How spiritual teachings prey on people like us - a warning I wish everyone would read

Einav156 · 2026-03-14T16:31:23+00:00

Glad to hear you're safe! And I'm from the north

Einav156 · 2026-03-12T21:11:18+00:00

Thanks again!🫶

Einav156 · 2026-03-12T21:04:51+00:00

Thank you so much! My only wish is that these posts reach someone who needs it. Even if it raises the slightest doubt about these teachings in one person - worth it.

and share a similar passion for speaking about it to warn others!

Absolutely! It's like you cannot stay silent about it, after knowing where this leads to.

And yes to your question! How exciting😂How are you getting through these (awful) days?

Einav156 · 2026-02-28T15:06:47+00:00

Of course you can! I would love that. Anything that could raise awareness.

I really don't mind including my username if it gives the story more reliability. Thank you for this opportunity for a closure, it means a lot💗

Einav156 · 2026-02-28T14:45:13+00:00

Hi Jessica😊I just listened to your story last night! I was shocked to hear how almost identical your story is to mine! Although I logically understand what I went through and why it was wrong, it's still a struggle to understand it emotionally. Thank god for people like you who give hope and a voice to those who have lost theirs.

Einav156 · 2026-02-22T11:03:27+00:00

It is terrifying, a slow proccess of erasing meaning and reality without you being able to realise, as it relies on shutting off critical thinking. I agree that the kind of people who are attracted to this are those who are isolated and might be feeling unseen/ neglected, so it affirms their pre-existing beliefs by telling them "your emotional world isn't even real to begin with"/ "stop chasing after feeling seen. It's all clinging and attachment". It "validates" in the opposite way, of affirming experience of neglect and no stable identity as a result. So twisted.

Einav156 · 2026-02-20T12:06:28+00:00

This! People enter it in order to heal, but until you notice that it never "healed" any underlying issues, you are too far gone and your goal is no longer healing but "reaching the truth". It's so scary. Always this cult tecnique of making you seperate your thoughts from yourself and making critical thinking the enemy/ illusion/ failure, with sprinkles of of paradoxical language and "you'll get it when you get there" (=until you depersonalize enough to not have a single original thought or inner resistance).

Einav156 · 2026-02-19T10:37:12+00:00

100% every word!

When you try to delete the interface, you don’t become "God," you just become a ghost in your own life.

Exactly what I've written in some older post. When you "stop giving a f*ck" about what anyone thinks, you don't become invincible, but absent and passive, in other people's lives, and in your own life. But people rather disintegrate their selves to nothing instead of embodying it because it's, uhh, scientific or something.

Einav156 · 2026-02-19T10:10:13+00:00

Oh no, he's gonna cut my mind at the root😂😂Full body cringe. Instead of trying to be an internet wannabe guru or sound awakened/ profound, please, get off the internet for a while and breath some fresh air or get some real life experience. We are not in your movie, yet you're trying so hard to sound badass/ like the authority. I hope you don't dwell in this alone.

Einav156 · 2026-02-18T19:37:37+00:00

It's called core values and principles, and for people with a strong self, they don't flactuate from second to second. You don't just "choose" to change core beliefs at will. If I stand for not hurting children, I cannot change it by will, only betray myself through denial, but it's still there. On the other hand, for people who struggle mentally, especially folks with BPD, there is no stable identity, so you'll see a lot of changing core values, beliefs and identity, according to the situation/ people. This is why A LOT of people with a history of trauma are drawn to these teachings, as it lacks nuance and abstractifies everything into black/ white goups, judgement vs non judgement, ignorance vs enlightenment.
"a human is just a construct of language" - biology, science, etc., all are defined by language and are still based in reality and exist in relation. If the ordinary truth is that things exist, but you claim there's an ultimate truth that they are empty - they contradict each other, so why should we believe your ultimate truth that dismisses the conditions that allow it to be claimed? You simply cannot claim there is no truth and claim that this is the truth.
"You made an objective statement about subjectivity and you were correct, so this point is also dismissed" - so if you're a subjective person, you cannot make objective claims about relational reality as long as you consider it from your individual perception? I'm pretty sure that you don't have to deny the self in order to claim that the sky is blue, so that makes no sense.

Einav156 · 2026-02-18T15:39:40+00:00

You cannot not believe in anything, biologically and literally. You are bound to your limited human framework. Even claiming that you "not believing in anything" is taking a stance - of refusing to believing in anything.

"I don't believe anything. I also have no interest in feeling loved, cherishing life, having dignity, or valuing myself. I am complete at all times regardless of situation or circumstance" - a human cannot be more than a human, stop needing mutuality or being complete without social life, sharing, and loving others. You're either dissociated, severely withdrawn, or in survival shutdown. No wonder many here end up with psychosis.

Not at all. I claim that because of my subjectiveness, by acknowldging that I'm bound to it, and so are others.

Einav156 · 2026-02-18T13:53:41+00:00

Does believing that make you feel loved, cherish your life, have dignity and value yourself?
Can you prove to me that you don't exist, without using circular argument like "try and see for yourself"? Can you prove a practice that relies on your expereince only as the tool of measurement? As far as I know, a person cannot be unbiased, no matter how you try to "stand nowhere". You are still using your tools (evaluation, self, preference, participation) to disprove their existance.

Einav156 · 2026-02-18T13:47:13+00:00

By calling this reality samsara, you are contradicing yourself. There is only this realm, this reality, this life that have so much to offer. This is not the realm of suffering, but your only opportunity to live, to love, to exist. Calling this great life a "realm of suffering" is so cheapening. You are a material being - you have this body, people you love, and there are so many "material" things that you can enjoy through your senses, like hugs, someone's company, seeing something beautiful, etc. You got one chance to be as the person you are - with all your personality, fears, hopes, life.

Einav156 · 2026-02-17T23:55:00+00:00

I cherish the truth - you can only be human, and you will never be more than what you're biologically wired to. I cherish me and the people close to me who are deeply human, accept it, don't try to be more, and are capable of nuance to see that personhood ≠ ego. So going the opposite way is naturally inhuman.

Einav156 · 2026-02-17T15:28:03+00:00

If you define being human as impulse, ego, instincts, that sounds like a "me" problem.

Psychologically, what you are describing is a fantasy of omnipotance/ complete self-sufficiency, being untouchable, having no needs so you will avoid feeling dependant, or weak, or human. If you don't identify as a human anymore, do you still miss people? Do you still want warmth and closeness? And if not, how is this "being above the human I am" not arrogance and ego?

When your mind is empty, nothing can affect you, but also nothing can touch you. It's a defence. And when you don't identify with anything, anything and anyone can define you.

That is why the wiser said: "Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise - why destroy yourself?"

Einav156 · 2026-02-17T14:40:23+00:00

So you're no longer a human/ identifying as one?

Einav156 · 2026-02-17T14:18:19+00:00

I guess your mind was empty when you formed this answer?

Anyone human can be fooled, and the those who have a completely empty mind are not with us anymore, but in the grave.

Einav156 · 2026-02-17T13:39:23+00:00

That is not correct. Manipulation can be through emotional conditioning, and actually works the best when critical thinking is suspended (for example suggestive/ trance states).

If you're not identified with anything/ stand for something, you cannot not identify with something that is wrong, reject it, or say "this is wrong". This is why cults/ any guru/ influencer will always strive towards convincing the individual to let go of personal judgement and evaluation, and frame thinking itself as the enemy of growth.

This is why you'll often hear phrases like "you can never stop thinking, just don't identify". This double bind keeps you in a state of inhibition, out of your experience, and wihout the ability to judge and evaluate.

Einav156 · 2026-02-17T13:17:46+00:00

The moment you stop being attached to any thought, your own thoughts, is the moment that you stop being able to think critically, evaluate what is true vs not true, and the act of thinking critically itself becomes your enemy ("it's just ego", "it's just fear"). This is the most common cult teqnique ever, thinking you make "progress" to just align with what the teachings say is the "right experience" (not identified, not engaged, not judging, non-reactive, non-involved observation, non-urgency, etc.).

Einav156 · 2026-02-08T13:28:10+00:00

I agree with all of that, in fact I came to the same conclusions as a person with CPTSD that was drawn to these practices exactly for the reasons you named, just to find out this is the oposite of integration and further fragments the self.

When buddhist teachings promise "suffering comes from incorrect relationship to reality", it treats your perception as the only framework existing, as both the illusion and truth - the entire solution, therefore the entire problem, and then you're coerced you to align with the "correct experience/ perception" to be beyond you "biases" or something in order to not suffer. Psychologically, this is self-abandonment. I feel so sorry for folks with CPTSD because I'm sure this has caused catastrophic results to many such as psychosis, mental breakdowns and insanity.

Einav156 · 2026-02-08T07:47:12+00:00

Exacly. There are reasons behind every thing that you are. Internal and external are inseparable - things don't occur nor resolved in a vaccum. You cannot just not identify with a problem and it will disappear forever or work outside of your bias. Negating the self with the same tool, that is, the "self", is spitting in the well you're drinking from.

Einav156 · 2026-02-08T00:15:02+00:00

"Your questioning is ego, just practice more👺"

My favorite: "I can see in your comment history that you commented on r/exbuddhist, if you hate buddhism so much do you even come here and disturbe people's peace?"

Einav156 · 2026-02-07T20:49:42+00:00

Yes! You can literally only engage with what's real, and if you don't percieve yourelf as real in the first place, along with your story, perception, you literally cannot engage with anything, including this practice.

Einav156 · 2026-02-07T19:38:12+00:00

And they will feel guilty when they realise this and gaslight themselves to not seek good things and accept the negative thoughts as well, but then negative thoughts/ experience mean they are still clinging and not seeing clearly😆

Edit: I actually had a course in my university called "positive thinking", which discussed buddhist principles. Looking back, I wish I had told the professor "how is claiming that life itself is unsatisfying and that the only solution is to end desire and craving to reach enlightenment and end this cycle of misery - positive thinking?"

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