Hello, and welcome back to practicing human, the podcast where every day we're getting

a little better at life.

I'm your host, Corey Muscara, tuning in from sunny Palo Alto.

The same place I've been for the last four months, four quarantine.

This is the longest I've been in one place for about eight years.

So wherever you are, I hope you are feeling safe and settled.

In today's episode, I will be talking about the trap we can get in when trying to awaken,

be more mindful, or become enlightened.

More to come on that in a moment, first, let's settle in together with the sound of the

bells.

So, I'd like to share a quote from a book by Robert Augustus Masters, and the book is called

Spiritual Bypassing, which is a topic you may be familiar with if you've read my book,

Stop Missing Your Life.

I have a whole section on Spiritual Bypassing, but one of the quotes from this book that I

like, Robert says, even the most exquisitely designed spiritual methodologies can become

traps, leading not to freedom, but only to reinforcement, however subtle, of the eye,

who wants to be a somebody who has attained or realized freedom, the very same eye that

doesn't realize that there are no Oscars for awakening.

So I'll read it again, and remember, when we're talking about spiritual methodologies,

isn't talking about spirits, per se.

Instead, it's talking about that space of mind and that quality of being that we can

develop that is not burdened by the small sense of self, not consumed by thoughts, not

...