What would you say if I told you my plan for raising my child is to tell them that I know best, and they should always do as told? I am further along on the path to adulthood, I understand what they have no possibility of understanding, I see clearly. As my child, they are young, inexperienced, ignorant, and prone to mistakes. How will my child turn out? I’m sure you see that’s not the best way to raise a child.
Yet we have spiritual teachers from longstanding traditions that insist their students must do as they are told. That the student’s will must be broken, their ego must be dismantled. The logic is that the ego is the barrier to enlightenment, so destroy the ego. Unfortunately, we don’t wind up with enlightened students. Instead, we wind up with broken-willed students clinging to the will of their teacher just like a broken-willed child will cling to their parent or parent-figure.