What I found offensive was the idea that we failed to see the spiritual despite of all the mental discipline.

OK, then I'm back to being puzzled about this. There's no more shame in not having spiritual experiences than there is in being color blind.

it's like you're making my arguments for me.

Well, I'm pretty sure that when the dust settles it will turn out that we agree on more than we disagree. In fact, it's a theorem ;-)