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>"yoga, spiritual, new age" people I know are BY FAR the most egotistical group of people I have ever met. So much this. I think the problem is that they love

by carlmr 5y ago

>"yoga, spiritual, new age" people I know are BY FAR the most egotistical group of people I have ever met. So much this. I think the problem is that they love talking about how enlightened they are to satisfy their narcissism.

zozbot234 5y ago
Empirically, egotism and narcissism really get in the way of the kind of mindset that's required for serious insight. It's not so much that meditation makes you less egotistic, it's more the case that you just can't afford to keep feeding those character traits if you're serious about wanting to attain even low-level stream entry, let alone any deeper form of enlightenment. As an aside, enlightenment isn't even that much of a big deal intellectually so there isn't all that much to talk about. Almost all of the purely intellectual content that you'd grok in the process of doing insight meditation, you could find in a good book about, e.g. philosophical Stoicism. There's plenty more insight besides, but as far as we know it's tacit insight that's really hard to describe to outsiders unless for the purpose of actively engaging in the practice. > Then someone comes along and tells them that they can control their destiny and reality with their mind and crystals or whatever Magick is a real thing in this context, but if you're surprised about the "control their destiny and reality" part you're very much missing the point, and taking your perspective on it from silly folk stereotypes. The most successful magick is (1) not engaged in foolishly or for personal, egotistic gain, but rather in pursuit of goals that are going to deeply benefit others. Stated simply, you very much want to go with the collective flow, not against it. (2) not seeking "supernatural" or paranormal outcomes except perhaps at the tiniest, most imperceptible level that would literally be indistinguishable from pure noise. That's not to say that 'unexplainable' things might not sometimes happen, they'll just be rare and always surprising to everyone involved, most of all the supposed initiator; (3) seeking hidden outcomes as opposed to highly visible or evident ones. It's meant to be wholly complementary to the method and thought process of natural magick (i.e. science and tech) not in contrast with it!

by carlmr 5y ago

zozbot234 5y ago

Empirically, egotism and narcissism really get in the way of the kind of mindset that's required for serious insight. It's not so much that meditation makes you less egotistic, it's more the case that you just can't afford to keep feeding those character traits if you're serious about wanting to attain even low-level stream entry, let alone any deeper form of enlightenment. As an aside, enlightenment isn't even that much of a big deal intellectually so there isn't all that much to talk about. Almost all of the purely intellectual content that you'd grok in the process of doing insight meditation, you could find in a good book about, e.g. philosophical Stoicism. There's plenty more insight besides, but as far as we know it's tacit insight that's really hard to describe to outsiders unless for the purpose of actively engaging in the practice. > Then someone comes along and tells them that they can control their destiny and reality with their mind and crystals or whatever Magick is a real thing in this context, but if you're surprised about the "control their destiny and reality" part you're very much missing the point, and taking your perspective on it from silly folk stereotypes. The most successful magick is (1) not engaged in foolishly or for personal, egotistic gain, but rather in pursuit of goals that are going to deeply benefit others. Stated simply, you very much want to go with the collective flow, not against it. (2) not seeking "supernatural" or paranormal outcomes except perhaps at the tiniest, most imperceptible level that would literally be indistinguishable from pure noise. That's not to say that 'unexplainable' things might not sometimes happen, they'll just be rare and always surprising to everyone involved, most of all the supposed initiator; (3) seeking hidden outcomes as opposed to highly visible or evident ones. It's meant to be wholly complementary to the method and thought process of natural magick (i.e. science and tech) not in contrast with it!