Emotionally Inclusive Zen

Spiritual Bypassing is the use of spiritual methods to avoid the emotional and interpersonal realms, or in other words, to avoid one's unhealthy and uncomfortable karmic patterns. When many people begin meditation and step on the spiritual path, there is often a conscious or unconscious hope that meditation and enlightenment will help them transcend the discomfort they feel in their lives, and more directly, in their bodies. Both traditional and contemporary forms of Zen, other forms of Buddhism, and religious and spiritual groups in general, are often guilty of supporting spiritual bypassing.

At Great Mountain Zen Center, as well as in our affiliate Zen Centers such as Eon Zen Center, Zen Center of Los Angeles, and Great Vow Zen Monastery, we place heavy emphasis on attending directly to the emotional baggage we each carry along with us in our lives. A practitioner may have great insight into their true nature, but then lack integration of that insight into their daily lives due to the unexamined emotional, cognitive, and behavioral patterns that often surface in interpersonal relationships.

In initial stages of spiritual development, a practitioner is often developing the foundation for their spiritual growth by finding ground in mindfulness and concentration meditations. This trains the mind to concentrate, to be still, and to find a new level of internal peace. As the container for sitting still with discomfort enlarges, the emotional unfinished business of one's past begins to percolate up from the subconscious. In spiritual bypassing, when emotions are present, concentration practices are often used to redirect the mind to the breath or to the sensory perceptions, such as sound.

In emotionally inclusive spiritual practice, rather than diverting one's attention away from the emotions, the intermediate to advanced practitioner engages the emotions with attention and feels them directly. This can be a challenging time for a practitioner. As their practice matures, they may lose that initial peace and serenity that was found early on. In the beginning, sitting still with emotional energy is like riding a bull. Many practitioners my leave their practice at this point or go shopping for another practice and spiritual center that they imagine will offer a higher level of transcendence.

Mature practitioners will stick it out with the understanding that the emotional discomfort is a necessary and essential part of the path toward freedom. Eventually, equanimity develops and the emotional life is no longer as scary nor rocky. Not only has the container of awareness grown large enough that it can hold the emotions, like the sky encompassing a cloud, the underlying emotional baggage, trauma, and unhealthy belief systems from one's youth and beyond have been deflated of their pressure, making them less easily triggered and even nonexistent.

Here at GMZC, we blend traditional Zen practice with modern psychotherapeutic education and somatic meditation; when we do this, we realize that the true spiritual masters of historical past engaged in these very same practices, but lacked the psychological vocabulary to clearly pass them on. In practicing koan introspection, an intermediate and advanced tantric practice within the Zen tradition, we see that the original Zen masters and the subsequent reformers, passed on the teachings of emotional absorption.

At GMZC, we take a trauma-informed approach to working with one's past. Emotions are appreciated and welcomed. It happens at the Zen student's pace. For those in formalized Zen training, and those wishing to become teachers or ordained priests, dealing with one's past is essential to ethical service to others.

Here are a few more readings on this subject: After the Ecstasy the Laundry, by Jack Kornfield; Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, by Chogyam Trungpa; Touching Enlightenment, by Reggie Ray.