I know a lot of Vajrayana practitioners with this symptom. The culture of collectively coerced humility is highly infectious 
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Huh. You hit a nerve. Big reason why I have a problem with Vajrayana & Mahayana in particular. "Collectively coerced humility" is a cultural feature in Norway (see: Janteloven). It's highly corrosive in many ways, and I never had a churchy reason to aggrandize it.
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It's one thing if it's someone's personal affectation, mind, but many practitioners hold it more as universal law. This prompts abusive behaviour.
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Replying to @Triquetrea @misen__
It seems to be a prerequisite for abusive behaviour in cultish situations - but the catalysts for that kind of bad behaviour are multiple. “Collective coercion” is a problem. Healthy humility would not allow abuse because it doesn’t lack strength and confidence.
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Bingo. The problem is not humility. It's an excessive attachment to the behavioral trappings of humility (that are not always genuine expressions thereof!)
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hotbeds of passive aggression, spiritual movements :-) .. which is really their value, they force you into your Self
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I doubt those things are Actually Good. Spiritual types are just receptive to it. Religious expression is typically done while vulnerable, so this allows predators a niche. It's the same with child abuse in churches, abuse perpetrated by leaders of social movements...
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the saying in ashrams is that they are like a rock polisher, the rocks become polished by being forced to rub up against all the other rocks .. in that way, imo, valuable, in what through other eyes can always be seen as a cult, certainly a culture
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I think people go too hard in against religious movements because they are a necessary condition for cults. A necessary condition, but not always the same thing. That said, many of those religious sensibilities have developed to give people who hurt others too much power.
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Replying to @Triquetrea @gregorylent and
I find stuff like the guru/disciple dynamic deeply suspect. And it is deeply suspect! It is a tremendous vehicle for abuse. But so are many other things, other trappings of power that can be far more secular. People see proximate traits and think they've found primary causes.
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I prefer the word ‘teacher’ to guru. Teachers fill important, necessary social roles. In Western culture, the word ‘teacher’ comes attached with responsibility. ‘Guru’ has super-human connotations, more ripe for unhelpful projection.
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Indeed, so do I. I've only had teachers. But sometimes people say "teacher" and mean "guru", which is more of obfuscation than an improvement I'm afraid (much like your point about cults highlighted).
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