Lord Buddha in Crisis -Spiritual Branding (Part 3)

Like the pampered life that parallels the early life of Siddharta, enjoying the carnal pleasures in his father’s palace, it’s natural for us in this present time to want to be happy and avoid suffering. Because of this, we employ psychological defenses to deny life’s realities, especially loss and death — that of our loved ones, or our own. There are many choices of defenses out there with the most popular being God and spirituality. Those who are deeply religious deny there is an existential crisis because faith brings with it the achievement of an after-life. For these people, life is not limited but continues for all eternity. But then, there are those who seem to have greater difficulty denying the fact of death.

Just like Siddharta’s quest two and a half millenia ago, it’s all too common today that we look around to try and find a guru or spiritual master who “sells” a teaching. To these teachers, that is their product, and they act exactly as sales people do in acquiring consumers who support their holy enterprise. Though health benefits, trancendental well-being, and unending bliss are what all these gurus and ‘masters of destiny’ profess, some have made it to the headlines for the controversy they create, like financial irregularities, sexual abuse and, sometimes, even murder. Often they grow very wealthy themselves by promising things that they never deliver. Cash rich devotees is preferred, especially those who are ever so happy to pass on some charitable donation.

To those seeking “spiritual solutions” in overcoming the incessant drive in avoiding confronting uncomfortable feelings, unresolved wounds, and fundamental emotional and psychological needs, spirituality could turn out to be a self-sabotaging ego trap — with many not realizing it till many years later that they willfully got conned on someone else’s ego power trip. Staying too long in a “spiritual” crisis could also mean that you are making a meal of it — using the crisis itself to reinforce your sense of self — or else that it has just become a mental habit.

The plain fact is that if you don’t have a problem, you create one. If you don’t have a problem, you don’t feel that you are living. If any guru thinks he can help you, he will inevitably mislead you. The more phony he is, the more powerful he is. The more “enlightened” he claims to be, the more misery and mischief he will create for you.

Sometimes you don’t really need advice, you just need to hear your own voice. We always seek for answers outside of ourselves, but that’s not where answers live. Ultimately, you are your own Guru. Start being one early in life.

Lord Buddha in Crisis -The Flashpoint of Realization (Part 2)
April 9, 2020
Lord Buddha in Crisis -Word Play (Part 4)
April 9, 2020