The Trap Of Fancy-Pants Spirituality

In the world of today, a person who has an interest in spirituality has a seemingly endless smorgasbord of different traditions, teachers, and paths to choose from, of various levels of utility and credibility. On one level, this is a very positive  sign that more and more people are interested in waking up, or at least curious about the possibility of spiritual enlightenment, and the market is catering to that emergent demand. And on another level, this endless proliferation of teachings has made it nearly impossible to separate the wheat- that which will actually help you wake up- from the chaff- that which will redecorate your dream with spiritual concepts and allow you to keep slumbering in unconsciousness. 

The vast majority of spiritual information available today has absolutely nothing to do with authentic spiritual realization. It may tell you how to make changes to your life, it may tell you how to manifest better circumstances for yourself and others, it may help you access your intuition, or connect with esoteric beings or what have you. There is nothing wrong with all of these things, but all of them are besides the point, and are irrelevant to authentic awakening.

Waking up has to do not with improving one’s circumstances, but with waking up from the dream between our ears that does such a good job of convincing us that the circumstances experienced in this moment belong to a separate character called “me.” In light of such a radical realization of no-self, there is no guarantee that you will feel any better than you do right now, because waking up from the dream of separate self in its essence has nothing to do with feeling better. It doesn’t stand in opposition to feeling better, but whether or not one feels better as a result of their awakening is utterly and completely irrelevant. If someone is sad in a dream, it’s still just a dream. If someone is happy in a dream, it’s still just a dream. Arguably a “better” dream than the former one, but a dream nonetheless.

Most people, if we’re being perfectly honest, want nothing to do with actually waking up. Most people would prefer to just have a more pleasant dream. “Once I was this miserable little character, and then I woke up and now I’m this beautiful, bright spiritual character! Yippee!” No true spiritual depth has been uncovered, just a superficial shifting of the dream state and perhaps some pleasant (or not-so-pleasant) experiences. The actual prospect of authentic awakening is too daunting for someone who would prefer to keep holding onto the idea of “me.” (And hey, disclaimer: No judgement here. We all prefer to cling to illusions at some point. It seems to be a completely natural part of life. No one is perfect.)

Modern spirituality, for the most part, is where people go to avoid their own awakening. It sounds wild, but it’s true. Hell, that’s where I went! I got super into the stuff about chakras! And subtle beings! And “the ascension,” whatever that is! And it was beautiful, for a time! I had some groovy experiences! I felt pretty amazing! And then... reality dawned. This spiritual costume is not who I am, either. It’s just the next level of the dream, not Reality.

People who are on the brink of an authentic awakening to Truth... the LAST place they should go is to a New Age bookstore. Not if they’re really interested in Truth. Truth cannot be found in any degree of spiritual ornamentation, any degree of stories about a collective divine plan or an underlying loving intelligence. All of these are stories within stories, dreams within dreams. They are not ultimately true, and thus will not actually wake you up. 

Just because something feels good to believe does NOT make it true. Or, more accurately, the fact that something feels good when you believe it doesn’t make it Truth, with a capital T. Beliefs, when you really get clear, have no inherent reality to them. This is why what I call Fancy-Pants spirituality is quite often just another distraction from Truth. There is nothing wrong with acquiring spiritual information, nor with feeling better as a result of that acquisition. Some of it is beautiful. And very little of it will actually help you wake up for real. For whatever lofty spiritual belief you adopt and that adds so much meaning to your life will one day be the next dream that you are asked to wake up from.

I say all of this as a lighthearted warning, because I know that someone who is destined to explore Fancy-Pants spirituality will do so, regardless of what I or anyone else say to them. (I know because I was one of those people!) Ultimately, there is no problem and all is well, life is taking care of itself perfectly. But on a relative level, we can unwittingly extend our suffering and perpetuate the belief in a separate self needlessly by confusing the endless offerings of the Fancy-Pants spiritual marketplace with the sincerity and wisdom already within us that burns to know the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But.

Spirituality has nothing to do with beliefs. It has to do with waking up from the dream of belief. No belief, no thought, no description of what and who you truly are, ever even touches who you truly are. You are that shining mystery at the heart of it all, and even that doesn’t capture it. You in your essence can never be captured. Not by a thought, not by a feeling, not by an experience. You are freedom itself, temporarily taking on the belief that you are somehow separate from freedom. But don’t believe it. Find out for yourself.