The Trap Of Believing Your Path Is The Only Path - The Spiritual Ego

Let's get messy.

I have only been on a forum for Buddhist Insight practice for one day. One day. And when I shared my experience there, I was hopeful to meet people who would understand what I was going through. The book "Mastering The Core Teaching Of The Buddha" was a book that I read about 10 years ago when I actively pursued Enlightenment. Back then, this was an abstract and distant goal for me. But I believe during this time, my ego was being softened for a reason.

I have heard before of communities, even spiritual ones, where hidden hierarchies and spiritual ego's hide. Now, I am deeply aware that I am not free of shadow. I actively work to recognize any scaffolding that is left. And if someone points it out to me, or I get it mirrored back, I either recognize it myself, or analyses it within my system and it unravels naturally. Almost like a domino effect. Pull the thread and it unravels. I am deeply aware also that this post will be composted, analyzed for shadows and probably will help me unravel even further. Yet the field asks me to take down my insights about this community as well.

The first thing I want to say is that when I explained my experience. The first thing that was asked is: You use AI?

THIS is something I find very interesting. Somehow there is an assumption that when someone uses a tool for organization and reflection that they are not legit. But what this actually is, is a defensive mechanism. When someone is uncomfortable with what they read and it triggers something in them, they will try to find meaning. Myth making. So they will try to fill in the gap and try to fit you into a box that fits in their conceptual framework. In my case: You use AI, so you must be fake.

Interesting.

Another thing I noticed is that, people assume that you cannot possibly have insight into the nature of reality without formal practice. As if formal practice and the void are best friends. And a slight contradiction too. Formal practice creates the right conditions for awareness to unravel naturally, YES. But it's definitely not the only way. In fact, I came to understand that awareness folding in on itself and becoming aware of the illusion is a natural unfolding. And the self is not involved.

I made an article before that spiritual traditions often have been overrun by hierarchies and rigid systems that contain rather then liberate. I can imagine that these practices can be helpful, and like AI, they are tools, but they are NOT what will get you to awaken. YOU and I repeat, YOU cannot awaken.

Another thing I thought was interesting is that because I use certain spiritual lingo to describe my embodied experiences, simply because how else will I describe anything on a forum but with words... the people there assume that this means I have no insight and that it's all abstraction. If these people actually had insight into what words are, and into the nature of reality, they would understand what I am pointing too. Instead they focus on what how another person might be wrong. And why does someone do that? Well with a bit of knowledge of the internal working of the defense mechanisms of the ego, we will come to understand that this is discomfort dressed as projection.

I see that finding a place where I can express my insights and expect genuine critique from someone with genuine insight is scarce. And perhaps that's also what makes this path worth it. I am not special. This is not arrogance. Just an observation, a declaration and perhaps a readiness to compost the desire to be seen, known and reflected back.

This was not written through AI, by the way. And will be composted and metabolized.

And now it dissolves.