Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

perhaps an easy road to awakening, held in stasis by
the ecstatic presence of a divine guru. Later, that
same guru might appear to the newcomer to be a
horrible, uncaring, self-centered lout that only cared
about himself or the ashram, and not about them as
people.
Others thrived in the ashram settings. Personally, I
loved them; from the many Zen centers and
monasteries I lived in to the three Muktananda
ashrams, to the Hari Krishna temples and compounds I
visited. There was something different about
ashramites. They were not much involved in the world.
Instead they were involved in going into themselves,
practicing meditation or ecstatic chanting.
Many of these ashrams were remarkably stable,
some not. If there was an ashram where people lived
together, the Sangha appeared more stable. The
people living there had each made some sort of
commitment to the ashram just by leaving their former
life and living there. One notable example is Leonard
Cohen who left his celebrity life behind for long
periods and moved to Mt. Baldy Zen Center and
became a monk. Leonard found peace there and a
deeper sense of himself.
However, if the Sangha just met for Satsang once
or twice a week at someone’s house or at a center of
some sort, it tended to be unstable with a rapid