We buy in to the idea that there's some transcendent reality other than this one, and that there's something we can do to get there. We even come up with cute ways to describe this ultimate reality and repeat feel-good phrases that make us feel "spiritual".
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Almost everyone who has some deep mystical experience at some point, be it through meditation or psychedelics, comes out the other end having inherited an entirely new metaphysical system out of thin air.
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This new language game masquerades as the answer to life, the universe, and everything. It seems to provide the final answer to that fundamental problem with existence. We become absolutely sure that this is what we've been looking for. Everything finally makes sense!
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This is understandable. Mystical experiences are compelling; every single devoutly religious person has had one, and no doubt many have had ones that felt far more compelling than any of the ones you or I have had.
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Sooner or later, though, this new state loses its magic. Bad days still happen. We still get a little annoyed when other people don't agree with our divinely-received Truth. Suddenly, the comfort of oneness, non-duality, or emptiness of all phenomena is no longer enough.
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Meditation may give us profound experiences and genuine insights, but the habit of treating those as final answers is a trap. The problem is that there is no ultimate problem, so ultimate answers always turn out to be another dud. In the end they have no practical everyday value.
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A post-retreat bliss-out is nice... until it wears off in the real world. An awakening experience makes us feel like we've finally understood IT... until the reality of life hits us and "it" suddenly doesn't seem to be very helpful or relevant (if at all coherent).
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It's good to have even our deepest insights continuously questioned. The more it happens, the closer we get to shedding the idea that one day we're finally gonna reach the high score, after which all suffering will vanish while we remain intact. This is a childish fantasy.
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That doesn't mean meditation and insight are useless. We still need to confront the reality that is going on right now. We need to learn how to be in it skillfully and how to relate to real problems, whether personal or societal. To do anything else is escapism.
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Meditation practices can only help us insofar as they clarify our actual present experience. They can force us to confront our limitations and biases rather than pretending that we'll reach a magical state where they won't exist, where we'll rejoice in our new enlightened selves.
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The bad news is that unless you're willing to put an end to all sensory experience, you're stuck here. The good news is that you can learn to be more awake in each moment that you are here. This does take practice, though, despite what fluff-spirituality will have you to believe.
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Being a spiritual grown-up means accepting that awakening is not about escaping to somewhere more enlightened; it is simply full contact with what is happening right now, in the present moment. Whether the present moment feels enlightened or not is irrelevant.
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It's also not about pretending that playing the non-duality or emptiness card eradicates suffering; it's admitting and accepting the truth of suffering as a characteristic of sensory experience and knowing how to relate to it skillfully when it arises.
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It is a skill to learn, not a one-time attainment that magically fixes everything forever (although some events may supercharge the learning process, or make it easier).
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Long story short, as a friend of mine so aptly put it: That "everything is perfect" crap is great until I kick you in the balls.
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Buddha came around and said it is better to look at your own mind rather than sacrifice animals and perform rituals because these acts can not salve the human condition and folks have been over intellectualizing and freaking out ever since. It's mostly nihilistic hangups.
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What kills me is that most of the confusion people get lost in are very plainly laid out as being warning sighs along "the path" that "the Buddha" laid out. Taking a western "religious" view of these things indeed often fails.
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I agree. Buddhism as practiced like a religion tends to create this problem, especially in the West.
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West schmest. Same everywhere.
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If only it were that simple. Things rarely are. The American psychology is different. There’s a belief that not one but of pain or suffering should be experienced. I don’t think this is universal.
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Nah. We're all people like other people. As individuals, though... now that's interesting; if you're awake now, you can help me be awake. I hope you will.
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Never said people were different. Cultures are different.
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