Let's talk about spiritual bypassing.

[mandyjw]

@EmptyVase ?❤

[Mannyb]

Spiritual bypassing = Resisting (what is, life, god, love) aka Seeking (what is, life, god, love) in the presence of a belief based on “spirituality”

Seeming resistance to what is justified by a spiritual conceptual belief such as there is nothing to do, there is no one, everything is God etc

It’s just an aspect of the sense of ego/separation which is based on thought + sensation, it can also be called spiritual ego, pseudo advaita. 

It’s a common appropriation by “the separate self” of spiritual teachings (simply a lack of understanding) in order for it to perpetuate itself. 

[TDLH]

1 hour ago, jimwell said:

Spiritual bypassing is a very serious mistake. But I often see many users on this forum doing it; including moderators and Leo himself (to a certain degree).

Spiritual bypassing is dangerous because it harms both the spiritual bypasser and their listener. Neglecting childhood trauma, mental-emotional wounds, fears, and deep desires leads to brokenness or dysfunction, suffering, pretentiousness, murder, and self-murder.

Thanks for sharing!

The reality is that we have all fallen into many gradients of Spiritual bypassing, but most people are not aware of it.  Me included.  When you are in it, it is very difficult to see or notice.  It’s like the eye cannot see it’s self without a mirror.  

I hate repeating myself from other posts, but I don’t care how many DMT trips you take, how much you meditate, how may retreats you go on, how wonderful and colourful your vocabular sounds, what intellectual words you know!  If you fail to do the “WORK” you will continuously fall into degrees of “Spiritual Bypassing”.  I know, because I have fallen in these trap’s countless times on my own journey in the last twenty plus years.

If you truly want to become enlightened, it’s going to take more than taking hundred of trips on DMT, or thousand of hours and days of meditation etc.  Yes, this all HELPS, but only within degrees of moderation.  That being said, DMT, meditation etc. are great “Tools”.  But they should not become a “crutch or prop” on your spiritual journey!

In my “Opinion”, it’s a 24 and 7 job observing, discerning, questioning, evaluating and consciously discriminating every thought, idea, image, belief, feeling and emotion.  It means unearthing every trauma, every addiction (Not just Drug and alcohol addictions, but also psychological addictions such as anger, being self righteousness, being a drama queen, anxiety, self-importance, pity etc.). It means doing Shadow work with awareness, it means “Doing the Work” and not just throwing around terms such as Nothingness, Absolute God Consciousness, Love etc.

Just sharing a few thoughts, ideas, beliefs and emotions!

[gettoefl]

spiritual bypassing is not meditating

i bypass the true work

i will listen to the forums and the teachers and the dogma instead of doing what's needed to make myself healed and whole

[Whatever]

2 hours ago, jimwell said:

Spiritual bypassing can be described in a thousand words but the quote above encapsulates its core (but I need to add fulfilling your human or animalistic desires). Spiritual bypassing is a very serious mistake. But I often see many users on this forum doing it; including moderators and Leo himself (to a certain degree).

Spiritual bypassing is dangerous because it harms both the spiritual bypasser and their listener. Neglecting childhood trauma, mental-emotional wounds, fears, and deep desires leads to brokenness or dysfunction, suffering, pretentiousness, murder, and self-murder.

Whaaat??!

 

Leo himself bypassing his issues and humanity?? No way hose! 

[Carl-Richard]

"Live in the now", "achievement is ego"

*gets stoned 24 hours a day 7 days a week, skips class, gives up on all future ambitions, lies to friends and family, steals money and drugs from friends and family, blocks out any thought resembling a conscience*

True story  

[Whatever]

*Has lifetime of unresolved issues with family and in relation to world.

 

"My mom doesnt exist!" Boom! Settled.

"World is an illusion!" Yesss sweet liberation!

 

Meanwhile mom in livingroom, worried over his son wasting his life getting high and watching bald dude talking about it being virtuous af.

 

 

 

 

 

[Fearless_Bum]

-Mistaking a pleasurable sensation as "God". 

-Pretending to be enlightened, calling yourself God.

-Conceptualizing spirituality, making conceptual compromises: "I'm only stage green, I still got some shadows to heal before I'm at the highest level!".

-Trying to be the image of what an "enlightened person" should be like.

[Consilience]

5 hours ago, Bazooka Jesus said:

@Consilience

Interesting. Would you say that it is possible to have had genuine insights that just haven't fully sunk in yet?

Sometimes I do wonder if I am just bullshitting myself about my 'level of awareness'... which probably indicates that I am bullshitting myself about it, heh.

What would your advice be to someone who feels that meditation makes them feel worse instead of better?

Tbh, I often feel that meditation / increasing my (self)awareness makes me feel better and worse simultaneously... it's hard to put into words. And maybe it's just more bullshit. 

yes it is possible to have genuine insights that haven't fully sunk in yet. That's pretty much the mechanism with psychedelic breakthroughs. 

I think to some extent we're all bullshitting ourselves, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just being aware of the possibility and taking it seriously is a huge step towards bullshitting less. 

My advice would be explore different techniques, find a technique or techniques that resonate more deeply. I'd also recommend meditating in intervals and switching techniques up mid sit to add novelty. 

For example:

60 minute sit:

0 - 20 minutes: TMI Mindful Breathing

20 - 40 minutes: Vipassana See Hear Feel

40 - 60 minutes: Silent Illumination/Do Nothing

 

The increased novelty not only helps settle the emotional stress of sitting and essentially doing nothing for 60 minutes, but we're actually also training different parts of the mind with different techniques. A double win! But yes, sometimes there's a place for just diving into a long sit without any intervals or technique changes at all, facing the void of time breaking down and not knowing how much longer the sit is, returning to our object of focus. But there's also a place for supporting ourselves, and being gentler with our approach.

Yeah that feeling better/worse simultaneously is pretty indicative of the process of purification taking place. The mind is literally burning through its bullshit, which is both cathartic, but also painful. Kinda like how when we workout, our bodies are experiencing pain but we also feel really great. However, if we overdo it, we end up just crashing and burning physically, sometimes injuring ourselves. We feel worse even though exercise can make us healthier. It's a similar dynamic with meditation. Because meditation is a practice partially aimed at purification, we should expect the purifying process to get a bit painful at times; if we overdo it we can end up just feeling worse. With patience, persistence, compassion though, we not only begin to increase our tolerance for this purification process, but we begin to acquire a taste for it as well - we literally can begin to enjoy how the mind is, in a sense, burning up as we sit down to practice. Once the taste for purification is acquired or as we begin cultivating the taste for it overtime, our "progress" with practice begins to really speed up.  

[Guest Bazooka Jesus]

1 hour ago, Consilience said:

I think to some extent we're all bullshitting ourselves, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just being aware of the possibility and taking it seriously is a huge step towards bullshitting less. 

That's what I like to tell myself... and then I wonder if that isn't just another extra layer of BS on top of all the other BS. The bullshit icing on the bullshit cake, so to speak.  (You know, kind of like "look at me, how rigorously self-critical I am. Aint I special & amazing and sooo much better than all the other sheep out there?" LOL)

To be honest, most of the time when I post some grand 'insight' here on this forum, it's more a sort of self test than anything else... I type it, read it and then ask myself: Do I really feel that this is true? (Spoiler alert: The answer isn't always a 100% resounding yes... shocking, I know. )

1 hour ago, Consilience said:

With patience, persistence, compassion though, we not only begin to increase our tolerance for this purification process, but we begin to acquire a taste for it as well - we literally can begin to enjoy how the mind is, in a sense, burning up as we sit down to practice. Once the taste for purification is acquired or as we begin cultivating the taste for it overtime, our "progress" with practice begins to really speed up.  

It's not even the meditation sessions themselves that are the 'problem' for me; I am pretty proficient at sitting on my ass and doing nothing, heh. It's all the stuff that happens in between the sessions where things are getting rough lately... especially when I get into an argument with one of my flat mates, for example; these are the kinds of situations where I have been feeling some really distressing internal friction recently. It's the combination of getting more and more emotionally self-aware on the one hand and the gradual loss of all the cheap little ego gratifications a la "I am RIGHT and this f***ing diot is WRONG" which I used to get high on in the past on the other hand that has really been messing with me over the last couple of months. Ugh.

Well, I guess we have no choice but to weather the storm and keep digging our little tunnel through the mountain of BS. What else is there to do, right?

[Whatever]

Thats the thing. Spirituality with any depth isnt just my little inner project. My insight, my state of consciousness. Why? All that shit is off the window, retreat after retreat and Trip after trip when im in contact with people close to me, family, friends etc. And when interacting with people in general. Thats where rubber hits the road indeed. And thats where shit gets complicated and not so simple and nice and blissfull.

 

So maybe there is more to it than just trying to see it as illusion. Maybe it doesnt seem like that because it isnt. Maybe we shouldnt try to find some state of inner love where I can stay in this high bliss state and bring love and care to where its difficult. Between us.

[Mosess]

23 hours ago, Adodd said:

 

What EXACTLY is spiritual bypass

 

Trying to pass by this moment, by distracting yourself with doing something "spiritual", such as meditating, repeating a mantra or some other bs technique,

the reality of things is that this moment is completely, 10000000% out of your hands, and will pass by whether you like it or not, that is not an exception for anyone, not even jesus, open your eyes and look, He's dead.

now is passing by infront of your eyes, the question is, what the fuck are you doing about it? are you bullshiting yourself? Or are you doing something that is ACTUALLY out of the sheer joy that you will never experience this moment, ever, as it is right now, ever again?

[Gregory1]

23 hours ago, Mosess said:

Trying to pass by this moment, by distracting yourself with doing something "spiritual", such as meditating, repeating a mantra or some other bs technique,

the reality of things is that this moment is completely, 10000000% out of your hands, and will pass by whether you like it or not, that is not an exception for anyone, not even jesus, open your eyes and look, He's dead.

now is passing by infront of your eyes, the question is, what the fuck are you doing about it? are you bullshiting yourself? Or are you doing something that is ACTUALLY out of the sheer joy that you will never experience this moment, ever, as it is right now, ever again?

No, this present moment is in your hands.

[Mosess]

15 hours ago, Gregory1 said:

No, this present moment is in your hands.

sure

[VeganAwake]

@TDLH @RickyFitts

It just doesn't matter in the sense that there's no ultimate goal to life or spirituality.

Within the dream story of separation there can appear to be a benefit from facing fears/mastering emotions and such, but when you get down to the brass tacks it's just another subtle idea the ego believes will help with getting what it thinks it needs. 

The ego thrives in future goals and simply can't recognize the perfection of what already is.

For the ego the answer is always just up ahead around the next corner.... like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey's mouth.

"The ego says seek but do not find"

- A Course in Miracles

❤ 

[TDLH]

22 hours ago, VeganAwake said:

"The ego says seek but do not find"

- A Course in Miracles

I am aware of your attachment to the concepts presented in “A Course in Miracles”, and your attachment to “Nothingness” and “Nothing Matters”.   I am not saying these are wrong or bad attachments, but over the years I have noticed that you have not moved beyond these limited concepts and beliefs.

The reason I am bringing this to your attention is that I had also clung to these concepts and beliefs at the beginning of my DMT experiences.  It took me a year of critical thinking, questioning, and being present with my “Self”, to really expand beyond these thoughts, ideas, images, beliefs, expectations, feelings and emotions that nothing matters, which I clung to as an EGO security blanket.

Spiritual bypassing is very deceptive and can lull you into new attachments that become hardwired as new thoughts, ideas, images, beliefs, expectations, feelings and emotions.    An extreme example of this would be “Born again Christians”, which believe they are above everyone else and there concept of reality is the only true Reality!

Nothingness and nothing matters is a very limited concept that can imprison the Human Mind so that it doesn’t have to struggle with the expanded consciousness hidden in the Unknown! 

You are absolutely right "The ego says seek but do not find", which means seek only within your own beliefs, within the confines of the limited Human physical experience, “But” do not seek beyond the hardwired beliefs, beyond my comfort zone and beyond my security blanket, because this is a belief we as a collective believe in!  

The Ego does not dictate your experience!  Your thoughts, ideas, images, beliefs, expectations, feelings, and emotions that you program into your Ego determines the reality that you create, independently and collectively within the collective Earth Mind, within "all-That-Is".

At one moment in time, I believed the Ego was evil and untrustworthy and needed to die so that I (the physical “I” that “I” was experiencing) could become whole, become healed, and become greater than the physical identity I was attached to and experiencing!  I have since realized that the Ego is an imaginary bubble of limited consciousness that my “Greater-Self” has constructed to experience the magic of this wonderful physical dream reality. 

The Ego bubble is not rigid, it is flexible.  It can expand, or contract, and be everything in between.  It is only as flexible as the beliefs etc. that you program into it.  If you believe the Ego is evil, angry, dysfunctional, and toxic, that life is evil, angry, dysfunctional, and toxic  etc.  then that will become your reality.  If you believe your Ego is a feixible lens that allows you to explore the Human Mind and can expand into the unknow reaches of “All-That-Is”, then that can also become your reality.   

If you decide to believe that there is nothing beyond this human experience and that nothing matters, because “everything” is “Nothingness”, well then that becomes your reality!

I personally would rather explore, expand, and experience all forms and formless states of Beingness within the multidimensional realms of consciousness that are within “All-That-Is”!

It’s much more interesting than sitting on my hands and doing nothing, because “Nothing Matters”!

"All-That-Is", is always "Becoming", always "Expanding", always "Changing".  Nothing stays Nothing!

Just sharing a few thoughts, ideas, and beliefs!

Edited January 11, 2022 by TDLH

[Brittany]

The non-dualists are saying:

"Spiritual bypassing doesn't exist ."

The shadow workers are saying:

"Spiritual bypassing is wrong and you need to stop doing it.".

But there is also a viewpoint of,

"Spiritual bypassing is okay to do, sometimes":

This is a quote that Matt Khan posted on Facebook on Spiritual Bypassing that takes this 3rd stance.

"Anyone accusing you of spiritual bypassing is using their judgments, assumptions, and projections of you to overlook their next humbling moment of inner growth, in favor of maintaining a false sense of superiority. No one can tell you when, if, and how you are bypassing. How you process life is unique and different to how others may assimilate it. In reality, there are simply moments in time when you are ready to face deeper feelings and other moments when they aren't quite ready to be felt at full potency. The fact that someone else can sense what may be faced sometime in the near future, doesn’t mean you are avoiding it by not processing it now. This means everything gets faced and felt the moment it is meant to be explored. When its time to feel it, there’s no way to avoid, ignore, or bypass what’s ready to arise. This post isn't against spiritual bypassing as a concept, but shining a light on the way it is so often used to disempower others in the name of clarity"

And a video from Perception Trainers that takes this 3rd stance:

This 3rd stance is the most compassionate, in my opinion.

[VeganAwake]

@TDLH

There is no higher self or unconditioned you underneath the ego. There just isn't anything there.

It's literally mind blowing.

That's the nothingness being pointed to.

❤ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Phoenix11]

Avoiding/ suppressing/ things which cause aversions to the body and mind, Also distracting oneself from the things which cause aversions to the body and mind is what is spiritual bypassing in pursuit of feeling good all the time.

Edited January 12, 2022 by Phoenix11

[Phoenix11]

An example: you have sat down for meditation and an itch appears 5 mins into the meditation session, there's a strong urge to move the finger over it with some pressure, this is the first window into the path of spiritual bypassing, if you give into it too soon then no progress is made, the best way is to extend the urge for as long as possible every instance it pops up and you will know it's being dealt with when it becomes okay with itch, when it's moved to the background and in some more time it's not there in the awareness at all and hopefully in existence too lol

Edited January 12, 2022 by Phoenix11