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Spiritual Bypassing

When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters

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About this listen

 “A wonderfully significant and important book.” —Ken Wilber, The Integral Vision
“A timely and penetrating analysis of spirituality’s shadow.” —Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism without Beliefs

A spiritual teacher and integral psychotherapist offers a first-of-its-kind study on how we use—and abuse—spiritual beliefs and practices, revealing how to identify and move beyond what holds us back from living life fully.

Spiritual bypassing—the use of spiritual beliefs to avoid dealing with painful feelings, unresolved wounds, and developmental needs—is so pervasive that it goes largely unnoticed. The spiritual ideals of any tradition, whether Christian commandments or Buddhist precepts, can provide easy justification for practitioners to duck uncomfortable feelings in favor of more seemingly enlightened activity. When split off from fundamental psychological needs, such actions often do much more harm than good.

While other authors have touched on the subject, this is the first book fully devoted to spiritual bypassing. In the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa’s landmark Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Spiritual Bypassing provides an in-depth look at the unresolved or ignored psychological issues often masked as spirituality, including self-judgment, excessive niceness, and emotional dissociation. A longtime psychotherapist with an engaging writing style, Masters furthers the body of psychological insight into how we use (and abuse) religion in often unconscious ways. This book will hold particular appeal for those who grew up with an unstructured new-age spirituality now looking for a more mature spiritual practice, and for anyone seeking increased self-awareness and a more robust relationship with themselves and others. Buddhism Eastern Personal Development Personal Success Philosophy Spirituality
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Excellent book with so much interesting information to absorb. A great insight into spiritual bypassing and its many manifestations.

Excellent

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I have to say this is a rather intense book and well worth the read. In provides a very honest framework that enables you to understand that spirituality and psychoanalysis run parallel paths.

Deeply Insightful

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A deeply profound audio book, which pulls no punches yet with no judgement either. explaining what spiritual bypassing is, the elements and consequences and normalising it as something we all tread as avoiding it on the personal awareness journey ould itself be a spiritual bypass.

An experienced voice that highlights what chasms must be crossed along the path.

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Anyone who views themselves as spiritual or is engaged in spiritual practice should listen to this book. It is so valuable for illuminating potential pitfalls.

A very important book

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I can only listen to short sections of this book at a time - the narration has a pressure and relentlesness to it that requires full, focused attention, and leaves me tense and uneasy. It's a shame, as the content of the book offers deep insights and learnings, and brings about a level discussion on an important subject - how many forms of spritiuality are actually just forms of wishful thinking, blaming, and not wanting "to be with" the real issue at hand. A paper copy may be more appropriate for a topic that will resonate deeply with many listeners, and awaken uncomfortable yet neccessary realisations about their own practices. And it is that "truthful" nature of the book, why it may serve the reader better to abe able to ingest it in their own time as and when they are ready to open to learn more.

Deep insights, relentlessly narrated

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