Avoidance is the most common psychological defense mechanism that people use to deal with discomfort. This may involve distractions such as TV, Gaming, Exercise, simply never stopping, or addictions including sex, work and substance abuse.
But a much subtler approach is Spiritual Bypassing. This is a clever ego trip and may involve using meditation or spiritual personas to avoid dealing with uncomfortable emotions and dynamics.
It is incredibly common. In fact, I estimate that as many as 90% of spiritual aspirants are actually engaging in Spiritual Bypassing.
It makes genuine spiritual awakening near to impossible and sooner or later the cracks appear. For those who are “spiritual” teachers this may involve sexually abusing students or even a breakdown. There are many ways in which it will eventually manifest itself including a kundalini crisis.
Suppressed emotions create many conflicting energies in the body which can result in sickness or at the very least, dysfunctional psychological patterns.
A genuine path of awakening, will always begin at the beginning! And that is to “know your self”. This involves developing an awareness of your patterns and dynamics, how you hide from them and how they relate to you holding onto your self concept. This awareness is foundational and to try to bypass it is a false economy.
Any meditation practice needs to include an essential “Being in touch with yourself”. (see my meditation – Connecting to Yourself – which is available free of charge from this website_.
