Rude Boys.  It is odd, therefore, that both seem to believe that spiritual hazing is beneficial.  Cohen, himself, has a reputation for being quite a Rude Boy although is own teacher, H.W.L. Poonja, was not a Rude Boy (for what it is worth, Cohen became fully enlightened in two and a half weeks).  

What Cohen and Wilber don't understand is that Nice Guys are capable of effectively putting a beginner into a trance while Rude Boys or Nasty Girls, are effective brainwashers, their purpose being to implant a particular religious belief or state of consciousness into their student's head.  The bottom line is the path to enlightenment is not found by relying on good guys and girls or rude boys and nasty girls.  It is not ego stroking or ego stripping that matters.  Both are not essential components for traveling on the path to enlightenment, in other words.

We might also say the end determines and justifies the means.  For godmen and godwomen who have a strong desire to stay reasonably powerful and wealthy, they need slavish followers who will keep on giving!  A person who cannot be easily put into a low level trance or brainwashed is not exactly the kind of follower a godman is looking for.  But one thing the charlatan godman knows is how to attract followers all of whom are credulous.

By comparison, what the authentic spiritual teacher is comfortable with is the student who, on their own, is eager to look within; who finds the inward journey compelling and exciting.  When this happens the teacher's primary job is to keep the student's level of enthusiasm elevated because the journey is quite long and extremely subtle.  That it is easy to become discouraged is the real danger.  Such a teacher knows, first hand, the difficultly of seeing pure Mind.  Seeing it is not accomplished in a year or even twenty years.  As we might expect, an authentic spiritual teacher has nothing but sympathy for the student who is struggling to comprehend pure Mind which, by the way, is as real as the air we breathe.  Compassion, therefore, consists of offering advice on how best to see this Mind.  A real teacher doesn't have the time to play mind fuck games because he is, himself, absorbed in the contemplation of pure Mind.

Comments

[Chong Go Sunim]

I've heard people commenting that they've learned a lot despite the bad behavior of their teacher, but as I think about it, whatever they learned was due to their own efforts, and they would have made just as much progress (or more) with a book from the library.

[Sarah]

Who are these people that say they became enlightened about 2 1/2 weeks? Such massive egos & so destructive.
Over the last 2 weeks I have come across a number of people on the net who describe themselves as enlightened. I read what they have written & it's pure drivel.
My Teacher has managed to show me the state of my own mind on a number of occasions & he didn't belittle me, scare me witless or treat me like dirt etc to do it.
If I came across a "Rude Boy/Nasty Girl" posing as a dharma teacher I would hightail it out of there asap because they don't have skilful means & have to rely on aggression to teach. I bet they show 'compassion' to the sycophants who hang on their every word. Their's a sad egotistic & destructive distortion of the dharma.
I really liked this post. Many should read it. Thanks.

[NellaLou]

"spiritual hazing"
That is an excellent term for what these power junkies are doing to people.
Someone else mentioned recently that Genpo, associate of the Wilber/Cohen conglomerate, with his "Big Mind" get-enlightened-before-lunch approach has no endorsements from any legitimate sources outside his own circle. Not that endorsements are necessary but it does give some indication as to the efficacy/veracity of the program. And none of these have any proteges who go on to work outside of that tight circle.