Seek Safely Please

It truly saddens and troubles me when I hear of spiritual teachers not living up to their spiritual teachings. It is extremely disappointing and disheartening.

…Three adults died during a sweat-lodge ceremony, led by a self-help coach and author.

…A healer known to work miracles while in a trance, is said to be a less than stellar individual when out of trance.

…Spiritual teachers excommunicate members over personal disagreements while another tells followers they can only follow one spiritual teacher, it’s either him or the highway, so to speak.

And now I read in the AZ Central that a young man killed himself after hearing Bentinho Massaro, the spiritual teacher he was following, remark to a large group of followers, “Wake up to something important… Otherwise, kill yourself.” Tragically, this troubled young man latched onto that exaggerated comment, and when he couldn’t find the inner peace he had been seeking for years, jumped from Midgley Bridge in Sedona, AZ.

I can’t begin to imagine the pain and anguish he must have been feeling and that his family is now feeling. I wish I could do something to help. But all I can do is write this article, and hopefully discourage people from placing all their trust in a god or guru outside of themselves.

We should never unreservedly place our physical, mental, emotional or spiritual well being of the hands of another person. Yet people do it all the time with doctors, lawyers, coaches, priests, and spiritual teachers. These individuals are in a position of authority. We look up to them. Admire them. Want to be like them in many ways. We trust them.

And we are devastated and crushed when the one we looked up to doesn’t act in our best interest and betrays our trust. And, when this happens with a spiritual leader or teacher, the impact is goes deep – right to the edges of our soul.

Yes, the one who breaks our trust has much to account for, both from the law and their own karma. While we, as seekers, students and believers, could greatly benefit by nurturing our intuition and a personal connection to the Divine. So when a doctor, lawyer, mother/father, coach, priest or spiritual teacher says or does something that doesn’t feel right to us, that makes us shrink back, that makes us feel more anxious rather than at peace, then we should trust our inner compass and distance ourselves or just walk away.

The reality is these individuals are human, while they may have a position of power; the ultimate authority we should listen to is our own intuition and our direct connection to the perfect, all-loving wisdom of the Divine.