Reliance upon stimulai

[You]

These seem like aids to the brain to develop certain states of mind, and to do certain things.

They are things that definitely should be tested.

Yet they are things that should not always be used. Perhaps they are  used to improve perhaps they may be used to enhance.

In the first case, one must try without them to be sure that it is they that are improving, and not their reaction to it.

In the second case, if they only enhance, one must train alone to improve by self so it is not a crutch.

I am not sure which case it is, opinions may vary.

[Leo Volont]

I think that the very first Spiritual Guide I ever encountered in the Dream Realms told me "Only those at the bottom cannot go to the Top".

I think that all the sensory crutches you speak about provide intermediate stages between base physical materiality and the Higher Spiritual.

Yoga Classes and chanting mantras at least keeps people out of the bars and the brothels, no?

[You]

There's nothing wrong with alcohol and paid sex, if they're in moderation (and done legally).

Even so, yoga has tangible benefits in fitness and flexibility, so even if it was totally useless in developing abilities, it would still be useful.

About your bottom to top saying... is that to mean those who don't hum and sniff and fast will not achieve higher levels of self mastery and enlightenment?

[Leo Volont]

There's nothing wrong with alcohol and paid sex, if they're in moderation (and done legally).

Even so, yoga has tangible benefits in fitness and flexibility, so even if it was totally useless in developing abilities, it would still be useful.

About your bottom to top saying... is that to mean those who don't hum and sniff and fast will not achieve higher levels of self mastery and enlightenment?

My reading of the 'Low to High' thing (Only Those at the Bottom cannot go to the Top) is that the greatest obstacle to spiritual development is the complacency that allows an individual to simply do nothing -- to remain at the bottom.  The alternative is to Climb -- to ascend and transcend, to make an effort.

Review your Life.  Do your goals at 60 remain the same as your goals were at 20?  There are men for whom the Bars and the Brothels were the center of their lives when they were young.  And when they have grown old, nothing has changed.  They remain at the bottom.   They went with Life's Flow.  They drifted and never bothered to stir out of the course the natural life had charted for them.

But those who learn the lesson of Effort will someday arrive.  Only those at the bottom cannot go to the Top.

[You]

Wouldn't those who cling/stay at the bottom be a more appropriate phrase? Often you hear of those who hit rock bottom and bounce back. Then again, one could argue that with the moral compass of self-disgust deep within to retrieve them, they were not truly at rock bottom. It's a strange term to use for individuals.

[Under Burning Stars]

There are men for whom the Bars and the Brothels were the center of their lives when they were young.  And when they have grown old, nothing has changed.  They remain at the bottom.   They went with Life's Flow.  They drifted and never bothered to stir out of the course the natural life had charted for them.

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That's quite an assumption to make. Perhaps "living at the bottom" is their life plan?
Who are you to consider their choices opposition to a greater plan?
How can you even defy you life plan anyway? It seems contradictory to me.

[You]

Living in bars and brothels doesn't improve the self, the self's situation, or society. It is seen as bad, repetitive indulgence in the same indulgences.