There is one teaching in particular that really stuck out to me and that is the second Noble Truth: “there is a cause/origin of suffering”. The Buddha states the cause/origin of all suffering is “grasping” (also sometimes called “attachment”). This could be grasping at a blissful moment that you don’t want to go away or grasping at the way you believe something should or shouldn’t be. As I’ve spent some time really thinking deeply about this, I started to recognize when these little moments of grasping occur throughout the day.

This shift in mental health has begun influencing the New Age spiritual communities through what is referred to as “doing the work”. Similar to the reclaiming of identities that is happening in niche communities like #audhd, “doing the work” is young, New Age spiritual people’s way of saying that they are placing attention and care on the state of their mental health and taking real steps in their daily lives to improve symptoms (or even heal the root altogether when possible).

Spiritual bypassing is defined as…"A tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks"

There is often a natural disintegration process that happens during an awakening, as life seems to be “turned upside down” and belief systems and conditioning begin to crumble. In this vulnerable state, many people will turn to guidance from teachers, mentors, or self-proclaimed “gurus”. Other people may rebuild their beliefs and conditioning to cater to their personal desires for power and control, developing what one might call a “Guru Superiority Complex”.