For many spiritual bypassing might be seen as the mainly quaint practice of disappearing up a mountain, dwelling on the stool and going into jhana ecstasy. Quite rightly practitioners in solitude talk of its benefits, and in Viveka-zandtao LINK zandtao wrote of the essential connection between solitude and path; in a sense the measure of solitude is its application to the path and daily life – embodiment.
As solitude is connected to path, out of completeness zandtao has to consider path and its role. This began with zandtao’s description in the TreatiseLINK:-
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Whilst in some ways this is an adequate description, in no way does it really begin to describe the path. Primarily it does not describe the role of the path, and that role is the way it is meant to be; tathata sees what is and the path is what is meant to be. Now what is meant to be is Gaia’s path, the path of Mother Earth or nature’s path. This is a sense of Unity in which we all live in harmony with Earth and each other.
On one level our path is the way we live a fulfilling life but what this description gives is a sense of personal agency. This agency comes from phrases such as “choosing to follow our paths”, but “choosing to follow” and “choosing our paths” are very different. We do not decide on our paths, our paths are decided for us and we choose to follow or not based on conditioning.
In terms of agency we do not choose our paths, our paths are chosen for us. For some this agency is God’s Divine Plan, others Karma, and perhaps other descriptions of Divine intervention or planning. This is above zandtao’s paygrade, for zandtao that path comes from Nature and if we all follow our paths there is a world of harmony and togetherness.
This natural path comes from Mother Nature – a tautology perhaps, but it answers all societal questions – how we are meant to live together. From birth if we all followed our paths there would a community of harmony – the way we were meant to be. Sadly because of the level of conditioning we are far from this social way of being as we develop tathata we see this clearly. Within this understanding of path there is a social imperative – to live in harmony we must learn what our paths are and follow them. This social imperative is our choice.
Where do we see this clear description of what our choice in life is? Do we see it in our religious institutions? Do we get it from our education institutions? Because this description is rarely given, it casts doubt on the validity of such a description. But if we apply our minds with clarity there need be no doubt. It would seem reasonable that we live in harmony, it would seem reasonable that we are meant to live in harmony - that we can choose harmony. What would not be reasonable is to think that we can work out what that harmony is for all people – that would be ego (the path is beyond conditioning).
With this understanding we can accept the path and follow it. That is no easy matter or why would we have so many problems? For many people the path cannot be recognised, and this is because the ego gets in the way. Where does this ego come from? Conditioning. This helps us understand how to live, we live without conditioning following a path that is not conditioned eg a path that has compassion, insight and creativity. And out of that compassion comes freedom from suffering for all. Whilst this does not make everything clear there is sufficient guidance for people to begin to choose to follow their paths.
This path is not institutional because fundamental to any institution is its own ego – to protect itself and survive. Whilst Nature can be seen as Divine Plan, when a Divine Plan is delivered through institution it takes on the ego of that institution. Such a Divine Plan is not Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist or …., because those institutions have limited that plan through their own institutional ego. So the path belongs to Nature, and we find for ourselves that path in Nature. But institutions at their root were primarily places where we could learn to follow that path – before the institutional ego perverted that Source. But within such institutions we can learn the practice that will enable us to follow the path. Therefore as parts of our journey we can seek help from the teachings in such institutions so long as we do not blindly follow what such institutions might say. This is autonomy. We develop our practices to learn to follow the path of autonomy, where we learn to develop these practices is our journey to the path.
If we see the path of harmony and Unity in this way, we can begin to look at causes of disharmony. That is clear, in our upbringing and daily life we develop conditioned egos; to follow our paths we develop practices that let go of these egos and conditioning. Through the description given above the path includes freedom from suffering for all, built within the path is the compassion whose imperative is freedom from suffering for all. Faith (non-egoic acceptance) in this aspect of the path is not unreasonable, it comes from understanding of the Source of the path. It comes from Nature and its purpose is for all to live in harmony with Nature. Once we are following the path we look to help others follow their paths.
How does spiritual bypassing fit in with this compassion? Quite clearly it doesn’t. Whilst learning through solitude or revitalising through solitude are good practices, they are carried out within the context of compassion – the embodiment of the path in daily life. If bypassing is seen as a purpose in itself then it has to be questioned although the question of conscious evolution needs to be considered.
For zandtao in this day and age spiritual bypassing takes on greater significance. How many people are following their path? How many people recognise their path? How many people even recognise that there is a path? And yet in this situation some seekers who have followed their path to a certain extent choose to go bypassing. Undoubtedly in our defiled society the path has limited traction because we can see clearly there is a lack of harmony. And yet for some who are fortunate enough to have found their paths they choose bypassing.
So we will start with spiritual bypassing and see where it takes us, and who better to start with than Teal Swan.
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