This was a refreshing read, as I see so many postrats and similar trying to 'game' this, 'optimise' that and generally stat-ify spirituality, which seems to me to miss a crucial part of self-development. In fact, the whole framing of spirituality as a form of self-development misses out on something already. There has to be a sense you're losing yourself in something bigger, greater, mysterious, impossible to explain, something that baffles the rational mind. Otherwise you're dangerously close to spiritual materialism, or putting cosmic clothes on what's mostly narcissism/hedonism/flakiness/etc.
Curious what you mean by 'the nerd is beneath the world'?
Completely right about that mistake of connecting a silicon valley, optimizer mentality with spirituality. I ended up leaving tpot over it.
So the nerd, as a misfit, and you have to be misfit in some sense to truly be a nerd, is less than other people. Some aspects of a standard life are overwhelming for the nerd. As I saw Idries Shah put it, there is an expectation of would-be Sufis that they are able to function in all kinds of societies. And similarly, in Vajrayana, I was reading that the baseline for being a tantric practitioner is dealing well with life: there can't be aspects of life that you're dysfunctional in or avoiding, to be a tantrika.
However, experiencing the unpleasantness of leaving your comfort zone and learning to handle something you previously couldn't handle is excellent preparation for both Sufism and Tantra, as in both paths, experiencing negative emotions is pretty central.
This was a refreshing read, as I see so many postrats and similar trying to 'game' this, 'optimise' that and generally stat-ify spirituality, which seems to me to miss a crucial part of self-development. In fact, the whole framing of spirituality as a form of self-development misses out on something already. There has to be a sense you're losing yourself in something bigger, greater, mysterious, impossible to explain, something that baffles the rational mind. Otherwise you're dangerously close to spiritual materialism, or putting cosmic clothes on what's mostly narcissism/hedonism/flakiness/etc.
Curious what you mean by 'the nerd is beneath the world'?
Completely right about that mistake of connecting a silicon valley, optimizer mentality with spirituality. I ended up leaving tpot over it.
So the nerd, as a misfit, and you have to be misfit in some sense to truly be a nerd, is less than other people. Some aspects of a standard life are overwhelming for the nerd. As I saw Idries Shah put it, there is an expectation of would-be Sufis that they are able to function in all kinds of societies. And similarly, in Vajrayana, I was reading that the baseline for being a tantric practitioner is dealing well with life: there can't be aspects of life that you're dysfunctional in or avoiding, to be a tantrika.
However, experiencing the unpleasantness of leaving your comfort zone and learning to handle something you previously couldn't handle is excellent preparation for both Sufism and Tantra, as in both paths, experiencing negative emotions is pretty central.