chains
How to expand a consciousness?
Technology, sex, drugs and rock&roll go a long way but have an inherent limit which often strikes while we're looking the other way in our dance towards planetary peace and decency.
I'm not going to bother expounding on how these yoga's can too easily become vehicles for the most stubborn of our wishful daydreams.
If you've had the presence of mind to remove yourself from dogmatic and hypocritical environments it is assumed that you understand the theorem: Something which claims to be the same as something else is not the same thing if the motivations driving it's execution are different as motivation conditions choice which conditions action which conditions outcome.
If you haven't yet hit a point where you feel you aren't getting any further, please stop reading here.
When expanding your consciousness the result is generally exactly proportional to the degree of focus exerted on what you are doing.
This is why it is relatively easy to attain your mega-jumbo-samadhi when you cram your body into a standard lotus and stare at a blank wall.
Not much to prevent maximum focus on the act of breathing in this situation.
This is not 18th Century Tibet however and trying to practice Zen outside a monastery in the 21st Century is much like trying to balance an unboiled egg on the tip of your nose at a rave. WITHOUT drugs.
So, how do we propose to commune with the infinite if we are going to be constrained by our ability to focus and our society seems to be based predominantly on trying to distract our attentions as much as possible?
The standard advice of simplifying your life is lovely advice, but - for most - it is simply not an option as simplification itself usually requires much more focus than is available.
The answer lies in the relationship between consciousness expansion and focus.
If you are blocked from increasing your focus because of the chaotic reality of your faily life then, obviously, you are not going to be able to expand your consciousness enough to do something about the chaos of your life. QED.
Seems hopeless, but there lies a key here the idea of constraints.
Traditionally constraints have a really bad reputation. They are the things which stop us from moving forward. They hold us back. They keep our bodies chained to the muck we are born into and in which we will die and decompose. They stand between us and the incredible future we have imagined for ourselves and which - so very few - ever manage to realise.
So, assuming you've realised that your life is chaotic; that you don't have time to do the things you don't want to do and you cannot afford to do the things you want to do...
Count yourself lucky, because you are no the proud owner of one of the best piece of tech that exists for assisting a genuine quantum leap in the development of your consciousness.
You are the proud owner of a constraint.
And constraints can hold you back... but - by their very stubborn nature - they have another property: They are extremely easy to pick out of the havoc of existence as most things give way when we push against them, but constraints don't budge.
Two questions for you, dear reader:
Technology, sex, drugs and rock&roll go a long way but have an inherent limit which often strikes while we're looking the other way in our dance towards planetary peace and decency.
I'm not going to bother expounding on how these yoga's can too easily become vehicles for the most stubborn of our wishful daydreams.
If you've had the presence of mind to remove yourself from dogmatic and hypocritical environments it is assumed that you understand the theorem: Something which claims to be the same as something else is not the same thing if the motivations driving it's execution are different as motivation conditions choice which conditions action which conditions outcome.
If you haven't yet hit a point where you feel you aren't getting any further, please stop reading here.
When expanding your consciousness the result is generally exactly proportional to the degree of focus exerted on what you are doing.
This is why it is relatively easy to attain your mega-jumbo-samadhi when you cram your body into a standard lotus and stare at a blank wall.
Not much to prevent maximum focus on the act of breathing in this situation.
This is not 18th Century Tibet however and trying to practice Zen outside a monastery in the 21st Century is much like trying to balance an unboiled egg on the tip of your nose at a rave. WITHOUT drugs.
So, how do we propose to commune with the infinite if we are going to be constrained by our ability to focus and our society seems to be based predominantly on trying to distract our attentions as much as possible?
The standard advice of simplifying your life is lovely advice, but - for most - it is simply not an option as simplification itself usually requires much more focus than is available.
The answer lies in the relationship between consciousness expansion and focus.
If you are blocked from increasing your focus because of the chaotic reality of your faily life then, obviously, you are not going to be able to expand your consciousness enough to do something about the chaos of your life. QED.
Seems hopeless, but there lies a key here the idea of constraints.
Traditionally constraints have a really bad reputation. They are the things which stop us from moving forward. They hold us back. They keep our bodies chained to the muck we are born into and in which we will die and decompose. They stand between us and the incredible future we have imagined for ourselves and which - so very few - ever manage to realise.
So, assuming you've realised that your life is chaotic; that you don't have time to do the things you don't want to do and you cannot afford to do the things you want to do...
Count yourself lucky, because you are no the proud owner of one of the best piece of tech that exists for assisting a genuine quantum leap in the development of your consciousness.
You are the proud owner of a constraint.
And constraints can hold you back... but - by their very stubborn nature - they have another property: They are extremely easy to pick out of the havoc of existence as most things give way when we push against them, but constraints don't budge.
Two questions for you, dear reader:
- Why are you wasting your energy pushing against something which isn't moving?
- What else in your life isn't moving because you are spending all your time on trying to make something, which clearly does not want to move, move?
posted by slippedstream at 5:18 PM
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