MYSTIC MARKETING: Some Musings about Spiritual Predators

    Why be a guru
    if you can be a super-star?
    or work with a few devotees
    if you can reach millions from afar?

    Why stick to simple truths
    when so many prefer the bizarre?
    or claim to be mortal
    when people want an Avatar?

    Why encourage self-reliance
    when it's more profitable to be tutelar?
    or permit critical debate
    if your views can seem beyond par?

    The temptations of holiness are too great:
    it's better to be an ordinary person
    than to spiritually predate.


Bhäraté: Good point! Many so-called gurus, lamas, rabbis or imams are spiritual predators.

An-Yi:   There are wolves in sheep's skins in all professions, but spiritual advisors 
         who abuse their authority are especially pernicious.

Daiki:   (holding up a beer). Yep! I'll drink to that.


=====================================================================================
from _Pan-Asian Pulses: Poetry, Art, and Dialogs about Asia_ by T Newfields 
SUMMARY:  Some thoughts about the dangers of false gurus and personality cults.
KEYWORDS: cult awareness, spiritual predators, new age marketing, occultism, false spirituality,
          "spiritual" greed, cult networks

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955) 
Begun: 1996 Shizuoka   ≜ Finished: 2016 Shin-Taipei
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted 

< LAST    https://www.tnewfields.info/BambooGroves/guru.htm
  TOC     https://www.tnewfields.info/BambooGroves/index.html
  NEXT >  https://www.tnewfields.info/BambooGroves/cult.htm

TRANSLATIONS 

ESPAÑOL:  https://www.tnewfields.info/es/roshi-p.htm
NIHONGO:  https://www.tnewfields.info/jp/roshi-ko.htm
ZHŌNGWÉN: https://www.tnewfields.info/zh/laoshi.htm