On Spiritual Authority

Abstract

This article discusses the characteristics of pathology in spiritual groups, and distinguishes how leaders of such groups differ from those of more healthy groups that foster valuable personal and social change. However, external criteria alone are shown to be insufficient for this task. A further criterion is the involvement of the student in a legitimate self-knowledge discipline that sharpens perception and awareness, so that he or she can begin to discern whether the authority of the spiritual teacher is genuine or not. Of special importance in distinguishing genuine from fraudulent spiritual authority is the difference between submission, which is enslaving, and surrender, which can be empowering if it opens the student morefully to the needs of other people and the demands of life as a whole.

Just as a goldsmith gets his gold

First testing by melting, cutting, and rubbing,

Sages accept my teachings after full examination

And not just out of devotion to me.

Sakyamuni Buddha