Spiritual Teachers' Behaviour - Feedback & Ethics

One often hears stories of.

Prominent spiritual teachers who have been knocked off their pedestal.

Sometimes do too.

Pretty flagrant abuse is I think it is important to realize that.

There are also plenty of of spiritual teachers who do not participate in abuses. Flagrant or otherwise. Also, it's important to realize that even though there may be some flaws in a teacher that relative to who. That person would have been otherwise they've made.

Stunning.

Transformation of themselves In other words, it's important to keep the big picture in mind. There's a Japanese proverb. How could teach in the Sep Bowl paste. Olson it means you can give perfect sermons for 100 days. But all you have to do is fart once and that's what everyone will remember so it's important to. I think keep the big picture in mind also remember that most people in fact, the Great.

Majority of People that practice. These techniques are not teachers. You've never hear of them and the great majority of them have made stunning and radical overall improvements in their lives, although there are still areas of.

Uneven growth, I think we shouldn't have unrealistic expectations about teachers.

Well then how is it that these teachers have this uneven growth that there so strong in certain areas but innocence stunted in other areas. I think that the main cause of this is some combination of unwillingness or inability to get feedback from other People on their behavior.

So what do I mean by unwillingness or inability well sometimes things are set up for a teacher in a way that they actually can't get feedback from People because they are put on a pedestal and students automatically assume that if they see some flaw in the teacher that it must be a flaw in the student.

The traditions sets things up that way so there aren't actually feedback loops to the teacher who is the teacher going to get feedback from well. Another more senior teacher if they're willing to put themselves under and keep themselves under a more senior teacher even when they themselves are relatively senior.

If they're willing to do that, then some feedback structure will be in place. But many People are not willing to do that, after 30 or 40 years of practice. They want to be completely independent.

So then who's going to give them feedback well their world is primarily the world of their students.

So they would have to get feedback from their students, but their students May.

Have a mindset that.

That the teacher is better than they really are, and therefore be afraid or unwilling to give them feedback well. Then, who will give them feedback well, maybe their family will give them feedback. But if their family is not their student or not a meditator. It's easy for teachers to dismiss the feedback of People that.

I haven't had a lot of meditative experience, so that's the unwillingness to take feedback.

So some combination of.

Inability to get feedback and unwillingness to take feedback if you maintain that consistently you do run the danger of having blind spots.

In your development so I think it's of the utmost importance that a person from the get go decide that they will listen to feedback from everyone. Whether that person is an adult or a child whether they're an advanced meditative practitioner or are clueless with regards to the spiritual path. I willingness Annan ability, meaning that the structures are in place, the channels are in place.

And you're willing to use those channels that People will approach you on your stuff.

Then you take a consensus see one of the problems for teachers is that?

An awful lot of the time when students do call you on your stuff actually. It is their stuff. It's the student stuff, not yours, and that gets to be that consumes time in Enerji.

And maybe even 8090% of the time it's really them. It's not the teacher. But that 20% or 10% of the time that it is the teacher and that there's something for them to listen to all they have to be willing to invest that 80 or 90% of time, which is a lot of time in general, teachers if they're good at teaching their overworked they don't have any play.

Any extra time in Enerji, they're just they're just going 24/7 flat out at least most of the ones that I know that are good at what they do it's a lot to listen consistently too.

What the students have to say about you as a person when a lot of that data is not of any use to you. But I think it's essential that you be willing to invest that even though it's it's a bear because there will be patterns consensus will emerge with time about your blind spots and that will help assure a more even growth pattern and in fact.

My general approach to ethics.

Is?

A little different maybe radically different from most people's approach to ethics. I suspect that most people's approach to ethics is that there are certain principles that should be followed. Or maybe certain rules that should be followed. Or maybe in the really extreme. Clayson, an elaborate legalistic ethical system. But that's not my approach at all. I actually say that the four basic precepts of Buddhism, about not taking live not taking what's not given.

Not speaking falsehoods and not doing things in the sexual domain that would be harmful to people. I say those are some basic guidelines. I certainly have that much in terms of axioms, but beyond that, I think that the.

The main way that one cultivates ethics is an openness a general openness to feedback from all other human beings with regards to how you're carrying yourself in the world.