THE CORRUPTION OF SPIRITUALITY
Last year whilst in Ibiza on our Seven Directions Advanced Breathwork Retreat, we all took a day off to go down to the famous hippie market in Las Dallias. Whilst there, we saw a ‘saddhu’ meditating quietly on a wall with tons of passers by leaving euros on his discretely placed cloth. I wondered at the time what could have brought this mystical guru to Ibiza, but didn’t think much more of it until we were leaving the town.
We had stopped to eat and as we were making ready to return to our cars and the retreat space, we passed the main car park, we saw the ‘saddhu’ cleaning his face and getting changed into western clothes, his long man bun tied back up and his body language indicating he was definitely trying to stay hidden! His whole persona had been a money making ‘scam’ playing on people’s naivety and goodwill.
This story is not unusual though. Yesterday whilst travelling over to Mexico to be with one of my main teachers right now, Abuela Martha Pico, I spent the flight listening to the Toltec wisdom of the Ruiz family, in which Don Jose/Jossay and Don Miguel Ruiz Jr were speaking about the corruption of spirituality. These days, spirituality has become a competitive sport: I’m more spiritual than you, I have done more ayahuasca journeys than you, I’ve studied with more Amazonian shamans than you, I’ve purged into more buckets than you, so therefore I am more evolved. Is this true? No!
Sitting around the breakfast table this morning, I was shocked to hear some of the ways that people who have met the Abuela have similarly used this connection as a false endorsement of their own work, some having gone as far as to ‘fund raise’ for charitable causes that are absolutely nothing to do with her! Go onto Tik Tok and you’ll find over 3o accounts all saying they are Abuela Martha, many of which are asking for money, your money, and none of which are actually linked to the Abuela.
If I’m being honest, I too have leaned on my connections to great teachers in the past, but always a little voice inside asked me ‘is this expressed connection a true reflection of your own wisdom’ and eventually, when the no was to big to ignore, I stopped.
Toltec teachings ask us not to believe our teachers, not to believe others, and most of all, not to believe ourselves (which is VERY different to believing in yourself on a self worth level). When we begin to recognise our own wisdom, the wisdom we carry in our hearts from our own lived experiences, we don’t need to ‘borrow’ the wisdom of others to prove worthiness. We speak from the heart as carriers of our own stories, and we learn from others with humility.
We are being called in these times to unlearn all that we have learned in the process of our successful domestication. We are being called back to the heart to find our own truth, a truth led by stopping the habit of using our word against ourselves and instead, finding our own capacity to live and love well. This time we have on earth is short!
Are you going to waste your precious life handing over your own authority to the authority of others?
Are you going to pretend to be that guru whilst still living behind a mask of false knowledge and insecurity.
Are you going to ignore your own conscience until it’s too late.
You don’t need eagle feathers, ceremonial white robes, and a seat at the top of the table to know your own power, you just need to feel it. Then, all the paraphernalia means nothing as you just radiate an inner wisdom that is unbreakable.
