Against the Perfect Teacher

By Ray Bratcher

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Author’s Note: I wish to thank Rick Archer, host of Buddha at the Gas Pump and founding member of the ASI, and his friend Steve Wolk, for including me in the e-mail exchange which gave rise to this article. Many of the insights herein are theirs and any oversights undoubtedly mine. I should probably also note here that although I am on the Board of Directors for the ASI ,the opinions expressed herein are entirely mine and that I am not speaking for the ASI in anyway.

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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 in authenticity, 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 o four 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.