07/02/2026
The other day I mentioned the Epstein files. A few people questioned why, as a so called “spiritual teacher,” for want of a better phrase, I was speaking about world events at all. I was told to stay in my lane. To stick to uplifting posts about love and awakening. To remain positive. To focus only on the good. To stop being so “judgemental.”
Some even suggested we should try to see the “good” in Epstein himself.
Bleurgh.
Double bleurgh.
🤮🤮
It is very simple to me. I am a husband and a father and a son.
We are raising a young daughter.
True spirituality does not and never will cancel or transcend my duty to protect her. If anything, it deepens that duty, not only to her but to all of humanity.
Beautiful philosophy is not enough.
“I am pure consciousness.”
“Everything is a dream.”
“All is One.”
“Everything is love.”
“The body is an illusion.”
These ideas can be luminous, yes. They can open the heart. (And God knows, I have written these kinds of inspiring things in my time. Guilty as charged!)
But if our spirituality does not move through our hands, our voices, our choices, our ordinary days, then it remains a concept. Air. Fluff.
**If our spirituality does not make us braver in the face of real abuse, more protective of the vulnerable, more willing to confront power when it shields harm and tells lies, then what is it for, exactly?**
This is not about left or right. Not about woke or anti woke. Fighting over labels is just a distraction, and I am tired of it.
This is about being a human being, plain and simple.
And for me, it is about what it really means to be a man.
Men, brothers, leaders, teachers, sons and fathers, we can do better! Patriarchal systems have protected powerful men for generations. Money. Influence. Legal manoeuvres. Intimidation of those who speak up.
When men mindlessly protect other men, women and children pay the price. Epstein and his fellow predators are just one horrific example.
I am not interested in abstract spiritual truth that floats above the mess of the world. That is too easy. Anyone can speak about transcendence and pure awareness and make a living from promising a perfect state devoid of suffering.
I am much more interested in a living, embodied truth. A raw, inconvenient, somatic truth. The kind of truth that is sometimes painful. The kind that breaks your heart some days. The kind that demands you say NO when it would be easier to stay silent or distract yourself… or be “nice” and fake.
Real nonduality is not an escape from the body or the world. It is the actual meeting of spirit and flesh. It is the place where awareness and action are not separate at all, where compassion is no longer a concept, where love actually stands up instead of dissociating or detaching.
It is a nonduality that says no to violence.
That refuses to excuse abuse.
That protects children.
That stands alongside women and the vulnerable and the oppressed, not arrogantly above them.
That is why I speak. Not from hatred. Not from self righteousness. But from deep love. From responsibility to my loved ones and to loved ones all over the world. From the understanding that spirituality without accountability is empty, and our shadows will always destructively leak into the world if we refuse to confront them.
We cannot close our eyes to darkness, especially when our women and children are in danger.
The real work is not floating above the world on some narcissistic spiritual “high.” (I have been on some blissful spiritual highs in my time. Guilty as charged!)
The real work is here. Right here. In the body. In the blood. In the bones and the sinew. In our trembling and confused hearts. In our schools. Our religious institutions. Our workplaces.
In this messy, imperfect, human willingness to stand up for what is precious and kind and good and right and innocent.
That is the kind of truth I care about. I will never apologise for it.
Men, brothers, sons, I say this with love:
We can do much better.
❤️
- Jeff Foster
