In a continuing conversation about what’s spiritual and what’s not spiritual, someone told me this modern old Zen story:
There is a popular yoga teacher who reaches a wide audience of students through her videos. People all over the world know her through her images as a slim, fit, flexible, dark-haired yogini guiding their yoga practice. The world of authentic spirituality was humming along well until her latest video was released showing her to be…wait for it…drum roll, please…a blonde!
What? How could she? She’s supposed to be a spiritual leader, a role model for the spiritually aspiring, and she’s done this? Going blonde! Going Hollywood! Selling herself to the popular culture fame and gain mill.
Betrayal. Indignation. Outrage. Disgust.
Oh, but wait; there’s more to the story. It turns out she’s a natural blonde who was dying her hair dark! After growing concern that all the hair dye might not be good for the brain, she decided to grow her hair out to its natural color—blonde.
Good grief! Where does this leave us? Is she spiritual or isn’t she? Can blondes be spiritual? Does the fact that she dyed her hair dark disqualify her from the spirituality club? Who can we trust? How can we know?
For an exploration of those and other deeply spiritual questions, please watch for the next blog in the “going beyond money and all other absurd karma” series.
In gassho,
Cheri