Leo's Blog: Infinite Insights — Page 17
This is a lesson in the corrupting force of fame, ambition, and success.
I'd like you to see the corruption of this entire story, the entire dynamic, not just a single guy. The entire pop-star social system — the stars, the producers, the business-people, the corporations, the media, and even the fans — it's all corruption. Try to see it that way.
I'd like you to see that corruption is a much deeper thing than a dirty politician taking bribes under the table. Start seeing corruption as a wrong orientation of the mind towards reality. For example, when the mind is so focused on fame and success that it doesn't even make time to rest. Why does that happen? Why is there this whole sick social system for turning teens into giga-famous pop-stars? Why does that exist? Would conscious minds create or participate in such a system?
Note: This is not a post about judging Justin Bieber. This is a broader lesson in how the mind is lead astray from living properly, and its consequences. Is endless ambition for fame and success the proper way to live? This is an issue of life priorities. Why is fame and pop music prioritized over philosophy, truth, health, and consciousness?
You have to ask yourself, Why does a mind want to become a pop-star in the first place? What is wrong with that kind of mind, with that kind of life, with that kind of attitude? And then notice how religion gets brought in as a band-aid on top of that festering wound. You live like an animal, then you turn to Jesus to save you.
There is a sub-Reddit called Oddly Terrifying with some cool and weird stuff.
Enjoy:
Pantheism is true. Panentheism is even more true.
The distinction between God and its creation is imaginary.
Humans love to create a bunch of confusion and noise around pantheism in order to avoid simply realizing that it is true.
There is this odd phenomenon of atheist spirituality, or secular spirituality. These are people who disbelieve in God, self-identify as atheist, rational, and scientific, yet they do spiritual practices like meditation and may even do stuff like mystical practices. These people try to be spiritual but while rejecting the notion of God and the supernatural. These people do not understand what spirituality really is, but they think they are quite advanced. Such people are usually academic types who think they've figured spirituality out through academic methods. Nope! Self-deception alert.
The lady who runs this channel is such an example. She is an atheist yet she also studies mystical traditions and talks about nondual concepts and mysticism. She practices Sufism. She knows the theory of various mystical traditions such as Buddhism, Zen, Daoism, Kabbalah, etc. She has done academic work in religion and spirituality. But ultimately she has no idea what mysticism or spirituality is. This is an interesting case-study in sophisticated self-deception. She wants spirituality, but without God. She wants mysticism, but without Truth. To her, mysticism is just human experiences and feelings. This is a great example of how to screw up spirituality by taking it too lightly, taking it as something academic, something human — by not taking metaphysics seriously. It is spirituality done for psychology benefits. Spirituality as cognitive science and psychology. This is Sam Harris-type of spirituality, and I want to make you aware of this strain of spiritual self-deception.
Her channel is called "No Nonsense Spirituality", but of course it is nonsense spirituality. She uses words like "enlightenment", "transcendence", "mystical", and "oneness", but she doesn't fathom what these things are. And the people who follow her channel have no idea she is misleading them because she sounds so sensible and inoffensive.
How do you correct someone like this?
Is it possible to be an atheist mystic? No
Is it possible to be an enlightened atheist? No
Is it possible spirituality has nothing to do with God? No
Is it possible mysticism is not about Truth but just experiences? No
Spirituality is only about one thing: Realizing you are God.
Everything else is derivative noise.
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This is one of the reasons why I am so against stuff like westernized Zen and Buddhism. It leads to this kind of atheist spirituality, which totally misses the point of Awakening. Western Buddhists believe they can have enlightenment and atheism. This is spiritual weak-sauce designed to suit Stage Orange rationalist sensibilities. You have to go much deeper than that.
Buddhism and nonduality is a very convenient way for atheists to avoid admitting they are wrong. But where is the fun in that?
The whole point of spirituality is to get completely mindfucked. :D
Note: The reason I tend to be a hardass about these topics is because I don't want you to miss God.
