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Fuzzy Signalsextracting the signal from the noise |
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Fuzzy Signalsextracting the signal from the noise |
While we understand that gurus are held sacred by many, they are also public figures deserving of scrutiny. Our primary aim is to inject a little humor into what can be an excessively self-righteous enterprise, and to illustrate the primary truth that no matter how divine their devotees believe them to be, gurus poop on the same pot we do.
This resonates because we both have had much experience in the guru-enabling business, albeit in the world of business intelligentsia not Yogis. (Admittedly, he more than me, having supported at least three gurus and counting!)
Personally, reflecting back on these experiences, I wonder about the sustainability of the "guru" model for personal development or as a vehicle for inspiration and action. Perhaps this is wishful thinking, but it's possible that in the business world at least we're starting to see a backlash to gurus as "the market" becomes saturated. A measured increase in skepticism is already apparent, and the very existence of this blog is a good indicator that self-corrections might be in the works. Indeed, there is much to deplore about the guru world: it's hype, hypocrisy, and most insidiously, the unreflective supplicant relationship it instills between the guru and disciple -- a relationship that tends to invite abuse and harm. A chilling example this abuse is recounted in this blog, Chinmoy Aborted Carlos' Kid.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with having teachers and mentors; I grant much good can come out of humbling yourself to another's wisdom and living within a disciplined structure, just as long as it doesn't diminish a person's dignity or their degrees of freedom in making their life's choices.
Yet can we imagine a world without gurus? It's a stretch isn't it? Humans crave answers; we crave being told what to do and how to do -- the S&M fetish market being an extreme case in point. As Time Magazine puts it in a special report on futurists (“Visions of Tomorrow”, October 11, 2004: 37-38):
We desperately need prophets, even false ones, to help us narrow the infinity of plausible futures down to one or at least to a manageable handful. We look at the present and we see the present; they see the seeds of the future. They are our advance scouts, infiltrating the undiscovered country, stealing over the border to bring back priceless reconnaissance maps of the world to come.
Most of us intuitively feel that the "world to come" is going to be quite different from our present existence. So this also might explain why the need for gurus seems to be proliferating across all aspects of our lives: from our spiritual needs to guidance about the next "killer app" to the latest food craze. No doubt this is an aggregate sign of people trying to cope the rapid pace of change. Despite the decades of postmodern thinking and experimentation, we still struggle with embracing and living with ambiguity and uncertainty, yet these are skills which the present and future will select for and reward. Then again, decades is nothing in the temporal scheme of things. Our current mental hardware and software, for instance, dates from a hunter-and-gathering era, so give it time to evolve.
Posted by nicole at March 19, 2005 04:44 PM