58: What is your take on people who appear to be making money selling a path to enlightenment?(other than a book)

I believe that anyone who has attained enlightenment understands that it can’t be bought, sold, or given away, for that matter. Also, attaining enlightenment does not guarantee someone’s character because people can change.

This is a very complex question so I think I’ll use myself as an example: I believe that I’m blessed to have had my experience of enlightenment, out of appreciation I sacrifice some of my time to share what I have found out. The amount of time that I have to spend sharing/helping/answering questions is limited because I need an income in order to support myself. It turns out that I like this kind of work much more than I like my ‘regular’ job. If I were to make money by answering questions, I would be able to dedicate my life to it, thereby having more time to express positive influence.

Personally, I rather make my work available to everyone for free via my blog, because how can I sell something that was given to me? I will make the first book available in April, and I will charge money but will leave the same content up on my blog.

One way I may sell a path to enlightenment could be an instructional video about meditation. It makes sense to me that I should be able to charge money for such work especially since people with fitness videos charge money for their product. All of this is fine up to the point when I say, “If you want to reach enlightenment like I did, pick up my meditation video.” Then I would be using my influence to manipulate an audience into believing a false claim for personal material gain. That goes against everything that I believe in. However, if I were to say, “Meditation can help you attain enlightenment, pick up my video for tips on meditation.” That would be fine because I wouldn’t be making a false claim.

Putting money in front of the truth is counter to experiencing enlightenment. Being able to support yourself, while helping others in their journey, is a blessing.

Comments

  1. ummiApril 5, 2010 at 8:49 PM

    Path to enlightenment to me is not for sale..

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 5, 2010 at 3:11 PM

    No money should ever be involved in spiritual development.

    For example i really don't like what Eckhart Tolle is doing ( http://www.eckharttolle.com ). You can see that it is all about the money ...

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMarch 13, 2011 at 10:23 PM

    Everything is good and not good, everything is because it must be. It is not ours to judge others. Our teachers are everywhere and we teach those we touch. We all know in our true hearts the right thing to do. Do not fret Bruce. You are a kind and gentle soul. Follow your heart where you need to go and you will always be with Love. Your friend, Chris

    ReplyDelete

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