Sadly it does not surprise me, all the reports coming out about so-called “spiritual gurus” shaming, dehumanising and even sexually abusing their students… and often in the name of ‘Truth’. (What kind of ‘Truth’ could make people so unkind?)

I’ve been saying this for years:

The more ‘perfect’ and ‘calm’ and ‘transcendent’ someone appears to be on the outside, the more internal chaos and mess they may simply be repressing, hiding from view.

You see, all that is unhealed, unconscious, unseen and unloved and unmetabolised within us, will inevitably end up pulling the strings in our lives and hurting our loved ones and those closest to us. All our repressed humanity, all the silenced voices of shame and fear within us, all the rage and grief we numb in order to maintain our image of “the nice one”, or, worse, “the enlightened one”, all of this material will end up making us cruel and unkind and manipulative if it’s not acknowledged, if we don’t take full responsibility for it.

All of our unmet trauma, all our squished ‘darkness’ will lead us to overpower and control others, shame them, call them names, blame them, and invalidate their pain, in our search for relief.

We will simply stop listening.

No matter how “enlightened” we are.

No matter how many followers we have, no matter how many ashrams we run, no matter how high up we are in the spiritual lineage.

We will run from our own loneliness and doubt, and play “The One Who Knows”.

Until we discover our true spiritual power:

This open, vulnerable, tender and honest, messy and achy and mostly broken, brilliantly and completely whole human heart.

The heart that connects, the heart that forgives, the heart that cares.

– Jeff Foster