It appears that a new trend is flourishing in the contemporary world of Western Spirituality. This trend seems to revolve around the concept of loving and celebrating the ego in the spiritual process.
The birth and existence of this kind of trendy nonsense are, in some ways, the direct result of mindless inclusive New Age kitchen club ideology and the hopelessness of modern schools of bullshit spirituality.
If you have not come about destroying and dissolving your ego, you're on the path to Nowhere, not a spiritual path. You first have to become nothing, before you can even contemplate becoming anything. The current 'you' needs to die for you to embark on the journey. Sticking to the old comforts, even when they are dressed as something else, will result in an infinite loop of circling around the same dead-end road. Distractions and the various forms they come in only serve to hold back one from reaching that point of sweet Death. One needs to become humbled, reduced to ashes and dirt, crushed into non-existence... and only then, once they have been laid to waste, can they start becoming something. Only then, can they start planting foot on the first steps of the Ascension ladder.
There is no shortcuts or quick routes to the spiritual process. It is fighting tooth and nail for a lifetime to little by little scrub the orb and bring more and more shine to it, the unthinkable process of starting from "filth" and arriving at "gold".
It is also quite the solo endeavour. Spirituality of the purest kind has never been a social experiment. There is no need or requirement for group activities, and more often than not, the addition of other individuals to one's quest will result in deviations, distractions and other kinds of obstacles preventing the person from moving forward.
The process may take many many years, but no notable spiritual master has ever achieved the feats they have through loving their ego or celebrating it. Every single one, though, has excelled tremendously after silencing that voice.
Anyone who claims to be a spiritual guru, is anything but that. Spiritual gurus are made through years and decades of hard work, extensive studying, deep meditation, impeccable discipline and endless patience. And they are always known to be gurus by those around them, not through self-proclamation.
It is not much of a surprise when one of the common elements running among all the contemporary self-proclaimed spiritual gurus is their deep love for the materialistic rewards of the advice and help they promise to give out and away. Being a spiritual master has become a profession.
As a rule of thumb, any person who offers one salvation, but at a monetary or non-monetary price, should be treated with grave skepticism. After all, isn't that what the churches, the mosques and other so-called holy places have offered the masses for centuries? You will be saved by the Saviour, however, you best pay the middlemen and the deal-makers of that great achievement.
There are massive libraries of sources and materials available to anyone who knows where to look for free. Considering the fact that every journey starts with the individual, with the help of what the individual carries inside, one should never have to seek the guidance of others, especially if it comes at a price.
