Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/18/dont-be-a-spiritual-narcissist.html
…
9 Likes
At last I have a concise descriptor for that one relative who insists that meditation and yoga are impossible without new-agey mumbo-jumbo.
15 Likes
One of the very few things that pretty much ALL contemplative/meditative traditions/religions agree on is that ego and spirituality are antithetical. Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Zoastrians, Bahai, Judaism, heck including the First Nations (NA Indian) traditions I know about, all of them, every single one, teach that egoism and spirituality are utterly incompatible.
About the only exception seems to be American style evangelical christianity. Hmm
17 Likes
I have a family member like this, and good golly is she working every English-language social media platform hard to peddle her woo.
10 Likes
It’s always amusing to hear people brag about how much they’ve reduced their ego.
28 Likes
Overhead conversation from a “spiritual” family member: “When someone disagrees with me I think they’re ignorant and I imagine myself as a pure being made of light”. 
14 Likes
And the Catholic style… and the Anglican style… and the Eastern Orthodox … and the various Muslim, Hindu, and Budhist factions that are naked power and cash grabs / personality cults.
But you know, aside from those…
7 Likes
I love fortuitous typos. 
9 Likes
Why does Socrates look like my dad?
ETA: 
7 Likes
Your dad has no eyes or other facial features?
17 Likes
This post was like reading my daily horoscope
Aaaand spending time with in-laws
1 Like
The hair and shape are so uncanny I made the joke; I seem to remember that he did have features at one point though.
8 Likes
Also, the US Marine Corps and French Foreign Legion.
A lot of monastic traditions, including Cistercian Christians and Zen Buddhists, teach novices in ways with a lot of overlap with military boot camps – very little privacy, limited sleep, limited diets, tough physical demands, endless repetition of simple tasks, all being repeated day after day as a group, not as an individual pursuit.
The purpose, even if it’s not explicit in every religious tradition, is the same as military boot camp – tearing down the old individual self and replacing it with a blank slate.
I’m uncomfortable with a lot of it – Zen has a long tradition of using blows from sticks to keep students from veering off the path, and I think like a lot of sports coaches, discipline can turn into abuse. But at any rate, this kind of spiritual path does not involve a lot ego-based navel gazing, especially at first.
13 Likes
Well put. There is certainly a lot over overlap between the destructive military industrial complex and the otherwise benevolent religious pursuits.
How else can you convince and army of devotees that yours is the one true religion and justify the turf wars?
2 Likes
This sort of mass delusion is useful for controlling the laity and making them do all sorts of interesting things for the greaty glory of $deity.
4 Likes
I’ve noted this phenomena among yoga practitioners. They are elevated by the status of their instructor, so instead of relating their own experience and how it has benefitted them, they talk about the superhuman abilities of their instructor (which no doubt is being sold to them in a subtle but constant humble-not-humble messaging or relayed by their long term adherents). One instructor told a friend that rates for instruction go up significantly if you (can say you) have set foot in India.
2 Likes
I lived for a few years in a small town where flaky hippiedom was the primary social mode. In that time I developed an anaphylactic response to the endless woo based ego trips so many people love to engage.
I struggle still not to engage my cynicism when speaking with people about their legitimate pursuit of self improvement.
And holy fuck do I hate to hear egotists talk about their constant self improvement regimes.
10 Likes
This town wasn’t in New Mexico, was it?! Hooooooly hell was it hard to deal with Santa Fe woo, although it’s a lovely town otherwise. If you chucked out all of the crystals and incense it may actually approach livable.
4 Likes
I had one of those too. She has sued every one of her business partners though, so I’m not sure how well it’s worked out for her.
2 Likes
