Anyone?

[Bodhi Tree]

What would be more advantageous than a perspective in which there is no threat of loss, no pressure to gain or acquire, no fear of the end, and no requirement to begin?
 
A place of all-encompassing neutrality. A place where nothing can go wrong. A place where the most tragic event is but a flicker on a reflective screen.
 
If one could abide in such a place, and still experience the motions of an ever-changing world, wouldn't that be ideal? Wouldn't that be like watching a movie--safely protected and secure as the watcher, yet somehow involved and participating?
 
Something in me wants to keep experiencing newness and diversity, but something in me wants to be unaffected and beyond that change. Positioned on the fulcrum of this balance, I could get the best of both worlds, and ride both sides of the see-saw.
 
Much like pure light refracts into multiple colors once it hits glass, the pure experiencer could distribute itself into the prismatic experience. Light becomes color. Experiencer becomes experience. Resting in and streaming through this homeostatic equilibrium of perfect incomprehensibility, one could explore, infinitely, the shades of possibility without the strain of achievement or the boredom of sameness.
 
Anyone?

[jeff]

Hi Bodhi Tree,

I get what you mean, but just constantly "watching a movie" sounds a little boring to me.  Fully interactive virtual reality sounds much better to me. Full immersion with life...

Best wishes,
Jeff

[Bodhi Tree]

LOL. Agreed. Virtual reality is a superior template.

[Anima]

Sounds great on paper till we get smacked by a virtual brick wall
But hey, there's always something to complain about. Which of the Lord's gifts will we deny?

This reminds me of when I dreamt before my opening... I don't much anymore... How I would save, restore, and add cheat codes to my dreamt experience.

[Zlarp]

This is a dangerous attitude to take, I feel. Many spiritual seekers are looking for this. It sounds like running away to me.

I'm trying to do the exact opposite. Run headlong into the pain. Bathe in it. Breathe it. Live it. Be alive! Alive!

And hey, there's no way not to

[Bodhi Tree]

quote:Originally posted by Anima Deorum



Sounds great on paper till we get smacked by a virtual brick wall
But hey, there's always something to complain about. Which of the Lord's gifts will we deny?

This reminds me of when I dreamt before my opening... I don't much anymore... How I would save, restore, and add cheat codes to my dreamt experience.

Solid, Anima! Yep, the virtual brick wall hasn't dissappeared yet.

[Bodhi Tree]

Well said, Zlarp. Spirituality can become escapism.

I know about running headlong into pain. Got a few self-imposed cigarette burns on my arm to prove it, too. But lately, I don't go seeking pain. I figure life will dole out pain in proportional measures without me trying, and I can just take it in stride.

Incidentally, here's a good AYP lesson on pain:
Lesson 168 - Q&A – Is pain a prerequisite for inner peace?
http://www.aypsite.com/plus/168.html

In AA, it's sometimes said that pain is a "touchstone" of spiritual progress. It's kind of a macho, sacrificial angle. Sacrifice one's comfort for the sake of atonement and adhering to the will of God...there's no "easier, softer" way.

I prefer the other angle, in which Jesus said: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." I've had enough heaviness in life already. I'll take the "Akasha - Lightness of Air" sutra, thank you.

Also, I've had to keep an eye on the pain level that arises from overload and the flow of energy through my nervous system. The pressure can be high, and it can get a little too crispy. Hence, self-pacing, and favoring stability and comfort over strain and acceleration.

To each his own. Godspeed.

[Zlarp]

Of course, you only run headlong into the pain that life gives you. Anything else would be stupid, hahah

[Bodhi Tree]

I've been known to do some stupid things. Oh wait, that's being human.

[Zlarp]

Yeah. There'd be a lot less pain if we weren't

[Bodhi Tree]

LOL. Well played.

[Anima]

Weight, pain, gravity, density... The seriousness of truth: Gravitas.

Seek brutal honesty and find brutality.
Seek hard truth and find hardness.
Swallow them together and sink.
Cry out and be filled.
Not by our weapons.
But by yourself.

Surely this yoke breaks even the mightiest. But the chains are frailest of all.

[Bodhi Tree]

Bravo, Anima.

these chains of bondage
turn into kevlar shields against negativity
and the only shield i ever needed
was the eternal, unbreakable silence
that never runs out of ammunition.

[Bodhi Tree]

My consciousness was radically shifted when I switched the color of the virtual sticky note on my computer desktop from yellow to blue. It's like a whole new world opened up. Everything I once thought to be true is no longer true. The yellow was stifling my perception to such a large extent that I didn't realize I was in a dream state. Now that the blue is gleaming so brilliantly in its virtual blueness, I am free once again. I'm sure I will be imprisoned again momentarily, but at least I can bask in the preview of the blue-shift.

[jeff]

quote:Originally posted by Anima Deorum

Weight, pain, gravity, density... The seriousness of truth: Gravitas.

Seek brutal honesty and find brutality.
Seek hard truth and find hardness.
Swallow them together and sink.
Cry out and be filled.
Not by our weapons.
But by yourself.

Surely this yoke breaks even the mightiest. But the chains are frailest of all.

Anima - very powerful words.

Reside and brutality dissolves...
Reside and truth flows...
Reside and you will know yourself...

Reside and you are the mightiest and there was never anything to break...

Best wishes...