Get Inspired Without Becoming a Slave to Spiritual Teachings

I would understand if followers of a guru felt a sense of relief as well as sadness when their teacher dies. It must be easier to adore a dead spiritual master than one who could trigger a scandal at any second.

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never felt suckered by a spiritual teacher who later fell from grace. It must hurt. There have been a few that didn’t quite live up to their own standards, or failed to follow their own advice, but I’ve always been more interested in the teaching rather than the teacher.

I once feared that my inability to sit at the feet of a guru and gaze up with adorning eyes was a bad thing. Why did I have to be so cantankerous? Why did I need to question everything? Why couldn’t I just listen, follow, and shut up?

Then there is my inability to strictly follow a teaching. I prefer to adapt things to fit my own sensibilities. I see connections between the various spiritual paths and even completely different subjects! Perhaps I was brainwashed by those Burger King advertisements that repeatedly told me to ‘have it your way’.

The idea that there is one path that everyone needs to follow sounds delusional to me. Call me a heretic, but the way I see it, all teachings come from flawed human beings just like you and me. I don’t assume that because a person lived hundreds or thousands of years ago, it means they were somehow closer to the gods or to the Truth. It might be true, but I can’t know that, and because I don’t know that I can’t trust it.

I truly believe that each one of us humans is on their own unique journey. The Buddha’s last words were, ‘be a light unto yourself’, and for me, this is the best advice ever given by a spiritual teacher. Sure, the teachings are there to inspire us, but the answer we are really looking for is inside ourselves, and it looks different for each one of us.

I once made a vow to remain a Buddhist for the rest of my life, but I regretted this decision almost as soon as I made it. At the time I wanted to commit myself to something, but for me, a teaching is the wrong thing to commit to.

My loyalty had to be to my own well-being, and it was a mistake to put any teaching before that. As it turned out, Buddhism did play a significant role in my search for well-being, but my Buddhist vow went the same way as my Catholic confirmation vow, and I have no regrets about either.

I see spiritual teachings as something to riff-off, something to spark our imagination, rather than become a slave to. This way we can benefit from them without having to worry about defending them or become disillusioned with them. We can learn from teachers without become part of any cult. With this attitude we may even learn something from disgraced teachers who may still have had something interesting to say – after all, even a broken clock is right twice a day.