Spirituelle Umgehung – die Verwendung spiritueller Praktiken/Glauben, um den Umgang mit schmerzhaften Gefühlen, ungelösten Wunden und Entwicklungsbedürfnissen zu vermeiden – ist so allgegenwärtig, dass sie weitgehend unbemerkt bleibt. In der Tradition des wegweisenden Buches Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism von Chögyam Trungpa wirft Spiritual Bypassing ein klares, kritisches Auge auf unseren tief verwurzelten Missbrauch von Spiritualität und fördert den Körper der psychologischen/geistigen Einsicht, wie wir Spiritualität nutzen (und missbrauchen).
Wenn die Spiritualität uns von dem trennt, was wirklich zählt
Während andere Autoren das Thema angesprochen haben, ist dies das erste Buch, das sich voll und ganz der Erklärung und Arbeit durch spirituelles Bypassing widmet und einen tiefen Einblick in die ungelösten oder ignorierten psychologischen/emotionalen Probleme gibt, die oft durch das, was wir mit Spiritualität tun, verdeckt oder marginalisiert werden. „Spirituelle Umgehung ist nicht etwas, das man ausrotten kann, sondern das man auswachsen kann. Behandeln wir sie als solche und erkennen wir an, dass wahre Spiritualität keine Flucht, sondern eine Ankunft ist.“
Ein Muss für jeden, der mehr Selbstbewusstsein und ein tieferes, spirituell gesundes Leben sucht, ein Leben voller Integrität und Mitgefühl, ein Leben, in dem das Persönliche, das Zwischenmenschliche und das Transpersonale geehrt und in vollen Zügen gelebt werden, ein Leben, in dem wir Intimität mit allem, was wir sind, pflegen.
Das Buch – Spiritual Bypassing
Spiritual Bypassing & Blind Compassion
There is this contrived “niceness” in today’s “conscious movements”, where people don’t want to say anything “negative”, in their subjective understanding of it of course. In general, some folks hide behind a “social etiquette” and mask without wanting to say anything “bad” or touching on any “taboo subjects”. They speak around issues in order to be spiritually or politically “correct” so as to “not step on anyone’s toes”.
The other day I was at a yoga class and the teacher finished the class with a prayer in which she also said: “Let’s be conscious of what we say, and if we don’t have anything nice to say, it’s better to be silent”. That is a good example of the distortion of “being conscious/aware” and relates to the fact why more spiritual-minded people don’t look at the world more objectively, speaking out and standing up against the lies and psychopathic ways of our culture.
Because it’s not “nice” to say that Obama is a pathological liar and that there are no “free elections” in the US. It’s not “nice” to state that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza or that there are some serious issues with the man-made Global Warming “science”. It’s not “nice” to point out that 6% of humanity have no conscience by birth and are mostly found in positions of power. It’s not only “not nice”, it’s also being “negative” according to some people’s convoluted perception, hence one should not say anything at all. This attitude of contrived “niceness” essentially creates the conditions for conformity, complacency, ignorance and the atrophy of critical thinking.
“Cowardice asks the question: “Is it safe?”
Expediency asks the question: “Is it politic?”
Vanity asks the question: “Is it popular?”
But conscience asks the question: “Is it right?”
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe,
nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one what is right.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
It also relates to the trap of “blind compassion”:
“When we are driven by blind compassion, we cut everyone far too much slack, making excuses for others’ behavior and making nice situations that require a forceful “no”, an unmistakable voicing of displeasure, or a firm setting and maintaining of boundaries. These things can, and often should be done out of love, but blind compassion keeps love too meek, sentenced to wearing a kind face.
Blind compassion is kindness rooted in fear, and not just fear of confrontation, but also fear of not coming across as a good or spiritual person. When we are engaged in blind compassion we rarely show anger, for we not only believe that compassion has to be gentle, we are also frightened of upsetting anyone, especially to the point of their confronting us. This is reinforced by our judgment about anger, especially in its more fiery forms, as something less spiritual; something that shouldn’t be there if we were being truly loving. Blind compassion reduces us to harmony junkies, entrapping us in unrelentingly positive expression.
With blind compassion we don’t know how to – or won’t learn how to – say “no” with any real power, avoiding confrontation at all costs and, as a result, enabling unhealthy patterns to continue. Our “yes” is then anemic and impotent, devoid of impact it could have if we were also able to access a clear, strong “no” that emanated from our core.
When we mute our essential voice, our openness is reduced to a permissive gap, an undiscerning embrace, a poorly boundaried receptivity, all of which indicate a lack of compassion for ourselves (in that we don’t adequately protect ourselves).
Blind compassion confuses anger with aggression, forcefulness with violence, judgment with condemnation, caring with exaggerated tolerance, and more tolerance with spiritual correctness.”
– Robert Augustus Masters, Spiritual Bypassing
https://robertmasters.com/media/
Robert Augustus Masters, PhD, is a relationship expert, an integral psychotherapist, and a psychospiritual guide and trainer, with a doctorate in psychology. He is the cofounder, with his wife Diane, of the Masters Center for Transformation (MCT), a school featuring relationally rooted psychospiritual work devoted to deep healing and fully embodied awakening. He is also the author of many books (including Transformation Through Intimacy, Spiritual Bypassing, Emotional Intimacy, and To Be a Man) and an audio program: Knowing Your Shadow.
His uniquely integral, intuitive work, which he developed over the past thirty-seven years, dynamically blends the psychological and physical with the spiritual, emphasizing full-blooded embodiment, authenticity, emotional openness and literacy, deep shadow work, and the development of relational maturity.
At essence his work is about becoming more intimate with all that we are, in the service of the deepest possible healing, awakening, and integration. He works side by side and in very close conjunction with Diane. They live and work in Ashland, Oregon. His website is www.robertmasters.com
