BetterListen!

"Spiritual Materialism" by Guest Author Elizabeth Lesser

One of our favorite expressions of true wisdom is this excerpt on Spiritual Materialism from Elizabeth Lesser's must-read book The Seeker's Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure.  Elizabeth Lesser is the co-founder of the country's largest holistic retreat center, the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, NY, and we're delighted that she's shared some of her work with us:

Walking the spiritual path can be a tricky adventure. Sometimes we make progress and become more free and loving and wise; sometimes we may think our meditation or prayer or ritual is leading toward enlightenment, but really we’re just treading water or even going backwards. The great Tibetan meditation teacher, Chogyam Trunpa,  wrote that we are often “deceiving ourselves into thinking we are developing spiritually when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques.” He called this kind of self-deception spiritual materialism. We all deal with spiritual materialism; here’s a list from my book, A Seeker’s Guide,  of common traps you may encounter on your spiritual journey:

Spiritual Materialism’s Top-Ten List

Excerpt from Marianne Williamson's Lecture "You Are the Solution"

Recorded on Election Day, November 2010, the message from this transcripted excerpt from Marianne Williamson's lecture "You Are the Solution" remains relevant today and every day. Recorded live in Los Angeles as part of Marianne's Tuesday evening lecture series.  

All jokes aside, this is for all of us no matter what our politics are - we need a miracle here. And miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. So we are being asked to love the candidates that we do not agree with, which is particularly difficult on the days when they win. But this is extremely important because if we are to look at politics in general in America today and remember this issue that only what we are not giving can be lacking in any situation. If we feel that there is anger from a metaphysical perspective. Remember darkness is the absence of light. You do not get rid of darkness by hitting it with a baseball bat. You only get rid of darkness by turning on the light. 

Excerpt from Marianne Williamson's Lecture "Potential and Possibility"

The message in this transcribed excerpt of a live lecture given by Marianne Williamson during the 2010 Christmas season remains relevant any time of year -- the choice we face in almost every moment of either "playing it deep or playing it shallow." Profound wisdom for us all.

This is the season. It’s begun now. And you know we talk here a lot about how we are always at choice. You can play something deep or you can play it shallow. And there is a pull towards a shallow experience of the Christmas season that is based on this, on consumerism. That on one hand, we recognize the downside, on the other hand, there is a lot of desperation around that. I’m not criticizing. I had a bookstore many years ago and so I know that people who are in retail really depend upon Christmas sales to pay their bills, and so I am not criticizing that. I understand that there are a lot of people’s jobs that are at stake.

Excerpt from Marianne Williamson's Lecture "The Power of Stillness"

The following transcribed excerpt is a profound teaching from Marianne Williamson on how we push away that which we most long for by grasping.  This is part of a lecture by Marianne recorded live in Los Angeles on October 5, 2010.  The message is timeless.

I love that section in the Course of Miracles. I love that whole idea that the ego’s dictate in love is “seek but do not find”. We are constantly on a search for love and we are constantly on a search for the various things that we think would mean love. So it could be the love of a person, it could be a certain kind of job, or it could be a certain form of anything. But we are always seeking for that which we think will complete us. 

However, when we are following the dictates of the ego, in doing so we are so misguided in our perception of what it is that is love and what it is that truly completes us, that misperceiving we behave in the very way that self-sabotages and makes sure that we repel rather than attract what it is that we want. We all know what it is to mess up because you cared too much. Sometimes we do this with other people. Sometimes we do this in job interviews. There is a certain way to be hungry that is a good thing, but there is another way of being hungry that is filled with a kind of frantic grasp. And when we are grasping for something, I’ll be okay if I can be in this relationship, I’ll be okay if I can have this place to live, I’ll be okay if I could have that money, I’ll be okay if I could have that job. God does not grasp. God is not overwhelmed. God is not worried. And our purpose on this earth is to learn to love as God loves.   To learn to love as God loves is the same thing as saying to learn to think as God thinks. 

Excerpt from "The Toxic Mind" by Armand DiMele

 

 

In "The Toxic Mind", host of “The Positive Mind” radio show and founder of the DiMele Center for Psychotherapy, Armand DiMele,  along with special guest Roberta Maria Atti, talks about the side effects of suppressing feelings like anger and frustration, and discuss ways to prevent the side effects from suppressing emotions and how to heal them.  Following is an excerpt from this important program.

 

 

 

Hey listen -- here’s something for you to consider. Consider this: the continual suppression of emotions during fight or flight reactions results in atrophy, an endogenous toxicosis in noradrenic neurons. How do you like them apples? That’s what our program is going to be about today. Today we’re going to be talking about this and that sounds pretty technical, doesn’t it? Well, Roberta and I have uncovered The Biology of Mental Illness and Violence, and it’s really remarkable, by E. Van Winkle. And by the way, this work is available in 23 languages. It’s called “The Toxic Mind”. E. Van Winkle just woke up to write this article. 

Let’s start with the theory, the idea here, the following hypothesis, right? The continued suppression of emotions means you feel something and you don’t let yourself manifest it. It comes up, you feel it, and it gets shut off for one reason or another. During fight or flight reactions, now that means when you’re excited, nervous, or tense, when your body is saying we have to do something and we’re going to get all ready for action. So that’s the fight or flight reactions, that if you don’t do something when your body says we’re ready to do something about the situation, it results in a toxic accumulation. Now that’s what we’re going to look at today. 

This is a really interesting thing. How could that be? How does it work? Well, we know how it works because we see it all the time. Your leader at work is in a miserable mood and they bark at you, and you get upset but you can’t say anything about it. So it boils. Part of the suppression of emotions is actually what is the backbone of civilization.   We as civilized humans, we suppress emotions in part because it’s necessary in order to function in a human society.

Click here to order and listen to a free preview

Armand DiMele bio and links

Lesson Six from Jon Kabat-Zinn's "Letting Everything Become Your Teacher"

We are delighted to bring you another lesson from Jon Kabat-Zinn's terrific guide:

LETTING EVERYTHING BECOME YOUR TEACHER: 
100 Lessons in Mindfulness

LESSON 6: Do-It-Yourself

In this regard, cultivating mindfulness is not unlike the process of eating. It would be absurd to propose that someone else eat for you. And when you go to a restaurant, you don’t eat the menu, mistaking it for the meal, nor are you nourished by listening to the waiter describe the food. You have to actually eat the food for it to nourish you. In the same way, you have to actually practice mindfulness in order to reap its benefits and come to understand why it is so valuable. 
 
 

Jon Kabat-Zinn Bio and Links

Available on BetterListen! -- Jon Kabat-Zinn's The World of Relaxation

Available on Amazon -- Letting Everything Become Your Teacher

 

Lesson Five from Jon Kabat-Zinn's "Letting Everything Become Your Teacher"

A brief but important lesson Jon Kabat-Zinn's latest book:

LETTING EVERYTHING BECOME YOUR TEACHER: 
100 Lessons in Mindfulness

LESSON 5: Lifelong Commitment

 

As with meditation practice itself, this learning requires a lifelong commitment to continual inquiry and a willingness to modify your perspective as you acquire new knowledge and arrive at new levels of understanding and insight. 

Jon Kabat-Zinn Bio and Links

Available on BetterListen! -- Jon Kabat-Zinn's The World of Relaxation

Available on Amazon -- Letting Everything Become Your Teacher