The following is an excerpt from a letter we received a while back that we enjoyed. We felt you might enjoy it too:

Most teachers are very nice persons and for the most part very genuine in their enthusiasm and efforts on behalf of those before them in satsang or on retreats. Yet it seems to me that with most who set themselves up to teach there is something not quite right. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but perhaps one could say that what is lacking is a certain depth. What I mean by this is that they have many of the characteristics of a good preacher - good with words, good with inter-personal interaction and group dynamics. And quite skilled at moving people to tears or laughter. Their stories of meeting their own ‘masters’, of being burnt in the fire of truth as they call it, and maybe even naming themselves after some river in India in some effort to signify that they are no longer who they thought they were… all of this makes for wonderful stories. As do the cathartic experiences of ‘awakening’ popping up amongst eager devotees at satsangs. But what this has to do with the quiet at the center of one’s heart escapes me… Depth means absence of the presence of awareness of oneself - it seems to me that these stories and skill sets have nothing at all to do with this. This is not to take anything away from these folks, but rather to simply say that the quiet of a Ramana Maharshi, a Nisagardatta… is to my eye at least, missing from all of the current crop of teachers touring around giving satsang.

Teaching is a tricky thing - it can ensnare both teacher and student within invisible walls of reassurance. I have learned that it is possible to convince a class of almost anything if it is presented in the right way. To convince students that there are certain universal truths that cannot be demonstrated but only felt - is the easiest of all. It also helps to know a little NLP or other hypnosis techniques, which I might add several of the better known satsang givers have studied in detail. Sometimes too, a feedback loop can occur - where the teacher convinces the student who convinces the teacher who convinces the student and so on. A dynamic occurs where both are convinced of the rightness of what is being said and both reassure one another that they are uncovering and rediscovering truth. This is what I have seen occuring at many satsangs. Most seem to me to resemble churches - many are simply versions of preacher-accolyte relationships, a religion in all but name with the same ‘voluntary’ tithes at the door…

Over the last fifty years I have been very very fortunate in meeting two people who to me at least, were truly awake. Neither taught, wrote books, had followers, or had any interest in teaching. They did not use any of the pretty code words like ‘enlightenment’ or ‘lineage’ or such. Just ordinary people at ease and at peace.

I think in the west people like a show. And they tend to equate psychological relaxation and sudden intense experience with awakening. As you have pointed out, they are not necessarily the same. I feel it is very easy to set oneself up as a teacher, particularly during times of such intense societal duress. And even more so if one has a gift for the gab and believes oneself to be awake. Yet to me, ‘awake’ means that always and at every instant, there is no knowledge or awareness of a self, unique or otherwise. Anything else may be pretty, it may be blissful, it may be convincing, but it is false