Secondly, there's a real problem with separating yourself from humanity.  While you will assert, and I will certainly agree, that humanity is not at a very high state in their evolutionary development - they're currently inventing bigger and better bombs to blow themselves up with - the same silly stuff that's been going on for thousands of years still goes on, the same repression.  While we've developed an interesting technology, human beings really, in my estimation, have not evolved very far.  We don't have a much greater sense of humanity than the ancient Greeks did or the ancient Chinese.  Still, when you start to separate yourself from the rest of humanity, a funny thing happens.  When you feel that you are a spiritual seeker and you want to step back from the world, in many cases an egotism or an egotistical attitude begins to develop and you see this, unfortunately, in many spiritual groups.  It's the "holier than thou" attitude.

The most important quality in self-discovery, in the so-called spiritual life, is humility.  If you have all the spiritual qualities and do not have humility, then all is lost from a spiritual perspective.  If you have humility and nothing else, then don't worry, all other spiritual qualities will follow humility.  Persons who isolate themselves from the world, unless they're truly humble, usually begin to develop this subtle sense of superiority which is very detrimental to their spiritual growth and development.  The idea is that, "I can see more than humanity.  I'm more advanced spiritually, therefore I'm better.  I'm removing myself from this dirty world with its wicked people because I am superior, I am chosen."  This is not a very healthy attitude for people who claim to be interested in love.  So, from my point of view as one who, again, teaches not so much the basics in spiritual discovery but the advanced aspects, the graduate school of spirituality, while I recognize that very often there is a common need in people in early spirituality to do this [isolation], it's quite detrimental to persons who are interested in full enlightenment, God realization, liberation.

- "Living and Working in the World", The Lakshmi Series