Spiritual Bypassing: The Damndest Thing

Hello fellow refugees,

I just posted an article to my personal blog (Truth a Paradox) titled Spiritual Bypassing: The Damndest Thing . I would love to hear your thoughts or reactions to it.

Practice well!

Jackson

Very nice, very well-written and very true.

Some reactions not meant to sound harsh:

It's regretable that such great thoughts are spent disputing a fictional character created to sell books to, most often I imagine, spiritual materialists. Maybe you should use the same arguments to counter a more worthy entity?

Also, and this is something I think about with all of our posts -- I think (and please let me know if you disagree and why) that such essays would be much much better if several real-life examples are used to back up the arguments made. That is so much better than just stating an opinion.

For instance:

In this way, he seems to have traded spiritual materialism for a whopping dose of spiritual bypassing - i.e. allowing the ego to freeze the absolute/universal view into an excuse for not dealing with one’s own human life and problems, nor that/those of others. -- an example of maybe how this happens along with an example or two showing such a person in action would be helpful

In taking up residence in the Absolute, we cover our hearts. We deny our basic vulnerability, which is our gateway to experiencing the world of form. As long as this aspect of our being is ignored or denied we will remain cutoff from experience, divided, and unable to experience the fullness of presence that comes with the complete renunciation of clinging. Same as above, how and why does this happen?

Compassion, empathy, equanimity, loving-kindness — these non-reactive emotions flow naturally when we are completely exposed. -- it would be great to get some back up on this idea as well.

Also, and this is just a question for discussion -- how/why does the bypassing happen at all? I think among the yogis I've been connected to the past two years this desire, this strong desire to somehow permenantly transcend normal human pains and needs and concerns and problems and realities -- is a powerful force. I used to think it was because the entire image of Jesus and what his life was like is so powerful in western minds as a model for what a really cool spiritual person was that everyone sort of unconsciously adopted his supposed perfection as their own goal. But, do non-christians, especially in the east, have the same tendency? While most cultural buddhists I think believe he was a man (but not all) and not a God, the stories and myths about him often make him seem perfect and completely transcendent.

Hi Mike. Good points.

That post just sort of came to me. I could pick through is book and the article mentioned to find clear cut examples, but I didn't really think it all that necessary. True, he's not a real person that we know of. But I've been thinking a lot about spiritual bypassing lately, and his book came to mind.

A more thorough argument could be made against traditions that advocate some form of taking up residence in the Absolute (or at least what is perceived as the Absolute). Also, from what I've read the whole spiritual bypassing thing is particualrly problematic for Westerners as opposed to those who grow up in Eastern/Asian cultures. There are a lot of reasons for this. I recommend John Welwood's book Toward a Psychology of Awakening for a more in depth look at this topic.

Jackson

Okay, but I meant examples of what you are saying that come from you and from your mind. Do you see the difference? Like, if you say that freezing into the absolute view can become an excuse for not dealing with human problems -- can you say more about that? What does that look like in real life? what are the mechanics of it? Could it be explained somehow with even a hypothetical story? I'm not expecting you to actually do this for a blog you are doing as I imagine as a sort of hobby, but don't you agree such an essay would be stronger if you employed such techniques?

I think all of us who talk about this stuff tend to be very precise about meditation techniques and even states and stages, but much more vague on daily life examples of the good and bad things that can come from practice. I'm ALWAYS more interested in what someone has to say first, when they talk about their own life (especially if the story is edgy somehow) and, second, if they can somehow show how it plays out in action.

Now, for me, I'd love to give more examples as I think of them, but I think that generally, while I got a lot of awakening years ago, my understanding of it was imature for a long time. I couldn't reconcile the truth I knew about the three characteristics with the fact that I still had to inhabit a body that had needs and desires. One manifestation of this was my total inability to have and/or follow through on career ambitions. I mean, if I'm supposed to be free of clinging because I know there is not a real self, then why should I follow through on my desires for money, houses, families, cars, comfort, health care, etc.? I'd end up both with no real spiritual freedom and no material basics (often) because I could never reconcile this conflict. I actually had the ridiculous notion that in order to have material stuff I'd have to shut off my spiritual/awakened side.

Again, all good points. Yes, the essay would be stronger with more clear examples of what this stuff actually looks like and how it presumably functions. I could certainly be more revealing about the personal reasons why I decide to bring these things up. Personal examples would be useful to others, I'm sure. It's difficult to write or speak candidly about my practice, and it's much easier to speak in more abstract terms. I admit that. Maybe it would be a good idea for me to include more of that stuff in my future posts.

Sure, maybe.
I guess I'm thinking more like this because I have the idea that you may grow into an actual author on this stuff, on a scale bigger than forum posts or blogs.



As I guess is pretty obvious by now, I don't mind getting personal on this forums. I'm only inhibited because I'm afraid I may alienate people, not because I'm actually reluctant to be detailed in a personal way. I try not to reveal things that could hurt someone else (I don't always succeed at this) but there is very little that is true about me that I feel could hurt me if it were exposed in this context.

Just to add my 2 cents here, as someone who's also kept a blog for a fair amount of time, that it's actually fairly hardwork (or at least it is for me) to state the abstract ideas clearly enough that you feel you've put them in communicable terms. Adding in examples is a good idea, but then, the examples have to be carefully examined too, to make sure they actually reflect what you're trying to say. If they don't, or if they might be easily misunderstood, you run the risk of starting an argument in the comments thread where people questions/attack your examples and then you have to defend both the example and re-explain how it explains (or, if you weren't careful, failed to explain) your point.

Basically, examples add another layer that can be misunderstood. I've found it seems to work best to stick with the abstract ideas, and then use examples (whether personal or imagined) once people start asking questions. Always better to wait for the commenter to begin narrowing down the abstract to the specific, so that you can see where they're coming from and respond accordingly.

Of course, that's sort of an "in-an-ideal-world" situation, but still...

Cool, Ian.
And, God, I hope this doesn't sound argumentative, I don't want it to -- I like you so much --

Anyway, I may be slightly different than a lot of other people on these types of forums because I have very little interest in the abstract. The abstract is only relevant to me if it is some kind of brief, very brief, short-hand to describe real life stuff.

But, still, you are probably right

I like you quite a bit too Mike! No hard feelings. I've said before how much I appreciate your straightforwardness. It is always a breath a fresh air, and you keep things grounded. I tend to get a bit too abstract sometimes, so reading your perspective can do a lot to bring things back into focus for me.

And actually, I agree with you. The abstract isn't really all that useful, in the end, unless we can bring down to earth and relate it to some real life stuff. I just wanted to add, in my early post here, that's it's not always as easy to do so as I'd like it to be.

http://blog.paradigm-sys.com/

More on 'spiritual bypassing' by the ever-humane and humorous Charlie Tart.

Yeah, one of the things that it has taken me several years to really appreciate is what my Lamas say about 'beginningless enlightenment'-- with its implication that clarity and ease are possibile at any moment if one simply stops spinning the wheel of samsara. What takes all the time that it takes, is noticing the thousands of ways-- ever subtler and more tricky-- that I AM engaged in spinning the wheel of samsara. Down to the way I use my body, breathe [or don't!], deny myself sleep because 'there's not time'... and on and on.