--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu <noozguru@...> wrote: > > "A lot of hippies and babyboomers are learning that painfully now." > > Or perhaps materialism is better and spiritualism for existing > on this planet? Those who worship wealth may fare better than > those who follow a spiritual path?
More likely it's that the so-called "spiritual" paths ignored the value of Living In The Material World for so long, and passed this down as a virtue. This was never the case, for example, in the shamanic teachings popularized by Carlos Castaneda. His fictional don Juan (synthesized from a number of real Yaqui shamans) was clear that success in the spiritual realms was *dependent on* having mastered the material world, or the First Attention. If you can't get by in that world, they taught, and with some modicum of style and class, you *don't stand a chance* of getting anywhere in the more refined spiritual worlds. The latter is *dependent on* having mastered the former. My experiences in the worlds of spiritual development tend to make me believe the wisdom of this. To make a long story short, those who cannot cope with the material world, and who wander around in a spaced-out state of mind that they call "spiritual" don't last very long, and aren't missed when the material world runs over them and leaves them as roadkill. Being able to handle the material world, and to turn it to your advantage, has a distinct advantage when one ventures into realms in which one plays with more subtle energies. Those who could not even master gross energies don't stand a chance in that world. One finds the same mindset in many other spiritual teach- ings, such as the Christian monks who refuse to beg for a living, and are required to develop skills with which to pay the bills of the monastery they live in, and pay for their own lives. There are similar teachings in some Buddhist traditions, and in many other spiritual traditions. It seems to be only the New Age and some Hindu-based traditions in which being spaced out and unable to find one's mouth with a fork, let alone earn a living, are looked upon as "spiritual," and a Good Thing.
