Note: i can be wrong, i am open for discussion/correction.
There is that concept of things that are nerdy, and things that are actually 'cool' that cool people do.
Based on my experience, what people perceive as "cool" is usually not cool at all, it is just edgy, or at best, trying to look cool.
What is labeled "nerdy," on the other hand, is usually the right thing to do and ultimately proves to be far more cool.
In spirituality, many perceive reading books, meditating, and doing the actual work as nerdy, while viewing drug use as a shortcut to spiritual states as cool.
There is a distinction to make here: both groups, the edgy ones and the nerdy ones, yearn for the same benefits. The edgy ones believe they possess those benefits already, and they see the others as nerdy, assuming those others lack the same results.
Consider a simple example:
Two people.
The first attends a party, uses drugs, engages in sexual intercourse, listens to loud music, drinks alcohol, adding as many ingredients as possible to make the experience intensely pleasurable, and to look cool. He talks about "that crazy party," posts on social media, etc.
The second wakes up early, showers, works out, meditates, performs a God ritual, and then reads ToZ.
[Note: I am not saying partying is inherently bad.Drugs are bad, yes. and I am not condemning sexual intercourse. That is not the point. I am more about exploring the beauty and how cool places where discipline lead are, rather than criticizing whatever.]
The first group sees the second as nerdy. I have known both groups intimately. The first projects its own boredom onto the second; they genuinely think reading ToZ or Aristotle must be dull compared to getting high.
I have spoken deeply about this with many of them. What they do is most pleasurable in the first few tries, but over time, they secretly begin to want the "nerdy" life to wake up, work out, live cleanly etc.. Addiction sets in. It becomes defensive. If they stop, their life feels dull, so they continue not because they choose to, but because they believe they have no choice.
I do not look down on them. I was raised never to drop below a degree of nobility, even toward enemies. To look down on people trapped in addiction is beneath me. I only hope they heal.
But the question remains: is the Path truly nerdy?
Let me speak from direct experience.
I have never drunk wine. Not because I deem it evil, it simply not my thing, I have never been drawn to it. Many insist I must try it, claiming it makes the mood better. I usually laugh with them and move on. But when I have engaged seriously, they admit the effects they describe, I achieve through meditation, and better.
I find sexual intercourse far more potent and tempting than alcohol. [ If we take advantages and disadvantages of both, and compare the whole, not just the moment of having it. Personal opinion. ] So let us compare practically: Meditation versus sex. Can meditation truly be as pleasurable?
When people see me reading, they assume I do so out of pure discipline. In truth, it is profoundly pleasurable, I often cannot stop. But describing it that way sounds nerdy, so I will compare spiritual activities directly to sexual intercourse.
Based on reports of people i met when they talk about their intimate life, many men claim to feel repulsed by their partner or by sex itself after orgasm. To me, this indicates they experience far less sexual pleasure than they could; it is merely mechanical.
I have tried both approaches.
When I take the mechanical approach, during the sexual act my mind thinks: "What am I doing here? Look at her, this is absurd. Look how she looking to me lol. I am performing a repetitive movement like a glitch." Beyond the brief release of orgasm, it is hollow. Afterward, I feel repulsed.
When I take the spiritual approach, feeling the connection, the emotional intensity, savoring every wave of bliss, it becomes transcendent. It lasts longer. The bliss continues well after orgasm.
That exact same blissful feeling, I have managed to induce through meditation. Day by day, I aligned myself until it clicked on its own. [ Not permanent of course, comes and goes ]
Few times, I felt it 24/7 for several days. Imagine what i normally feel through sex, I felt it continuously. This gave me such power that I could contemplate something mundane and feel as though I were in a state of deep bliss. The clouds looked heavenly. Trees, the breeze, everything was enhanced in beauty. Walking in a forest felt like walking through a dream, not dissociative, but just too beautiful + the feeling that this is a dream. I was literally in awe and bliss watching nature.
My thoughts amplified in power. Manifestation became easier. The results were internal and external.
What drug can give that? Literally none. Drugs induce such states briefly, at great cost. I experienced them organically, sustainably.
I once described this state to some people while I was in it. They told me it sounded dangerous, that I might be losing it. Because in that bliss, my judgment dropped. I looked at people and saw mostly beauty. I forgave more. My mind whispered: "This is how everyone must actually feel." I literally started thinking that others feel that way too.
So for example i would see a beautiful animal or whatever, and point to it, and the other person is like : have you lost your mind? It is beautiful yes but not that much, its mundane.
Because when i saw it, it is like my specific perception of that object is enhanced, to me it looked very beautiful, but to others it is the average object they see always nothing special. But upon seing the object i think the beauty i am seing is fully the object in itself, so i point to that, thinking the other person will see the same beauty i am perceiving, i quickly learnt to appreciate the beauty i perceive in silence.( you know the feeling of seing a beautiful girl in the perfect lighting and holding eye contact with her, and feeling love perception of beauty etc.. that i was feeling with looking at an object or the sun or the clouds etc.. but in sustained way, and that last very very long.) Me myself, when i dropped of that state and i see the same objects, it is dull again.
To avoid making people have false expectations, i am not having those states continuously, i enter and drop out of them, they also have their downsides, hardwork becomes harder, because i feel 100% fulfilled, and usually the need is what motivates, so without the need, it becomes a bit harder. Or i simply just did not learn to navigate those states properly.
So when you see someone being invested heavily in Gods, and being too interested in the subject, it is not that he is nerdy, think again he may have experienced something deep and real, and wanting more of that.
That being said, the Path is never ´nerdy’ besides if one choose is to be that way, bliss is just one aspect of this, it can be thrill, it can also be about looking cool, i like that honestly. But it is not ´nerdy’ by definition in the bad sense of the word. It is very fun. Even things like girls attraction to me it gets very amplified when i am aligned the most.