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divine promptings
October 2009 
Ego-Chic Spirituality
David Truman
There’s a new trend these days; just look around Gaia and you’ll see what I mean. Ego-chic spirituality. A lifestyle that incorporates many elements considered spiritual, but lacks the real essentials of true spirituality. In fact, spiritual aspirations and good intentions aside, ego-chic spirituality is predominantly ruled by ego -- consciously or otherwise.
Selfish spirituality
Think it's hard to tell the difference? Not really. Your ego can. Your ego would be kicking up a huge fuss if you were sincerely trying to embrace true spirituality. It would feel truly threatened, because true spirituality requires real ego-transcendence, first and foremost. If what you're feeling is hip, cool, secure on the path, aware, successful, chances are you may be part of this new demographic.
The ego loves this new spirituality. Ego wants a safe haven where it can live as it prefers. The spiritual appearance of the ego-chic lifestyle provides a holier-than-thou camouflage that helps ego's tyranny go unrecognized. And yet, anyone who really looks can see the ego in angel's clothing. For starters, just listen to these ego-chic aspirations:
"I want to be beamed up."
"I want to be saved."
"I want to be empowered."
"What’s important for me is my enlightenment, my relief from suffering."
"My this, my that . . ." "Me, me, me . . ." How different is that from the average person living the "worldly" life?
The selfishness of ego-chic spirituality is a dead giveaway. Lets honestly separate our ideals from our actions, our talk from our walk. Thinking unselfish thoughts and espousing unselfish ideals doesn’t appreciably change the end results of selfish living. What are you really living for?
Solo spirituality
Most followers of ego-chic spirituality live for themselves alone. Few can be found in coupled relationship -- or for that matter, in any living-together situation. They may complain bitterly about the lack of kindred souls, but for the my-own-wayfarers, solitude is not just "happening to them." They choose to be alone. Listen to their mottos:
• Finding my own bliss!
• Living my own truth!
• Treading my own path!
If that's what you're up to, you want to be separate.
Nice to create your own path, but eventually, if a person goes far on their own path, they're too far gone. They tend to lose compatibility with everyone else. Plus, their ego is way too out of hand to live with others.
No surprise that these days, being alone is practically a new religion. Some people actually hold "being whole and complete in oneself" as the holy grail of evolution. Very ego-chic, that. But very problematic, spiritually.
Alone is not the way God intended people to go, much less grow.
Getting ready for self-love
People sometimes say, proudly, "I'm taking time for me, I'm taking care of myself." But usually, those golden words introduce the most spiritually damaging, self-destructive period in a person’s life.
The followers of ego-chic spirituality say they're loving, but what does their loving consist of? Getting ready to love. In setting those priorities, the ego-chic crowd finds great comfort -- even justification -- in ideas like these:
"Physician, heal thyself. You've must heal yourself before you can heal anyone else."
There's some truth there. Preparation has a clear and positive purpose, and a self-limiting duration -- as long as there is a high priority on what one's preparing for -- actually loving others, and actually helping others. Unfortunately, most people start the first step without any urgency about proceeding to the next step. And to be honest, preparing is often used to indefinitely postpone the risks of doing.
But even giving the benefit of the doubt, the question remains,
HOW do you get to feel good enough about yourself to help others?
By taking another thousand bubble baths?
Let's get real: The only way to get ready to love is by loving other people. Without loving other people, it is impossible for children of God to feel truly good about themselves. The inner imperative to love is part of who we are. To fail to love other people is hell. It's hell because we want to love, and we were made to love.
Plus, anyone who knows anything about God's will and God's priorities knows that Divine promptings are invariably inspirations to love, personally and truly. Given that, it is particularly problematic that so many people who consider themselves "spiritual" are incompetent and unwilling in the area of personal love.
What happens when you have a social God with anti-social devotees?
Look around the world, and see. Ships passing in the dark, the people and God. Billions of promptings falling on deaf ears. Fact is, most people are just way too out of shape to mix it up in love -- even in the direct service of their God.
That’s why it's tragic that ego-chic people don't even aspire to functionality in personal love. Clearly, something in their so-called "spirituality" is sorely lacking. Heart is lacking. Soul is lacking.
… But, without heart and soul, can it be truly called spiritual? You know the answer.
Go the other way
Spirituality begins with ego-transcendence. To the extent egoic motivations predominate over spiritual ones, truth gets misunderstood and misapplied -- always. And, where there is excessive ego, soul desires translate into selfish purposes; and otherwise good, healthy activities become unhealthy shields against Truth, love, responsibility, and rightness. You can see all these things happening, all over the world, in the name of religion and spirituality. See it, then go the other way!
God’s will for spiritual people (all His children)
If selfish spirituality is humanity's "hope," humanity has no hope. Love is our hope, only love. That's what true spirituality is truly for, as God would have it be.
And that's what we are for, too -- and I mean that in every way:
why we were made,
how we are built,
and what we most deeply want.
Access: Public
First I would like to say that whatever we write for others, we actually also write for ourselves - the world is in us. If this is what you see in the world, then such tendencies exist in you too - don’t forget. Too often, when we criticize or judge others, we pretend, we do it as if we don’t have those qualities, but we probably have even more of these qualities than the people we judge - and judgment itself is part of the Ego’s subtle games of separation and superiority.
Now, about being selfish - I think selfishness is a good thing - as longas that self-interest does not stop with me, but starts with me and extends out to all of creation.
For me, filling up myself with love is as simple asbreathing in deeply”I am Love” - I really don’t need a thousand bubble baths. :)
“Some people actually hold “being whole and complete in oneself” as the holy grail of evolution.”
Actually, that is not the holy
grail of evolution. YouARE whole and complete in yourself. And when you don’t understand that, you suffer from the “You complete me” syndrome, always looking to others for your own happiness, holding the belief that others make you happy or unhappy, having a victim mentality, when in reality, we can be happy simply by CHOOSING to be happy - it’s that simple. We can feel loved simply through prayer and breathing in deeply.
But I do agree that the ego’s games of separation continue to play even after we pursue spirituality and we end up having what I call “a spiritual ego.” For example, we end up having the belief that we need to form imaginary bubbles around us to ‘protect’ ourselves from ‘energy vampires’ and other such beliefs that only perpuate separation rather than love.
In my meditation and prayer, I have seen the body totally disappear, and there is only light and even that disappears and there is only Love. So, I know, that there is really nothing to protect or defend as long as we constantly recognize, moment to moment, Truth, which is that I am Everything, I have Everything, I am Love, and there is only Love.
there is only love…..no judgement…only love..love to love,,,love you Amadon
Hi Amadon,
A ‘Social God’ and ‘Selfish Spirituality’. ‘Ego-Chic’ ? I don’t know.
What’s interesting about God is that all religions seem to agree that ‘no-thing is greater than God’. And the only ‘thing’ that doesn’t have anything greater than it is ‘Everything’ ! So if there isn’t anything greater than God… and the only thing that doesn’t have anything greater than itself is “Everything’… then…
God is Everything … or… Everything is God (this includes ‘Ego-Chic’ people too !)
I think that it’s a trap to judge, too harshly, those who do not align with our Spiritual outlooks. Why ?
Who can say why ‘the all that is’, (aka: ‘God’… ‘Everything’) is expressing itself as all the various people-expressions of itself that are out there ?
It’s like there are so many different types of flowers, so maybe there are also meant to be so many different kinds of humans with differing Spiritual connections, or leanings ? Who can say ?
If there is indeed only ONE true way… it certainly must be LOVE and Loving/Kindness.
But how we get ‘there’ from ‘here’ is a different journey for so many different people. So maybe we are best served to be supportive and helpful of others rather than chiding and judging ?
Wishing you well my Brother..
Sun-1
My point, exactly. I knew I was not the only one who thought this was a very judgmental blog.
Anyway, here is an interesting link:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/a_j_jacobs_year_of_living_biblically.html
You’re so right, Kundan. You are not alone in your judgment. Instead, you have plenty of bad company with it. You are, in fact, marching in lock step with a bunch of similar hypocrites. Can all of you look at your HUGE judgment – the one about how judgmental this blog is? Of course not! Your blind self-righteousness in that is absolutely appalling. You’re lucky this is such a Godless community. God would NOT be pleased.
This blog is a CRITICISM, get it? And, it APPLIES. And if you would deal with it as it IS, it would help you immensely. But the commenters here lack the courage and integrity to DEAL with the criticism I gave. (You did a bit, in your first post, but that’s all. And that little bit was indeed relevant and true). What you are doing is running from the truth. You just change the channel, change the subject as fast as you can. How weak that is!
Gaia is now corporate, and you are acting like little robots sucking comfortably at your corporate tit. Stepford wives! The big safe thing around here now is just to be robots of the present fads of how to be the cool flavor of the week. You will notice that almost everyone says exactly the same thing, has exactly the same philosophy. And you will notice, too, that it morphs over time, going in fads. but all the little lemmings will always parrot the right dharma. Right now, it happens to be about being sweet, pseudo-spiritual, and non-judgmental.
WHY don’t you deal with the obvious fact that ego-chique pseudo-spirituality is indeed an abomination. It’s the worst thing going, because it uses the slot that OUGHT to be reserved for REAL spirituality. The comments here perfectly show how empty and trite it really is, that stuff. All you can seem to do is try to block out truth with your white noise, your memorized dharma. Sad.
Face reality instead. The reality is, you are being ridiculously judgmental – and worse, the philosophy of non-judgment you are judging me by isn’t even your own. It is the ego-flavored spiritual simulation of the week – mixed with a bit of personal ego-terror against truth.
Good luck with your robotic non-judgemental judgements, gang!
Love, Amadon
I am curious about why you feel the need to attack ego-chic spirituality. I see so much anger and fear here, almost bordering on hate. Why so much fear? What’s the fear? What would happen if everyone was an ego-chic spiritualist? Would you be hurt? Is that what you fear?
I have noticed, in my experience, when someone is so vehemently angry about something, it’s usually because he has it also, deep inside, which he has denied in himself - and projected to others. Sure I am also judgemental sometimes - but I don’t deny it nor act as if only others have it and I don’t, and therefore I am superior - I have no superiority complex, though I myself sometimes act superior, as I still, like you, still have an Ego.
In my past, I too felt a need to attack others and other people’s belief systems, rather than just promote my own - my question is - why do you wish to be in that field of energy? Do you really think that, by attacking other’s beliefs, or criticizing, as you call, it would make it go away? Do you really think so? If yes, play on! Go on doing what you do.
:)
I love you anyway.
:))
Amadon is love ? Or love is Amadon?
This blog does not feel angry or hateful to me at all. Anger is one thing. Hate is one thing. Criticism is one thing. They are not the same thing, and each can exist without the other. Isn’t that true?
Yet to some people – the majority of people today, I fear – all criticism is hardwired in their minds with anger, hate, negativity, etc. To a degree, this is understandable, because in this world, criticism is almost always associated with pain. Actually, the pain of being criticized comes more from the fact that the critic usually withdraws psychically, as a means of self-protection, when delivering criticism; and psychic disconnection is painful. Usually the only time the critic DOESN’T withdraw is when angry or upset. In that case, the connection itself is painful.
Unfortunately, there are virtually no exceptions that DISPROVE the rule, because almost all the spiritually-inclined people – the people most likely to succeed at delivering truly objective, helpful criticism without disconnecting at the heart – have made it their religion NOT to criticize. That wrongly leaves criticism in the doghouse on this planet.
In my book, it is UNloving to WITHHOLD criticism when someone you love is doing something hurtful to themselves and others. If you had a child who liked to play with matches, you would be quite stern with her in order to break that habit. And if she was about to strike a match in a dangerous situation, you might even knock it out of her hand, rather than allow her to start a fire or cause an explosion.
It is too bad that criticism is so out of fashion these days. This world has gone quite far in hurtful directions in our laissez faire culture, because we have evolved so many ways to neutralize criticism and dissent – running the gamut from slandering the critics to simply ignoring them.
Amadon is making a very legitimate criticism in this blog. He is pointing out that the way spirituality is often practiced these days is actually NOT spiritual. It has been co-opted by ego-mentality in ways that are largely unsuspected. Ego-style “spirituality” is hurtfully misleading to the people involved, and because of the growing popularity of this approach, is potentially hurtful to many other people who are just beginning to awaken to spiritual aspirations.
The infiltration of ego into spirituality is not a new problem. It happens in every generation; my fellow commenters are sophisticated enough to know this is true. The problem is, in this generation, worldwide communication is so fast and pervasive that an error in thinking that becomes popular can literally overrun the globe in a matter of months.
If a person reading this blog would resist the urge to discount it as “judgmental,” so as to objectively consider what is actually being said, I think they’d find that their soul would agree with it, and sees the importance of the warning. Or perhaps not. In any case, that’s how I happen to read it, and I just wanted my perspective to be represented here as well.
Thank you, Amadon, for having the courage to say what you said.
Just a postscript, something I meant to say and forgot:
Kundan, you mentioned a couple of times that people who criticize are generally projecting on others flaws they themselves have in greater measure. I’m sure that’s sometimes the case, but that’s a pretty big generalization, and CERTAINLY not always true. For example, do you think Jesus was a bigger money-lender than the vendors he criticized in the temple? Do you think Al Gore is less environmentally responsible than the industries he criticizes?
I wish people would truly consider a thing before they form an opinion about it. Pre-formed opinions don’t cost much, but heck, you get what you pay for.
It seems that this has quickly become a discussion about whether or not Amadon is judgmental or not, and nobody is really dealing with what is actually being said.
I think that discernment about different ways of appraoching spirituality is important. How can one hold two spiritual methods of being of equal value, if ONE leads to God Realization and a Love-oriented life, while another supports separation and generates pain and illusions (like selfish spirituality does)? If you don’t believe that people’s happiness and liberation is important, then you can hold this kind of “non-judgmentalness” as the highest value. But if you actually care about what happens to people, whether they suffer in egoic bondage or enjoy their true freedom and happiness, then you cannot help but make judgments (or discernments) about these things.
My humble opinion is that such “judgments” are a great service to humanity. And expressing strong feelings about things that make people suffer is a sign of compassion. It is their strong feelings about things they perceived to be problems for the humanity that gave great men like Ghandi the impetus change the world.
But whether you can appreciate the expression of strong feelings or not, I suggest that my fellow commenters take this opportunity to exercise the non-reactivity that is their chosen ideal, and consider the meaning of this message rather than the style in which it was given. It is more negatively judgmental (in my view) to respond to a passionate blog about an important subject by criticizing the man who wrote it, than it is to write a passionate blog that criticizes popular spirituality.
This blog is very much in line with what I have seen in the world around me. There are millions of people in the world today who are pursuing selfish spiritual goals, and creating endless pain and suffering for themselves by doing that. These people will never be free until they consider the very things that are being said in this blog.
If any one here agrees with what is being said, but objects to the tone, here is my suggestion: Write a blog yourself, on the same subject, but be more spacious and even-keeled about it. Why not? It may help.