“I am relieved to know that enlightenment cannot be found in a tape or a book, at a workshop or a refuge, on a yoga mat or a meditation cushion. It can’t be found by witnessing the pain body or feigning forgiveness. It isn’t waiting for us at the next spiritual conference or the next empowerment weekend. It isn’t living in the excesses of positive thinking, nor is it waiting on the outskirts of the world, safely above the fray. I am also relieved to know that those who claim they have arrived at its illusory shores, are, by definition, delusional, for anyone who begins to awaken immediately recognises how many paths await, still undiscovered. Although it is tempting to imagine that there is a method, or a human, who will take you where they have not been. Enlightenment is a relative experience – every awakening leads to another to another to another. We get glimpses – to be sure- but it takes time and a steadfast commitment to the path before we can integrate and sustain them. What has helped me along is to stop looking for it all out there, and to focus, instead, on the next step I am ready to take. One step a time is perfect.”
“”As the lazy, pseudo-superior spiritualists hide behind their egoic badge of egolessness, the world burns. They imagine themselves above the problem, when in fact, their feigned aboveness is the problem. There is no difference between self-nullifying patriarchal spiritualists and soul-eradicating patriarchal capitalists. Meditation cushions, and board rooms…..same bloody hustle. Meanwhile, the world burns. If we want to save this bloodied species, we have to heal it. We have to do the individual work to heal and integrate our parts, and we have to do the collective work to heal and integrate every voice. Until then, we are nothing but lost. We are fragmented and fractured stumble bums, tripping our way to nothingness. There is no peace in that. There will only be peace when every single voice is heard and honoured.”
“One of the reasons that many spiritual teachers get away with illegalities, is because many of their followers have made the mistake of seeing human behaviour as separate from who we are as spiritual beings. In other words, you can be a ‘realized master’ no matter what terrible things you do. This irrational split between spirituality and humanness lives at the heart of the spiritual bypass and New Cage movements, and causes all manner of difficulty. Unfortunately, this madness will not stop until seekers own their own piece in this. In their own efforts to bypass their suffering, they are choosing to pretend that humanness and spirituality are distinct from each other. In fact, if anything reflects where we are at on a spiritual level, it is our human behaviour. Yes, we are spiritual beings having a human experience, but we are also human beings having a spiritual experience. They are indistinguishable threads of the same weave. The state of the psyche is a direct reflection of the stage that the soul is at on its journey through time. If you act with zero integrity, you are underdeveloped as a spiritual being. It’s that simple. Emotional and spiritual immaturity are synonymous.”
“Meditation can quickly become medication, if it is not coupled with deep emotional work through. I did this workshop with a leading meditation teacher once, where I enjoyed listening to his sweet and funny stories about the spiritual path. At the same time, I was startled by the energetic gap between his calm voice, and the intense rage in his eyes. If ever there was a man who needed to smash a mattress with a baseball bat, it was him. I learned a lot from that workshop, but none of it had to do with meditation. If we are engaging in spiritual practice to avoid our unresolved feelings, it won’t get us very far. Everything depends on where we are moving from.” (an excerpt from his book ‘Grounded Spirituality’)
“Anger is a beautiful and bountiful river. It wants to be released into the vaster ocean. It wants to move naturally. When we repress it with premature forgiveness, block it with false positivity, repress it in the name of pseudo-peace, project it onto angry Gods and Goddesses, we just dam(n) our natural flow. The river then turns inward, against the self, or explodes outwardly, against innocents. Better we express it when it is in our awareness – not in a way that is destructive to humanity – but in a way that is authentic and that restores the integrity of our being. Anger isn’t the enemy. Misplaced and misidentified anger is. You’re not channelling Kali when you express your anger. You are expressing YOURSELF. It’s essential that you own that, in order to see the healing all the way through to completion. Let the river flow….”
Author Jeff Brown on the New Age Movement – part two
“I am relieved to know that enlightenment cannot be found in a tape or a book, at a workshop or a refuge, on a yoga mat or a meditation cushion. It can’t be found by witnessing the pain body or feigning forgiveness. It isn’t waiting for us at the next spiritual conference or the next empowerment weekend. It isn’t living in the excesses of positive thinking, nor is it waiting on the outskirts of the world, safely above the fray. I am also relieved to know that those who claim they have arrived at its illusory shores, are, by definition, delusional, for anyone who begins to awaken immediately recognises how many paths await, still undiscovered. Although it is tempting to imagine that there is a method, or a human, who will take you where they have not been. Enlightenment is a relative experience – every awakening leads to another to another to another. We get glimpses – to be sure- but it takes time and a steadfast commitment to the path before we can integrate and sustain them. What has helped me along is to stop looking for it all out there, and to focus, instead, on the next step I am ready to take. One step a time is perfect.”
“”As the lazy, pseudo-superior spiritualists hide behind their egoic badge of egolessness, the world burns. They imagine themselves above the problem, when in fact, their feigned aboveness is the problem. There is no difference between self-nullifying patriarchal spiritualists and soul-eradicating patriarchal capitalists. Meditation cushions, and board rooms…..same bloody hustle. Meanwhile, the world burns. If we want to save this bloodied species, we have to heal it. We have to do the individual work to heal and integrate our parts, and we have to do the collective work to heal and integrate every voice. Until then, we are nothing but lost. We are fragmented and fractured stumble bums, tripping our way to nothingness. There is no peace in that. There will only be peace when every single voice is heard and honoured.”
“One of the reasons that many spiritual teachers get away with illegalities, is because many of their followers have made the mistake of seeing human behaviour as separate from who we are as spiritual beings. In other words, you can be a ‘realized master’ no matter what terrible things you do. This irrational split between spirituality and humanness lives at the heart of the spiritual bypass and New Cage movements, and causes all manner of difficulty. Unfortunately, this madness will not stop until seekers own their own piece in this. In their own efforts to bypass their suffering, they are choosing to pretend that humanness and spirituality are distinct from each other. In fact, if anything reflects where we are at on a spiritual level, it is our human behaviour. Yes, we are spiritual beings having a human experience, but we are also human beings having a spiritual experience. They are indistinguishable threads of the same weave. The state of the psyche is a direct reflection of the stage that the soul is at on its journey through time. If you act with zero integrity, you are underdeveloped as a spiritual being. It’s that simple. Emotional and spiritual immaturity are synonymous.”
“Meditation can quickly become medication, if it is not coupled with deep emotional work through. I did this workshop with a leading meditation teacher once, where I enjoyed listening to his sweet and funny stories about the spiritual path. At the same time, I was startled by the energetic gap between his calm voice, and the intense rage in his eyes. If ever there was a man who needed to smash a mattress with a baseball bat, it was him. I learned a lot from that workshop, but none of it had to do with meditation. If we are engaging in spiritual practice to avoid our unresolved feelings, it won’t get us very far. Everything depends on where we are moving from.” (an excerpt from his book ‘Grounded Spirituality’)
“Anger is a beautiful and bountiful river. It wants to be released into the vaster ocean. It wants to move naturally. When we repress it with premature forgiveness, block it with false positivity, repress it in the name of pseudo-peace, project it onto angry Gods and Goddesses, we just dam(n) our natural flow. The river then turns inward, against the self, or explodes outwardly, against innocents. Better we express it when it is in our awareness – not in a way that is destructive to humanity – but in a way that is authentic and that restores the integrity of our being. Anger isn’t the enemy. Misplaced and misidentified anger is. You’re not channelling Kali when you express your anger. You are expressing YOURSELF. It’s essential that you own that, in order to see the healing all the way through to completion. Let the river flow….”