A three-hour workshop exploring the importance of religious deconstruction on the spiritual path, and what it really means to be a Dharma practitioner in the 21st century.
Do you feel disconnected in your spiritual practice?
Do you feel stuck in a high-demand religion?
Are you conflicted about patterns of abuse, patriarchal power structures, or unreasonable truth claims in your chosen faith?
Do you worry that, after years of training and practice, your spiritual path has failed to produce the kinds of results you were promised?
Do you get these sense that, deep inside, you have sought refuge in religion to escape the existential fears that lie at the heart of the human experience?
Are you ready to ask hard questions and face life head-on?
You are not alone - this workshop is for you.
Hello, all - Erik Jampa here.
If there’s one thing I have learned in my years of working as a teacher, mentor, and consultant, it’s that MANY people are deeply dissatisfied with the ‘solutions’ provided by religion. This dissatisfaction has led many of us to abandon the traditions of our families and communities or origin (some of us long ago), and to seek answers elsewhere. Some of us turned our sights eastward, convinced that all the answers to life’s mysteries lie in the mountains of Tibet, the myth-soaked landscapes of India, or in the pages of some ancient text.
But without taking stock of the underlying psychological needs and fears that propel us towards religion in the first place, and without meaningfully deconstructing our beliefs and inherited values with existential sobriety, we tend to merely transplant our neuroses and projections into a new and novel framework.
We may adopt new language and attire, but our underlying patterns and delusions often remain unexamined and unchanged. In an effort to escape suffering and despair, we merely alienate ourselves from our lives, our communities, and the ordinary magic of being human in a more-than-human world.
The truth is, even for those who seek ‘liberation,’ the notion of authentic ‘freedom’ is often profoundly scary. Rather than finding our own path through the forest and creating our own sense of meaning, we relinquish our agency and critical thought into the hands of ‘masters’ and ‘gurus’ who promise to ‘save us’ through their charisma and standardised ‘manuals’ for life and liberation. But it always comes at a cost, and the results may vary.
What once appeared as a refuge can easily become a prison, and even a source of trauma. Indeed, such risks were often explicitly noted by the great visionaries of Buddhism and other “wisdom” traditions. But as humans are wont to do, systematisers morphed ineffable insights into dogmatic truth claims, ethical values into transgressible rules, and profound encounters with the ground of being into yet another tool for institutional control.
In this workshop, we will explore the profound role of deconstruction and reconstruction on the spiritual path. I will talk about my own descent into a ‘dark night of the soul,’ and my hard-won reemergence into a life worth living. I will share some insights gained through my twenty years of experience in Tibetan Buddhism, and shed light on the good, the bad, and the downright ugly in this eminently respected spiritual tradition. It’s clear that there is immense value in the pursuit of a ‘spiritual’ life, but to get to the gold we must first sift through the muck and debris. If you’re ready to truly move forward on your path with eyes wide open, then this workshop is for you. I hope you’ll join me.
Topics include:
The historical development and modern perceptions of Buddhism.
The traditional role of deconstruction in Dharmic traditions.
The psychology of religion.
Dealing with nihilism and existential despair.
How to create a durable and sustainable spiritual practice from the ground-up.
Colonialism and cultural appropriation.
Morality and ethics.
The challenges and controversies surrounding Vajrayana (Tantric Buddhism).
Contextualising Neo-Buddhist and Western Buddhist movements.
McMindfulness and the commodification of Buddhist practice.
Spiritual pragmatism.