Jed McKenna, Boredom, Spiritual Ego and Manipulation

[Blessed2]

Just feeling like sharing this.

 

Jed McKenna is a name that's quite well known in nondual 'circles'. He's written a few books, and his most popular book is Spiritual Enlightenment - The Damnedest Thing.

 

I've read his stuff, and even though they are quite interesting and mind-opening, I've always felt like something is off with it.

 

I could talk about how enlightenment / the path is presented as cold search for truth (fuck your feelings, face your fear, you're not serious enough etc.) and downplaying other "teachers" as not teaching the 'real' enlightenment, but a lesser version for the masses. This feels very off, but there is one thing in his books that really stands out to me as quite obvious ignorance. This thread is not meant as a critique of Jed or his books, but more of an inquiry in ignorance and what seems to me like projection, basically.

 

He presents the idea that you have created the universe because nothingness is boring. 😂

 

He says something like "imagine sitting forever alone on a far-away cold planet with nothing but desert. It's so boring, there is nothing. So you come up with all sort of stuff to fill that boredom. Anything, even pain and suffering and war etc. is better than that. And that's why you don't want to awaken, but play imaginary games." Hmm. Sounds a bit familiar actually.

 

For me that seems like total ignorance. Boredom is an emotion. Nothing is not boring, nothing is nothing. It seems similar to how human stuff, like literally human form is projected onto God, saying God is a bearded old man. Similarly, now the (misunderstood) emotion boredom is projected on 'nothingness', or source, or God.

 

It's duality. As in there is subject & object in this nothingness, knowing that nothing is boring. Boredom is only 'known' in knowing, subject&object, isn't it?

 

What happens next, is that awakening obviously seems like... Hell. It's horrible. Terrifying. Forever alone in boring nothingness? But of course, there are few (like Jed himself) who is good, brave and strong enough to seek for the truth even though it sucks.

 

 

The general 'vibe' in this is that "I'm telling the truth, and if you don't like what I say, it means you're avoiding truth." Basically, "listen to me rather than your feeling." That's ultimately what all such manipulation boils down to, and I suspect it's also what the ego boils down to. "Do not trust your feeling." "Happiness is lying to you."

 

That's ego. "Happiness is lying." "Happiness is not the truth."

 

🤔

[Isagi Yoichi]

how can you feel alone when you are in tune with the field of consciousness which is connected to everyone and thus also in tune with the connectedness to everything else?

 

why does he write such nonsense?

Edited August 13, 2023 by Omar Osama

[Phil]

The ‘problem’ with consciousness being infinite is any reason for not fully living doesn’t hold any water because it’s a belief that there’s something.