Narcissism and Spiritual Materialism

[Being]

Originally Posted by davidsun

Ptolemy/polemy!

You have certainly done your mental 'Homework' ('Universework'? ), says this U to An Other U.

Thank U.

All that's left (in my view) for U to end Ur own thought-feeling 'i'solation is to integrate (with) said 'vision' emotionally (which includes accepting and lovingly embracing that others are "having the time of their lives" as they are - methinks, it might help if you 'see' that IT is all really good, death-throws/throes included!

Yes! Very much so. i feel that is the next 'stage' of it all, a more embodied realisation / application of it all, & far deeper acceptance / allowance of myself & others regardless of who & where they are.

Please know that I personally very much admire the intensity and aim of your quest, and think that you have done and continue to do great service by way of sharing links/sources and added commentary which you regard as being potentially meaningful to other (fellow) Beings.

Thanks for the quotes - i do like the ancient Vedic / Hindu mysticism. i have quite a collection of Vedic texts.

Thank you for your encouragement & support. It wasn't very loving the way i overreacted to Raziel - i have to work more on self love / acceptance & allowance of what is / allowance of others. It is pain that causes these conflicts. Not feeling heard.

i have tired to present / raise a 'logical' awareness on certain areas.

[naturesflow]

Originally Posted by davidsun

Your right-brained tonalities often result in my feeling quite chuffed, Flowing Lady!

DO I have right brain tonalities David?

Gosh I never thought about this before. What does it all mean?

Chuffed and flowing, suits us both..

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by naturesflow

DO I have right brain tonalities David?

Gosh I never thought about this before. What does it all mean?

https://www.healthline.com/health/le...t-brain-theory

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/b...brain-dominant

[Jyotir]

Hi Being,

Reviewing the article presented:


Knitting and proudly wearing a sweater from the hair of the dog that bit him.

While the author makes some legitimate (yet, a half century after the 60’s, cliched) points, it’s generally not an impressive article, nor much new food for thought. It’s more like a diffuse rant, a gripe rife with dubious assumptions, myopic observations, poor reasoning that is avoidant of larger context and considerations, and laced with presumption and expectation. All that, while handily ignoring a pervasive movement that is progressing - albeit not in the traditional form which seems to be confusing to the author who is apparently stuck in his own rigid paradigm of past practices.

But this is common fare on the internet, especially with a subject like spirituality where the facile gold standard of validity is, ‘a facile venue for my facile opinion’. And typical for this naturally abstruse area, is the errant (even if well meaning) substitution which the author actually goes out on a limb to make, while claiming the opposite. That of social/political/economic/moral/rational/ethical/material considerations tending to corrupt if not totally displace the more specific discussion of the spiritual which is the greater fundamental truth and support for all of the previous - even if rarely seen as such.

So ‘spiritual materialism’ is bad? But all of our problems can be solved by a Marxist skewed historical study of the socio/political/economic aspects of culture? Talk about narcissism - this guy appears to be a crypto-lefty intellectual wearing Buddhist robes. And yet, this is perhaps and ironically the necessary by-product - even his very name is indicative - of the very phenomena the author complains about….which adds fuel to the narcissist fire that he offers no viable prescription to extinguish.

In the current era, the ease of borrowing from any tradition is both the result of unavoidable circumstance but also an advantage in a globalizing world. It is available because of advances in communications and therefore awareness of other traditions, greater ease of publishing, the increasing obsolescence of centralized organized religion which according to family and regional origin is too often restrictive per individual necessity; the ascendancy of de-centralized individuals’ intuition as internal guidance vs. traditional necessity (or obligation) for external gatekeepers, permission givers, mediators, etc. This is the hallmark of the so-called ‘new-age’ - the decentralization, not the re-centralization of the past the author seems to suggest - as if that toothpaste is going back in the tube so we may brush with it again - but this time more equitably (because of cautionary articles like his!).

Aspirants may now borrow, pick and choose what suits their evolutionary exigency instead of having to endure a dreary conformity to whatever circumstance they happen to have been born into, regardless of whether it benefits them (or not) - including obsolete dysfunctional institutions. For some (or many) this will mean beginning from nothing, starting from scratch, which is difficult and necessarily fraught, like a babe learning to walk, with many false starts and failures. And… maybe having to buy some candles, incense, bells, bowls, and books. So what? Do we disparage young ones who are learning to stand up? No, because we have faith that they will succeed…eventually. And the same is true with spirituality.

If spirituality has any value it is because Spirit is the inalienable presence, and the inexorable dynamic force within all being. It is all being. Perhaps then, the author’s apparent cynicism and exclusive pride is at the heart of his own dissatisfaction with everyone else - including a retail shop/store owner who is making available ‘materials’ which may serve as inaugural connecting links to a viable ongoing process - which many can, have, do, and will undertake. Mr. Malone evidently too quickly forgot his own baby steps in finding fault with others’.

Meanwhile plenty of well established religious traditions that 100’s of millions of followers still adhere to, are well ensconced in varying levels of, some even virtually buried in, ‘spiritual materialism’. And historically Zen was never immune from this either, and those accounts are available in books for those who still read. So what’s an aspirant to do?

When it becomes conscious as a possibility and deliberate as a means, at least someone is aware of and responding to the inspiration of spirit emerging in their life.

And so they open their wallet - money is a concretized energy of spirit - as confirmation of the impetus acknowledged vs. the stifling inertial complacency of mass culture religious norms. Even here the longest journey begins with a single first step. There is still often more potential in that, than maintaining the empty pretense of ‘spiritual’ when that is a substantially vacant and well-worn easy-chair ritual.

It is not the form of any spiritual pursuit that is problematic - but the ego, ignorant cognition, and inertia present and residual which is the hazard and caution no matter what the path - AND, the very thing all legitimate paths seek to mitigate and transform. And yet the author curiously never mentions or acknowledges this as a fundamental truth of existence itself - but as a superficial gloss of resultant collective culture.

Therefore in spite of the narrow view represented, …all is well, and proceeding as planned. We could according to the author’s thinly reasoned premise, besides complaining about ’spiritual materialism’, also complain rightfully about the petty spiritual snobbery - the narcissism of the article itself, which, in the arrogance of its own piety, impatience and self-absorbed view, gives no latitude for broader trends extant within the current milieu, and their significant import to the spiritual culture as a subset. And yet, these are reversible - since with spirituality writ large, the mass culture (and its history) is actually the derivation of spiritual truth descending and assimilated by the very process disparaged by the author.

All of which still doesn’t abrogate one from the responsibility and opportunity (if so undertaken) to actually practice what is necessarily theoretical within any borrowing process, e.g., the work, which is both a general evolution but also increasingly a personal revolution - how we got to where we are - individually and then collectively. But also, how where we are is the beginning of where we are going.

In that regard, whatever does have an effective utility, is valid if and because it progressively furthers the conscious realization of one’s inner divinity/highest Self - regardless of means and methods borrowed and utilized. That is the real gold standard. In a way, ‘spiritual materialism’ is a catch-phrase for the primordial feature of reality because spirit is hidden within, emerges from, and is the material, thus temporally becoming what it is eternally.

So go to the ‘spiritual supermarket’ - Life - and buy into, commit to something progressive by using it meaningfully. One may always return or dismiss what doesn’t work and try something else, or gradually perfect what does work. This is the nature and opportunity of the vast spiritual supermarket we find ourselves traversing.


~ J

[naturesflow]

Originally Posted by davidsun

https://www.healthline.com/health/le...t-brain-theory

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/b...brain-dominant

OH yeah that's me..lol. No order at all..lol

No wonder when someone like R2D2, (that's my pet name for him hehe) when I read his posts fuelled with mathematical sequences, really does my head in. My right brain hurts.

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by naturesflow

OH yeah that's me..lol. No order at all..lol

No wonder when someone like R2D2, (that's my pet name for him hehe) when I read his posts fuelled with mathematical sequences, really does my head in. My right brain hurts.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...1743513&type=3

LOL