Why Jed McKenna is uncomfortable
McKenna is uncomfortable because he does not mainly offer comfort. He aims at the stories with which we decorate fear, attachment and identity.
This is not soft spirituality. It is a demand for honesty.
Truth is not opinion
Opinions can be defended. Truth has to be seen. The difference becomes obvious when a beloved self-image is questioned. Suddenly spirituality can become a strategy of avoidance.
The work begins where the self-image loses its glamour.
The end of beautiful self-images
Many people do not suffer only from pain, but from the effort to maintain a picture of themselves. When that picture cracks, there can be fear, but also relief.
Less image means more reality.
Truth without brutality
Radical honesty does not have to be cruel. It can be precise, unsentimental and still human. In coaching, that means naming what is visible without humiliating the person.
Clarity and kindness are not enemies.
Practical impulse
Write down one sentence you strongly want to be true about yourself. Then ask: what evidence do I ignore to keep this sentence alive?