When people talk about bad gurus, they often focus on moral and ethical failings involving sexual abuse and alcohol. Alcohol is harmful in many ways, especially if the alcoholic is a guru. Not only does it harm the guru, but because this person is supposed to set an example and be a model for the community, drunken behavior might end up encouraging other alcoholics. And it goes without question that sexual abuse is destructive. But sexual and substance abuse are usually easy to spot, whereas there are much more insidious and pervasive abuses taking place in the spiritual world. These abuses are more subtle and therefore more dangerous. Three intoxicating habits compete for the Worst Forms of Abuse Award: money, power, and fame.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book The Guru Drinks Bourbon?
Read a random quote or see all quotes by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.
Further quotes from the book The Guru Drinks Bourbon?:
- Beginning to subdue and outshine appearance and existence
- Controlled by circumstances
- Sooner or later, you will have to check
- Open-minded guru
- Famous unintentionally
- The very essence of the Spiritual journey
- The guru is like the horizon
- Humble Gurus
- Skillful Guru
- Modern Buddhadharma
- Guru
- Look beyond titles and hats
- Cultivating trust in simplicity
- Outer display of guru devotion
- Dharma without devotion
- Abundance and variety in the teachings is so important
- Check how the guru handles criticism
- Peeling of our patches of samsara
- Guru devotion and pure perception
- Hearing the Dharma