Consider these before choosing a spiritual teacher or path.
Q: How can I make out whom to follow and whom to mistrust?
N: Mistrust all, until you are convinced. The true Guru will never humiliate you, nor will he alienate you from yourself. He will constantly bring you back to the fact of your inborn perfection and encourage you to seek within. He knows you need nothing, not even him, and is never tired of reminding you. The self-appointed Guru is more concerned with himself than with his disciples. Nisargadatta Maharaj
1: Preoccupation with money and material. This is a controversial point. The argument goes that a spiritual teacher provides a service, like an architect, so deserves to be compensated. Also, if the disciples pay the teacher, then the teacher can spend more time helping them.
We do not have to expect our teachers to live as a paupers, yet a preoccupation with “big cigars and motor cars” is cause for concern. We know all too well of the stories of fancy cars, parties, country estates, and big bank accounts. Seen with your own eyes, such behavior is inexcusable.
2: Secrecy when there is no threat. You may be required to pass certain tests before meeting a group or teacher. In free countries, this sort of activity is indicative of paranoia (delusions of importance). An inaccessible teacher is of little use to you, as are promises of future meetings once you’ve proven your worth.
3: The founder or teacher’s depth of spiritual realization. Why undertake a system which has not worked for its founder? Which is not to say that spirituality is not worth looking into and using as part of one’s path, if it appeals to you.
4: Ritual. Most groups will have some ritual, perhaps as simple as having tea after a meeting. Ritual is a way of remembrance, technique to achieve a mood, and show of community. However, ritual can be an effective gloss over lack of substance. And no ritual is sacred in and of itself. Beware too much emphasis on robes and letters (sacred texts), insistence on particular postures, or titles and chains of command.
5: An abundance of successors. A good example of this is the ever expanding lineage of many Zen teachers. None of the teachers I consider authentic appointed a successor. Which is not to discount that there were others influenced by their teachings who attained a realization.
A number of appointed successors reveals a teacher concerned with creating a lineage and a monument to their self. Or it points to a relatively shallow depth of realization that is easily attained. Even an architect has limited apprentices capable of becoming worthy masters.
6: Appeals to your weakness. A group or teacher that allows you to believe rather than discover for yourself, or goes on with endless theories if you are of a scientific bent. Offers a method that appeals to laziness: enlightenment in a weekend, or in five minute a day lessons. Claims there is nothing for you to do, so simply sit back and relax. Gives you license to do as you will.
Here is set of reasonable criteria suggested by a friend:
1. Popularity. Teachers with the most visibility are generally the ones with the largest followings, which often means that they are putting together a package for mass consumption — and thus something inoffensive and reinforcing of current beliefs rather than something that challenges you to wake up and find the truth.
2.Vocabulary. Teachers who speak simply, using their own words, are more likely to be speaking from profound realization than are polished orators or wordsmiths. And if the speaker cites one document as bearing final authority, this can be a sign to be cautious.
3. Know-it-all. A teacher who has an answer for every question may be a clever concept mechanic or engineer. Honest teachers don’t hesitate to admit to what they don’t know. On the other hand, if the teacher doesn’t demonstrate a conviction about knowing something for sure, then that person may still be mired in conceptual speculation.
4. Fearless. A person who has died while living would be fearless, but not foolhardy, in the face of death. If a teacher evidences fear speaking his mind plainly, then it may be a case of the blind leading the blind.
5. Non-promoter. Is the teacher interested in selling books, tapes, CDs, seminars, and so forth? In creating an organization that promotes products and beliefs? To be successfully marketed, the products have to appeal to a broad audience and thus have to be soothing rather than challenging. A real teacher is not out to make a big splash or to leave a monument to an illusory self.
6. Paradox. If a teacher doesn’t exhibit a profound sense of paradox — of seeming contradictions that may nevertheless be true — then he may still be stuck in relativity. The true teacher has traveled “beyond opinion.” On the other hand, a clever impostor can hide behind paradoxical double-talk, so there’s no substitute for intuitional accuracy on the part of the seeker.
7. Understands the pervasive fooling of the mind by the mind. True teachers understand the workings of the mind — by having arrived at a point of view superior to the mind. They are thus able to point at a solution beyond that of trying to find temporary peace or happiness within the mind.
8. Humor. A humorless teacher is someone who takes himself seriously — which means he doesn’t know himself. A true teacher helps us see the apparent absurdity of the human condition and yet act in the face of it. On the other hand, if a teacher doesn’t take the pursuit of truth seriously, then he must not have found something of permanent value.
9. Love of truth. A person who has discovered his true nature is probably someone who couldn’t settle for conventional beliefs and herd conditioning and thus was unwilling to stop short of total Truth. And having found it, he places no value higher than It.
10. No religion higher than friendship. The flowering of the human condition is the impersonal friendship that transcends personal love, where two or more people are able to relax their ego-demands in favor of a larger good. If a teacher’s direction, either explicitly or through group pressure, is to split a person from friends and loved ones who don’t share the new paradigm, beware of brainwashing. On the other hand, the people we spend time with influence our lives, so we need to use discernment in our relationship with friends who may encourage behavior we’d like to move away from.
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