My critique on Spiritual Teachers

[Joshe]

29 minutes ago, theleelajoker said:

For me it was always clear that my efforts - you can call it "spiritual work" or "tatawiggwanda" I don't care about the labeling - are directed towards personal well-being.

I did not attend Vipassana retreats to "awaken", or to find God. I attended them first and foremost because I had the impression that they increased my quality of life. Finding an unexplainable "something" you might call God happened as a side effect. 

Whoever put the idea in your mind that you have to "neglect your psychological well being for spiritual pursuit" is IMO an idiot. 

Haha, good point. Spirituality is supposed to produce well-being, not destabilize it. I wonder if your spiritual work is causing you chronic stress, then you’re simply not doing it right? 

It was causing me stress, so I stopped. One idea of spirituality is to be at peace, not with all, but with myself. I can see this would take dedication and work, which would compete with other priorities. Having competing priorities was a stressor for me. I decided that I’ll work towards it after I’m done playing my survival game, when I can devote my resources to it - hopefully, in the next 10-20 years I’ll start back on my tattiwigwanda. Lol. 

I intuit the bulk of the work is not “understanding”, but “letting go”. 

Edited 13 hours ago by Joshe

[theleelajoker]

2 hours ago, Joshe said:

Haha, good point. Spirituality is supposed to produce well-being, not destabilize it. I wonder if your spiritual work is causing you chronic stress, then you’re simply not doing it right? 

It was causing me stress, so I stopped. One idea of spirituality is to be at peace, not with all, but with myself. I can see this would take dedication and work, which would compete with other priorities. Having competing priorities was a stressor for me. I decided that I’ll work towards it after I’m done playing my survival game, when I can devote my resources to it - hopefully, in the next 10-20 years I’ll start back on my tattiwigwanda. Lol. 
 

Funny how you phrase it, with naming "chronic stress". Fits perfectly my experience.

There was a time last year where my activities did cause tremendous stress over ~ half a year. I suffered a lot and I couldn't meditate more then few minutes after a sth you might call destabilisation, breakdown, identity loss, dark night of the soul or whatever. Part of me had to die for others to emerge. Was no fun lol

People knowing me literallly asked me "is what your doing actually good for you?"

• At first, the answer was clearly "yes". I wanted to continue this path. And I did. Something dep inside told me to go on, don't know what or why 
• After a while, I said yes but was kinda lying to myself without fully realizing it
• Then I realized slowly that I was lying to myself. That my curve of well being took a sharp downward turn in the last months. 
• I went to my personal rock bottom. Lowest point of my life.
• I asked for help. Literally and metaphorically. I received it.
• Now, everything makes sense. I reap the benefits of the whole development curve. My life quality is significantly better then 1 year ago and increasing.

Won't go into details, but now I (believe to) understand the process I have been going through very well. It seems quite simple once I started to see clearly.

The error is IMO to believe that "survival" and "tattiwigwanda" are different directions, or conflicting goals, or different priorities.

I am 100% convinced that once you crossed the Rubicon, and you see reality as it is, it becomes incredibly and undeniably clear that's the VERY SAME THING. I dare to bet that once you can only intuit what I am pointing at you'll laugh out loud at the absurdity of separating these two concepts in the first place. 

Once I crossed a certain line, my attitude towards myself and my interactions with people change TREMENDOUSLY and irreversibly. And what's survival about? How you relate to yourself, and how you relate to others, and how these to relations are expressed within your chosen environment.

 

Edited 10 hours ago by theleelajoker

[Breakingthewall]

Spirituality is real, and each teacher has a particular vision, but in general, they all point toward the dissolution of the ego's barriers, toward being limitless.

Just as each teacher has a different vision, each person has a different process. The teachers tell you that dissolving the barriers is a possibility; something resonates within you, telling you that this possibility is real.

But to actually do it, to truly dissolve the barriers, is something only you can do. There is no "official" path. You must be an absolute sovereign and a pioneering explorer, and made your path

[Inliytened1]

On 1/17/2026 at 4:00 PM, Nick_98 said:

This critique goes to teachers like eckhart tolle, sadhguru, etc.. 

They try to neglect the fact that you’re a human, or at least inside that state of consciousness. They keep giving you advices on how to awaken how to enlighten etc.. but underestimate the fact that you are a human. Many treat being a human as something lesser important than their mission. 
 

ok i understand that you’ve acquired a higher state of consciousness, but what are the consequences for students like me ? 
 

I spent years of my life neglecting my psychological well being for spiritual pursuit. Your psychological well being is more important than your spiritual achievements. You were born to BELONG, to feel included, to be happy , to succeed socially and internally. Spiritual teachers neglect this side , they keep talking about the mind as something is wrong with it. They tell you life is suffering. That’s not true. Life is not suffering. Their outlook on life makes life a suffering playground. When you are constantly trying to escape your state of consciousness, which is beneath god of course you’ll be suffering. You’re damaging your psychological wellbeing by chasing something that requires a superhuman like Leo to achieve. 
why is this post ? 
This post is to remind you to not neglect your psychological well being. Your psychological well being is very important, for your overall functioning and YES you can be happy without gaining spiritual insights. I know a lot of people that are really happy and they never heard a word from eckhart tolle or sadhguru, some of them are even religious and some of them are blinded by lies but at the end of the day they are happy. Their psychological well being is not in trouble it’s intact. And THAT is what really matters. 
 

Living a safe psychologically well established life is the goal. Being Sane is the Goal. You would reap great benefits if you focus on your psychological well being first. Then you can sit and meditate but that should be secondary not primary.

Hope you have a good one  
 

Spirituality is not for the self, self improvement, or any of that. So these cats that want to improve you while awakening you..its bullshit. To awaken is to die.  To self improve is to get further from enlightenment.  Lets just get that straight.  A teacher like Leo is straight with you about both and brings both to you full force.    He is the real deal I can't speak for the others you mentioned.  I think Tolle is awakened but I haven't really seen his teachings.  Sadhguru might be but he mixed entertainment and personal development together with enlightenment.   To me that makes him just an entertainment spectacle. 

Edited 3 hours ago by Inliytened1

[Jodistrict]

This reminds me of Sadhguru:

"Teachers want to be popular and appear wise, so they answer whatever questions anyone thinks to ask, as if they were teaching the next generation of teachers rather than helping people wake up."     Jed McKenna