One of the frustrations of the caring duties I have taken on in the last quarter century or so (including activism) is that they have directly and indirectly had major impacts on my health, wellbeing, and functioning. As a result of that, I have been focusing on making short posts, rather than the eloquent missives I wish to.
Sighs eloquently ...
Be that as it may, I have one of those short missives that I wish to migrate from my mental meditations to a mundane world (digital) meandering ...
I have been contemplating the issue of spiritual bypassing.
As originally expressed, that concept is a valid concern - that people will (in my words) engage in the deception of being involved in a task for the world that they wrongly consider brooks of no interference to what is satisfying or rewarding,. and thus they avoid any personal growth work, let alone shadow work.
However, my experience of those who are concerned about spiritual bypassing is that they can, in turn, be selfish and limited in their perspective - specifically, that they underplay their responsibility for making the world a better place, including mundane world activism for things such as democracy and human rights, and against inequity, injustice, global thirst & hunger, and poverty.
In a word: politics.
They fail to realise that it is the application of spiritual ethics in mundane situations that can be of crucial importance - and is a test of the depth, genuineness and extent of their spirituality ... and in very testing circumstances where success may not occur even if their conduct is impeccable - which is a test of the acceptance of others’ free will.
From my life experience, I can state that saying a simple “I disagree with you, and consider we should do X” in an ethically contended situation (whether at work, in a social or other small group, family, at a political party branch meeting - or even from those who should know better), is infinitely more constructive than a bad tempered going-along-with-something-because-everyone-else-wants-to-and-the-stated-disagreement-will-not-win-then-grumbling-about-how-bad-and-unspiritual-the-world-is-afterwards. It may not win then, but it plants a seed for those coming later who can win such battles.
Of course, doing so requires both courage, genuine commitment to spiritual principles (including being of good character), and the willingness to forego recognition.
I must admit I’ve got a little tired and struggle with the last of those after the last half century or so, but that is an issue I am working on.
In the meantime, I can use - and am using - my position as someone who has got through a demanding day job/career and family responsibilities (albeit with more to come), and thus it is harder for those sceptical of spirituality to discount what I am advocating for.
And my advocating is, as I mentioned at the start of this, hindered by the damage caused by my life (including undiagnosed conditions, and the bigotry I have experienced from the small-minded from the conditions that have been identified and dealt with) - but at least I have made it easier for those who are working now, and those who will come in the future.
But I wish to return to the issue of scale.
When I started my serious and intensive training in the 1980s, the work included both improving oneself and working for a better world. The work was rendered flawed by the anti-human rights, avoid-overt-politics, questionable methods, and normative & neoliberal biases of the teacher, but the individual and global scale were both there.
I have only found the same combination present in one other group (a Wiccan church), but I have not been a member of that group for a long time, and my spiritual practices have diverged to the extent that I would not return there.
All others I have encountered since then tend to be focused on the personal in the sense of growth, on the personal in the sense of spirituality, on the political, or - in fictional renditions - have problems with being violent.
A psychic or spiritual conflict can only be won, ultimately, by being more spiritually loving - which includes being socially progressive and inclusive, and non-violent (except to prevent harm that is being actively done).
But that will involve contests, and that is something I have been trying to get the energy to write about in my Ranger on the Inner Plane series and other related short stories on my creativity blog - and some incipient novels, including about Tara Dale.
I have to admit I would love to find some (fiction) books that cover this sort of work on both a global and personal scale and are reasonably realistic, but those that come close are plagued by (often commercially driven) problems such as pandering to neochristianity, including gratuitous (mostly physical) violence, or fail on fundamental issues such as survival after physical death.
On that last point, I have always found the early (in terms of story chronological sequence, not date of publication) Star Wars aggravating on that point: I know some traditions do deny the continued existence of individualised consciousness after physical death, but they need to get past their blinkers and examine the work of people like the Zammits.
The very belated acknowledgement of healing in the Star Wars films is another source of the irrits for me, but they finally got there with the last film.
I won’t deal with those irrits other than to say “humph”, and then have a cuppa and lay down ... đ ... and to continue trying to write the sort of fiction I would like to read - and that would have helped me when I was starting on my spiritual path ... at least I don’t have to worry about commercial pressures ...
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Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our MÓgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk.
