How much of the whole fetishizing over ultimate truth in cults and other forms comes down to nothing more than "I had an experience in this particular way, so it must be the True Way(tm)"?
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I know some people get turned off by my vituperative statements about Buddhists, but it's a negative bias earned by experience.
I'm sure if I spent enough time around other purported enlightenment traditions, they'd piss me off just as much.
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If you look back to the martial arts traditions of the past, they were all pissing in each others' pools.
But who killed who was ever a product of circumstance, physique, technology and skill. Nobody gives a shit how wise and learned your master (supposedly) is. Results matter.
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Your tradition can be as cleverly put together (or not), insightful (or not) and legitimate (or not) as it wants to be - if you aren't getting the results, who gives a shit?
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Many look for results, don't get them, and then become armchair gurus criticizing your practice and beliefs as if they have the first idea about either.
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A tradition is just another mask for your ignorance. Acknowledgement from a guru is just another fancy degree. Nothing matters. Nothing.
Except what you're actually experiencing.
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As per certain enlightenment traditions, I'm perfectly capable of sustaining an enlightened state...
(BIG GLARING DISCLAIMER)
... when I've got nothing to do and am not under heavy social or cognitive load.
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If I wanted to follow in the tradition of the great gurus, I'd erect a fucking shrine and start teaching the Way of Never Actually Interacting or Doing Anything Important.
and...
Charge for lessons.
Make precepts.
Demand things.
Abuse followers.
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But this would be, you guessed it, Just Fucking Horseshit. I can do the fancy stuff, under some bounded conditions, as well as anyone.
So what? There's nothing more there. There's no special path, no great truth. It's just what I can do, and, implicitly, what I can't.
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Every good meditation teacher I've ever encountered had dipped their feet in so many traditions, their affiliations were almost irrelevant.
Initiated in so and so, recognized by such and such, confirmed by him and her... bullshit. The important part is they know their stuff.
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Ah well, that's that out of the system. Going back to the rest of my wine glass now.
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