Many spiritual teachings are actually the excuses and vacuous justifications of a broken system that simply doesn't work. The evidence is in and is overwhelming: growth through pain and suffering is perverse and massively ineffective.
We have of course known this for a very long time. Find me an expert that will say today that the evidence shows that fear, ignorance and violence is the best way to bring up healthy, loving children or is the best way to inspire learning and growth in our schools? Of course no one believes that any more, that would be complete nonsense.
Yet when it come to spirituality we accept this ridiculous justification for suffering. 'Soul contracts', karma, law of attraction, 'everything is good' and pre-life agreements to experience the horrendous suffering that take place every day to millions of this planet - this is no way to bring about any significant spiritual evolution other than in a few remarkable people who do transcend the worst of situations.
The point is most of us don't make miraculous transformations in the face of extreme suffering, most of us are negatively affected by negativity - why wouldn't we be? Many spiritual teachings seek to lay the entire blame for the failure of this world to produce any significant spiritual progress, with us for not being able to rise above the inherent ignorance of our situation and the relentless negative onslaught of circumstance and become enlightened beings.
If the system isn't working - which it isn't- it's because the system is broken, not because we are failing the system. If a school or hospital consistently fails to educate its pupils or heal its patients and its response was simply, 'it's the fault of the uneducated and the sick' then it is the institution that is failing to take responsibility and needs reform.
Now a materialist would say there is no higher plan or institution, we are just here alone having to muddle through. I have sympathy with the consistent logic of this approach to suffering. However the evidence strongly suggests materialism is wrong and there is a lot more going on 'out there'.
The teachings of spirituality can't deny there is no institution to take responsibility for how things are as their teachings are predicated on there being a whole wealth of enlightened beings and ways of living out there.
'From a wider spiritual perspective everything is Good, you just can't see it from down where you are'. Bollocks. This is an archaic 'the means justify the ends' philosophy that only the worst kind of sociopath uses to justify torture and the excesses of evil: 'its bad now for you, but it's for the greater good'. Fuck off. Evil begets evil, fear begets fear, violence begets violence. Violating an individuals rights for the perceived greater good is an ignorant and very unenlightened way to justify doing what the fuck you like to who the fuck you like.
Yes you can say that the world simply reflects our consciousness and all the negativity of the world is our own negativity and yes you can say that no one can remove your negativity you have to do it yourself. That may well be true but that doesn't excuse the fact that this simplistic system of reflection of our negativity simply isn't working and what it does is multiply negativity and makes many people worse that they were to begin with.
It would be like a parent saying to social services, 'I only smack my child when they smack me. I'm simply reflecting their own behaviour. They just need to learn that smacking is not good and to then stop smacking me, then I'll stop smacking them back.'
A good parent teaches by example and by not responding to negative behaviour with negative behaviour and by demonstrating clearly the alternatives.
Imagine if a school said to the Ofsted inspector, 'I know we are not actually providing any useful educational material nor a conducive environment for learning for our pupils but that is because we see it as our role to simply reflect the ignorance of our pupils back to them; it is they who need to learn for themselves. After they have educated themselves, then and only then will we reflect back that learning to them.'
A good school provides a wealth of opportunities for children to explore through creative and inquisitive play in a safe and secure environment, guiding where necessary, providing differentiated learning for all levels and learning styles, and providing prompt, positive, constructive and encouraging feedback.
Most people have no idea why they are here and have no clue how things work. To expect humanity to transform themselves in a place where the very purpose and means of doing this are completely obfuscated and to do it in an environment designed to make that almost impossible, is a crazy and cruel approach to have.
Yes the answer is for people to take responsibility for their own negativity and not blame external factors but this just won't happen in an environment that prides itself on creating negative downward spirals. We need a supportive and educative environment to learn these lessons not a ruthless heartless hellish torture chamber to force us into it through hopeless desperation.
This is a bit of a rant and as such is somewhat extreme and unbalanced. I am not however suggesting we should be saved nor that we should be given everything on a plate nor that everything should be easy nor that we should start from perfection and not have to grow at all. I am arguing that the method of growth that is taking place here is far from optimal and that is obvious from the results we can all see.
I don't accept that the system is perfect and if we are not progressing it's because we aren't trying hard enough. I suspect that this isn't even genuinely a system that anyone out there believes is optimal. There are probably a vast plentitude of other systems that are far better at producing much better results. This one is most likely an early archaic model that is just being left to run out of vague interest to see what will happen or has simply been forgotten about out of neglect.
So I choose not to incarnate again in this failed model of evolution. And when I am out of body, don't try to convince me to come back by showing me all the valuable lessons I've learnt and showing me the bigger picture; show me the actual and real suffering that we are experiencing here and now and have been for thousands of years and then ask me if I want to go back. Don't tell me I'll think it will be worth it all after, show me the despair and agony I will be experiencing during my time here. Then I will make an informed decision and go elsewhere.
For my next life I will choose a school of evolution that would pass its Ofsted inspection with flying colours not this disgrace of a school that should have been closed down long ago for gross neglect and continued systematic failure of its pupils.