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Unclassified Questions

1. Why is working with a teacher difficult?
    
   A teacher, just like everyone else, has divine and human aspects. Distinguishing between the two is a signature gift given to a superior student. Most students, however, slip and fall over this basic dilemma because they feel entitled to study with a perfect master but are incapable of recognizing perfection when they encounter it. Such students see a mundane paradox in the mystical union of Divine perfection dwelling in an ordinary human being.
   
   When we approach a spiritual teacher, we are also looking for a spiritual symbol and system to link up with, ideate upon, and merge into. This is one of the proper functions of a spiritual teacher as a representative of the unspoken, and one of the methods constituting the practice of guru yoga. This change of focus could be very disturbing to an ego which is set in its old ways.
   
   We may also expect to be nurtured by a perfect parent, or counseled by a perfect therapist. Some of this idealization is expected -- it is only natural to respect, even admire, your teacher. Yet our desire to meet Divinity in human form brings to us exactly that…We just want to ignore the human form.
   
   We may also think that the teacher will be eager to teach us without us being ready. Here we should be advised to contemplate the self-sealing nature of the path: "not ready" here implies no key to open the door.
    
2. How about smoking pot?
    
   First, I admit I have never tried it. But my friends and students who did say that smoking pot does make you happy, sleepy, laugh a lot, and feel like you're one with everything. It also makes you slow and stupid. They report that my pot is better: no need to smoke, no fire hazard, no dangerous side effects, nothing expensive to buy. Sa'dhana' is certainly the best addiction -- a great solution to all drug problems.
    
3. Why are most religious traditions against sex?
    
   A very effective way of controlling people is to make something natural feel wrong. Every society has used this method on its people.
    
4. Why are animals so much more intuitive than we are?
    
   Yes, the animals were not hurt by the recent tsunami. We humans overvalue our intellect. This causes us to be obsessed with rationality. Such a self-important fixation leads to a disconnection from the silent knowledge. Human life is an opportunity to have both. Neither devas nor animals have this opportunity. But a great opportunity is always a great challenge, as well.
    
5. I want to feel good. How can I be happy?
   
   Well, happiness can't happen without wisdom. Wisdom can't happen without patience. Patience comes with experience. Experience helps in understanding and asking the "right" questions. Once you know the questions, the answers are easy to find.
    
6. Why is the world's human population increasing so rapidly?
    
   Well, sociologically it is obviously due to collective stupidity: most societies are blind to the religious dogmas that dictate their procreation prerogatives. Metaphysically, some say the animals we kill incarnate as humans in order to have an opportunity to terrorize their tormentors. Notice how animalistic most humans are – perhaps it is their first time being human...
     
7. Is the experience of taking drugs and of meditating similar?
    
   No. Drugs are useful for spiritually dull people in need of a shake up. Meditation leads to a natural "high" that is the outcome of recognizing who we really are. This happens when we reconnect to the bliss that is at the core of our true being.
    
8. What is your view of consensus reality and cult formation?
    
   All of us live in consensus reality. Society, family, work, science are an obvious and important inevitability. Yet, society, family, work, and science socialize us and, frankly, brainwash us by imposing a particular worldview of reality. This conditioning also dictates a particular way of knowing as the only way to know. This "culture" is fanatical and limits the seeker. Dissent is punished through ostracizing, psychiatric diagnosis, imprisonment and even death. Therefore, consensus reality is an authoritarian fundamentalist religion -- if not in its intention then definitely in spirit.
   
   We are all willing or unwilling participants in this religion of consensus reality. We are conditioned to and obsessed with a particular way of experiencing reality and think this mode of perception is the only reality. Tantra yoga is a way to leave this consensus cult and introduce oneself to new limitless realities. Some think tantra yoga (or other mystic paths) leads to an altered state of consciousness; I think that being a cult member, whether of consensus reality or any other weird gibberish (fill in the blank), is, indeed, the real altered state. Thus, we want to recover the authentic state of being free from any obsessive fixation on any particular mode for perceiving reality.
    
9. Why does a sa'dhaka have to stick to a particular tradition?
    
   A living tradition that is capable of bringing us all the way to nonduality is still built out of relative building blocks. Think of a pyramid made out of components that are of a certain shape. The components, once stacked on top of each other in a particular order, lead to the top. One has to rise to the top and then grab the prize of nonduality. A tradition can teach you to rise to the top and just sit there without grabbing the prize. Another tradition may build another pyramid but from a different set of blocks. That pyramid may also help you reach to the top. However, if one uses one block from one tradition/system and another from another, there is a fair chance that they will not work together. Such a pyramid may become unstable and topple in the wind.
   
   Such a mix and match approach is common in the West, and has established itself as a dangerous but popular mode of navigating the spiritual supermarket. A better approach would be to study other traditions after one understands and is well established in one superior system.