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What Makes A Bad Ashram?
Exploring the art and science of spiritual materialism
In the 1960s onward many students of you went to Ashrams in India and in America for advanced training. By the end of the twentieth century, many dark hidden truths about many ashrams and monasteries had come to the surface. The practice of bowing to, worshipping, and deifying teachers, drunken poets, and so-called masters was common. Sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement of monastery affairs, and generally poor behavior had become acceptable and these led to many scandals involving respected and important teachers. In recent decades many of these spiritual communities have come to struggle with their own “self-medicating” issues. The joke told concerning this is pattern is “meditation — 5:00 AM, self-medication — 6:00 AM, Alcoholics Anonymous — 7:00 AM.”
The source of much of this drama and unnecessary struggle comes partly from the idea that spiritual masters transcend all good and evil. Many spiritual seekers base their practices on teachings that evolved in a time when Monasteries were disconnected from the ordinary life of society. As profound as these traditions can be, the inner politics within monasteries were often horrifically violent and competitive. In the past and even today moral precepts were considered very important for students to follow, but masters were allowed…
