Jeff Brown describes “Patriarchal Spirituality” like this: Those ungrounded and inhumane “spiritual” models that have been fostered by emotionally armored, self-avoidant men.
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These models share some or all of the following beliefs:
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* the ego is the enemy of a spiritual life
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* the “monkey mind” is the cause of suffering
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* your feelings are an illusion
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* your personal identifications and stories are necessarily false
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* witnessing your pain transforms it
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* your body is a spiritually bankrupt toxic quagmire
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* the only real consciousness is an “absolute” and “transcendent” one
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* stillness and silence are THE path
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* isolation is the best way to access “higher states”
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* there is no “self”
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* meditation is THE royal road to enlightenment
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*enlightenment actually exists
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* formlessness over form
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* the ultimate path is upward and vertical
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* real spirituality exists independent of our humanness
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In fact, most of the above is a blatant lie.
As described by Jeff Brown, here are more accurate, non-patriarchal hypotheses about the nature of human life:
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* A healthy ego is beautifully essential to healthy functioning
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* The monkey mind is fed by the monkey heart (the unresolved emotional body)
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* Many of our identities and stories are fundamental to who we are, where we have been, why we are here
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* Healing your pain transforms it; watching it is only a preliminary step
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* Our bodies are our spiritual temples
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* The only “real” consciousness is one that integrates all that we are and all that this is
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* Stillness and silence are only one path; many people prefer movement and sound
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* There is no “higher” state (we aren’t birds). But connection may be the best way to access deepened states
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* There is a magnificent self; the work is to align it with your sacred purpose, not to deny it altogether
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* Meditation is not THE royal road; it’s one road, and it is not any more effective than embodied movement and emotional release as a clarification and transformation tool
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* Enlightenment does not exist; enrealment does. (Be real now.) And it’s a relative experience, changing form as we and this changes form
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* We are form, and we are here to in-form our humanness
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* If there is an “ultimate path,” it’s downward (rooted) and horizontal
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* There is no distinction between our spirituality and our humanness
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Photo: Me practicing non-patriarchal spirituality at the Burning Man festival — with the help of my Toilet Plunger Wand
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