Beware of "spiritual bypassing"

[peteyzen]

I totally agree with this post. My teacher has always said to me we have to have a firm foot in both worlds, the spiritual and the material. He meant we need to deal with our physical lives properly, that is, earn a living, look after our family, keep ourselves healthy, manage our finances etc etc., but at the same time we need to go inside ourselves and develop our spiritual nature, spend time with god, meditate, mantra. then bring that spiritual practice and discipline into our worldly endeavours, so we embody empathy and kindness. Having said that he also said we need to be pragmatic, if someone is cheating on us, then by the law of deserve or not deserve, we need to let them go, because we do not deserve that. Its a tricky thing at times to get the balance right. But depending on the tarot to show us the way every day, or swooning over `twin flames` who have dumped us are definitley not the right way and these weaknesses need to be faced, or we will just bounce around at the same deluded level for the rest of this life.

[Aube Borealis]

Is reality more of a self control and spirituality more of freeing one self.

We control our emotions in reality for us to think logically.

I am guilty of suppressing my emotions to be logical but spiritually suffer for not expressing it.

We know ourselves, what we want, what we dream of but we tend in prioritizing what is needed.

[Baile]

That's an interesting list, it reads like a person in an abusive relationship. Which makes sense given many religious and spiritual beliefs, organizations and cults really are quite abusive (and self-abusive). Something to keep in mind though: everything we do, is a spiritual act. We are evolving our spiritual or higher nature with every breath. I personally never could or would describe certain types of human thought and behavior as "aspects of spiritual bypassing." Rather, these are all aspects of personal spiritual expression, relative to the particular individual, in this particular lifetime.

[A human Being]

It's true, imo, that engaging in spiritual practices can simply be an elaborate avoidance strategy, and just yet another way to avoid what you're feeling in this moment. It's unfortunate, but people often only face what they've studiously tried to avoid their whole lives when they reach a crisis point, when they've exhausted all other avenues.

Which isn't to say that spiritual practices don't have value - far from it, they can have inestimable value. But sincerity and underlying intent are everything, imo, and I feel that quite often people are engaging in these practices because they're looking for a painless route to liberation.

[Gem]

It's a good article which raises a good point, because spirituality and its various practices can be used as avoidance strategies and often are, perhaps more often than not, because the consumer culture in which one comes to believe that the next purchase, consumption or attainment will bring happiness, and such things such as spending, eating, consuming intoxicants, or getting recognition and fame in some way then serve as pursuits which distract people from their life's pain, are easily transferred to beliefs that attaining this spiritual experience and that will bring happiness. The objects of it change, but the pattern of it is the same. Eventually it exhausts a person and they have to come to a stop, and I think that's when it becomes what I'd call spiritual, as everything you avoided catches you up and everything you pursued gets away.

[Really!]

Thank you for the link ...
I'm hoping it will be read by everyone ...
Sadly, I've frequently come across bypassing here on SF ...
Its my reason for replying w/clear practical answers/advice especially w/younger people ...
They are still evolving as an individual, learning to problem solve, understanding their emotions, searching for answers they can apply to daily life, etc ...
Its valuable when questioning why their beliefs stop working as well as rejected by others ....

[shivatar]

Originally Posted by SecretDreams333

lol yes you never even met him
sure all people are nice
but spiritual realities show the human soul in a different perspective
that makes a lot of other knowledge obsolete since they can be explained as
wrong conclusions drawn from lack of seeing all
just imagine the list of things that arise from past life actions
makes your statement a thing to say in a spiritual perspective this poster (you) knows nothing worth while , but yes sure you might be a nice person
well how is that for a review of your answer form some one who does know his past life's and all other stuff lol ΑΩ

maybe my spiritual reality doesn't require knowledge of the credentials of my teachers.

---

seems like a pretty opinionated review, but hey isn't that one of our basic human rights? lol

[shivatar]

Originally Posted by Really!

Thank you for the link ...
I'm hoping it will be read by everyone ...
Sadly, I've frequently come across bypassing here on SF ...
Its my reason for replying w/clear practical answers/advice especially w/younger people ...
They are still evolving as an individual, learning to problem solve, understanding their emotions, searching for answers they can apply to daily life, etc ...
Its valuable when questioning why their beliefs stop working as well as rejected by others ....

I was mad at first at how prevalent this "spiritual disease" is but being mad isn't going to help the situation so I just be aware of it when I remember to and try to apologize when I forget.

[shivatar]

Originally Posted by A human Being

It's true, imo, that engaging in spiritual practices can simply be an elaborate avoidance strategy, and just yet another way to avoid what you're feeling in this moment. It's unfortunate, but people often only face what they've studiously tried to avoid their whole lives when they reach a crisis point, when they've exhausted all other avenues.

Which isn't to say that spiritual practices don't have value - far from it, they can have inestimable value. But sincerity and underlying intent are everything, imo, and I feel that quite often people are engaging in these practices because they're looking for a painless route to liberation.

Indeed, I heard it's called the sacred wound. When avoiding our problems becomes the reason we (pretty much) require spirituality in our life. Avoiding problems becomes a bigger issue than the oringinal pain, spirituality becomes more or less "required" when people reach a place of suffering they are unwilling to deal with. If they reach that state and use spirituality without solving their problems then the problems are just delayed, eventually spirituality is again questioned and is either reinforced (into a stronger delusion of spiritual journey/bypassing) or problems are solved. The crisis gets bigger and bigger until it's foundation is removed/solved.

[shivatar]

Originally Posted by Baile

That's an interesting list, it reads like a person in an abusive relationship. Which makes sense given many religious and spiritual beliefs, organizations and cults really are quite abusive (and self-abusive). Something to keep in mind though: everything we do, is a spiritual act. We are evolving our spiritual or higher nature with every breath. I personally never could or would describe certain types of human thought and behavior as "aspects of spiritual bypassing." Rather, these are all aspects of personal spiritual expression, relative to the particular individual, in this particular lifetime.

The term spiritual bypassing can stand as the negative term that brings a person to clear awareness of their probelms, or it can be seen as not a problem and other things can become the negative term.

regardless of what we label as the problem something is going to have to be the nasty sign of "hey, look at this, it's a problem!". otherwise why would they have negative symptoms if everything is good? Seeing everything as a spiritual journey, even the things causing suffering that can be solved, isn't a good way to ease the suffering faced in life. In fact it seems the opposite, pride leading to inaction or incorrect action.