On twisted minds

I am always taken aback by the way we people tend to loose our common sense when we get too much into interesting philosophies (like the non-dualist ones, or thos that proclaim there are two realities the absolute one and the relative etc). At some point we actually get to accept things that "normal" people whith their "normal" way of thinking would not. And we think this is very spiritual and elevated and that the others are delving in the dark waters of samsara, ignorance.
Let me give an example.
Some will say that when one is enlightened or reached some spiritual peak, they see the intricacies of reality, and they see for instance that killing in fact is not killing (Bhagavad-gita) and that harm isn't really harm and that basically everything can be done if one has this sort of perception. "Spiritual" masters, like the famous mahasiddhas, who pretended they were insane, drank alcohol, copulated with women of any social status etc. in order to prove that all this is relative thinking, that ordinary people are submitted to rules because they don't have the enlightened point of view on reality. Being Enlightened (or almost) allows you to do anything because you are above duality, beyond "good" and "evil".
Of course, there will be those "masters" who will say "Just because I'm allowed to do anything, it doesn't mean that i need them ", but then of course they do it anyway. Or if they don't, you realize it's not because they have this transcendental understanding, but because they're indoctrinated by their religion!!
This is highly fascinating a study, a pity it brings so much suffering to the ones around.
Like the Dalai Lama said (as reported by Martine Batchelor here) - please watch it!:) )at some point when he found out about the abuses some Tibetan masters had done, "Well, if they're so Enlightened, and gone beyond good and evil, why don't they eat shit and drink pee? Why is it the first thing they do is drink alcohol and sexually abuse women (beautiful women mind you!!! apparently, even in a transcendental state, enlightened men won't be attracted to unattractive females, sorry!) who try to follow their teachings?".
I totally agree! Why?
Because they are NOT enlightened and didn't understand anything that's really essential.
Look at Ramana Maharshi, Anthony de Mello and Eckhart Tolle : would they abuse women you think? Would they pretend they detain some secret, higher knowledge? No. Of course not.
After his enlightenment, Eckhart Tolle said he realised nothing he could ever obtain would ever add whatsoever to what he already had!
And did you notice the wonderful flow of freedom current that infuse their writing? How you get uplifted from them? Do you get that from Chogyam Thrungpa?
NO. Of course the latter is fascinating. But that's not the real deal as far as i'm concerned.
So you've got these great figures, Thrungpa, Sogyal Rimpoche, Karlfried Dürckheim, Krishnamurti who said these wonderful things and who ended up embodying the opposite of their teaching when they got close to their death or who created suffering because of their uncontrolled sexual drives.
I won't be bothered with them.
Give me Ramana, Tolle, Ma ANanda Moyi, Dipa ma, Mr and Mrs Batchelor, Munindra, they "will do" more than enough.
In Romanian we have a saying: "you should do what the priest says not what he does!" and it's so rooted in our psyché that we take this for a normal condition. And of course they justify this by the fact that they have some divine spirit with them which manifest irrespective of how the priest is! And People actually buy into it.

Anyway, let me get back to my original point. So "ordinary" people with "ordinary" vision get to understand intellectually how things on an ultimate level and go and apply that "understanding" to our "relative"/"ordinary" level. This is what allows them to accept that one can be an "enlightened" being and still abuse people or illicit substances. This reminds me of a point Stoppard made in his play "Jumpers" (excellent play!!!) that you can get a smart person to believe anything, you can sell a huge white canvas with a black dot in the center for an outrageous price just by explaining the intricacies of the philosophy behind the black point, whereas to a "stupid", uneducated human being you cannot, because they will still see a black dot on a white canvas (and not the origin of the universe before it embodied its myriad of potentialities).
I really feel this is what goes on within the spiritual market as well.
I say cling on common sense. Best protection ever.

See also Stephen Batchelor here.