Before going out to seek 'enlightenment' (whatever that is), its important to ask yourself why youre interested and what you hope will happen to you should you become enlightened.
It is especially important to ask what one hopes to gain from becoming enlightened. One big problem IMO that has come about is that there's so much glamorization/commodification of enlightenment. We see various allegedly enlightened persons who are making fortunes from churning out tapes, books, and public appearances. They may have benevolent intentions, genuinely hoping to help, but the [i:217865cd09]social context [/i:217865cd09]they use to propagate their teaching is shaped by American style advertising and mass marketing--a context that induces craving, ambition, and fantasy.
The nonverbal covert message of this context is, 'If I get enlightened, I can go out and be a teacher and become famous, desirable, and have an entourage just like X.'
This inflames craving and will conflict with the verbal instructions from the
teacher encouraging us to transcend craving. No wonder so many seekers work so hard and remain trapped.
The commodification/glamorization of enlightenment distracts many from considering that some alleged 'enlightenments' may actually be some kind of bliss/endorphin rush or an energy surge that merely supercharges a person's pre-existing hang-ups and 'flash freezes' those hang ups more firmly into place.
If someone considers themselves a fallible human, he or she can be reasoned with.
But if that person becomes convinced that they're enlightened, that enlightenment brings infallibility* and puts them above the common run of humanity, then they cant be reasoned with. They're worse off than before.
Someone has called this the 'bullet proof ego'. If they base their public career on a reputation of being enlightened, and socialize mostly or solely with persons who are invested in this sort of thing, they risk becoming & remaining inmates of what journalist John Horgan has termed 'the enlightenment industry'.
(*And from what I have heard, enlightenment does not make people infallible. For tax advice you need an accountant, not a guru. It should be noted that all successful gurus hire accountants, and when trouble comes their way, lawyers...ahem.)
A lot of us sincerely believe that enlightenment will liberate us from the vulnerability, pain and anxiety that goes with being human.
John Horgan, the journalist who wrote Rational Mysticism interviewed the authors of [i:217865cd09]The Guru Papers.[/i:217865cd09] He quotes Kramer as saying:
'When I mentioned that some gurus have an air of supreme self-confidence that lends credence to their claims to be enlightened, Kramer smiled grimly. "It’s amusing to me that one of peoples’ conceptions about enlightenment has to do with being this self-contained unit, where nothing can come in and bother you," he said. "That’s what psychopaths are like.
'Nothing comes in and bothers them." '
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johnhorgan.org]
A huge number of us embark upon our quests because we hate the pain and suffering of being human, and want to find a way out.
Marya Hornbacher describes how she spent years at odds with her own embodied humanity and how this fuelled her eating disorder. At the end of her memoir [i:217865cd09]Wasted[/i:217865cd09], Horbacher says that the eating disorder for her was a way to avoid 'The banal itchy pain of life. The arguments with your partner over bad sex, who cooks dinner, whose turn it is to change the litter box.' (my paraphrase).
A full blown eating disorder is as demanding as the worst cult.
Sam Fussell found himself hating his own vulnerability and capacity for anxiety. At age 26 he fled for a number of years into life as a hard core body builder--to the point of going on steroids, living in a body builder household and doing contests. It was as totalistic as any cult. The title of his memoir is [i:217865cd09]'Muscle'[/i:217865cd09]. (Its a must-read for anyone interested in Arnold Schwartzenegger.)
But many of us react to the 'banal itchy pain' of being human by craving enlightenment--and could run the risk of experiences that will estrange us from the human condition rather than reconciling us to that condition.
It is rare to find someone who says 'I only want enlightenment if it [i:217865cd09]'enhumans' [/i:217865cd09]me and increases my ability to bear anxiety and be intimate with my peers. If it puts me at odds with the human condition, I dont want it.'
Gurus and so called enlightened teachers may, with the best of intentions, find themselves in lifestyles where they no longer get normal social feedback. Its a kind of solitary confinement--you are surrounded with people, but they're relating to your role as guru, and to their fantasies about enlightenment, which they're projecting onto you.
They're not relating to you as a person, they are relating to you as a function, as role.
This is very intense, but long term probably gets lonesome as hell. There's no one to keep your eccentricities in check--you run the risk of having your every whim tolerated, or even emulated. If you slide into acts of rudeness, these will be rationalized, even celebrated as evidence of 'crazy wisdom.' Eventually, you may slide from rudeness into outright cruelty--and still the disciples will defend what you do--they'll just dump their shock and anger on anyone else designated as scapegoat...
The minute you stand up and say 'Im enlightened' there is grave risk that all your social interactions will become warped. You enter a lifestyle where sanity becomes nearly impossible, because normal social feedback is removed, or greatly distorted.
No one tells the guru, 'Dude, you're nice but your talks are getting boring, and you have a ridiculous haircut. I'd rather go to the pub, throw darts and play Pee Ball*. Wanna join me?'
(*Which is a real game-- here's the website )
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peeball.com]