Authentic spiritual teachings are teachings from direct experience devoid of prejudice, provincialism, or predilection. That is based on eternal living tradition motivated and animated by a living truth. Compare that to dead teachings, rote memorization, conformity, and mechanical obedience to external authoritative systems and one can easily understand human history and its discontents. The champions of institutionalized tradition only create prisons and traps, because their own egos and and prideful identities live in a mental prison. They become jealous and scornful of those who have escaped.