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The "Me Generation" and the Quest for Self Improvement and Spirituality

might be more effective for this thread if you just ban him, delete your post above, then edit this portion of this post out, after I post it...

What is this philosophical and spiritual transcendence that the OP speaks of?

meditation and yoga (I shudder at the two being grouped together) have little to do with transcendence...
 
Changed said:
what is transcendence?
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In my own words bypassing the physical elements and senses. Some common examples are the feeling of being 'sucked into a book' or a movie, gaining peace of mind from watching a candle burn, or a feeling of "nostalgia" from a familiar scent. Transcendence is performed unwittingly doing many things, and that can be a problem.

We are transcendental beings existing in animated form.
 
scent often accompanies nostalgia due to the human brain's habit of associating smell with memory. whilst we create pleasure/pain associations of many kinds, that one seems inherent in everyone.
 
panic in paradise said:
it is also difficult to know how love someone else, until you love yourself.
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I wonder how old this commonly used phrase is? It definitely seems like that "me generation" attitude. The concept seems quite redundant and pathological to love yourself or not. Love to me seems only natural when it is applied externally, outside of oneself.

The most important aspect of love is to readily surrender "the self" in favor of another. Love is often terrifyng to the me generation mainly because it involves a compromise or even total abandonment of the ego.

In fact, Eastern spirituality seems to hold a high regard for the elimation of self-love, and even the elimation of what is considered today a "healthy level" of self-love.

I cannot find fulfillment from self-love. I take great enjoyment in giving and recieving love from other entities. But, we place great investment and focus on how you feel at any given moment. Is it really all about you...your self-esteem, your identity and self-image, your confidence level? ...what a trap! It's the perfect "snake oil" for the modern day "self-help gurus/charlatans." It's a puzzle that can never be solved and takes away your focus to actually see the truer external elements of love. How could you love and recieve love when you are still busy trying to figure out if you love yourself or not? Just exist and seek external friendship and love. Do good unto others and you will feel good. Start from there and you'll never need to encounter the concept of self-love.

Thomas Aquinas argues that self-love is akin to the capital vice pride, which he holds as "the beginning of all sin." According to Aquinas, "every sin consists in the desire for some mutable good, for which man has an inordinate desire, and the possession of which gives him inordinate pleasure."
Moreover, Aquinas holds "respect of persons" as a sin, as "a just judge regards causes, not persons."
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Also, here is an interesting little article: "Ego-boosts are the best - better than sex"
http://thehairpin.com/2011/01/ego-boosts-are-the-best-better-even-than-sex/

I also found another quote on wiki I'd like to share:
Scholars have targeted self-help claims as misleading and incorrect. In 2005, Steve Salerno portrayed the American self-help movement—he uses the acronym SHAM: the Self-Help and Actualization Movement -- not only as ineffective in achieving its goals, but also as socially harmful.[3] "Salerno says that 80 percent of self-help and motivational customers are repeat customers and they keep coming back 'whether the program worked for them or not'."[34] Others similarly point out that with self-help books "supply increases the demand... The more people read them, the more they think they need them... more like an addiction than an alliance."[35]
Self-help writers have been described as working "in the area of the ideological, the imagined, the narrativized.... although a veneer of scientism permeates the[ir] work, there is also an underlying armature of moralizing."[36]

Christopher Buckley in his book God is My Broker asserts: "The only way to get rich from a self-help book is to write one." [37]
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Changed said:
might be more effective for this thread if you just ban him, delete your post above, then edit this portion of this post out, after I post it...
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Huh? I mean, firstly, he was already long-banned by the time you posted this. Secondly, what makes you think I should delete my posts?
 
Did the "me generation" come before the beat generation?

troll.jpg


[All of your posts should be deleted due to a lack of meaningful content =D]

Let this image with which I have so rudely interrupted the inspired cadence of your insightful and eloquent commentary serve as a metaphorical representation of A) You; and B) The reason that I will cite for infracting the shit of you if you choose to persist in your seemingly unending, utterly incorrigible campaign to disperse your tedious lexical ejaculate all throughout my forum.
 
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MyFinalRest said:
It's interesting to consider the amount of energy wasted at gyms just so we can look better (or feel better) when we could use that work to do something productive that can be shared with others...something that really helps others...
If you are going to burn calories and alot time to things, why not do it for something else other than selfish gain?
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Exercise has a great anxiolytic effect. Maybe people exercise because they like how it makes them feel emotionally/mentally, and looking good is more of a byproduct of eating well as well as exercising.
 
Narcissists, bless them, make it easier for the rest of us.
They are never short of a conversational topic, save you the trouble of complimenting them, and do not need to be entertained - Leonard Cohen

What's so bad about being self-focused anyway? You are yourself and only yourself, you have the right to control yourself but you don't have the right to control someone else, and you're not much good to anyone else if there are issues in yourself that need working through right? So... I am... I am self-absorbed so my opinion is biased, but I'm not hurting anyone, what's the problem?

Who likes that band, 'Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies'?
 
I find that you can't really be self-absorbed in this world unless you lived on a deserted island. Even animals, insects, and plants interact with you when you are around them...but as you mentioned this constant need to "work through issues"...this is actually best accomplished by getting out of your own head and moving on in life...connecting with the world again.
 
I exercise to regulate my metabolism, increase my energy level, and to stave off depression. It's hardly a waste of time from where I'm sitting. If I'm healthy then I can serve my patients better.

As for meditation... the whole premise is that peace lies within and you should not seek it without. It's the antidote to modern western addiction to materialism. If more people spent time just being instead of doing, there would be less to do.

I would also argue that meditation involves some degree of ego dissolution, so it's not about self at all.
 
^yeah, I agree with you a good bit. There's just a certain culture with exercise programs and new age spiritualism that sometimes goes with it that gets very annoying. I exercise some myself, and practice relaxation, but I don't try to act like Steven Segal.
 
Yoga is far more than a set of stretches, read the Baghvada gita my freind. Yoga is a psychological philosophy- Every action is selfish, it is about finding selfless selfishness.
 
^Yeah man, I wish all the billions of people, especially the chicks who are into it, would actually go a bit further into the spiritual/philosophical side of it instead of it being a another valley girl or new age flake affair.
 
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