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To explain for the interested: "high german" or "Hochdeutsch" is the standard language of germany, imposed on us southerners by the not very well liked "Prussians" as the some here call all north Germans.

German identity historically is closely tied to language, and every region has its unique idom or dialect that gives people speaking it a common ground of communication.

The research about the evolution of those idoms is a linguistic science field for itself here in Germany. But simplified you could say they stem from the old Germanic tribes, got stirred up in the Migration Period and then it gets complicated.

The Swabians now, the "tribe" OP's grandma and I belong to, inhabiting the southwest of Germany, are mentioned as "Suebi" as early as in Caesars Da Bello Gallico - honorably mentioned, mind you - and are known for our grumpiness, stubbornness and tidiness in the rest of Germany. Some call us the German Scots because we're pretty stingy. We're also said to have a very dry, spartan humor. Still, very inventive and creative people where born and raised here: Johannes Kepler, Gottlieb Daimler, Graf von Zeppelin, Schiller, Hesse, Hegel, Einstein. to name just a few commonly known names.

OP, after this AMA you might want to show your Grandmother this. It's Obama speech given in Berlin dubbed in swabian with a totally unrelated typically swabian topic: Bicycles in the hallway despite the prohibition sign. Sounds strange but I bet she'll laugh her ass off.

My best wishes from the old Dahoim for you there over the pond, and may your granny have many more years to enjoy.

Greetings from Heilbronn!

I found some pictures.

Heilbronn after the war and Heilbronn today

Does your Grandma remeber the swabian dialect? Maybe some familiar quotations that where used in her childhood? Like insults?

You might tell her that the swabians didn't change much, still grumpy, pedantic, overly clean and we still have the "Kehrwoche" just like back then.

Some dialects - mostly those of remote regions - are hard to understand, some even have own grammatical rules. But the standard language had influence on how strong those dialects are spoken, and some are endangered and actually cared for like endangered species.

It's also a big difference if you visit a big city or a rural area, where dialect is more commonly spoken.

So it might indeed be hard for a north German to follow a conversation held in broadest Bavarian dialect. But since we all learn standard German, we're of course able to understand each other, if we want to.

If you life in the States, you can compare it to the dialects you guys have over there, but I'd esteem the differences broader and more diverse. The development goes into different directions, if you want so. While the american dialects divided from a common ground, the German dialects came closer to each other in the course of the centuries.

There's always been two ways to reach a certain state of mind that many connect with transcendence. One way is calming the mind, maybe by "zazen" or quiet meditation, or doing something monotone and rhythmic over and over - you'll find many such practices in eastern schools of mysticism.

But since the dawn of man there has been another way, quite the opposite of the first, that leads you to the same place, and that's in overloading the mind and the senses, by exhaustive dancing, taking stimulating drugs, having orgies, or preferably doing all of that at once. Western schools of mysticism often follow practices to that effect.

Both paths have the same goal: to get the ego to shut up for a moment so you can perceive what may lie beyond.

So in one way your criticism could be interpreted of judging someone for searching transcendence according to their own culture, not your ideal of buddhistic philosophy. You're judging someone else's search and pilgrimage and that's really not a very enlightened thing to do. Ol' Gautama himself tried a lot of things before he sat down under that Bodhi-Tree.

And I don't think his first thought would have been that OP want's to "commodify" his experiences, but that he wanted to share something he found important with his fellow humans. So maybe that's something for you to calmly reflect about. "Let every man seek heaven in his own fashion", as the King of Prussia once said.

Yeah OP sounds a bit full of himself, but having the idea that you found a fundamental insight into how to better the human condition will do that to you.

Nevertheless, a follower of the teachings of Buddha how I understand them would congratulate him for his insight, would encourage him to travel further on the path of awareness, and probably point towards the importance of humility is all this because he perceives the lack thereof - in a friendly manner.