Saturday XXXIX: 2012 is the New 1999 · 18 January 2008
Little apocalypses here this week. Which is good, since 2008 as I knew it was not going according to plan.
Now, I can’t stop listening to Prince’s end-of-the-world songs. I love the bat-out-of-hell sound effects. Was this stuff written during his Jehova’s Witness period, or is it full-on devil music? Party like it’s 1999 = death for rebirth. In other words, more of the Tower theme… but this time I’m cool with it.
It’s not the world per se that will end: it is our view of the world.
It’s been said apocalypse returns to fashion every two decades, which might explain why 2012 is the new 1999. That sounds about right. But it may come even sooner if what I’m hearing about visitors in Texas is the case. On which more later.
Apocalypse brings to the surface a lot of mythic scared-shitless dread that got deposited in my mind 'round about 1982. This is the annoying thing about a practice that pushes back the curtain between the conscious and unconscious: now I’m running in to all this Biblical stuff. Gads! Horribly, there's so much early memorization that's still buried, just where I put it at 18. This week, 1 Corinthians 13 shored up in the yoga archipelago. Saint Paul was always the blowhard apostle, but this one is a gorgeous passage.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Anyway. Esoterica on Saturday morning, and then a lot of dissertating in addition to a dusty grey drive to Covina. And maybe I’ll have time to see There Will be Blood at the Westwood Crest. I hear it is sufficiently apocalyptic. Links I'm thinking of:
● Ok since we are talking about the Bible, here is Robert Alter (whose beautiful translation of the Pentateuch my father did not appreciate as a Christmas gift a few years ago) on his new translation of the Psalms. Really nice interview, especially because it’s with the beautiful Michael Silverblatt. Alter is so subversive! Also, he’s a damn poet. If you're really in, see too this week's review of the work in the LRB.
● Tova, we never got back around to talking about your dream. I had an insane one the other night and it took the aforementioned devil music to get it out of my head before practice. Here’s something from an Integral blogger who takes reductionist views of dreaming and adds a dimension of interpretive possibilities for people who are actually know something about their own minds (because they have a meditation practice or whatever). No need to black-box this stuff like the behaviorists do if you have the tools to explore it.
● Ok, this is the only good politics I’ve seen in months, and it’s actually just art. George Saunders: genius and author the Braindead Megaphone (hilarious). This is a seven-minute reading of his piece “Manifesto,” a press release from People Reluctant to Kill for an Abstraction (PRKA). Just listen.
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my god, i didn’t know you were interested in iboga, and all this time i’ve been trying to decide between Mysore and Gabon. Now that you’ve connected the two, so obviously/cleverly, let’s do both! “in church they speak of God, with iboga, you live God”, Bwiti of the Fang.
Posted by: eor · Jan 18, 09:00 PM · #
Hello David Byrne.
Posted by: R · Jan 18, 11:23 PM · #
thank you! for the link to the dreaming thoughts. i like the idea that it is brain noise. but i have to agree with all the theories he talked about. and it is hard to figure out which theory would apply to which dream. it is really wonderfully fascinating!
Posted by: cranky housefrau · Jan 19, 04:38 AM · #
I have to throw a little Advaita at that end of the world nonsense. Let’s look at the absolute from the standpoint that there’s neither birth or death, appearance or disappearance, production nor destruction. If we look from that point of view there can be no end of the world. There is only love. Just like that dreamy apostle Paul said.
And that Shaman Sun guy is pretty fantastic.
Posted by: Susan · Jan 19, 08:30 AM · #
Some cognitive psychology/information processing models suggest that during sleep the brain is encoding long-term memory (by consolidating info from the day’s short-term memory bank). During the process there’s a lot of activity in the corpus callosum, which connects the left and right hemisphere. You figure that if the left side of the brain is about verbal and analytical processes and the right side is about patterns and relationships, the “static” of the information processing certainly could add up to what we experience as dreams.
Or maybe dreams really are the magic picture shows of the gods.
What I really like to imagine is that our waking reality is just an unconscious super-strong bias to interpret a consistent viewpoint — and that if we could just loosen up the control a bit, we’d find that “reality” is actually more like dreams (i.e., more multi-dimensional, more plastic, and chock full of alternate realities) than our current, obsessively-held shared reality.
Or maybe that’s just crazy, :-)
Posted by: karen · Jan 19, 08:43 AM · #
People put so much emphasis on the dream state, what about the deep non dreaming state. Where are you? You have forgotten the world, your body and you still continue to breath and live. Where does your mind go then? Isn’t it interesting how the three states of being exist beside each other? Isn’t it fascinating that we can lose our whole world every night as we fall into this deep sleep? Isn’t it fascinating how detailed our dreams are? How could we ever make that up? Seriously? How can we perceive such detail and depth in our dreams?
Posted by: Susan · Jan 19, 10:56 AM · #
The deep, dreamless sleep state always seems so mysterious to me. I remember the first time I heard the three states described — I was all “Oh yeah, waking state. And yes, dreaming state… and huh? wha? Deep dreamless sleep?! What’s THAT all about?” It’s hard for me to even conceptualize. Which is the point, I suppose! :-)
Posted by: karen · Jan 19, 11:32 AM · #
and what about the fourth state as described in “fireplaces on boats”, woozlegasms? how do you feel during one of those?
Posted by: eor · Jan 19, 12:55 PM · #
Susan and Karen, lets see if I can “illuminate possibilities” for you:
People put so much emphasis on the dream state, what about the deep non dreaming state. Where are you?
Wrong point of view, wrong question. The better question is “where is the world”? So at once, we see that the world comes and goes. Good. Stay there in that understanding for awhile. Or for a longer period until you clearlt understand the basic fact that world has no continuity. Nobody can fool you anymore, you clearly understand that the world comes and goes.
”You have forgotten the world, your body and you still continue to breath and live. Where does your mind go then? “
Excellent Susan, but pay attention: How do you know that you still continue to breathe and live? In that state you don’t know such things. You know that when you wake up. So just stay in the state that you do not know. Where does your mind go then? Knowingness IS the mind. It is Consciousness or I-Amness. So you are in the state of no-knowingness because I AM is not sensed. But You exists, still, no doubt about it.
Isn’t it interesting how the three states of being exist beside each other?
The three states of being do NOT exist besides each other!!!! They ARE the same thing at the same time. Difference is attention. And attention is the function of Consciousness (I AM). Consciousness does not know what is it, it knows it is something but what… so, it starts the concentration of awareness (creating attention): Awareness -> Knowledge Body (Brahman, I AM. Light, The Eagle), like someone turns on the light and you were a long time in dark, the kind of perceptual blindness comes together with the light) that is Causal Body (Ignorance Body, Darkness, Emptiness, Voidness, Forgetfulness, Intent)… So these two bodies comes always together. When they come? NOW. Always NOW. Time is not yet defined there. With appearance of these two bodies we still do not know who we are. (Pay attention, first consciousness did not know what is it, now, we (our Beingness) does not know it) so further concentration of attention proceeds. Our Beingness creates Subtle Body (mind, intellect, pranas etc..) Subtle Body is pure Sattva, Love to BE, to move, to live, to love and be loved, it starts search for happiness because it has forgotten that it is Happiness Itself. So it creates dream worlds, dream body, energy body. When it creates this” NOW. Desires are moving force of Intent. Desires are vibration, still gross vibration of low desires concentrate attention even more. Our Beingness creates Gross Body and the Gross World that we know. Bingo!!1 We feel ourselves alive, playing, fulfilling desires. When this is happening: NOW.
Isn’t it fascinating that we can lose our whole world every night as we fall into this deep sleep?
What we don’t own we can not lose it. We just release attention (we forget “I AM”) so we end up in Causal Body, oblivious in blissful state. And when desires starts again, we recreate “I AM” all over and the world appears.
What must be cleared for right understanding is that we are not entity. “I AM” IS world (and our body in the world is just the tool used for seeing the world). The same in “dreaming” We (Our Beingness) create dreaming body and the dream. They are not separate. How can we dream together the same dream? Because we are One Beingness.
Deep dreamless sleep?! What’s THAT all about?
Try this: Every morning at 4:00AM do zazen in cold room, but with such concentration that you generate sweat. Sit in zazen 40 minutes but this “pick” concentration hold for 10-15 min. Do this exercise 7 days in a row. And then the eight day wake up, walk around and instead to sit in zazen go to bed and attempt to sleep. Relax completely attention… I can give you guaranties that you will experience dreamless-aware-sleep. Susan did you practice this??? The state is the borderline between Knowledge and Ignorance bodies where just a touch of Forgetfulness (Bliss) is “felt”. There is no effort that you can do in such state. It is Self to pick you at that point and You (your-Self) became aware of dreamless awareness. I am quite 100% sure that you Karen have experienced this state in Shavasana. When you go out shavasana and there is a glow around your head a kind of blissful energy etc.. that’s it. You were in dreamless-awareness while you awake (border line of I AM – Ignorance bodies). When that happens: NOW.
Memory is imagination, future does not exists. There is always and only: NOW.
Posted by: zee · Jan 19, 01:54 PM · #
yeah zee, but what about my dream last night? i was an orange in space. i had a little flashlight my orange self was shining out into space when i saw that i was looking outside while my whole “noosphere” was my orange skin. why bother with practice at all when it basically distracts from the whole? why did the buddha promise, “i would not ask you to do this if it did not work.” was U.G. krisnamurti right? or do you need a practice just to be able to give it up?
Posted by: eor · Jan 20, 10:15 AM · #
yeah zee, but what about my dream last night? i was an orange in space. i had a little flashlight my orange self was shining out into space when i saw that i was looking outside while my whole “noosphere” was my orange skin.
You are advanced in “dreaming”. You created, or rather you became aware of subtle body. Or, better to say you cast off physical body. I must congratulate you, it is accomplishment. Unfortunately I don’t have such skills AS OF YET. I am working on that. My dreaming body is fluffy and undisciplined :).
“looking outside” means that you are neither orange self nor “noosphere”. If you are aware of this, don’t do anything, nothing, just be aware of “Witnessing Self”. Pay no attention, release attention… “forget” that you are dreaming but be aware, just observe. Maybe my experience can help you: While falling to sleep, many times I could see small orange dots increasing to the size of balloon and the two dimensional images going on inside, like the movie. If I place attention on those images, puff, I am in dream, and then I loose myself, either wake up or I forget original intention… So I am not aware in dreams, but if you are aware then try to go on witnessing side more and further away from the content. Ask yourself who dreams? And wait for answer. That calm no-thought “waiting” for answer is “witnessing”.
why bother with practice at all when it basically distracts from the whole?
We are the whole. We can not change that. It is all PLAY. The Whole does not care if we (as an expression of the whole) know the Whole. What matters if we know ourselves or if we do not know ourselves (the Whole). The Whole is Whole because it does not have parts. If you think that you are a part of the Whole then your understanding is not correct. You are the expression of the Whole, You are the Whole. For the Whole we do not exist. We are NOT. What a wonderful news!!! I am so excited for this. I AM NOT!!! What do you say EQR? Do you see a glimpse of real opportunity… the freedom in front of us. We are not!!! New things can only be created from something that is not. There is a house. You can not build the house in the same place. There must be a place where house is NOT in order to build the house there. If I am NOT I can be whatever I want. That is FREEDOM. This is why we do practice. To create something from nothing… First we have to know the Whole then to express our real nature fully…
why did the buddha promise, “i would not ask you to do this if it did not work.” was U.G. krisnamurti right?
I don’t know. I don’t read buddha teachings, also I never read anything from U.G. Krishnamurti.
do you need a practice just to be able to give it up?
Ultimately, YES. We practice because we feel that we are ignorant. Some “awakening” happened in each one of us. Before “awakening” we did not feel that we are ignorant so all went according to that understanding. What happened now is that we are starting to be aware of Casual Body (of our own Ignorance) so that is the urge. It comes from our Beingness. If we are fully aware of our self nature why we need practice? And above all, if we are NOT what does it matter what we do anyway. I would rather call our practice as a command from our deeper “I” and not as a choice of our conscious “I”.
Posted by: zee · Jan 20, 12:29 PM · #
That’s all well and good, Zee, but what about us Dravidians? Not everyone is Brahminical, you know.
Posted by: Carl · Jan 20, 02:18 PM · #
Carl, there is no difference. You get one teaching and stick to it. You polish it and after awhile it starts shining with right understanding. The problem is not right-wrong teaching but your ability to keep what you want to know always on your mind.
Posted by: zee · Jan 20, 03:12 PM · #
i like that, zee! especially “as a command from our deeper “i”. thanks.
Posted by: eor · Jan 20, 03:55 PM · #
You get one teaching and stick to it. You polish it and after awhile it starts shining with right understanding.
It’s refreshing that you understand this so clearly. If only more people felt this way, the world would be full of “right understanding” by way of singular teachings. Oh but wait… could this already be true?
Posted by: Carl · Jan 20, 04:03 PM · #
My my, hey hey.
Thanks for leaving these flowers here in my house. You behaved yourselves decently while I was gone.
In case readers are wondering, the lengthy comments might be worth it for you. MAYBE. Mostly they are about what it is like to be an orange floating in space.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jan 20, 05:02 PM · #
Also: waking reality as unconscious superstrong bias. Sweet. Would the arrival of oranges from outer space change that? I can’t stop wondering.
It’s true about the apocalypse, too, Susan. I was using the idea with some vulgarity, I guess, to refer to the demise of the super-strong biases which Karen mentions.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jan 20, 05:05 PM · #
Oh bother. Just when I thought I’d pass over these matters in silence, another tick.
Zee, I believe your comments on the subtle body—that it is Pure Happiness, and that we delude ourselves into a dream body—do not come from your experience. This is just some rumor, and while you do understand the Causal Body, you do not understand the Subtle Body. Ok! That is my work: I will continue with Subtle Body research and find out. So far, it looks like the rumor you are telling might be right. Though if I confirm it, I might not be able to say so. :)
Now about iboga yoga, it’s all that Evans-Pritchard coming back I guess. I’ve been itching to go native ever since I got trained as an ethnographer. It’s the best way, anywhere.
Posted by: (0v0) · Jan 20, 05:10 PM · #
Hi (0v0)
A story like that from a town named Stephenville? Uhmm….are they planning a sequel to children of the corn? That UFO looks like a little tornado with no top or bottom. When I lived in Texas, there was one day where a phenomenon occurred when I was driving. You had to be driving in the direction of the sunset to experience this, with the sun at a certain angle, and in your eyes. Like rays of light bounced off in the road ahead, and over the front of the car (the lid of the motor). I later read that people in the Southwestern states have experienced these phenomena having to do with sun angles and weather systems. I’m rationalizing, of course, to get away from Apocalyptic thinking. Global warming, now that is apocalyptic reality in the making : )
All the talk about dreams is making me sleepy. While in Texas, I befriended a psychiatrist whose particular expertise was jungian dream analysis. He was very entertaining and a person used to interviewing cinema celebrities. I wrote my dreams and analyzed them with him over a long period of time. I can’t say I do that much analysis of dreams anymore, but I remember some if they made an impression on me. Like the one I blabbed about in Karen’s and Cody’s blog. I’m sounding like Rose Nylund with her St. Olaf stories in The Golden Girls so I’ll shut up. Y’all discuss amongst yourselves.
Posted by: arturo · Jan 20, 08:18 PM · #
I’d like to get into the long-comment conversation, but am too lazy today. instead i’d rather say:
“count the days” is an amazing prince song that might fit into your apocolypse playlist!
Posted by: cody · Jan 21, 01:57 PM · #
prince and the oranges of anonymous bosch?
Posted by: eor · Jan 21, 07:34 PM · #