Thinking about all those supposed issues that turned out to be non-issues in spiritual practice, such as eating meat or whatever, there certainly are things I encountered that turned out to be harmful, in the sense that they inhibit spiritual advancement or even produce spiritual degradation. So, let\u2019s make a list of those, with a special accent on the problems people might actually struggle with today.<\/p>\n
Overload.<\/b> Whether it\u2019s overload of sensory inputs, information, contacts with other people, overload of any kind will keep your mind in a state of chaos and superficiality, and you can\u2019t get anything done in such a state. I recently saw ads\/reviews for a digital version of a typewriter<\/a>, essentially a keyboard with a rudimentary computer and e-ink screen that isn\u2019t connected to the Internet, because obviously some people have a problem trying to write something on a computer that is connected to the Internet and provides an endless source of temptation to alt-tab into the web browser or chat or something that will distract you from what you need to do. Apparently, the problem is significant enough for some that they find it easier to just get another, inherently disconnected device, than to control the impulse to superficially surf the chaos, watching hundreds stupid video clips in a row and wasting yet another day. I kind of understand that, since human bodies are not designed for this; the closest you will normally get to this experience is a chaotic market where everybody is constantly pestering you with stuff and you\u2019re not even sure you\u2019re interested, but stuff is shiny.<\/p>\n Another thing that causes overload are video games, and not just any video games, but specifically those that require very fast movement and reaction time, below the threshold of thinking, the kind that motivates people to buy fast-refresh monitors and graphics cards because 60 FPS isn\u2019t enough; the first-person shooters, mostly. My first encounter with this stuff was Duke Nukem 3d, in the 1990s, and playing that would have my mind look like a hive of angry bees, basically incoherent chaos, for hours. On the contrary, games that have a slow pace, like Diablo, Warcraft, Elite, or Witcher 3 as a modern equivalent, produce no such adverse effects. Basically, human brain doesn\u2019t lend itself to overclocking, and the adverse effects of overloading it with information or forcing it to work on maximum speed are severe.<\/p>\n Superficial interpersonal connections.<\/b> In times before the Internet and the social networks, our elders used to warn us against wasting time sitting in some bar hanging out with people, talking mostly about nothing in particular, because you end up wasting your life that way. Unfortunately, with the social media this became the default mode of behaviour, and I mean wasting your life away on stupid bullshit and nothing in particular. This is one of those \u201cgames\u201d where the only winning move is not to play.<\/p>\n I think there\u2019s something about human brain that makes \u201csocialising\u201d both attractive and superficial, and the bigger the group, the worse the problem. Basically, when you\u2019re alone, you are capable for your greatest spiritual depths. When you\u2019re with another person, you\u2019re limited to the weakest link of the two; basically, the best case scenario is that you are the weakest link, because then you can learn and be pulled beyond your limits by the other person. If the other person is the limiting factor, you can either waste time by functioning below your potential because the other person isn\u2019t interesting in exceeding their limitations, or you focus and amplify your thoughts by explaining them to the other person in attempts to improve their understanding, or you give up and leave. However, as the group increases, the likelihood of the group dynamics being defined by everybody\u2019s fears and fake personality, posturing, trying to maintain a likeable facade, and keeping everything superficial and \u201csafe\u201d, increases with some kind of a logarithmic curve where everything beyond a certain number that can be counted on fingers of one hand is a chaotic, superficial mess that is of no use to anyone; an even better description is a graph of 1\/x function, where x is the number of people involved. Basically, at that point you\u2019re not even a person, you\u2019re a group member. Also, groups make people into not-really-themselves, and they act in ways that are more of a reflection of group dynamics, than their own personality, which can create all kinds of stupid nonsense. So, it is my experience that keeping an \u201copen connection\u201d with other people is completely incompatible with the kind of \u201cinward-sight\u201d that is essential for being aware of the transcendental, and, specifically, maintaining your personal connection to God. Being in the presence of God and keeping live horizontal links to humans and worldly things just doesn\u2019t mix well, because it\u2019s either one or the other. The circumstances where a connection to God and connection to another person can actually coexist are the very rare and extreme cases of either spiritual initiation or true tantric sex. Basically, if you are trying to establish a transcendental connection to God, avoid being distracted by people, because that\u2019s what they are \u2013 distractions. It\u2019s like having a radio connection that can maintain only one contact at the time, God competes for the position of that one active contact, and the channel is constantly flooded by superficial \u201chandshake\u201d connections, the stupid \u201chi, how are you doing?\u201d things. Obviously, it\u2019s an excellent way of remaining on a superficial level of spiritual experience forever. As I said already, the only winning move is not to play the game, or at least constrain it very deliberately.<\/p>\n Entitlement.<\/b> If people think they have rights, they start whining and complaining and acting like victims of some injustice or another. This is spiritually extremely harmful. The only way to achieve results is to understand that you\u2019re fucked, it\u2019s nobody\u2019s duty to help you but your own, that making yourself feel worse by whining merely creates another problem for you to solve later, that \u201csocial signalling\u201d is worthless because it doesn\u2019t work on God, and instead of complaining about God abandoning you or some other stupid nonsense, just make the spiritual move that will get you in the presence of God. Your mammalian emotional signalling is not transcendental, it has no redeeming quality, your whining and regressing into a cub crying for mommy is not attractive to God. It\u2019s just disturbance that stands in the way of achieving transcendence. If you\u2019re a complete beginner, some angel might take pity on you and try to show you the way despite your animalistic emotions, but if you then start thinking that your emotions actually caused the darshan, and try to repeat them in order to repeat the supposed result, you\u2019re in a world of hurt. Which brings me to the next thing:<\/p>\n Your <\/b>emotions are <\/b>not \u201cjustified\u201d<\/b>.<\/b> They are not even \u201cyours\u201d. They just are, and for the most part they \u201care\u201d slavery, bondage and delusion. Emotion is just energy of a certain frequency moving through a certain part of your energy system, and resonating with some animal bullshit or another that is inherited from either primordial goo or jumping on tree branches. If you stop feeding it you get to see just how transitory and unimportant it all is. Feeding your emotions, or allowing them to persist because you think they are justified, or being in habit of being angry, cynical or whatever, is merely a result of poor training and upbringing. Emotions need to be completely flexible and you need to allow them to start, possibly act on them, and have them end, without introducing artificial persistence.<\/p>\n Trying to impress others.<\/b> That\u2019s one of those bad ideas that everybody has and they never seem to go away, and they are universally harmful. No, you don\u2019t exist only because others perceive you. No, if you trick others into having a good opinion of you, you won\u2019t actually be worth more. No, if others have a poor opinion of you, that doesn\u2019t really diminish who you actually are. So basically, others don\u2019t matter. What matters is what your connection to God actually is, what virtues you actually possess, what flaws you actually removed, and what your spiritual body actually is, and if you talk about it to others, that\u2019s one of the most effective ways of losing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thinking about all those supposed issues that turned out to be non-issues in spiritual practice, such as eating meat or whatever, there certainly are things I encountered that turned out to be harmful, in the sense that they inhibit spiritual … Continue reading