Comments on: A mentor, not a guru

By: Douglas, Friend of Osho

Douglas, Friend of Osho — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:54:59 +0000

Hugo, with all due respect, it would have been far better for you to have ignored accusations that you enjoy wielding power over those youth whom you help. You’ve fallen for the trap implied by the “do you still beat your wife?” sort of questions. After all, one expects the person asked to issue a denial. We want the expert opinion of the wife.
But I’m not surprised you’ve been subject to these rankling insinuations, regardless of their veracity. A man who can’t bring himself to believe that relations between older men and younger women aren’t ipso facto exploitation and who seems to enjoy, in a tsk-tsk fashion, ascribing the lowest possible motivation to anyone with a XY chromosome makeup, is going to arouse the desire to be foisted with his own petard. I say this as one who believes you.
As for Anthony, I guess he’s never heard of leftists who’ve read and agree with Nietzsche. He must assume we’re all Kumbayah-singing types. Perhaps a collection can be made to buy him a copy of “Anti-Oedipus”.

By: Hugo Schwyzer

Hugo Schwyzer — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:40:16 +0000

You’ll get a response, Anthony, I promise.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:13:47 +0000

Hugo – leading female students to have an affair with you is hardly the only way you could be exercising a “selfish agenda”.

By asking them to “throw off the chains of repressive gender roles and that insidious, multi-generational guilt foisted on them by those who love them.”, you’re asking them to a) buy into the idea that they are, in fact, chained by “repressive gender roles” and “insiduous, multi-generational guilt”; b) buy into the values you espouse – to become “our kind of people”; and c) to replace their their culture with your culture as their source of identity. That’s pretty powerful stuff, and it *is* an exercise of power, if it is successful. While you may derive no monetary benefit (you’d make the same salary if you didn’t do that), and no sexual benefit, you are getting to exercise power over other people in a way that goes somewhat beyond the normal exercise of power in a teacher-student relationship. Does a math teacher get to have the sort of influence over her students the way you do, even though they are imparting perfect universal truths to their students?

One very large failing of the left is its inability or unwillingness to recognize that the desire for power can exist for its own sake, and that it can be as damaging, and is as corruptible, as the desire for money or sex.

By: jeanne

jeanne — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:35:11 +0000

“In the process of finding that â€œstill, small voiceâ€ within us, we need guides to help us on the way.”

You nailed essence of the spiritual and personal growth process in that sentence. Amazing. I’m glad Flippanter’s comments provoked you, because your response included that sentence, and it’s a gem.

By: wedgeoli

wedgeoli — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 04:18:35 +0000

In Hugo’s defense, I don’t think he was using the word guru to mean megalomaniac… In his work in the classroom and church, by saying he’s not a guru, he precisely means that he’s not there to teach his students how how to live their lives outside of the restrictions he mentions, but, rather, to guide them and allow them to discover for themselves how to do it. I don’t think it makes negative use of the word guru at all….

By: andrew bartelt

andrew bartelt — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 02:16:27 +0000

i love your blog. as a 35 year old male, i find it very inspiring. my vegan, feminist girfriend turned me on to it. i have an issue, though, with your use of the word “guru”. i have been studying yoga for many years and because it comes from India i have also studied the hindu culture. from what i’ve observed the word “guru” simply means teacher. Literally it means someone who takes someone else from darkness to light. i recognize that in america the word gets changed to mean a meglomaniac. But in Inida it can be used just like the word “teacher”. for example, mr. jones is my math guru. so perhaps you ended up using it in a way that successfully communicated what you wanted but it still bothers me to see things from other cultures mangled.