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Thursday, 3 October 2002
Spirituality and Abuse ::
A friend asked if I knew about Sai Baba. I didn’t, so Google filled me in a bit (search for “Sai Baba” or “Sai Baba Expose”).
I have to say, just knowing a little about human nature (and having pondered this during the series of news events about Roman Catholic priests), that there’s inherent danger in relationships where one person deliberately gives over his/her power to another ... and that it’s easy for these kinds of abuses to develop when the person in power has some kind of spiritual mantle. It’s almost like the cycle of family abuse in another venue—imagine a Roman Catholic priest, sexually repressed by the church’s teachings, made to feel powerless ... then when out of the watchful eye of his institutional keepers, over-compensates. It can’t be coincidence that this phenomenon of abuse eventually became recognized as an epidemic—where did it start?
And so it makes these allegations more easy to believe, though I wouldn’t judge the individual without having read a lot more.
I didn’t have to read much further to find something that concerned me - “Obeisances”:
The guru being the link to the Divine is invoked before any spiritual reading or practices are undertaken, by prayers of verses which expounds the teachers divine attributes and reminds us of Him. Thus seeming absent, He becomes present and the recipient of the prayer and giver of Grace.
This strikes me as the typical phenomenon of people worshipping the messenger or the signpost (great photo from Justin!), instead of just walking the path.
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1 comment
Thank you for the “musing.” I have tried for years to explain to people why I don’t believe in attending church, and why I don’t stand up for one religion over another. I have tried for years to explain to people that if we are all of God’s or Jesus’ family, then picking and choosing anything over plain and simple equality is futile, abusive, and a direct violation of the very principle that all of these religions profess to be upholding. I have also sought for years to find a way to live what I believe. Your brief musings, believe it or not, have just given me newfound strength. I had not lost my faith(s), but having to constantly put up with assaults against my form of spirituality had proven exhausting. I currently seek to find people of like mind as this seems to be the only way to continue my practice of faith without becoming drowned by the outpouring of spiritual banality and abuse perpetuated by people who are otherwise very loving, or very giving, or very understanding, but none very open minded or able to think critically for themselves about the ‘methods’ employed in what it is they profess to support. Again, Thank You very much for your musings. They have been recieved as a blessing, and are therefore in my opinion truly spiritual.
– Jessica, Friday, 8 September 2006, 19:49 PDT
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