Spirituality - Healthy or Unhealthy?

     “The pursuit of spiritual goals can be a useful excuse to avoid dealing with painful feelings, unresolved trauma, and limited professional development. But prioritizing transcendence over relationships becomes a way to be self-centered while appearing to be concerned for the benefit of other people. 
     So psychologists … apply a simple test to spiritual statements: Do the beliefs and practices take the person closer to a functional and helpful existence, or away from one?”
        Scott Carney. "A Death on Diamond Mountain. A True Story of Obsession, Madness, and the Path to Enlightenment." Gotham Books, 2015.
       The message: don't join cults, especially if you have undiagnosed & untreated psychiatric conditions - perfectly reasonable!
       But then the author warns against serious spiritual pursuits in general, travel to foreign countries with different cultures, and the power of evil spells, - all of these endangering sanity & life - ????

     Futile attempts to escape psychosocial dysfunction through religion / spirituality is called spiritual bypassing. See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/02/processing-karma-now-spiritual-bypassing.html 
     When unfortunate, marginalized individuals get trapped in spiritual bypassing, usually after intensive brainwashing by sociopathic handlers, instead of finding heaven, they "unleash hell on earth", primarily for their own families. Such psychosocial illness has nothing to do with legitimate humanistic / religious / spiritual aspirations. 
     Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an increasingly common humanistic pathway towards greater depth of meaning: http://jglovas.wix.com/awarenessnow#!Meditations-Potential/c17jj/565b14520cf221f2a7a5e228

     Examples of legitimate Buddhist aspirations are expressed by Dogen:
     "Just practice good, do good for others, without thinking of making yourself known so that you may gain reward. Really bring benefit to others, gaining nothing for yourself. This is the primary requisite for breaking free of attachments to the self."
     and the Bodhisattva vow: http://www.johnlovas.com/2015/06/bohdisattva-vow.html 

Buddha statue

Deep Engagement with Matters of Ultimate Concern

     "You can be musically tone deaf and have no understanding of music, just as you can be spiritually 'tone deaf' and not understand what people are doing when they engage deeply with matters of ultimate concern. But that deficit is simply an individual’s own lack of awareness, not the absence of this fundamental domain of human life. In this regard, the religious dimension of human culture is no more optional than politics or an economy. That was Tillich’s point, and even if all religious institutions are currently inadequate to dealing with these issues, the human questions themselves don’t go away, just as widespread political corruption doesn’t get us out of politics. Instead of denying or ignoring the religious dimension of life, we should seek to find ways to cultivate and develop it, so that in our time it can be rediscovered and reenvisioned."

       Dale S. Wright. "Religion Resurected. A secular Buddhist, recoiling from the ills of both theism and atheism, suggests that we move beyond both." Tricycle, Summer 2015. 

His work was his prayer - Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris

Come Together ...

    "It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual.
     The next Buddha may take the form of a community - a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living.
     This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the earth."                                                       Thich Nhat Hanh

www.wisdomatwork.com

Guardedness, Appreciation, and Opening One's Heart & Life

     "Sometimes people with early childhood scarring complain that they are unable to feel their emotions. We all have emotions, but some of us have learned to ignore them and turn away. I often suggest that those who ignore their emotions awaken to their emotional life through tenderness: looking around until something stirs their humanity, then resting their gaze quietly upon that. When they begin to experience a felt sense of beauty, they will also feel tender, open, and peaceful. Their emotions will begin to percolate through this process, and appreciation will arise within that tenderness. Appreciation is the quiet thank-you of the heart that opens across the landscape."

       Rodney Smith. Awakening. A Paradigm Shift of the Heart. Shambhala, Boston, 2014.

October on Lewis Lake, Nova Scotia, Canada

 

Out of Fearful Pessimism, We Isolate & Diminish Ourselves

     "The desire and pursuit of the whole is called love."          Plato

     Sadly, "men and women have lost their souls, their belief in their souls, especially in the West. Since the rest of the world is profoundly influenced by the West, the catastrophe is global - and spreading daily.
     By 'lost their souls' I mean that the old and widespread idea of an inherent nobility of humanity, created by a just and benevolent God or Higher Order, and of consequently having the opportunity to live a meaningful life in the world with a purpose beyond survival and sensual gratification, died. Yes, the idea, in its many variations, is still around, but it has lost its vitality and has been totally rejected by many, especially those who are supposed to be 'educated,' and is paid only lip service by millions more. The modern belief is that somehow 'science' disproved the idea of any kind of god or divine order of things, and what we have left is only the material world, with humans as the superior (but badly flawed) dominant animal.
     The results are too obvious: living only for 'Number 1,' a sneering at idealism of any sort, increasing psychopathology, the increasing gap between the rich and the poor nations, and the insane, uncaring destruction of the environment in the frenzied pursuit of material wealth, to name only a few." Charles T. Tart
       Vaughn F. The Inward Arc. Healing in Psychotherapy and Spirituality. iUniverse.com Inc, Lincoln NE, 1995, 2000.

Dale Chihuly   http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/

Searching for Sugar Man

     Searching for Sugar Man is the title of a very fine, Academy Award-winning documentary movie about the almost unknown in North America, yet legendary in South Africa & Australia, Mexican American singer song-writer poet activist of the 1970's Rodriguez.
     Sixto “Sugar Man” Rodriguez is a special human being - important to get to know - first I recommend seeing the movie, which is available on Netflix and likely your local video store. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125608/