Are enlightened people always kind and ethical?

 


I touched on this topic once before in a blog (https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2025/02/how-to-know-when-it-is-time-to-move-on.html ) while considering when it is time to move on from a spiritual teacher. In that blog I mentioned the ethical behaviour (or the lack of it) of spiritual teachers as a reason for moving on.

To consider this further, not all those who are widely considered awakened or enlightened behave kindly and/or ethically. Many do, but it is clear that ethical behaviour, kindness and enlightenment don’t always go together. If you want to look for yourself into the lives of people who have been considered by many to be awake or enlightened, but about whom there is also evidence of unkind or unethical behaviour then candidates include: 

    • Indian mystic Osho (also known as Rajneesh) was sometimes seen as harsh, unkind and dismissive of followers. His luxurious lifestyle, including a fleet of Rolls-Royce cars, was also seen by critics as ethically inconsistent with spiritual ideals.
    • Spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti was also seen as harsh and dismissive of those who disagreed with him. He also sustained a long-term extra-marital affair with the wife of a friend, behaviour considered as sexual misconduct by many.
    • Zen master Linji (also known as Rinzai) would often strike students with sticks, although this may not have been seen as unkind within that culture at that time. 
    • Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa was criticised for unethical behaviour linked to his heavy drinking. He is said to have had sexual relations with many students.
    • Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba was also accused of sexual misconduct with his younger devotees.
    • Former head of the Triratna Buddhist Order in the UK, Sangharakshita (Dennis Lingwood) was also accused of sexual misconduct with young students.
      
This begs the question of who is enlightened and how would we know? Many people consider enlightenment to be a wholly subjective state that cannot be determined by other people. Others, including Zen teachers, say that someone who is truly enlightened behaves in certain characteristic ways that can be seen by others. There is now a psychometric scale, the WAKE-19 (Kilrea et al, 2023, link below), that can assess a person’s degree of ‘awakeness’, if any enlightened masters would like to complete it and make their results public...

However, if the above observations are correct, there is a case to be made that those on a path to enlightenment or spiritual development should work on being kinder and more ethical, as necessary and important parts of the path, in addition to the changes in awareness that go with enlightenment. 

As a slight digression, while considering the above, I also wondered if it is possible to awaken by developing kindness and compassion alone, without working on any other aspect of oneself. However, I couldn’t find any records of that ever happening...

Anyway, I thought I would keep this blog brief and to the point as I think that some people will be surprised at the possibility that enlightened people could behave unethically or unkindly. I will leave ideas on how to develop in these areas to another time when I will try to come up with lesser known ideas than the many possible routes offered by the major religions of the world.

Conclusion

Having noted that there are people who are widely considered to be enlightened spiritual masters and yet who seem also to behave at times in unkind and unethical ways, I have suggested that those who are on a spiritual journey consider adding practices oriented to being kinder and more ethical to their practice.

Sources

Falk, G. D. (2016). Stripping the gurus: sex, violence, abuse and enlightenment. Million Monkeys Press.
Kilrea, K. A., Taylor, S., Bilodeau, C., Wittmann, M., Linares Gutiérrez, D. and Kübel, S. L. (2023). Measuring an Ongoing State of Wakefulness: The Development and Validation of the Inventory of Secular/Spiritual Wakefulness (WAKE). Journal of Humanistic Psychology,1-32. ISSN 0022-1678 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678231185891
Download available from Leeds Beckett Repository record:
https://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/id/eprint/11050/

Key words

awakening, enlightenment, ethics, kindness, morals, spiritual development, 

Link

https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2025/08/are-enlightened-people-always-kind-and.html

Image

Osho driving one of his 93 Rolls Royces

Archived at

https://cantab.academia.edu/PeterForster


 

Location: Malvern, UK

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