In Musings on My Mentor, I wrote of the many frustrating ways my mentor subverted my desire for knowledge. We were both writers, and he understood all too well this peculiar avenue for spiritual bypassing. Indeed, it’s endemic in online spirituality: the mistake of thinking that because you can speak articulately about a concept, you also have an embodied understanding of the experience to which it points.
Thank you for this article. Been rereading it a few times now, because it generates a resonance in me - and a remembrance that I need to continue to point myself inwards, rather than seeking answers “out there”. I for one easily forget this, and continue to confuse knowledge for understanding.
you have no idea how much I needed to hear so much of what you said here. this life is a lonely one and I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to conceptualize what it is I'm experiencing or looking to others to see if their experience at all matches mine. I often am frustratingly met by the "artificial intelligence" in the many varieties of spiritual bypassing instead of feeling any resonance of authentic experience with others. thanks as always, G.
Thank you for this article. Been rereading it a few times now, because it generates a resonance in me - and a remembrance that I need to continue to point myself inwards, rather than seeking answers “out there”. I for one easily forget this, and continue to confuse knowledge for understanding.
you have no idea how much I needed to hear so much of what you said here. this life is a lonely one and I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to conceptualize what it is I'm experiencing or looking to others to see if their experience at all matches mine. I often am frustratingly met by the "artificial intelligence" in the many varieties of spiritual bypassing instead of feeling any resonance of authentic experience with others. thanks as always, G.