The risk of spiritual bypass in mindfulness-based interventions

Abstract

Objective In Buddhist teachings, mindfulness has been practiced as a way to transform sufferings through the cultivation of awareness and letting go of afflictive perceptions and habits. A phenomenon called spiritual bypass is one of the easily overlooked obstacles of the practice. Practitioners may feel satisfied in their practice skills by making a substantial effort but potentially becoming a form of repression of the root causes of their life issues. While mindfulness is being widely practiced in a secular form, the risk of developing competence in the skills of mindfulness practice may subtly lead the practitioners getting trapped in a state of spiritual bypass. In this study, the awareness of such a phenomenon will be reviewed by examining the discussion of this topic in the existing training and research materials of mindfulness-based interventions. Methods To determine whether facilitators of mindfulness-based interventions have reasonable access to the concept of spiritual bypass, a review of the keyword spiritual bypass in training materials and research studies on standardized mindfulness-based interventions was conducted. Results The concept of the spiritual bypass was generally neglected in the mainstream mindfulness training materials and research studies. No such concept was mentioned in the teaching and training materials for the mindfulness-based interventions. Discussion The negligence of spiritual bypass in the mainstream mindfulness training may limit the capacity of the mindfulness teachers to understand the progress of and barriers encountered by their students. The differences in the interpretation of human suffering between traditional Buddhist teaching and secular mindfulness practice will be discussed to suggest possible ways to explore the potential refinement of teaching in this area.