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As spiritual awakenings become more common, and contact, even familiarity, between
seekers and teachers more commonplace, it is probably past time to revisit the mythic perfection
of the “enlightened teacher”, the expectations and projections of seekers and students, and to
examine the role of both in the modern teacher/student relationship.

I can remember from many years ago when the “propaganda” around enlightened
spiritual teachers was that nothing bad ever happened to them anymore, that nothing in their lives
ever went wrong. This of course was almost certainly never true.

Now, though, it is more like, “Of course things go wrong. But I don’t suffer anymore
because it doesn’t “hook” my ego.”

Before enlightenment: get a flat tire, fix a flat tire.

After enlightenment: get a flat tire, fix a flat tire.

The difference is, you no longer throw a fit in between. Ideally.

Eckhart Tolle tells a story of waiting in a slow moving line at a store and feeling “the
energy of irritation” arising in him (this was many years after his “awakening”). He describes a
kind of detached observation of the energy and coming to the conclusion he didn’t want it in his
body. And it goes away.

Nisargadatta Maharaj was once asked, “Does the Personality ever arise in you?”, to
which he responded, “Of course it does. But I see at once it is illusion and discard it.”

So, is this two well known teachers most people regard as being “enlightened” admitting
to flaws and imperfection? Notice Nisargadatta saying, “Of course it does”!
In other words, he does not find it strange that post-enlightenment there can still be some ego left. This is
reminiscent of the Hindu concept of “lesh avidya”–”the faint remaining seed of ignorance”.

Which highlights an interesting distinction. Should we consider the above two examples
of Tolle and Nisargadatta to be examples of egoic imperfection? Or merely invitations from the
remaining vestiges of ego which were politely demurred? Does it only become an issue when it
lasts a long time, and/or is covered up, and/or isn’t seen through “at once”?

Irritation and other reactions commonly perceived as coming from the ego will still arise,
but we can use those as grist for the mill. I imagine both Tolle and Nisargadatta benefited beyond
just the specifics they released and discarded. That’s a purification process that as it goes on
releases and discards more and more until the teacher can eventually appear to others to be
completely unflappable and even “perfect”. But inside herself, the teacher knows there is still
work left to do. It may be on a very few things, which may hardly ever arise, but being willing to
admit their existence rather than pretending to a mythic superhuman status is the only way to
keep the integrity and authenticity that are necessary to the path.

And lesh avidya is said to be necessary for living in the world. There is a difference
between waking up in the dream and waking up from the dream is how I have always thought of
it. If you had no darkness, no irritation, upset, fear, etc., no lesh avidya, I don;t think you would
be here on this plane anymore. You’d Ascend or Rainbow Body out of the dream.

We could say that any “enlightened” being who still has a body with which to teach must
have some remaining darkness, and denying that in order to meet expectations could very well be
the root ethical breach of modern “awakened” teachers; setting them up for catastrophic failures
eventually. Pretending to be perfect, when you know you are not; surrounded by a protective
“inner circle” which pretends you are perfect, when they know you are not, begins as what seems
like a minor and innocent “white lie” or even “public relations”, selflessly maintained for the
benefit of the students and seekers, but soon creates an environment rife with inauthenticity,
dishonesty, fear, and, eventually, abuse. So it would be a good thing to make it safe for teachers
to be imperfect, but that has to be within a context of the teacher no longer identifying with those
imperfections and allowing them to “run away” with him or her. This would preclude teachers
using “enlightenment” as an excuse for bad behavior and set an expectation that teachers should
be more conscious about their darkness than the average Joe. A reasonable expectation I think.

“The master is without anxiety about imperfection” doesn’t mean he is
unconscious/ignorant of his own, nor does it mean he doesn’t have any, and hiding it only
happens if there is anxiety about it. It means, the master accepts her own imperfections without
judgment, as one with the whole of Life, to be gently discarded (as they arise, hopefully) as Life
helps us to discover one more useless thing. The personality may still arise, old habitual energy patterns
or lesh avidyas may still make their presence felt, but it doesn’t become a problem unless
the teacher’s reaction is a resistance energy of “OMG! That’s not supposed to happen!”, instead
of the realization that the imperfections which arise in them are not theirs and can be cleanly
discarded without further involvement. And that this is a purification process which continues so
long as they have a form body.

Mistakes still happen, and imperfections still arise within the life of an awakened person,
because mistakes and imperfections are necessary to growth. They are a part of Life’s movement
towards the highest expression. Only a sterile petri dish is “perfect”.

IMHO: in the East, no one really thinks Gurus are perfect. That’s just a polite fiction
everyone maintains out of respect for the teachings. And yet they are happy to support them
financially. In the West on the other hand, the assumption is that the Guru is flawed, unless he
proves his worthiness by being a commercial capitalist success, while, paradoxically,
at the same time charging very little or nothing at all, because “spiritual work is supposed to be free”
according to the puritanical mindset the west still suffers from. Which exerts a pressure on the
Western Guru to appear to be perfect for financial reasons. Making the road to authenticity in the
West more challenging. (And making for problematic situations when the Eastern Gurus move
West).

So making it safe for Western teachers to be imperfect might also mean making it safe for
Western students to have teachers who are not this year’s new, hot, with-it thing. After all,
ultimately, it is the students, not our fellow teachers, who make the space for the teacher safe or
unsafe. And the students’ projections are every bit as problematic as the teachers’ claims. And the
root cause of those projections is that the student wants much more from the teacher than what is
on offer. What is on offer is a shift in consciousness that makes for a better way to live primarily
because one no longer tortures oneself unnecessarily. What the student wants is an unending life
of unending bliss. No human being can do that for you, so the teacher has to be seen as godlike.
However, I have noticed that lately, people are becoming much wiser about this, and receptive to
my approach of being a “spiritual friend”, not some kind of “perfect master”. So I think ASI
would find students and seekers ready and receptive for more realistic relationships with teachers
and finders.

Yet, it does seem to me that one’s awakening should not be so easily threatened, and
especially not by mere money. Even if the West is more challenging financially, if financial
stress is all it takes to lose one’s awakening, how stable was it? On this point, then, it is
interesting that at the times Tolle and Nisargadatta “came clean” they both had already “made it”
so to speak. By the time of the story, Tolle had long since had “The money” as he calls it,
referring to his vast earnings, safely banked, and Nisargadatta while not Tolle rich was doing
quite well for an Indian man of his class, was retired from a successful business career, and was
already famous as a spiritual teacher. In his case, furthermore, by this time he had been
diagnosed with cancer and given not long to live. So what did he have to lose by “coming
clean”?

Still, it is probably better that Tolle’s irritation arose in a checkout line at a store, and not
at one of his events, directed at a person engaged in one of those one on one sessions with him in
front of the whole audience that he does. In the check out line story, by the way, he goes on to
say that when he finally reached the check out, the young woman working there was in fact on
her first day, and when she realized who he was said something like, “Oh my God! Eckhart
Tolle! I’ve been waiting my whole life to meet you!”

Needless to say, he took the obvious lesson to heart. So maybe the arising of the energy
of irritation was just the Universe using one of his lesh avidyas to further his progress? For
which he was grateful? As opposed to some other teachers who might feel under pressure to hide
the imperfection to maintain financial viability because they have not yet “made it”?
Maybe going by the old adage of “forewarned is forearmed”, a helpful thing ASI can do
for spiritual teachers is to just let them know that even after awakening they will still have
habitual energy patterns arise, aspects of the personality will arise, there will still be lesh avidyas,
and to be conscious about that and to see those as opportunities for further growth, rather than
“something going wrong”. And recommend that they don’t blow them off, but go as deeply into
them as they can to get as much purification as possible.

“Of course things go wrong. But I don’t suffer anymore because it doesn’t “hook” my
ego.”

Before enlightenment: a negative emotion arises and plays you like a fool for the
better part of a day or two.

After enlightenment: a negative emotion arises and you go, “Oh look. Isn’t that
interesting. Wonder what else I can find.”

Ultimately, the journey of radical authenticity is a sacred one, marked by the willingness to
embrace imperfection as a catalyst for growth. It’s a testament to the resilience of the human
spirit and the transformative power of self-awareness. As spiritual teachers and seekers walk this
path together, they create a space of compassion and understanding, rooted in the recognition of
our shared humanity.

It is understandable that modern awakened teachers look to the past as a guide for their
interactions with their students. This includes how their own teachers interacted with them. It is
also understandable that modern students and seekers look to the past as a guide for how “awakened”
people are supposed to act. Both, however, must be careful they aren’t wearing rose
colored glasses and make the effort to sift past the mythic perfection found, after all, in stories
usually told by “unawakened” admirers. The modern spiritual teacher must free herself from the
corrosive false expectations of a paradigm of perfection that never actually existed and never
served anyone, teacher or student, well.

As must the modern spiritual seeker.

I am calling for modern spiritual teachers to practice a radical authenticity with their students by
being completely open, honest, and transparent about the imperfections which continue to arise,
and for modern spiritual students to come to the spiritual relationship with a greater maturity.

You can deconstruct the ego like an onion, one layer at a time. Or, you can cut it down at the
roots, like a tree, in one fell swoop. But you still have to rake the leaves afterwards.