[sandinmytea]

Sure! I'll bite.

I did not read the whole text. I will go back and take another look on a larger screen, or maybe even print it for the sake of ease of reading.

I did catch the mention of the trust fund kids hitting up ashrams and retreats and Burning Man. My instinct is to accept that this indeed has something to do with poor spiritual principles, however in the somewhat traditional teachings of Indian philosophies and religions couldn't we conclude these are people with generally good karma who are maintaining it somewhat (and burning it quite a bit) yet at least not eating meat, dealing drugs, beating their kids, etc.?

I am sensitive to the possibility that those individuals are indeed self-serving in some fashion, though I also am at least somewhat impressed with a subsection of those same individuals who truly are bright souls (in relation for instance to my poor life choices!)

What I see being examined here is the obvious enormous disparity between genuine altruistic service to humanity and the bizarre tendency for people to tourist-away their inner seeking by merely denying their own culture and escaping into a Disneyland version of someone else's (washed clean of the truth of its own exploitation.) I feel like that might be the frustration/ analysis here?

[leashless]

The feeling is that a false version of Asian spirituality (dodgy gurus in pleasure palace beach ashrams teaching "tantric yoga" in sarongs) has replaced the real asian spirituality, which (in most cases) displays a healthy respect for the value of feeding the hungry and housing the homeless.

Gandhi. We just sort of pretend he never happened.