Response & Apology on the Post About Sadhguru
The majority of this post is just an edited transcript from a video response I made. Though the one thing I didn’t include is maybe most important and will just come here at the top:
What am I actually apologizing for? I’m not apologizing for defaming a guru. Actually, the text along with the video I posted was copied and pasted from someone else who shared the video. It didn’t link them by default and I didn’t know if they wanted to be tagged so I carried on. I don’t know if all of these claims he wrote about Sadhguru were true but I do know he illegally built over very important grounds for endangered elephants to build his center, I’ve heard him say some toxic stuff, and I didn’t resonate with his energy from day 1.
The part I definitely feel to apologize for is this: “If somebody is really into this guy it’s probably a red flag.”
And I’m sorry for this because someone who follows a teacher often doesn’t know nor see everything about a teacher, or they choose to see past it because what they are getting from the teacher is deep and valuable to them.
This comes to this controversial notion: can you separate the teacher from the teachings?
And basically this entry here is saying just that: we have to learn to not separate the teacher from the teachings, but at least distinguish between that which is Divinely spoken/purely channeled from a teacher and that which is negative beliefs and ego.
I don’t believe there are any perfect people out there. Immediately dismissing someone because they follow a teacher who has done something harmful is missing a lot.
Almost all of my teachers have had distorted human egos and have done harmful things in some way. I don’t throw them out of my life and discard their teachings because of it, because that energy and wisdom changed my life. It took me a long time to learn to not “throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
Maybe I’ll be on a different trend at some point, though for the most part I’ve been leaning towards more criticism than celebration directed towards major mainstream teachers because I think we’re still letting people get away with too much and really people live under this illusion of perfect people. They get caught up in the story that enlightenment and wisdom must be so far away and idolize celebrity gurus they don’t fully know while dismissing others in their immediate vicinity under this silly distorted notion that there are perfect people and teachings somewhere out there. This notion that their guide must be perfect in every way and cannot be a subject of criticism enables these figures to continue to do toxic things.
Is it certainly not traditional to have such a critical eye to supposedly sacred teachers?
Correct. It’s not traditional. Though those of us who have been involved in the spiritual community long enough have to be honest about how much abuse of power has gone on and recognize the traditional acceptance and subservience does not help us in a world where there has been so much deep abuse done by those bring through real wisdom and healing energy to the world.
So is it a red flag if someone follows one of these distorted spiritual teachers? No.
But it is definitely a red flag if they are unwilling to look at the shadows, blind-spots, and short comings of these teachers.
While there are certainly different levels of self-realization or vibration, we are all One and the One Source/God is in everyone. And no matter how deeply connected with that God someone is, if they inhabit a human body, they’re subject to the duality and shadow of human incarnation.
Ok, so unto the transcript from the video that is my initial response after reading all of the comments and messages that were sent after this initial share:
Hey everyone, Dante here, hope you’re having a great day. This video is a response to a response to a post about a particular guru that I reshared.
I want to start on this note by saying that we need to get rid of the notion of perfect people and I deeply accept that we are in the realm of duality. And this isn’t even something that is accepted in the modern fabric of certain spiritual traditions. But it’s nonetheless, very much it’s true that we are all human. And so when the solar aspect, the aspect of the light and the power within us gets really, really bright and really, really strong and somebody becomes this very influential public figure, often, the shadow gets amplified as well. And there’s no guru teacher teaching out there that is perfect. And that also doesn’t make all of their teachings and everything that they’re doing wrong.
To me these gurus or teachers are channels to this higher wisdom. This higher wisdom is something that is written about in spiritual books from time from for long, for a long time, it’s been known about, it’s been talked about. And all of this is essentially channeled, it’s a deeper wisdom that exists in the fabric of the universe itself. And anyone can be a channel for that wisdom. And just because they go into that state in which they’re connected with universal wisdom, doesn’t mean they’re not going to go out into the world and enter into a different state and enter into a different mode when that with different circumstances. So the same is true. For me, it’s very much true for me, I am a channel I’m channeling these guides that work with with me and through me. But we’re very different. I’m having my own life experience. And that’s part of the reason why I love channeling so much is because first of all, I know a lot of the things that I speak about what I channel, but when I’m channeling it comes through in a much clearer and more concise way. And also it leaves room for there to be this space between the message and energy I’m bringing and me as a human being and as a persona.
I do my best to be as transparent. I can be about my humaneness and my mistakes and My Shadows. And there’s videos on YouTube as well, I don’t do that as much on YouTube as I do on Facebook, just because I feel like YouTube isn’t really set up for that in the greatest way. And it’s not what I’m really interested in doing here. But on Facebook, I post about it from time to time. And I make mistakes, I made some mistakes a couple days ago, I’m gonna make some mistakes again. There are still negative beliefs and patterns within me as much as there are positive ones, I’m working my stuff out.
You don’t have to be perfect to be a teacher, though. I think we all want that perfect person, almost like the fantasy of a perfect parent we create when we are children to be there for us and to show us the way. But so far, I don’t see them. And I don’t think they exist. Even when I even my teachers have a lot of big blind spots. I don’t need them as teachers anymore. That doesn’t mean I don’t honor and respect the time we had together. But for example, one of my greatest teachers definitely violated some people and crossed their boundaries. One of my greatest teachers also spreads information that isn’t true and is misleading and harmful to some people and keep certain people in this healing trap where they instead of going off and getting better they stay attached to him as a teacher. And, and this is alarming stuff. And I talk about this with the people who need to hear it. And none of that discards the truth that they are sharing and have shared. They were channeling it. They were bringing it through for the people that needed to hear it. And so that was just The way it had to unfold.
If we want to see teachers who are more accountable, we have to hold them accountable. And we have to be accountable ourselves and be willing to show up and give visibility to our shadow components, as well. That is creating a new trend, it’s putting a new energy out into the world so that that energy can repeat itself and spread. And in order to do this, you have to be willing to accept that duality of being a perfect spiritual being and being a flawed human at the same time. And it’s actually not that difficult to do that.
However, a lot of these spiritual teachers don’t do that, and don’t show up as a vulnerable human self. And they often put themselves on pedestals. Now, this isn’t so much about Sadhguru, as it is about accepting this, that these are flawed humans, and being able to be open minded when somebody calls into question, someone that you cherish as a teacher. And also, when you see these truths that can sometimes be very shocking about a teacher being spread out there, that you don’t throw out all of the teachings and you don’t make all of these teachings wrong.
I’m going to say just a couple words on Sadhguru. I don’t like the guy. That’s it. I saw his image, and I listened to some of his words, and I just was like, “Okay, this isn’t my teacher,” it just didn’t resonate. And when I was in India, I talked to different Indian people who did say negative things about him and said that he was a sort of Hollywood teacher that was just for these more upper caste, upper class people. And that in creating his center, he disrupted the natural habitat of many elephants. It was an elephant sanctuary, and that he just basically didn’t care and said, “This is where we’re building the center anyway.” Articles online share this was done illegally.
So this is all that I’ve heard about him. I was my feeling that this person is not right for me, and this person might be kind of off. And then I heard what are the people who I pretty much resonated with in all areas of conversation had to say, and then I saw somebody sharing some extra details. And I was like, “oh, cool, you know, that’s validating this intuitive feeling I have about this person.” And what I didn’t write with that post is that, well, maybe this person has some great teachings.
And I want you to see the way that I conceptualize things, just because somebody does horrible things, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have a very intelligent mind, or they don’t have a deep spiritual connection. And some people are going to be like, shocked when they hear this and trying to wrap their minds around this is going to be something devastating or impossible. But I really mean it when I say it, that you can be both brilliant and amazing and horrible and toxic at the same time. And when you can really go deep into the acceptance of this, you will really deeply accept the duality of our human experience. And that will actually be the thing that helps you to lift yourself up out of being limited by the physical duality, more than anything else. We can’t go beyond something until we accept it. And by and large, people have not accepted that so many of these spiritual teachers are really flawed human beings.
And there’s the other camp of people that see them as these very flawed human beings and therefore can’t accept anything they’re saying to be true. When I discovered this myself and kind of realized that most of these people out there don’t have all of the pieces put together and I’m gonna wait till I find somebody who has it all together. And if you do that, you’re going to wait forever so I did encounter some new teachers that I’m working with him studying with at the time, and sometimes horrible stuff comes out of their mouthes. There’s some ideas that they have shared that are not resonant with me and I think, keep the world in a stuck place. And I am choosing not really to challenge them on it. Because I’m just at this point, seeking to learn what it is I’m seeking to learn from them, it isn’t my job to change their opinions about things. There’s things that they know that I don’t know. And I’m there to learn them. However, when it comes to a really big public figure, or when it comes to somebody who’s literally causing harm to others, because this example I’m giving them, the teachers I’m working with, they simply say things that I think, create toxic energies in the world, and they’re not actually directly abusing people. If they were someone that’s actually abusing people, then we need to raise our voices about that, anyway.
But when it comes to these big public figures, we need to bring awareness to their shadows and to bring awareness to the things that aren’t working with them. If we don’t, then we perpetuate this consciousness of putting people on pedestals and idolizing people and imagining fantasizing that perfect people exist. And, and this is something that I find flawed as well within this Indian spirituality, because there’s this concept that some of these people are not even people. Their soul is already liberated, that they are just the Supreme Soul, the Supreme God, enacting itself through the person,
They say this about Amma, but then people also say that, and when they get really in close in the inner circle with Amma, that sometimes she snaps and anger at her followers, and that sometimes she puts things in people’s heads to hook them to her to create a bond that is like an attachment to her. And this is something that so many teachers will do, as well as that they want to create attachments to their followers, so that it’s something that keeps them energetically bound. And we need to have awareness of all of these types of things. And as I say this, I’m not saying that Amma isn’t an actual saint, and an amazing teacher and a powerful energy. I’ve hugged Alma, and I felt something move in me. And I feel something through her presence and portraits and when people call her energy, and so she is that. And she also still snaps at people and does some things that we can question. We can question.
And when I say I’m not questioning my teacher now, it’s simply because all I’ve seen happen is opinions I don’t agree with and opinions I think are harmful. If there was something actually toxic being played out in the space, I would say something and I’m open to doing that right now. But anyway, and can we really open ourselves to this understanding that people can be clear channels for wisdom, but they can also be toxic humans. It is difficult for somebody to reach that high level of recognition and fame and not let the negative parts of their human nature caused them to act in distorted ways. Doesn’t mean that they’re any less spiritual, and it doesn’t mean their teachings are wrong. But if we don’t question them and question the things that we don’t like, then we are not really having a complete holistic awareness. I really challenge anyone who thinks that there are perfect teachers and perfect beings out there to open your mind to how much you judge yourself and how much you criticize aspects of yourself that are spiritual or aren’t spiritual. Because I think this comes into play a lot when we have this sort of deep sense that there is a state of perfection. And there’s also a notion that “I’m not there yet, and I should be there.”
What if there isn’t a state of perfection? What if we can keep getting better and better, but we’re always going to have a shadow? And what if shadow exists within everybody, and therefore, we don’t look for a lack of shadow, we look for the authenticity of teachings. Maybe Sadhguru’s teachings are brilliant. They could be, I’m not interested, so I’m not gonna find out. And also, I’m making this video because I got so many responses and am I interested in responding to all of them, I don’t have the time. Part of me following my highest excitement, as it comes to social media is getting more and more comfortable recognizing that I just don’t have the time to respond individually to every little thing that comes in. But this is my overall response. And I think this is what people need to hear that it can be this and it can be that. And the criticism is necessary as much as the admiration and the resonance and integration of powerful teachings as necessary. We can be open minded and critical at the same time, we can be open hearted and critical at the same time. And we can recognize that no amount of spiritual work or racist the human and I think anyone who claims that is claiming something very distorted. So that is the little message and let me know what you think. And I’ll maybe get back to you and maybe I won’t, it depends if it’s exciting for me. Okay, have a great day, everyone.
Dante StarShine 