| Throughout yoga class, Jennifer feels fat. She's | | | | you're ignoring your pain. Pain, in fact, is an indication |
| obsessed with the other women's bodies - how | | | | of where you need to grow - by pretending we're |
| much thinner, limber, and more beautiful they are. | | | | happy all the time, we miss the lessons our suffering |
| Afterward, at Whole Foods she buys a package of | | | | and humanity are trying to teach us. As Alan Cohen |
| Organic Fig Bars and a pint of Carob Almond Rice | | | | says in Wisdom of The Heart, "If you desire to |
| Dream, goes home, eats it all, and throws up. | | | | know where your spiritual work lies, look to your |
| Self-hatred quickly follows. | | | | emotional pain." |
| Kyle is late on his rent again, and can't be sure he's | | | | When we have unmet needs, they will clamor for our |
| not overdrawn. It's always this chaos, every month. | | | | attention and divert us from what we want to be |
| That reservation he made for the week long | | | | our path. Hence, we end up battling addictions, |
| meditation retreat was more than he could afford - | | | | psychological issues, and not living our right life, rather |
| but maybe he'll get some answers there. | | | | than making the spiritual progress we hoped. Failing to |
| Jennifer and Kyle are examples of what we call | | | | discriminate between pseudo-spirituality and true inner |
| spiritual bypass: when a person's spiritual intentions | | | | transformation, we can get lost for years or life |
| and aspirations are sincere, but their unfinished | | | | times. |
| business is holding them back. | | | | Kyle and Jennifer and others like them are sincere |
| People become attracted to spirituality in the hope it | | | | spiritual seekers, but not dealing with their |
| will solve life's problems and relieve pain and suffering, | | | | psychological issues is stunting their spiritual growth. |
| but it's not quite that simple. A popular misconception | | | | Jen needs to get help from an eating disorder |
| is that spiritual practice will in and of itself resolve | | | | therapist, or depending on the severity of her |
| psychological issues. Best-selling books advocate that | | | | problem, spend some time in a treatment program. |
| by ignoring our discomfort and focusing on the Light, | | | | Kyle needs to understand that being on a spiritual |
| or on what we wish to manifest, we can get | | | | path doesn't negate needing to learn how to handle |
| everything we want. This idea of positive thinking, or | | | | money. Working with a psychotherapist who |
| the law of attraction, can divert us from our real | | | | specializes in understanding the pitfalls of the spiritual |
| issues. | | | | path could make all the difference in the world. |
| You can't make progress on the spiritual path if | | | | |