KFDh Podcast #2

KFDh podcast #2 is now available for your listening pleasure:

Stream the file here:

jaytek.net/KFD/02%20KFD%20Conference%20C...Jan%2018,%202011.mp3

Or download the file here:

jaytek.net/KFD/

Thanks Mumuwu for the hosting!

There is some really good content on the recording. Highlights include Colleen's detailed description of how she uses her practice in daily life as a teacher working with challenged children, Clayton's tips on the importance of inspiration, and the story of "The Two Wolves," as told by Kenneth.

I hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Thanks to Colleen, Eric, John, Nick, Clayton, and Chris for hangin' out with me and participating in what I found to be a very inspirational meeting.

Technical note: There is quite a bit of noise in the first few seconds of the podcast, but it subsides quickly and the recording is of reasonably good quality overall.

-Kenneth

Great. Thanks! (BUMP!)

Just listened to this. So glad that we have this emerging resource at the moment. If I could expand on my point a little;

My inspiration to practice is, I believe, rather common. I was going through tremendous suffering when I chose to take up serious dharma practice in December of 2009. I began in the Goenka tradition. Within 6 weeks I had found Daniels book. Although I had been very serious, Daniel's work kept me going and really lit a fire under me. In retrospect I was engaging in crass spiritual materialism. I was trying to gain some 'attainment' as a way to avoid the very difficulties that drove me to practice. I remember sitting in the back of my classrooms, reading and re-reading Daniels book on my computer.

The bypassing worked for awhile. And I was able to make progress while still ignoring a lot of my shadow. Eventually though practice has come full circle. I am forced to deal with the emotional upheavals I began my practice trying to avoid. But I am so blessed to have found a group of people who told me that real transformation is possible. Because--it is.

Clayton, I really appreciate your honesty and openness.

I've been thinking about spiritual bypassing a lot lately. While I'm incredibly grateful for the whole pragmatic dharma movement (I'm not even sure I'm using the correct terminology, but essentially am referring to the changed perspective around attainments that gained so much momentum with MCTB) and what it has meant for my own practice, I wonder whether it doesn't pose particular dangers for those who may already be inclined towards bypassing emotional or psychological issues? The quest for the technological solution to all of our ills...

The spiritual bypass might be an inevitable part of the path. The formula, at least for some, looks like this: the combination of specific/personal and general/all-pervading pain leads to an inspired pursuit of the spiritual path. But this pursuit is tainted by idealism, romanticism, exoticism, entertainment-seeking, immaturity, etc. All of this gets dashed on the rocks in the dark night. At this point, the yogi either learns to embrace suffering-as-sensation or continues trying to run from it. The opportunity to continue seeking escape will exist no matter what path you choose. If you're into the Tibetan thing, you can continue indulging your fascination with the rinpoches, the art and architecture, the magic/mythic elements, etc. (Hence, Daniel's description of the hyper-religious dark night yogis he has encountered.) If you're a pragmatic dharma or hard-jhana guy, you can continue to try to run away from your suffering by chasing that next, more exalted state or attainment. If you're a non-dual fundamentalist, rugged individualist guy, you might even be able to use your own heroism as a means to escape from your stuff. For me, it's a poignant question: Am I engaging in the bypass yet again? At a certain point, in part because of the dark night (at least, this is my theory), I quit practice altogether in order to dive into all of the things I had been trying to avoid--facing fears on the personal, interpersonal and career fronts. It worked pretty well. Screwed up as I am, I'm a much-better adjusted person today than I was in my youth. I just wish that I had kept up my dharma practice during this time. Instead, I decided that the suffering that had driven me to practice somehow invalidated that practice altogether. Maybe part of the reason there's so little emphasis on personal stuff in KFDland is that this is 90% of what other sanghas focus on. We kind of know where to go to for that stuff, i.e. Tara Brach & Co., etc. [?]