The Guru gets credit for both the good and the bad

One of the strangest beliefs in the world of dualistic spiritual thought is the notion that God or the guru is responsible for the good things that happen and that the devotee is responsible for the bad things.

This idea is a problem because it is based on false belief that reality is not non-dual. In a non-dual reality there are not two separate principles operating, appearances to the contrary not-withstanding. In a non-dual reality everything and every one shares the same essential nature. So you can’t have it both ways: either the guru is responsible for all of it or for none of it. And vice verse either you can take credit for all of it or you have no responsibility for any of it.

Additionally the very idea of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ belie a lack of understanding of the non-dual nature of reality. It is a simple fact that experience is neither good nor bad; it is just an impersonal out picturing of subtle forces standing in one’s karmic account.

Both devotees and gurus have a vested interest in maintaining this dualistic fiction. The guru benefits since he or she gets all the glory and the devotee gets all the shit. Gurus who permit this fiction to flourish should be drawn and quartered. And, by reinforcing its already perverted view that it is incomplete and inadequate…and therefore it gets what it deserves…the devotee maintains his or her comfortable limited identity. Devotees who maintain this fiction deserve all the suffering that this belief engenders.