Yes folks, we’ve been “on the air” for ten years now, from a humble one-page beginning to our current stupendous compendiumshipness.
A gloriously mixed review from Sri Ganesha Tea and Book Stall:
“Okay, so it’s biased, square, skewed, uninformed, rigged, ignorant, opinionated, and just plain wrong. It obviously does not reflect the opinions of the Tea Stall. That said, it’s actually not all bad or innacurate [sic] or unintelligent either. But it was inevitable: Sarlo’s Guru Rating Service.”
There are now over 1500 teachers/gurus/masters listed. Many more will be coming! Thanks for new info go to my fellow collectors, and to many visitors and explorers of The Way. Other major lists and spiritual resources at Outside Links.
There is a dated list of new people added, rating changes, new quotes and articles and other info in the last few months on a separate page for those who like to keep up with details (the last three or four months worth anyway). Any news or changes of a more systemic nature will be announced in this box, just below in black. (Nothing has happened in that regard recently, so it can be blank for a while.)
The Guru Ratings email forum for discussion of issues that arise out of these guru-opinions and the Search in general continues and has grown to over 1600 subscribers (hmmm, about as many as i have gurus listed). It has been at times very busy, even out of control, only occasionally quiet, and sometimes quite nasty, though some efforts are made to keep that somewhat in check. It ebbs and flows and can run anywhere from 20-200 posts/day.
A list of who among my listees has appeared or been discussed there can be found at Archives. It is hosted by Yahoo Groups, free and open to all, and you can subscribe at GuruRatings. Messages are archived, and include some worthy insights and observations, and now that the Yahoo archive search function has been hugely improved, these messages are relatively accessible. Also included is a lot of rubbish but at least it is frequently entertaining, depending on your standards of course. Some self-satire on its very busyrubbishness can be found here (free peek!).
System Changes, starting with most recent:
[I'll let ya know when something happens :-))]
The Ratings & How They Work
All information in quotes in the mini-descriptions is taken from the Master’s words or the literature of adherents. My characterizations contain some judgments and prejudices, usually (if negative) triggered by perceived fatuities in the literature or legend. Founders of major established religions are not included because people mostly know who they are, where to find them and what they already think of them. Exceptions to that exclusion have been made for Jesus and, depending on your definition of founders, Bodhidharma and Dalai Lama.
My information for evaluating these guys comes mostly from their websites, though visitor feedback and scuttlebutt / legend have modified website impressions on many occasions. I have received complaints that websites are made by fallible followers and cannot represent a master adequately. This is so, but since even established religions suffer from the inability to present themselves well – being similarly composed of fallibles – the playing field is level enough to be a reasonable starting place. Thereafter my judgments can be subject to the usual feedback processes.
So let the rating begin!
