Spiritual Integrity - Thoughts on Karma and Ethics

By Philip Goldberg (ASI Board Member)

Originally posted on Substack

When I was researching Karmic Relief I came upon a number of opinions stating, in one iteration or another, that if more people believed that karma was a real thing, the world would be a far better place. That is, if people were truly convinced that laws of cause and effect were operative in the universe and we really do reap what we sow, they’d behave better. I mean, why lie, steal, exploit, and otherwise misbehave if it was going to come back to you in some form at some time?

I find that logical but naïve and borderline magical thinking.

In my experience, it’s quite true that when we take into account the possibility of karmic consequences we’re more likely to favor kind, generous, compassionate decisions over less righteous ones. But we humans don’t always think clearly when making our myriad spontaneous choices, and we have a great capacity for fooling ourselves and allowing instinct, desire, conditioning, and other shadow elements to override knowledge, goodness, and ethical precepts. If the Judeo-Christian threat of cosmic punishment, and the adjacent promise of celestial reward, do not guarantee morality, why would karma?

This became painfully clear to me when I researched my 2010 book, American Veda. I’d known that many of the spiritual teachers who came here from the East had misbehaved (to put it delicately), but I didn’t know quite how widespread and egregious the offenses (mainly sexual and financial) were. The chapter I devoted to the subject, “Sex, Lies, and Idiosyncrasies,” was the shortest in the book and the most difficult to write, partly because it was clear that even the most transgressive gurus also transformed a great many lives for the better and made important contributions to our understanding of spirituality.

The point here is, the teachers who misbehaved knew all about karma; many were the very ones who introduced the concept to the rest of us. (Yes, just as miscreant priests, ministers, and rabbis teach their flocks about morality; hypocrisy has no borders.)

I stand by the value of understanding karma and its implications, both on the individual and collective levels. That’s why I write and speak about it and teach courses like this. But fostering right action on a broad scale requires more than knowledge. Among other things, it requires firm commitment, oversight, and accountability. That goes for spiritual teachers and leaders especially (let’s set aside political, business, and other leaders for the moment). They’re who people turn to for ethical and moral guidance, who are called upon to elucidate concepts like karma for us, and who are expected to model right behavior. Sadly, too many have let us down in the past.

One of the responses to that realization is the Association for Spiritual Integrity, a non-profit on whose board I serve. ASI describes its purpose, in part, as “to support the growth and development of spiritual leaders and their communities by fostering integrity, compassion, and accountability.” It’s a membership organization open to all spiritual teachers and leaders who agree to abide by the ASI Honor Code of Ethics and Good Practice. The organization offers webinars on relevant topics, peer support groups, support for spiritual students, and other evolving services.

It just might be … dare I say it? … good karma to spread the word about ASI, to become a supporter, and to encourage anyone who functions in a spiritual leadership capacity to consider joining (it’s free).