Ask one who has been to Nirvana

[Hygro]

I don't think anyone has ever taken a benzodiazapene and had a spiritual awakening. Or any kind of awakening for that matter.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I'm about an hour into my Xanax and Alka-Seltzer combo. I'd like to detail the spiritual experience thus far:

Enlightenment: in an objective sense, pretty duckin' far away from that.

I'm on my laptop and I've got this nifty hizakake (basically a baby blanket) on my lap that's keeping my legs nice and toasty whilst computering.

I'm planning on running out to the hardware store today to get some compressed air. Seems like kind of a rip that I gotta pay a few bucks to get air. I mean, cripes, I got air here in my apartment and it won't do crap.

I ain't any closer to Nirvana today. Kinda sucks, dunn'it? Come on! Land of the Rising Sun! Sun Goddess Amaterasu! There's a little shrine every few hundred feet. The God Emperor. You'd think the conditions here would be optimal for Nirvana, but it ain't comin' yet.

Conclusion: Nirvana's a Hallmark holiday.

"In the landscape of nature the flowering branches grow naturally,
some long, some short."

 

[Terxpahseyton]

....

 

[amadeus]

I don't think anyone has ever taken a benzodiazapene and had a spiritual awakening. Or any kind of awakening for that matter.

Yeah, I fell asleep with the lights on again!

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

You've been to Nirvana, have you ever been to me?

 

[Terxpahseyton]

....

 

[Terxpahseyton]

....

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

There is no me.

So the song was right!

 

[Terxpahseyton]

....

 

[Hygro]

Link to video.

 

[warpus]

Ancient wisdom is in deed numerous. And I can see that it is easy to get lost in there without a map. But the golden way is always the same thing. So let's start there. I show you with Buddhism and Taoism, using the archer as an example.

So you are an archer, but not a really good one. Because the good ones are way faster than you. Because the good ones will aim and shoot at the same time. In the same fluid action. Which will be a deadly advantage in actual battle. You could say: They have become one with the bow and the arrow (and that is quite literally true).

So you try to become one of those. Try to be a, shall we say, golden archer. The best possible archer you can be. So how do you get there? You practice, of course.
However, you will quickly discover, that you do not seem to make any headway. As hard as you may try, as often as you may try, you always end up in the same situation. The situation of thinking about not thinking about it. Because how can you actually, intently, practice the golden way of archery? By thinking about not aiming first, not drawing first, not aiming secondly, not drawing secondly, not aiming first, not drawing secondly, not drawing first, not aiming secondly, not.... You, my friend, are stuck in a loop. And the harder you press, the more strongly you try to direct your thoughts towards your goal, the further it seems to move away. Because this just makes your pointless loop spin hotter and hotter, wasting your energy into nothingness.
But you know it must be possible. Others do it. So why not you? So you keep pressing, keep trying, get that loop ever more tightly around your neck, until you are out of breath, defeated.
Until, in utter frustration, you have finally become convinced that you are the one weird lapper who just can not do what seems like the most natural easiest thing with the golden ones.

And just in that moment of utter defeat, of utter surrender, of utterly giving yourself up - it happens. And you have just teleported yourself out of a seemingly irresolvable situation.
What happened is that instead of spinning the same wheel on and on, by letting go, by falling back all the way into you, you became the wheel, became one with yourself, in that action, become one with bow and arrow. And entered flow.

Now see, we can focus on the flow aspect of it. That is Taoism. Or we can focus on the wheel aspect of it. That is Buddhism. The thing? Is the same, however. It is the real universal structure of the human spirit, and ancient wisdom has a ton to teach you about it. The Bible for instance is full of psychological gems (I can only recommend Jordan Petersons Bible lectures - great stuff - true stuff). And the Golden Way is about getting yourself into the center of that structure, where you can become the unmovable mover. Where you are nothing and everything. Where you are in control and free at the same time. So basically you become your own God. But not on the sense of hubris or ego. But in a purely technical sense. Or put differently, you synchronize with the nature of the universe. Mirror its nature of the unmovable mover - God - within your psyche.

And as I have learned, and ad naseum tested and experimented with on myself - those things are not metaphors, man. They are as real as any other phenomena of nature. This is a real thing I am describing here.

Further, notice how your only and supposedly best weapon, your thoughts, your ideas, your mind - kinda was a useless female dog who only played tricks on you. Because you were framed by it. Because your minds frame dictated that thought and action are two separate things and by dictating it, it continuously reproduced it. Notice your utter inability to escape this dictate, fundamentally, this illusion, or also, this lie. Because it was your frame. And notice how all your mighty willpower only made the problem worse.

But giving yourself up, arms wide open, in utter humility, changed like magic everything, your whole state of being as an archer, your whole perspective. Made the impossible, the paradoxical, not only possible, but easy, natural. Pure.
That is such a fundamental thing about the truth. It sits at the center of the paradox, by revealing the paradox as nothing but smoke and mirrors.
However - you get out of the ego through the ego. You need a strong ego to eventually loose it. So first uselessly try you must. Going through the mace you must. But if you go all the way, a destination awaits.

Hmm so this actually made sense to me. I am stuck on this piece of art I am drawing and am trying to figure out ways to motivate myself, or whatever is needed to get going..

I've noticed that when it comes to art.. when you get stuck on something.. the best thing to do is to sometimes walk away from that piece completely and then return to it in 2 weeks or a month or even longer.. You will see it with fresh eyes and from my experience you very quickly realize what needs to be done to finish it or to fix some problem with the way something looked weird, or whatever. The last time this happened to me, that I can remember anyway.. I loaded up something that I was stuck on for days.. I would redraw it, try different colours, shapes, and nothing was working. I left it alone for 2 months, came back, and right away knew what I had to do to it to make it work.. it was.. weird.

The problem now is that I don't have months, I only have days.. maybe a week and a half max. I need to somehow get the same result without the passage of time. But I am not sure how to get my mind to go along with this. Each time I open the piece, I get stuck in it the same way.

I am going back right now to try again. Was thinking of meditating first, and I still might. (I'm a meditation noob)

 

[Birdjaguar]

@warpus Perhaps do something else for an hour: hand draw, read, run, take a long hot shower, hammer nails, do a crossword puzzle....

 

[warpus]

The thing is that I have not touched it in 20 hours or so (sleep, work, dinner, etc.) and sometimes this will happen even if i don't look at it for 2-3 days. So leaving for a couple hours doesn't seem to make much of a difference, unfortunately.

Yesterday I asked another artist for a 2nd eye, and that has given me some direction that I've been slowly exploring.. and I'm sort of making slow progress, actually. But I wonder if there's some sort of meditative way I could prepare myself for these art sessions, that could in some way temporarily wipe out my "Understanding" of the piece, so i can start with a blank slate again.. or something similar. Or just mix it up a bit.. or maybe I just need a slightly different mental approach. With art I'm either feeling it or not and I don't really know what influences that. I've noticed that I'm better suited when I'm in a good chill mood, for instance, but I also tend to draw well when I'm upset. But not always. So.. anyway.. For now I'm making progress. I might just look up art-related guided meditations on the meditation app I've been using (that I haven't been using lately) and see if that helps any.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The thing is that I have not touched it in 20 hours or so (sleep, work, dinner, etc.) and sometimes this will happen even if i don't look at it for 2-3 days. So leaving for a couple hours doesn't seem to make much of a difference, unfortunately.

Yesterday I asked another artist for a 2nd eye, and that has given me some direction that I've been slowly exploring.. and I'm sort of making slow progress, actually. But I wonder if there's some sort of meditative way I could prepare myself for these art sessions, that could in some way temporarily wipe out my "Understanding" of the piece, so i can start with a blank slate again.. or something similar. Or just mix it up a bit.. or maybe I just need a slightly different mental approach. With art I'm either feeling it or not and I don't really know what influences that. I've noticed that I'm better suited when I'm in a good chill mood, for instance, but I also tend to draw well when I'm upset. But not always. So.. anyway.. For now I'm making progress. I might just look up art-related guided meditations on the meditation app I've been using (that I haven't been using lately) and see if that helps any.

Most likely getting into the flow to let creativity loose cannot be forced. Tight deadlines can make things difficult. Perhaps not all projects are not worth pursuing to the end. Knowing when to stop can be important.

In these dark waters
Drawn up from my frozen well...
glittering of spring
--Ringai

 

[Patine]

Well - it is important to keep in mind that even though drugs usually simply heighten or dampen what is already going on, psychedelics just globally change what your brain even does. That is a big difference. Further, it is not that any bad trip took too much. I think the problem was rather, that she had so much confusion inside of her (and her life was also just practical at its worst point, in many ways), that when lsd brought it to the surface, she eventually got entangled in it, instead of being able to untangle it (which in general psychedelics are really really good at). And an entangled mind is in the worst case a schizophrenic mind. But that is just my interpretation.

A great advertising catchphrase that was far more ubiquitous in my younger days in the '80's and '90's (and a good to direct at a few posters' snide responses to some of my angrier posts on more politically-oriented threads) - "Winners don't use drugs." I certainly don't, and never have (except caffeine, the mildest of the recreational psychoactive drugs) and somehow I am not depressed, lonely, or wildly unstable...

 

[Gori the Grey]

I need to somehow get the same result without the passage of time. But I am not sure how to get my mind to go along with this.

Draw the drawing backwards, or inside out.

 

[Patine]

Draw the drawing backwards, or inside out.

Or burn it, and start over seven times, like the Renaissance master Raphael claimed he did with every finished product he produced...

 

[Patine]

[QUOTE="amadeus, post: 15944917, member: 2036I ain't any closer to Nirvana today. Kinda sucks, dunn'it? Come on! Land of the Rising Sun! Sun Goddess Amaterasu! There's a little shrine every few hundred feet. The God Emperor. You'd think the conditions here would be optimal for Nirvana, but it ain't comin' yet.

Conclusion: Nirvana's a Hallmark holiday.[/QUOTE]

You do know that, despite both having large numbers of adherents in Japan, and profound impacts on it's history, that Buddhism and Shinto are completely different religions with unrelated beliefs and doctrine? You DO know this, right?

 

[amadeus]

I am aware.

 

[Lexicus]

You do know that, despite both having large numbers of adherents in Japan, and profound impacts on it's history, that Buddhism and Shinto are completely different religions with unrelated beliefs and doctrine? You DO know this, right?

I want to hear more about Shintoism, Patine, I know almost nothing about it.