"Yes, Mrs. Presky" – a post inspired by Ken Wilber’s continued endorsement of Adi Da Samraj (Da Free John) and failure to denounce him despite acknowledging his problematic behavior. Clever closing invokes Firesign Theater bit.
Posted to
Shambhala Ken Wilber Forum in 1998 (and revised)
As the millennium approaches, I find myself reflecting upon just how screwed up
a lot of the search for eastern-style “enlightenment” in this country has proven
itself to be. All of the phony gurus out selling themselves are a plague on
society, of course, but what about the non-guru intellectuals who promote them?
Among the leading proponents of the new age quest, there are those like Ken
Wilber who no longer see any problem with a belief system that permits them to
acknowledge someone as an enlightened spiritual adept even when that
person is known to be blatantly abusive to himself and others.
Wilber thinks Adi Da's books are extraordinary works evidencing unprecedented
spiritual development on the part of their author. Yet he gives no consideration
to the possibility that Adi Da's teachings, largely borrowed from others, might be
just a bunch of fanciful nonsense, or that they might reflect his broad
knowledge base and creative talents rather than his own Divine Realization.
Worse yet, Wilber rationalizes Adi Da’s problematic behavior by explaining it as a
legitimate form of spiritual instruction, even when it’s totally out of line
with basic human ethics and human responsibility. Wilber just doesn't get it.
Wilber is not by any means alone in his error. The highly esteemed Jack
Kornfield dedicated his most recent book, “A Path with Heart” to Chogyam Trungpa,
the Adi Da of Buddhism. Trungpa was notoriously abusive, and behaved in
particularly disturbing ways when he got drunk, which he apparently did on a
habitual basis. His out of control habits contributed to his premature death,
and others following in his footsteps met similar fates. Of course, Trungpa
wrote books that some consider deeply insightful, but interesting ideas don’t
equate to spiritual maturity. To accept Trungpa as a spiritual realizer
requires one to accept all kinds of rationalization for his lifestyle that
fly in the face of the obvious.
What's wrong with these people like Wilber and Kornfield? Something is amiss. Something is mixed up. Their common sense goes AWOL in the presence of a person with charisma and a knack for expressing himself. There's a huge blind spot in these guys that keeps them from seeing the glaring failure of their whole version of “esoteric” spirituality. Why?
Their initial high hopes for eastern spirituality and gurus in the west, like many of ours, didn’t pan out quite as expected. We were all naïve in the beginning. But unlike those of us who didn’t make a career out of the spiritual search, they had a lot to lose if they admitted that they were mistaken, fooled, and misled. So instead, they just learned to put a different spin on what enlightenment looks like. They accepted the idea that it was possible to be a complete screw-up on a human level, yet at the same time be one of the most enlightened beings in history and be worthy of the devotion of spiritual aspirants.
They were willing to keep supporting the guru game and the search for eastern-style enlightenment, even though it wasn’t producing the results we all hoped for, and the “enlightened” gurus turned out to have feet of clay.
This is not
particularly surprising, since these new age scholars, like the gurus, had
carved out a niche for themselves where their egos were endlessly fed and they
had achieved a certain level of notoriety. They were able to make a living
talking and writing about transcending the ego, while their own egos just grew
and grew. What better way to feel superior and important (while saying you’re
not doing that), than to play the role of leaders and heralds of a new spiritual
age. The whole trip is all about egotism run wild; that and the lust for power,
the lust for fame, and the lust for approval -- all disguised as the revelation
of truth and service to mankind.
The end game of their version of the search for enlightenment is a subjective,
unobservable change in consciousness that they claim equates to
ego-transcendence and awakening to “capital C” Consciousness, which is prized
above all else in their belief system. And not only just "prized," but the
ultimate and final source of Truth itself, a source that they themselves and an
elite few have
unique access to, with all of the attendant social status and power over others
that this Divine access gives them.
How convenient for these gurus, whose livelihood depends upon their ability to seem enlightened to at least a small constituency, that the criteria and evidence for their realization are by their own definition elusive and essentially hidden from the view of those who are not also enlightened themselves. No need to transform observable behavior patterns, nor to worry about ethics or morality, or to live a successful and productive life. These changes are relegated to a lesser level of importance, and according to Wilber and his ilk are secondary to “transcendence” – which Wilber apparently believes can be aided by subjecting oneself to the domination or even abuse of a guru like Adi Da.
If the version of enlightenment that these guys are selling doesn’t manifest itself in an identifiable way in the observable, human dimension, then how does one validate a claim to have achieved it, and what’s its value even if they have? Anyone can make a claim to this kind of enlightenment, since there’s no objective requirement to be met. It seems that all we really have to go on in evaluating a claim of this type is the “enlightened” person’s own testimony, and our own “unenlightened” intuition about something we are told we are incapable of grasping. What we are left with comes down to pure faith.
Not only just faith, but faith that can be easily tainted by projection, wishful thinking, and the pervasive human tendency towards hero-worship in the domain of religion and elsewhere. This is the type of faith that opens the door to cultism, as we have observed repeatedly in recent years. How many devotees of “enlightened” gurus in the West have fallen prey to harmful deceptions, and have suffered the consequences accordingly?
Even if we allow, for the sake of argument, that these gurus have actually gone through some kind of change in consciousness that they are labeling as enlightenment, is this something we would want to aspire to? Do we really want to become more like Adi Da or a Chogyam Trungpa, in some fundamental respect? Is it really worth a lifetime of “spiritual practice” to try and end up where they are? In my view, that’s like devoting one’s life to the attempt to catch a serious disease.
These guys are egotistical, power-hungry people with serious character flaws who just happen to have been articulate spokesmen for a particular brand of spiritual philosophy. Good salesmen? Yes. Exemplary human beings, worthy of veneration, enlightened masters you should turn your life over to? Not in my book.
The most arrogant gurus (like Adi Da) are selling the belief that they continuously operate from an extraordinary perspective that allows them to transcend the illusions that bind the rest of us. While many of us “unenlightened” folks have had temporary experiences that bare some resemblance to an ego-transcendent state, while stoned or in a moment of epiphany, these spiritual big shots claim to be there all the time. Not only that, they make the highly questionable assertion that they can miraculously help others to get into that same space.
But for all their promises about awakening devotees to a direct experience of “witness consciousness” or whatever they may call it, all they really have to offer is adherence to just another belief system. It’s a belief system that elevates certain alleged subjective transformations in consciousness to the status of Truth itself. Even if the process of transformation or direct gnosis itself does not require any type of belief, it is true that in order to interpret it the proponents of enlightenment invoke all kinds of extremely speculative beliefs about its meaning, significance and ontological status.
In any event, an examination of the traditions and the testimony of all but the most deluded devotees (and gurus) shows that for virtually everyone enlightenment remains forever a future goal and something they have not yet achieved themselves. It is something they believe is possible because of the testimony of the gurus, and perhaps because of momentary intuitions they have had but can’t sustain. It’s no different from believing there’s a heaven you go to after death, or any other kind of religious belief.
And what has this approach to spirituality produced in the West? A lot of cultism and an obnoxious fixation on subjective internal processes (real or imagined), along with the obsessive quest for an illusory and ill-defined goal of “ego transcendence.” Most of the self-obsessed westerners who have lined up at the feet of so-called masters have had more in common than they’d like to admit with shoppers seeking the excitement of buying the latest must-have product, or druggies indulging in their substance of choice. It’s all about looking for a cure or distraction from the difficulties of our daily lives.
In the end,
the hopeful and desperate search for relief, through esoteric spirituality or
consumerism, brings only moments of temporary satisfaction. None ultimately
escape the creative challenge of making peace with their own frail humanity,
including the brute fact that they experience this world through the dualistic
lens of “self” and “not-self,” forever separate, regardless of what they choose
to believe (or what is really “true”) about the nature of reality.
While the seeker is still distracted in his pursuit of awakening, however, and
the guru has been elevated to a status where his behavior is above question, the
door is open for the guru to exploit the seeker as he sees fit. And that’s
exactly what Adi Da and Trungpa have done, regardless of what it is they
originally set out to do. Their interests in spirituality, coupled with a desire
for power, evolved into careers for them that didn’t look much different from
sophisticated “con” schemes – although they dressed themselves up in the
language and imagery of eastern spirituality and pop psychology. New age wolves
in sheep’s clothing.
Do you remember the Firesign Theater from the 1970s? They were a group of four
wackos who did drug oriented comedy and were very funny sometimes. They did a
routine where a lady named Mrs. Presky was a contestant on a TV game show. After
she won a bunch of money, the slick game show announcer offered her a chance to
trade all the money for whatever was behind door #2. Mrs. Presky went for it,
expecting to win something really great. Behind the door was a nice gift bag,
which she unwrapped and opened up. Seeing the contents, she exclaimed in shock,
"Oh … why ... why this is a bag of shit!" The slick announcer enthusiastically
replied, "But it’s really GOOD shit, Mrs. Presky.”
Well, there you have it. Wilber and Kornfield, Adi Da and Trungpa. Really good
shit.