90 Days of ILP

[Note: as it is with the rest of this blog, the opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone.]

So. Rabbi Marc Gafni has just had three allegations of sexual misconduct made against him by members of his spiritual community, Bayit Chadash. Ken Wilber has made a statement. Other bloggers have made statements. Gafni himself has made a statement (scroll down to read it). What else is there to say?

Given that I myself fall quite short of reaching sainthood anytime soon, I've no moral high horse to climb upon to denounce Gafni. What he's been accused of sucks, of course, but the real consequences (not to mention the actual facts) of his actions are to be determined by the relevant justice system, not the blogosphere. We, instead, are left with the task of making sense of this sickly revelation, and, with the suffering of all those affected held firmly in our minds, find a way to apply the lessons of this possibly tragic case to our own lives.

For me, the lesson of Rabbi Gafni is this: be aware. Be aware of yourself in every moment. Be aware of everyone around you. Be aware of your affect on them, of their affect on you, and so on. If you're making grand spiritual pronouncements, try your best to live up to them. If people are coming to you for spiritual consul, be as transparent as you can with what you can actually offer. If you're in the business of giving people hope, be sure your product is as solid as it can be. Otherwise, you're selling wine in tainted bottles.

In the very few encounters I've had with Reb. Gafni at public talks he's given, I've been consistently amazed with his energy, his heart, and his passion. His knowledge of Judaism, to an outsider raised Catholic, seems profound. His use of music, anecdotes, and scriptural quotation seems masterful. He seems adept at drilling to the heart of an issue, and rendering the world deeper than it usually seems.

But like everyone else, he's part animal. Like everyone else, his animalness can make him susceptible to urges and drives which can rage unchecked. And like the long, sad lineage of spiritual teachers accused, and sometimes convicted, of sexual and other improprieties, Gafni is going to have to wait for the day when the conclusion to French novelist Michel Houellebecq's The Elementary Particles is vindicated.

[For those who haven't read the amazing piece of literature in question, click here for a quick summary, or read the reviews. In short, it chronicles a pair of unhappy Boomer siblings living in late-20th century Europe, who dream and die by the longings of their sexual impulses. One lives on to fulfill a key role in the evolution of the beings who will evolve beyond homo sapiens.]

So that's where it stands: the answer to the abject human misery wrought by all men and women in positions of influence--gurus, politicians, CEOs, highly aggressive janitors, everyone else--is to be found in... posthumanity. For it is only when we can completely detach ourselves from the irrational whims of our sexuality that the human race will finally be happy. Cloning will replace reproduction, and our lives will take on the somnambulant quality of clouds floating on air.

Do you have a better idea?