It’s a tough question because it seems like every spiritual community is ultimately corrosive (as you’ve consistently demonstrated).

From my perspective, the best hope for a spiritual community is to center on a specific skill set, such as meditation.

Take Shinzen Young, author of The Science of Enlightenment, for instance. He has practiced meditation for decades and has a clear way of explaining it. So, in my opinion, he’s worth listening to on this specific topic, not unlike how it’s worth listening to a veteran car mechanic on the topic of fixing cars.

The problem is when people assume that because someone has know-how in one area they’re set apart from the rest of humanity in all things. This is the implication of “guru” and “spiritual teacher,” and it’s devastating.