Sam, pencils and spiritual bypassing

Have you guys ever noticed how all meditation and mindfulness guys will go on about how there's only the moment and how the past and future don't matter because they don't exist and how reaching goals won't make you "happy" ...and so on and so on. Sam even mentioned once how he could be put in solitary confinement and still be 'happy'. Because meditation has given him a super-power that puts him far above the psychological limits of normal men.

Recently, someone posted a clip about the golfer Scottie Scheffler in which he talks about how him being the No.1 golfer didn't really add to his contentment, sparking celebration among people who are prone to buddhist-esque mindfuless narratives. Well guess what would happen if you asked Scottie to spot some of that glorious money that's behind his Nr. 1 trophy. Nothing would happen. He would either ignore you or refuse to give you some money. Which brings me to my next point.

Sam and pencils. In the athletic world, there's something called "Father time". Father time refers to the inability to replicate your former peak athletic performance at a certain age, slowly but surely causing the inevitable fate of every athlete: retirement. No matter how much you take care of yourself or how disciplined you are, a 44 year old athlete can't replicate the physical ability of his 30 year old self. Father time is...undefeated.

Similarly, in the regular day to day world, there's something called...well..let's call it "Pencil time" for the lack of a better word (and to play into the thread title). Pencil time is when you tell people that all you need to do to be happy is to meditate and to not obsess over the past or the future because contentment can only be found in the moment. Pencil time is when tell you people that your app/podcast will always be free but then change your mind once money's getting tight. Pencil time is when every uber-spritual type of advice goes out of the window once a very specific item in your purse starts to dwindle: the mighty dollar.

You know, I'm all for earning money and all but it's funny how all these guys (Sam, Tolle etc) will go on and on about how money and external factors aren't important for a satisfactory life but when you go to their websites - they are all selling pricey courses or in Sam's case we have the selling of special pencils who according to him make him more creative (anybody with a sense knows that this is ridiculous non-sense). Spiritual woo woo for you - money for them.

Spirituality is cool and all but at the end of the day it don't fill the fridge.

I'm actually starting to think that even immaculate moral conduct is a privilege and the result of one's surroundings and that everybody who claims to have herculean levels of integrity would morally collapse or at least weaken in different cirumstances. Be it Peterson who says he would not lie to save his family (Peterson is on record lying about something as trivial as a hair transplant) or Sam whose special meditation abilities did not save him from his desire to earn even more money by selling pencils or breaking his promise to make his work always accessible to people who can't afford it - despite being already rich.

Because no matter how enlightened you think you are, no matter how intellectually honest you are, no matter how unbiased you are... pencil time is undefeated and comes for us all. Even for Susan Harris's son.

Lastly, I guess the reason why I'm writing this is that we should stop putting these guys ( yes including Sam) on a pedestal. Because at the end of the day, everybody here puts his pants on the same way