My suggestion is that the front page of the blogs should only contain the latest posted blog or the latest commented blog of a blogger. Any additional blogs of that blogger should be placed on pages following the first page. This will permit a greater variety of bloggers on the first page.
I viewed the video on Sadhguru that you mentioned. He seems to be the latest guru from India advocating some form of yoga meditation. There have been several others preceding him, including Osho.
I agree that such meditation can lead one to a deep unique spiritual experience. However, my experiences are based on a direct immediate insight into the unity of all things in Nature. I consider such insight as supra-conceptual awareness.
As I mentioned in my comment to Molly:
One "becomes the flower" by becoming one with the living flower through experiencing a sense of unity with it and all things in Nature.
The path that leads past heaven and far beyond the highest god-realms runs straight from the spot where we happen to be standing It is mysterious and invisible to minds befogged by concepts such as good and evil light and dark going and arriving self and other is and is not
To perceive it requires the seeing beyond sight the hearing beyond sound The truth is grasped when the mind in its stillness reaches the no-place beyond thought Knowledge is discarded Wisdom remains God and no-god are found to be identical
No mental concept is involved only experience -a unique perception joy-bestowing that leads to imperturbable tranquillity to recognition of the beauty inherent in every flower in every grain of dust cement or dung and to unqualified liberation from the human state The experience is nameless being luminously perceptible but utterly beyond description This is the way of mysticism
Unfortunately everything pertaining to mysticism lies beyond definition and description Transcending logic it deals with truth that is attainable only by direct intuition The Taoist Lao-tzu says of it: He who knows does not speak He who speaks does not know
Such an experience may occur as a mystical feeling somewhat similar to Jane Goodall's experience as mentioned in her Earth Day 2018 message:
“There was a moment when I was in Gombe National Park and it began to pour rain, and then the rain stopped and I could smell the smell of wet hair on the chimpanzees and I could hear the insects singing loudly, and I just felt absolutely at one and it was a sense of awe and wonder. Out in the rainforest you learn how everything is interconnected and each little species, even though it may seem insignificant has a role to play in the tapestry of life.” (courtesy of Google)
Further to my comment to you re the living flower in contrast to the dead flower, here is something I wrote and posted on CS Poetry Corner:
Life and a living being can never be separated See one and you see the other Destroy one and you destroy the other Pluck a flower from a tree and dissect it to understand it You no longer have that flower as it existed on the tree You may have an understanding of the relationship between the components of a dead flower but you will have forever lost the totality of the experience of the LIVING flower To see the flower in its completeness BECOME THE FLOWER and understand a reality that can only be experienced but can never be put into words for the whole is more than the sum of its parts
My reference to becoming the flower obviously is not meant literally, of course.
The focus is on the realization of a "living flower", and not on a dead flower as depicted in Tennyson's poem. One "becomes the flower" by becoming one with the living flower through experiencing a sense of unity with it and all things in Nature.
Your reference to the quote by Osho also stresses the significance of the "living flower".
Thanks for your scientific insight into my experience which I felt was of some unique and unusual dimension of consciousness that transcended the ordinary day-to-day reality.
You have expressed some very interesting views about a "vacuum dimension" and Time based on your own experience.
My focus is simply on the beautiful feeling and joyous emotion that I experienced.
Somehow, at that moment, perhaps the quote from Sartre helped me to focus on existence in the present, and in addition, in my attempt to become the flower and to know it in its wholeness like Basho, I experienced a marvellous insight into another dimension that was so beautiful and soul-filling that words cannot describe ( at least, I cannot find the words to describe it). The sky was bathed in the brilliant sunshine. The fleecy white clouds appeared fluffier and whiter, and the clear azure sky bluer than usual. It was a state of pure feeling and joyous emotion. Looking upward into the sky, I felt as if I was being transported to another world. Time appeared to stand still and thought-activity seemed to be suspended. At least, I was not aware of any thoughts at that time. It was a direct realization of some unique and unusual dimension of consciousness that transcended the ordinary day-to-day reality.The most amazing and enjoyable part of the experience was the deep feeling of ecstasy that I felt, and which stayed with me for quite a while. I did not want to leave the spot where I was sitting, but to stay there and to continue to experience the beauty of the feeling. Unfortunately, I had to leave and get on with the matters of my daily life.
I can assure everyone that this was not an LSD trip or a high due to any drug since I have never taken such substances.
In the first poem, Tennyson was walking along in the English countryside when he came upon a wildflower growing in a little crevice in the side of a cliff. He was moved by the scene depicting such beauty flourishing in such a harsh environment and it encouraged him to compose a poem expressing this. He plucked the flower from the crevice and held it in the palm of his hand, probably in an attempt to get closer to it and to try to understand a certain mystery associated with it. He felt that if he could understand this mystery, he would know what God and man is.
In the second poem, Basho, a Japanese poet was walking along when he came across a beautiful nazuna flower blooming by a hedge. He also was moved by the beauty of the scene with the flower flourishing alonside the hedge. Just like Tennyson, he composed a poem (haiku) seeking to express the feeling it evoked in him.
In Tennyson's case, the flower had to die. He plucked it out of the crevice and held it in his hand in trying to understand the mystery it represented. However, he was now dealing with a dead flower, not the living flower as it existed when he first saw it. Whatever understanding he arrived at would not have been in relation to to the live flower as it existed.
In Basho's case, he sought to appreciate the live flower as it existed and composed his poem based on this. In a sense, in his attempt to know and understand the flower, he projected himself into the flower and “became” the flower.
It is significant that in Basho's case, the flower lived whereas in Tennyson's case, the flower died.
In his book, "Beyond The Gods", John Blofeld says:
The path that leads past heaven and far beyond the highest god-realms runs straight from the spot where we happen to be standing It is mysterious and invisible to minds befogged by concepts such as good and evil light and dark going and arriving self and other is and is not
To perceive it requires the seeing beyond sight the hearing beyond sound The truth is grasped when the mind in its stillness reaches the no-place beyond thought Knowledge is discarded
Wisdom remains God and no-god are found to be identical
No mental concept is involved only experience -a unique perception joy-bestowing that leads to imperturbable tranquillity to recognition of the beauty inherent in every flower in every grain of dust cement or dung and to unqualified liberation from the human state The experience is nameless being luminously perceptible but utterly beyond description This is the way of mysticism
Unfortunately everything pertaining to mysticism lies beyond definition and description Transcending logic it deals with truth that is attainable only by direct intuition The Taoist Lao-tzu says of it: He who knows does not speak He who speaks does not know
I feel certain that there are CS members who have had similar experiences. I wish to invite you to share such experiences with others here if you do not mind.
I have had such experiences of my own which I hope to post in subsequent blogs.
As you mentioned, many persons are caught up in the reality of their daily life to help them survive in the here and now.
However, I view you as someone who experience something quite different from the norm. In particular, I refer to your tree hugging and the special feeling you get from the experience. To me, that is a unique aspect of reality.
What is reality? French physicist Bernard d'Espagnat, 87, has spent a lifetime grappling with this question. Over the years, he has developed the idea that the reality revealed by science offers only a "veiled" view of an underlying reality that science cannot access, and that the scientific view must take its place alongside the reality revealed by art, spirituality, and other forms of human inquiry. In recognition of these efforts, d'Espagnat has won this year's Templeton Prize, a £1 million ($1.4 million) award sponsored by the Templeton Foundation, which supports research at the intersection of science, philosophy, and religion.
"I have been taught that each of our own realities exist due to what we project, as living co-creators. (Just like what is described in part by "The Secret") Those personal realities intertwine to become the world in this timeline as we understand it."
Thanks for your interesting input on reality stated above.
."the clear majority of people try to understand their self, from the built up shallow self, that they have inherited from the society,that has surround them trough the life"
I assume you refer to that aspect of self as the ordinary part.
You also mentioned "original self". How does a person acquire knowledge of this original self?
In addition, you mentioned: "many things we believe in, have nothing to do with the facts." Can you elaborate on that?
I agree that there are many facets to that entity we call self,
Thanks for your thoughts on understanding and knowing oneself.
A few years ago, I wrote and posted a poem, titled "Black Is Beautiful" in CS Poetry Corner. I wrote it especially for a black South African woman who attempted to change her skin colour through bleaching. In a comment to her, I wrote: "There is no need for you to even think of changing your God-given colour. You are beautiful as you are."
A prominent CS blogger, a former university professor, who has changed her pen name since then, asked in her comment: "BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL..YET, I AM NOT BLACK SO WHAT DOES THIS MAKE ME?" My response was:
"if you expect an answer from me, my answer is "what YOU choose to make of yourself". Nowhere in my piece did I state or imply that the qualities I attributed to black people are UNIQUE to them ONLY. I made NO COMPARISON with people of other colours. Please do not infer that I may have done so. Here is the position in a deductive logic format:
Premise 1: Black is beautiful Premise 2: There are other colours beside Black Conclusion: Other colours are not beautiful
It is obvious that, based on the stated premises which are both true, such a conclusion is invalid. I am sure that with your knowledge of philosophy, you can see the flaw in such an argument.
Here is a similar argument: Premise 1: A dog is a four-legged animal Premise 2: A cat is not a dog Conclusion: A cat is not a four-legged animal
By the way, from my profile, you can see that I am of East Indian ethnicity. My skin colour may be classified as BROWN, rather than BLACK."
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RE: Some guy called Obama
My suggestion is that the front page of the blogs should only contain the latest posted blog or the latest commented blog of a blogger. Any additional blogs of that blogger should be placed on pages following the first page. This will permit a greater variety of bloggers on the first page.