I want to share a few thoughts that had been floating in my head about spiritual teaching. Besides charisma a spiritual teacher (guru) needs to be intellectually, emotionally, and -- yes-- spiritually competent. To belabor the points: intellectual competence for me implies knowing when one does not know and knowing how to look for valid, evidence-based knowledge. So, a person who advertises himself as a natural doctor or a yoga teacher or a coach after say a 12-month "training" course either does not understand the effort required for competency or is a fraud. Emotional competence is harder to define but it starts with good boundaries and a certain degree of maturity. Wanting something for nothing and other entitled behaviors are good indications of emotional incompetence. For instance, having a fit when your favorite cake is out of stock. Spiritual competence -- at the very least -- presumes knowing the difference between experience and talk about experience as well as clear discernment vis-à-vis cultural and religious contaminants. An actor playing a role of a guru is not a guru, no matter how wonderful his/her pronouncements might be. And then comes the charisma -- a certain degree of connectedness to the inner source that spills out for all to see. The intellectual, emotional, and spiritual competency is to make sure the charisma is not misused.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 01:21:25 +0000