{"id":75,"date":"2023-04-17T14:36:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T14:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shant.nu\/?page_id=75"},"modified":"2023-06-29T15:36:16","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T15:36:16","slug":"the-biggest-idiots-in-the-spiritual-world","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/shant.nu\/the-biggest-idiots-in-the-spiritual-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biggest Idiots in the Spiritual World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A few stories before we start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was watching a Youtube video by Adyashanti in which he was talking about the different paths of meditation. I then made the mistake of looking at the comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top comment was something like “There is no path, there is nothing to do. Are already have everything we need.”<\/em> Followed by 250 words of OMG! I’m so Enlightened, dude. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this was the top rated comment with more than 300 likes and dozens of replies, every single one positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funny thing was: Just a week or 2 ago, Adyashanti had posted a video saying that the hardest people to reach\/teach were the ones who believed they had reached the absolute state. “But Adya, there is nothing to do, nowhere to reach. So why should I meditate?” <\/em>he said. And Adyashanti has made the same point several times in his books, lectures and videos, so it’s not like anyone could miss it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, the top comment on his video repeated the same crap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years ago, I was in several spiritual forums. In many, there was usually at least one person who would respond to every question with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is no meditator”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is nothing to do”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is no guru\/god\/whatever”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is nothing to do, we already<\/em> are what we meditate for”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point the moderator lost it and screamed (virtually) at them: “If there is nothing to do, why the hell are you wasting everyone’s time here?”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And these are the biggest idiots in the spiritual world. While this is a type of Spiritual Narcissism<\/a>, I have a separate entry for this, as this type of foolishness is very prevalent and even accepted in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Charlie, It Ain’t All an Illusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a technical term for these idiots– Neo-Advaita practitioners, but I have seen many Zen\/Buddhist students use the same language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spiritual Idiots (SI from now on) believe that we are all enlightened, pure consciousness already, so there is nothing to do, nowhere to do, etc etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is, they think that a mental representation of the ultimate reality is the same as actual experience of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s like saying: A mental idea of how to become the President\/Prime Minister of the country is the same as becoming it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or that just because you have seen Top Gun, you know everything about being a fighter pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was 6 years old, I knew how to fly a helicopter. You see, I had seen it in Rambo II– flip all the switches, press the on button and lift the joystick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was a real Neo-Advaitin\/Spiritual Idiot at that age! I’m only glad I didn’t put on orange robes and call myself a Helicopter Swami. Swami Rambo-Ananda.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jai Sri Ram!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Heck, you can’t become the mayor of a tiny village just by thinking about it. Even that requires a lot of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

@TODO:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rise above our animal self, variant of this. pretending w are spiitual; thinking we are beyong our animal isnticnts, fake rational people like mr spock. actually more open to being taken over by lower self<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a type of fake transcendance, pretending we are more spirtual than we are (sp materialism??)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolute vs Relative Truths<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just because something is true on an absolute level doesn’t mean it is true in our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n