The paradox of Spiritual bypassing

[andyjohnsonman]

The idea of spiritual bypassing is ignoring your problems by doing spiritual practices which make you feel better but are just a distraction from your problems like a person doing drugs to distract from the misery of their life. Isn't the idea of spiritual practices that anyway? You do a practice to take you out of your thoughts and feelings and realise they are an illusion. 

 

I suppose spiritual bypassing is more in a material sense. If i gave up a job because of stress to pursue more spirituality which relieved stress would this be a spiritual bypass? 

[Demeter]

@andyjohnsonman , spiritual bypassing is a paradox indeed. It denigrates spiritual endeavours which may result from a desire to escape the injustices and miseries of life. It only allows an interest in spirituality as a way of investigating or exploring new avenues, but these too could be counted as self-improvement. Wanting to improve ourselves presupposes dissatisfaction with our current condition, therefore, the same dilemma.

[Roy]

Too many people just want the spoilers, enjoy the show of life! You only get one chance to watch it so why miss it?

[Nahm]

It’s not a paradox, it’s a misunderstanding of reality, practices & spirituality, which perpetuates the non knowing of oneself.

[Roy]

3 minutes ago, Meta-Man said:

What if you got an infinite number of chances?

What if indeed!

[Roy]

10 minutes ago, Meta-Man said:

Imagine if this is Eternity

Imagine the relaxation!

Imagine imagining that you were imagining, and on top of that was another layer of imagination. Now THAT is spooky!

[LfcCharlie4]

@Meta-Man Stop stealing my lines please mate. 

Seriously, perfectly summarised. 

Often, people use it to escape the unavoidable Shadow work and the 'hard' part. 

 

 

[Derek White]

@Nahm How do you keep a consistent baseline consciousness? I keep losing ground, sometimes aware sometimes not so much. 

[Nathan J]

@Derek White there's only 1 thing that's "consistent" in your life.. 

[mandyjw]

I think that after seeing that there's no self, spirituality, or the "means" by which we "think" that was seen, then becomes a more feasible story line to grab on to for a while. We give credit to spirituality, thinking it's safe and worthy of the credit we give it because spirituality and practices are not an actual thing.

We don't realize that things are only things because we make them separate things in thoughts, on one level it makes no difference if we identify with a sports car or a spiritual attainment. 

Edited April 24, 2020 by mandyjw

[mandyjw]

1 hour ago, andyjohnsonman said:

I suppose spiritual bypassing is more in a material sense. If i gave up a job because of stress to pursue more spirituality which relieved stress would this be a spiritual bypass? 

The path of least resistance is not a bypass, but choosing a path of more resistance because you erroneously decided based on flawed criteria beforehand that it's the path of least resistance is something most of us often do out of habit. That's true for big decisions and little ones.

[The observer]

There's no self to bypass anything. That's the trick. The whole notion of spiritual (or non-spiritual) bypassing stems from ego trying to control the narrative. There will still be bypassing until you realise that it's illusory. At which point you will be liberated.

[Juliano Zn]

49 minutes ago, LfcCharlie4 said:

@Meta-Man Stop stealing my lines please mate. 

Seriously, perfectly summarised. 

Often, people use it to escape the unavoidable Shadow work and the 'hard' part. 

 

 

Whats the hard part? 

[Nahm]

3 hours ago, Derek White said:

@Nahm How do you keep a consistent baseline consciousness? I keep losing ground, sometimes aware sometimes not so much. 

Because I don’t see it that way, I never lose ground. That would be let go..previously I would say ‘in meditation’, but now I’d say because I created it in the first place. I’d recommend seeing what baseline consciousness is, when all else is let go.

[Derek White]

@Nahm So keep letting go till you become aware of consciousness?

3 hours ago, Nathan J said:

 

@Derek White there's only 1 thing that's "consistent" in your life.. 

But you can be more or less aware of it.

[Nahm]

@Derek White

Essentially, yes. The claiming of ‘my’ consciousness would be let go as it’s a thought. Thought is indirectly ‘let go’ by focusing on perception & feeling. Like a phone which has been believing in it’s concept of “my baseline wifi”. It’s just, wifi. It has a source, but it’s the router, not the phone.

[Derek White]

@Nahm Okay... what about letting go of survival instincts which are deeper than thought? Are emotions included in feeling?

[Nahm]

10 minutes ago, Derek White said:

what about letting go of survival instincts which are deeper than thought?

Let thoughts about it go and feel it. 

10 minutes ago, Derek White said:

Are emotions included in feeling?

No. 

[Derek White]

@Nahm Hmm, okay. I feel like I’ve gone through this ‘realization’ before but I forget it. I’ll write “let go” on the wall to remind me. 

[Nahm]

@Derek White RIght on. Write it next to your dream board, so your ‘why’ of letting go is readily available.