Gods Of The New Age

Hugh Johnson

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I think the thing about most spiritual practices, is that they're very contextual, and you can't just import them into a new culture and have it have any meaning. It seems a lot of ancient spiritual practices arise out of an intimate relationship with the people and the land, water, and sky. These are practices to ensure healthy lives, good weather, high crop yields, good hunting, and other very practical things, they're not just meaningless esoteric procedures. In general, people are quite practical, it's just often we only see part of the picture, so we don't realize how things came to be by a long serious of rational decisions.
The problem with spiritual practices, magic and yoga, is that people are not willing to deal with their ***t. There is a reason why Buddha was strict moralist, because if you have not dealt with your ***t and become a decent person, you have no business getting into any of the deeper stuff. There are ex-Satan worshippers who claim that their church pushes all this New Age stuff and whatnot because while they themselves consider stupidity and solipsism "sins" they want others to engage in them. It makes people weak and easily manipulated.

If you put wings on ***t, all you get is flying ***t.

Mysticists like to test their students. Some will just waste your time, but in the past they might tell you to smoke hemlock just to see if you are wise enough to do your own thinking.

I liked this Osho video when I saw it because the idea of countries and imaginary borders is something that I thought of years before I saw him talk about it:



Humanity will one day have to live in a world without borders simply because of limited natural resources and because of what the nature of the planet will be a long time from now, that is of course if humans survive long enough for that to happen.

With that said, the modern "spiritual" culture is nothing more than passive-aggressive, dirty, smelly salesmen who masquerade as hippies for attention and social status.


Borders exist because of limited resources. As long as the human population was small enough that conflict could be solved by groups moving there were no borders or wars. Borders and wars between peoples exist for the same reason personal boundaries and the aggression to defend them, via police or otherwise, exists. If you let people trample all over your boundaries, physically or otherwise, you will eventually be used up and destroyed.

What Osho is doing here is attracting the sort of uncritical people with porous boundaries that are easily manipulated and used. This doesn't mean you are necessarily such a person, and you probably would have been selected out of his groups.
 

sladerunner69

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You make some good points. There's a fine line between aggression and assertion.

I can't speak as a woman, but as a man, there is a way to retain your masculine identity while not being angry at the world.

Be kind, but be selective in who you are kind to. Not everyone deserves it.

The way I've always perceived it, only fools and "tough" type men are the ones who believe "believe angry at the world" is a masculine trait. Serious is one thing, angry is another.

I always felt that the biggest part of being a man is being able to take just about anything that come your way in life with a grin on your face, being very optimistic even in the darkest hours. The strongest and best men (not necessarily the richest or most successful) all seem to share this trait of ardent optimism.
 

Makrosky

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I think the thing about most spiritual practices, is that they're very contextual, and you can't just import them into a new culture and have it have any meaning. It seems a lot of ancient spiritual practices arise out of an intimate relationship with the people and the land, water, and sky. These are practices to ensure healthy lives, good weather, high crop yields, good hunting, and other very practical things, they're not just meaningless esoteric procedures. In general, people are quite practical, it's just often we only see part of the picture, so we don't realize how things came to be by a long serious of rational decisions.
Hi barefooter,

I don't think that is accurate. There have been (and there are) spiritual practices in the western world from the beginning. Christianity (wether catholic, orthodox or protestant) has it's own spiritual paths that have nothing to do with dogmatic church and still exist now a days. It's just that is more "cool" to dress yourself as an indian and surround yourself with sacred gemoetry pictures and elefants. And your ego is protected because since it's meaningless spiritual paths you won't be really changed, only inflated.

There have been closed cults (or sects) since the beginning of Greek and Roman cultures (and of course before). The pitagorics, the gnostics, the cathars, and a myriad of others. These cults provided solid and real spiritual practices. We can't compare those to the stupid new age things like Osho and the stuff. It's common that sects have resisted an hostile society/establishment from the beginning so this is not new to our actual time.

It is not fair to dismiss all spirituality because we live in a world full of spiritual merchandise. Spirituality is not for everyone either, and that doesn't imply spiritual people are superior by anymeans. They just chose another way of living.

For example, any single person who has had psychedelic drugs once in their life knows that there's much more than what we can "see" with materialistic eyes. Should we dismiss it all as garbage ? One has to be careful to not underestimate what one doesn't know or is not capable/willing of/to experiencing.
 

mirc12354

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I really like Katie Byron Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life
and her form of practical spirituality rather than esoteric BS. I used to use her process of questioning (called The Work) a lot in the past and it helped me a great deal with many issues I had. I guess it would still benefit me, but nowadays I am just too lazy to do it. Don't agree with everything she says tough and would not consider her a guru but she was very useful to me in a way Ray Peat is - she does not offer definitive answers she just encourage you to question/examine things.
 
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Peatish Ninja

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I have much respect for the Daoists as they have a more thorough meditation ritual similar to western alchemy. Funny though, the era of Pythagoras had their own version of "meditation" way back when. Peter Kingsley is one of the outside scholars who has discovered some of the ancient rituals of the west.

I have moved onto a type of meditation that is about stilling the mind to reach the Super Present (a plane that no sentient being can reach without mindforce or a psycho-active drug) that release the somatic tension in the body (past hurt etc).
 
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Bill Joslin interview - "Meditation: Deconstructing Nonsense" - #202 - Gnostic Media

"You don't need resonance, it simply means your perception and your awareness match"

J3y6BNO.jpg
 
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lollipop

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"You don't need resonance, it simply means your perception and your awareness match"

J3y6BNO.jpg
:): The interview is definitely not a common "idealized" perception of meditation. I found it a good listen - not sure of all its facts can be "fact checked" AND expanded my perspective a bit. To me that is soooo key, increasing perspective taking capacity to be able to hold multiple perspectives at once. My master's in Integral Theory showed me how good this capacity is...
 

Sheik

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"You don't need resonance, it simply means your perception and your awareness match"

J3y6BNO.jpg
What you're saying is essentially: "These people are talking nonsense."

Why assume it's nonsense instead of trying to figure out what they're talking about? I find that it's very rare for people to actually talk nonsense.

Context: I didn't click the link and have no idea what is meant by "resonance".
 
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What you're saying is essentially: "These people are talking nonsense."

Why assume it's nonsense instead of trying to figure out what they're talking about? I find that it's very rare for people to actually talk nonsense.

Context: I didn't click the link and have no idea what is meant by "resonance".

Why assume what I'm saying, essentially?
 
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Okay, what was your intention then?

Expressing confusion?! All I see is a materialist trying to explain the other view of things. What is he adding apart from warning about sociopathic "leaders"? Perhaps he should brush up on some recent quantum physics experiments before being so resolute.
 
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lollipop

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Expressing confusion?! All I see is a materialist trying to explain the other view of things. What is he adding apart from warning about sociopathic "leaders"? Perhaps he should brush up on some recent quantum physics experiments before being so resolute.
You have nailed it AND the interesting piece is experience, the guy went fully and deeply into the process and changed his position. That is worth listening to imho and I did just that - long interview. Most materialists have not even made the effort to explore the "other side", if you will, of the philosophic position.
 

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