The kind of article that reminds me why we specify that we’re talking about “Non-New Agey” Spirituality on elephant. ~ ed.

Just heard about a new article, posted on elephantjournal.com, via twitter:

Let’s chant: how sound accelerates our spiritual development bit.ly/qVu2rU @elephantjournal #elej

Hum.

We are not here to share blogs about “accelerating our spiritual development”—that is the language of ego ungrounded in suffering or genuine sadness, as Trungpa Rinpoche put it.

That’s not to say that life isn’t magical, or full of joy—that’s the point of what we’re doing. But it needs to be real joy, not theistic Anusara joy, Eat Pray Love The Movie joy or theistic hope/fear joy, or amped up drug-enhanced raver joy.

Though when we here at elephant do share blogs that represent New Agey “spiritual materialism,” we can comment, talk with the author…and the back-and-forth, 2.0, nature of the internet makes for a valuable and usually fun dialogue. And often, of course, it’s me or whomever among us that’s being knee-jerk critical who wakes up, learns something.

But let it be known: we are not here to help you become a better person. A more perfect spiritual self.

Rather, let things fall apart.

The good news is we are fundamentally aok, “basically good,” and there’s nothing to build toward. We can unlearn and we can actually relax and breathe in and out and smile, and our smile can, like a rainbow, be the product of sunshine and rain, joy and pain.

Yours,

Waylon