{"id":1855,"date":"2012-12-02T02:40:10","date_gmt":"2012-12-02T02:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?p=1855"},"modified":"2012-12-02T02:41:29","modified_gmt":"2012-12-02T02:41:29","slug":"are-you-a-buddhist-wanker-jerk-humor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/12\/are-you-a-buddhist-wanker-jerk-humor.html","title":{"rendered":"Are you a Buddhist Wanker (Jerk)? – (Humor)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe><\/p>\nSelf-described Spiritual Wanker Mark Walsh takes us through diagnosing a spiritual wanker and some potential cures. It reminded me a bit of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/08\/a-careful-walk-through-the-spirituality-minefield.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">my recent review<\/a> of the wonderful book, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1846947022?ie=UTF8&camp=213733&creative=393185&creativeASIN=1846947022&linkCode=shr&tag=montanafreethink&keywords=dispirited%20how%20contemporary%20spirituality%20makes%20us%20stupid&qid=1345158984&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Dispirited<\/a> (blog <a href=\"http:\/\/dispirited.org\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a>). Walsh criticizes \u2018spiritual\u2019 people for using insider language, dropping Tibetan, Sanskrit, (and he even mentions Pali!<\/em>), when common English terms would clearly suffice, and more importantly, the normal English terms would be understood by everyone.<\/p>\nI like the video because he is humble enough to admit that he does this too at times (along with the other things he mentions\u2026). I too do this, though I do consciously try not to. When introducing Buddhist terms I try to give the nearest English term, or a longer description of what it means. But, to be fair, many Buddhist terms cannot be easily translated into simple English, and in fact doing so has been a \u00a0big part of our ongoing misunderstanding of the religion.<\/p>\nThe irritating thing is when the terminology is used\u00a0jerkishly<\/em> (I\u2019m not sure if\u00a0wankerly\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0wankerishly<\/em> is correct). There is plenty of technical business terminology that could fit in here (the British seem to have this down particularly well):<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Funny business video - Stuff managers say (business jargon)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0MFUE0KgoEQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\nNext, he talks about using spirituality to boost your ego and suggests that putting your spirituality in to some form of service is a good solution to that. This is another point I agree on wholeheartedly. Though I have long been a skeptic, I have always admired those whose faith leads them to service. In my own case this has been primarily with a long list of Catholic friends and acquaintances.<\/p>\nThen he talks about being vague<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 another symptom of spiritual or Buddhist wankerishness (I\u2019m coining that term if it\u2019s not already out there). In my experience this is more an issue of ignorance. It occurs when people\u00a0feel like<\/em> what they are doing is superior (as above) or what others do is wrong and just how it\u2019s superior or wrong is\u2026 well\u2026 vague. It just, ya know, is. Or it feels like it is. Which is, like, vague. And wankerish.<\/p>\nWalsh next talks about the fact that your spirituality may just be about getting high \u2013 either by drugs, meditation, endorphins, or whatnot. In Buddhist circles I\u2019ve heard talk of \u2018jhana-junkies\u2019 \u2013 people who meditate to attain the states of bliss and rapture that come with a little practice in calming meditation. But to be fair I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve met one.<\/p>\nThe next point is that spiritual wankers can often be losers.<\/strong> They don\u2019t do well in life and use spirituality as their excuse, claiming perhaps that success is just a result of selling out to the system. And then on the other hand, these are often the same people talking about \u2018visualizing\u2019 abundance and wealth as a way to actually getting it. This, Walsh goes on to suggest, is connected with the wanker\u2019s belief that we have magic powers. I\u2019ll come back to that in a moment.<\/p>\nFinally, he suggests that a symptom of being a spiritual wanker is: being a dick, throwing out ethics (because they\u2019re \u201cabove all of that\u201d). This in particular caught my eye. It seems to be a major issue, for example, in certain Zen communities. Poor Adam Tebbe over at <a href=\"http:\/\/sweepingzen.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sweeping Zen<\/a> is doing a wonderful job of keeping a tab on recent scandals in the face of many who seem to object to the whole idea of ethical violation, \u201cbecause it\u2019s so dualistic.\u201d That\u2019s just being a dick. Telling people who have been harmed that they should just meditate on their own failures is\u00a0callous, to say the least. Covering up or simply ignoring harmful teachers is no better than ignoring a mugger beating an old woman in front of you<\/strong>. This is no time to just \u201cfocus on the breath\u201d or the \u201coneness of all beings\u201d (valid and wonderful as those instructions are in their proper context). I\u2019ll rant more about this in an upcoming post.<\/p>\nUntil then, Namaste.<\/p>\nOh, and what I was going to come back to (being a loser and visualizing stuff\u2026)\u2026<\/strong> I think there\u2019s a point at which that stuff is actually true. Being successful as a human being and being successful in our dysfunctional society are often very different things. This doesn\u2019t mean they are mutually exclusive, though. And \u2018visualizing\u2019 as a practice is common in many religions, so if it\u2019s done with an authentic religious impulse and understanding of the religious ethics<\/strong> that must be involved, then it\u2019s not necessarily a bad or wankerish thing. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wildmind.org\/blogs\/news\/bothered-by-negative-thoughts-just-throw-them-away\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Wildmind just posted<\/a> a study that showed that writing our negative thoughts on paper and throwing them away actually makes us feel better<\/strong>. There are in fact long lists of studies showing that meditation and similar activities have verifiable effects on physical health.\u00a0To some, this is just magic-thinking \u2013 but since our well-being, including many physical traits, is obviously connected to our thoughts, why wouldn\u2019t something like this have some effect?<\/p>\nAll important, to me, is 1) ethics<\/strong>. We have to be grounded in being good to others. No amount of spirituality will get us over this hurdle. And 2) humility and openness to new ideas.<\/strong> Science is changing. <a href='https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/library\/buddhism' target='_blank'>Buddhism<\/a> is changing. Our understanding of just what Buddhism is<\/em> is changing. As all of these complex systems interact, it does us no good to become dogmatic about what one or another\u00a0really is<\/em> or says.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Self-described Spiritual Wanker Mark Walsh takes us through diagnosing a spiritual wanker and some potential cures. It reminded me a bit of my recent review of the wonderful book, Dispirited (blog here). Walsh criticizes \u2018spiritual\u2019 people for using insider language, dropping Tibetan, Sanskrit, (and he even mentions Pali!), when common English terms would clearly suffice, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3,24,23,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-happiness","category-health","category-humor","category-meditation"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Are you a Buddhist Wanker (Jerk)? - (Humor)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Self-described Spiritual Wanker Mark Walsh takes us through diagnosing a spiritual wanker and some potential cures. 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