the spiritual mooch

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Somehow, an Internet definition of the word "mooch" hardly conveys the second-class, vaguely-slimy feel of the word:

As an intransitive verb:
1. to take surreptitiously: steal

2. beg, sponge

Example: He's always mooching off his friends, even thought he can easily pay his own way.

Origin: Probably from French dialect, "muchier," to hide, lurk

Everyone has probably known the guy or gal who never seems to have his or her wallet when the lunch bill is presented. And then of course there is the baseball fan who knows more about baseball than the players on the field. Or the thinker who knows every bit as much about parenting as a parent, every bit as much about writing as the writer, every bit as much about war as the soldier, or every bit as much about spiritual life as the adept.

Someone who raises his or her own stature by filching someone else's accomplishments is as common as it is unattractive. And yet who has not, at one time or another, been a mooch -- taken a bite out of some attractive situation or set of circumstances and then, before really finding out if it is true, spewed out a wisdom that is not yet honest nourishment? Who has not mooched?

Parsing and dissecting who is or has been a mooch -- who lives a second-hand lifestyle because their own lifestyle does not seem accomplished enough -- is an endless and fruitless chore. And forgiving the moocher because "everyone does it" hardly seems realistic: Mooching is pretty ick.

I do think, in spiritual endeavor, that keeping an eye on our own personal mooch is a good idea. Who could possibly find any peace while living according to someone else's lights or accomplishments?

Think "enlightenment" ... you get the idea.
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