The Association for Spiritual Integrity — honor code of ethics for spiritual teachers

[Carl-Richard]

Quote

Honor Code

As spiritual teachers, we commit to:

1. Holding ourselves to the highest standards of ethics, right behavior, and professional competency, as commonly recognized by our peers.

2. Performing our roles as teachers in a caring and compassionate manner, in both one-to-one interactions and groups.

3. Respecting the rights, dignity, and safety of all students and fellow practitioners.

4. Fostering autonomy, empowerment, self-sufficiency, and emotional maturity in our students.

5. Treating students’ questions, concerns, doubts, and experiences with respect, and never trivializing or dismissing their enquiries.

6. Being self-aware, open, and humble about the limitations of our knowledge and experience.

7. Making only honest, realistic statements regarding the benefits of our teachings, practices, courses, and other offerings.

8. Refraining from giving counsel in matters outside of our areas of training and expertise, and making appropriate referrals as needed.

9. Being honest and transparent regarding our professional business and financial matters.

10. Honoring the sanctity of privacy and maintaining the confidentiality of everything conveyed to us in confidence.

11. Abiding by local laws with respect to the disclosure of information in cases of sexual abuse, child endangerment, and the intention to harm oneself or others.

12. Using only with proper care and caution any techniques that can potentially cause harmful side effects.

13. Acknowledging that, regardless of our spiritual attainment, we are human beings with human personalities, limitations, drives, and needs.

14. Not seeking or presuming exalted privileges or glorified status because of our role as spiritual teachers.

15. Never manipulating, exploiting, or deceiving a student to satisfy our personal aspirations, needs, or desires.

16. Establishing and maintaining clear and wholesome professional boundaries with all students, employees, and associates.

17. Never abusing the trust of students to obtain sexual gratification, money, free labor, or other personal benefits.

18. Being particularly mindful of sexual boundaries with students—and honoring them at all times.

19. Cultivating and practicing honesty, integrity, compassion, humility, and empathy.

20. Engaging in continuous self-reflection, learning, and holistic personal growth.

21. Regularly reviewing our motivations for serving as teachers and monitoring the integrity of our words and actions.

22. Encouraging feedback about our own methods and behavior—and taking that feedback seriously. This includes complaints submitted to the ASI.

23. Addressing promptly any personal issues, concerns, or challenges that might affect our professional competency.

24. Offering support to our colleagues and fellow ASI members, to the extent that we are able and available.

https://www.spiritual-integrity.org/ethics/

There is a similar honor code for organizations: https://www.spiritual-integrity.org/org-ethics/

[Tyler Robinson]

There's hardly ethics followed in any other field let alone spirituality. 

There's corruption in the police force.. Psychologists and psychiatrists routinely break guidelines. Dr K? 

Most spiritual groups are full of  cultists. 

Spiritual communities are the least moderated /regulated groups out there. 

It would be like policing a bar where people get drunk and engage in fist fights. 

Spiritual communities are just as shady as the internet. You can't expect a clean experience. It will be decades before such a thing is even a possibility. How many religions have we succeeded in getting rid of? 

This is "do it at your own risk" sort of a thing. There will never be proper guidelines for this. 

The only thing someone can ever do is raise awareness about the dangers of spiritual communities that behave like cults and let people make their own choices. People who are not ignorant and care about their own well-being will be less likely to join such things 

I compare this phenomenon to drugs. Ignorant people will always want to experiment with dangerous drugs despite being fully aware of the consequences of it. Yet people who are wise and are thoroughly responsible/matured will never do such things. 

I'm not trying to victim blame. My point is that toxic things exist in the world because some people like those toxic things. They really want it.

This is a part of self regulation rather than public regulation since it's impossible to monitor every community. Some communities are secret. 

[Tyler Robinson]

Funnily, this is something that reminds me of — rules only exist on paper. 

................... 

One thing I have observed and learned about spiritual teachers/groups/communities/organizations is that these people/groups are only held accountable when something really ugly happens like too many suicides rocking the community, too many rapes or cases of sexual abuse, and something is done only when it reaches the brim. 

Does something close to this as an analogy? I scratched and scratched my brain. 

Eureka! 

The thing that comes closest to this as an analogy is - oppressive dictatorships. People only rebel when things are out of hand and the regime is extremely cruel and corrupt. That's when people get the common sense to topple these regimes and establish democracies. 

Yea pretty much similar. 

Anything related to Religion/Spirituality is similar to an oppressive dictatorship. You'd be lucky if you found yourself in a healthy one, that's just pure luck because most are infested with cult like dynamics. Think like this - is there a healthy religion out there? Maybe, for example Buddhism. But still. 

The problem which such things is not the issue of moderation/regulation by an authority to check abuse of ethics but that these systems are inherently and fundamentally flawed by design. People who create such systems want to monopolize power and resources. It's almost like asking why are dictatorships so toxic. The answer is quite simple — because they are just designed to be so. The people who want to be dictators cannot be good people and obviously dictatorships will never attract healthy people in the first place. There are inherent toxic stage Red elements put in place that make these systems dysfunctional by default. 

That's how I look at this. Such groups attract cult leaders and cult leaders are psychopaths. The system is flawed at the root because it's meant to attract people who crave power at the helm. And such people are like bullies, nothing stops them from trying the inevitable, from wanting to harm in order to control. Defective by design. So the formula is kinda just baked into it. They will always seek harm because they always want control, that's why they exist as isolated groups and communes in the first place. 

Just my 2 cts. 

 

Edited December 24, 2022 by Tyler Robinson

[roopepa]

How about just actually walking the path lol?

[zurew]

25 minutes ago, roopepa said:

How about just actually walking the path lol?

You almost never walk the path alone without searching for teachers or without gathering info from teachers, so knowing that almost everybody will seek to find some teachers, there should be given an ethical code for the sake of protecting the students. If we don't have any ethical code, that leaves the door open to all the potential negative things such as : creating a cult (consciously, or unconsciously), misleading people (make people to believe they can achieve xyz things with your teachings when you haven't achieved those things yourself and you have no data to back your claims), exploiting your students by making yourself an authority figure, and by making yourself the center and an essential part of the teachings and so many more.

Also we have to note here, that the vast majority of the seekers are people with traumas or people who are depressed and people who want to deperately find meaning in their life, and just from that they are much more vulnerable than other people.

Edited December 24, 2022 by zurew

[Nilsi]

 

[roopepa]

3 hours ago, zurew said:

creating a cult (consciously, or unconsciously), misleading people (make people to believe they can achieve xyz things with your teachings when you haven't achieved those things yourself and you have no data to back your claims), exploiting your students by making yourself an authority figure, and by making yourself the center and an essential part of the teachings and so many more.

None of these things will be a problem if one simply walks the authentic path.

There are no teachers. That's egos bullshit.

[zurew]

3 minutes ago, roopepa said:

None of these things will be a problem if one simply walks the authentic path.

The "authentic path" is a loaded term that assumes thats the right path. When you start you have no idea which path is the right path for you, so the best thing you can do is to try out a lot of paths. Also when you walk alone without taking any information from anyone that can also be a trap, because you will fall into a lot of traps that you could have avoided if you would have  been open to outside info.

But regardless, this thread is not for people who wants to walk alone. This thread was about how to hold spiritual teachers accountable and to what to look for when you are a seeker and you go to a spiritual teacher.

Edited December 24, 2022 by zurew

[roopepa]

Each one of those things in that list is obvious. If you need a code like that, you're not on the path. ? Spirituality and awakening isn't some doctrine or system. It's wild, untamed, arises naturally.

There are no teachers. That whole list is just egomania and manipulation.

[roopepa]

5 minutes ago, zurew said:

The "authentic path" is a loaded term that assumes thats the right path.

No, it's obviousness for anyone not brainwashed and manipulated.

6 minutes ago, zurew said:

Also when you walk alone without taking any information from anyone that can also be a trap, because you will fall into a lot of traps that you could have avoided if you would have  been open to outside info.

This is not at all what I'm talking about. Of course, listen what others are saying.

[roopepa]

"Whew! I almost wasn't self-aware, open, and humble about the limitations of my knowledge and experience. I almost exploited people for financial and sexual gain. Good thing there's this code for spiritual teachers like me."

????

[zurew]

Just now, roopepa said:

Each one of those things in that list is obvious.

Again, that list is for spiritual teachers, and those things might seem obvious to you or funny, but a ton of people got fucked and tricked by spiritual teachers and got stuck in cults. So I don't think its unreasonable to talk about these things or to how to hold these people accountable.

27 minutes ago, roopepa said:

No, it's obviousness for anyone not brainwashed and manipulated.

So brainwashed and manipulated people should get fucked or should we protect them from getting fucked?

[Carl-Richard]

14 minutes ago, roopepa said:

"Whew! I almost wasn't self-aware, open, and humble about the limitations of my knowledge and experience. I almost exploited people for financial and sexual gain. Good thing there's this code for spiritual teachers like me."

????

Aren't you known to be critical of the conduct of some spiritual teachers? Are you not aware of the history of the conduct of some spiritual teachers? "Hehe just be a real spiritual teacher, then you won't need a code". That would be a naive understanding about the reality of spiritual teaching.

[zurew]

33 minutes ago, roopepa said:

No, it's obviousness for anyone not brainwashed and manipulated.

Would be curious how many spiritual teachers you could list, who checks all of the things on the list.

[roopepa]

2 hours ago, zurew said:

So brainwashed and manipulated people should get fucked or should we protect them from getting fucked?

The list says "as spiritual teachers, we commit" 

The list is not for the "seeker" but for the "teacher".

2 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Aren't you known to be critical of the conduct of some spiritual teachers? Are you not aware of the history of the conduct of some spiritual teachers? "Hehe just be a real spiritual teacher, then you won't need a code". That would be a naive understanding about the reality of spiritual teaching.

2 hours ago, zurew said:

Would be curious how many spiritual teachers you could list, who checks all of the things on the list.

There. Are. No. Spiritual. Teachers.

That is manipulation and dogma. You don't need a fucking list of ethics. Anyone calling themselves a teacher, or feeding you belief that there is spiritual teachers & students, is enough to know if your guy is on the actual path.

[Carl-Richard]

23 minutes ago, roopepa said:

There. Are. No. Spiritual. Teachers.

There are people who talk and people who listen. Do you agree?

Edited December 24, 2022 by Carl-Richard

[Leo Gura]

11 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

5. Treating students’ questions, concerns, doubts, and experiences with respect, and never trivializing or dismissing their enquiries.

Hahaha!

[Moksha]

Within relative reality, there are characters through whom Consciousness has realized itself, and characters where it has not. Spiritual teachers are a mechanism for Consciousness to see itself, by pointing to its true nature. It is all Consciousness, playing the awakening game.

Do not share this wisdom with anyone who lacks in devotion or self-control, lacks the desire to learn, or scoffs at me. Those who teach this supreme mystery of the Gita to all who love me perform the greatest act of love; they will come to me without doubt. No one can render me more devoted service; no one on earth can be more dear to me.

- Bhagavad Gita 18:67-69

[roopepa]

lol

You guys LOVE the teacher / student shit here. I bet you'd come up with a thousand and one rationalizations.

Keep on with your stories built on insecurity and bloated self-image. ? Just blatant manipulation and narcissism.

[Carl-Richard]

@roopepa You're posting cringe right now.