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diff --git a/content/entry/thoughts-on-spirituality.md b/content/entry/thoughts-on-spirituality.md index 93d7c62..5809e10 100644 --- a/content/entry/thoughts-on-spirituality.md +++ b/content/entry/thoughts-on-spirituality.md @@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ So please don't think after reading this that I've spoiled the spiritual journey So just meditate. Don't worry about having an ulterior motive and don't worry about achieving "permanent" enlightenment. There's no need to be "permanently" enlightened to reap benefits from meditation. I think some people do reach that level. They couldn't be knocked off mental balance even by an asteroid impact. That level of mental composure may not be in the cards for everyone, but I think many of us can get close and it's worth it to try. # Spiritual Bypassing -Do watch out for other ways that the ego can creep back in though. Many novice meditators, after having insights about the nature of the mind, become convinced they're permanently enlightened and try to act as if they are all the time. This can be very psychologically destructive. It's called [spiritual bypassing](https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_bypass), a term coined in 1984 by American psychologist [John Welwood](https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Welwood). I'll let Wikipedia explain it: +Do watch out for other ways that the ego can creep back in though. Many novice meditators, after having insights about the nature of the mind, become convinced they're permanently enlightened and try to act as if they are all the time. This can be very psychologically destructive. It's called [spiritual bypassing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_bypass), a term coined in 1984 by American psychologist [John Welwood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Welwood). I'll let Wikipedia explain it: > "On the other hand, when spiritual bypass is used as a long-term strategy for ignoring or suppressing unaddressed mental health issues, negative consequences can include "the need to excessively control others and oneself, shame, anxiety, dichotomous thinking, emotional confusion, exaggerated tolerance of inappropriate behavior, codependency, compulsive kindness, obsession or addiction, spiritual narcissism, blind allegiance to charismatic teachers, and disregard for personal responsibility" - Wikipedia, [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) @@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ Regardless of how the problem is described, the basic solution is the same: non- # Spirituality And Skepticism ## Deepak Chopra -In the past, myself and others have lamented the fact that the atheist/skeptic/rationalist community doesn't get more involved with spirituality. When sane, rational people don't write books about spiritual inquiry or speak about it, the floor is given people who promote incoherent pseudoscientific pseudospiritual technobabble. Their technobabble sounds just scientific enough so lay people have a hard time distinguishing between the quacks and real scientists. People like [Deepak Chopra](https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepak_Chopra) who promote alternative medicine and make proven false claims such as "you can tell your body not to age" cannot continue to represent the spiritual movement. +In the past, myself and others have lamented the fact that the atheist/skeptic/rationalist community doesn't get more involved with spirituality. When sane, rational people don't write books about spiritual inquiry or speak about it, the floor is given people who promote incoherent pseudoscientific pseudospiritual technobabble. Their technobabble sounds just scientific enough so lay people have a hard time distinguishing between the quacks and real scientists. People like [Deepak Chopra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepak_Chopra) who promote alternative medicine and make proven false claims such as "you can tell your body not to age" cannot continue to represent the spiritual movement. ## Myself And an Unnamed Youtuber That's part of why I'm writing this entry. If people like me don't want quacks like Chopra to continue being the authority on all things spiritual, we have to step up and start our own dialog rooted in the principles of science and skepticism. @@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ A famous Youtuber whose name I won't say recently made a video trying to recount ## Eckhart Tolle The presence of so much spiritual mumbo jumbo out there is a testament to the difficulty of putting spiritual concepts into words. It's very hard to explain it in such a way that people won't horribly misunderstand you. -[Eckhart Tolle](https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle), a spiritual teacher and self-help author, has written many sane sentences correctly diagnosing the problem of suffering and offering the solution. But Eckhart also says some things that are unclear how to interpret and other things that are just plain false, even when reading his work with the most charitable interpretation. It shows that even well-meaning people struggle with this. +[Eckhart Tolle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle), a spiritual teacher and self-help author, has written many sane sentences correctly diagnosing the problem of suffering and offering the solution. But Eckhart also says some things that are unclear how to interpret and other things that are just plain false, even when reading his work with the most charitable interpretation. It shows that even well-meaning people struggle with this. ## Sam Harris With so much mumbo jumbo out there, I think it's very important to be clear on this subject and the only spiritual book I've read so far that satisfies the level of clarity I'm looking for is [Waking Up](/2021/01/29/book-waking-up/). There's absolutely no mumbo jumbo in Waking Up. I feel comfortable recommending it without any caveats. It you haven't read it yet, it would probably be a good thing to read after this journal entry. |