Elias
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Joined: 06 24 04
Posts: 1237
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 Posted: 01/20/08, 11:28 am Post subject: The Dry Non-Dualists... |
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| Quote: | | Insight can begin with dreams and visions -- in fact it must begin with spiritual experience. You cannot get to true insight purely from an intellectual or abstractional perspective. Dreams and visions are the ancient language of the sages, and that language still lives in us. That language is a vital alternative to the illusions of maya and the world-as-experience. (It is also the language that breaks down the illusions of the egoic psyche.) I've often been astonished by how ready so-called "pundits" are to discredit visions and mystical experience. They often claim to have gone "directly to the non-dual", bypassing the "lower stages" of visioning and samadhis. Yeah, right. If they had, they wouldn't be so quick to dismiss these "lower stages". In fact, they would know and acknowledge that all spiritual visioning and experience are aspects of the education of the immortal essence of man...not a separate "dualism" that can be willfully discarded. In other words, just as you can be taught by reading a book, you can be taught by a vision or a dream. And these lessons can be far more profound than any written word. |
As regards dealing with the world, I need to say something about the relationship of subtle awareness (including dreams and visions) and the mental constructs we call "the world".
I know I posted about this before, but I don't have that post handy right now. The basic thesis is this: everything that constitutes the world has an underlying layer of subtle forms, emotions, intentions, and imaginings.
For example, if you could look "behind the scenes" into the subtle layers of any large corporation, you might find the most astonishing power fantasies at work, a kind of "dream theater", with the CEO and his right-hand men playing the role of dictators and military generals, or some other fascist political fantasy. Even in a relatively benign corporation, there will be archetypal structure in the subtle mind. For instance, I once dreamt that when you signed on with Lucasfilm you were ushered inside a giant pyramid, with George functioning as a kind of pharoah figure.
Now, one should know that such images aren't definitive, but merely suggestive and metaphorical. In the language of dreaming, they are the "objective correlative" (to use Eliot's term) of the emotional and mental balance or imbalance that has become the persistent unconscious state of the corporation. (They also include the unconscious component in the dreamer, and need to be "interpreted" with the whole gestalt -- dreamer and dream-object -- in mind. Much more about that later...)
(An objective correlative is a literary term referring to a symbolic article used to provide explicit, rather than implicit, access to such traditionally inexplicable concepts as emotion or color. ~ Wikipedia)
One of the errors that bad psychics make is to take such dream language as literal and "non-malleable form". It is not. And knowing it is not is a key to waking up the subtle consciousness in ourselves.
Which brings me to my next point: There are "advaitists", "spiritual philosophers", "dharma masters", "metaphysicians", and "self-realized" talkers found in abundance these days who have not even begun to understand the importance of subtle awareness.
They think that talking a good game is the whole enchilada. And to prove it, they tend to rationalize their unawareness by claiming that dreaming, visions, mystical experience and subtle meditational awareness are baseless illusion. They even go so far as to call the yoga of dreaming "delusional" because (according to them), it is far removed from the empyrean "non-dual realization" which they claim to enjoy.
As my sainted mother would say, "bullshit". 
Bullshit by any other name is still bullshit. In the case of the phoney "nondualists" the dissing of subtle consciousness is simply part of a sales talk, and a rather dangerous one if you buy what they are saying.
Please note that these same clowns -- they "dry" philosophers -- are quite proud of their sexuality. In fact, they are usually obsessed with exploring that side of themselves, going so far as to describe themselves as "tantric masters" and so forth.
Why, I have to ask, is the sexual enjoyment worth developing, exploring, and "mastering", while the subtle enjoyment of mystical experience is not?
Well, the answer is obvious: the dry nondualist likes to brag about his penis but doesn't want you to know he is still given to nightmares!
(Frank Jones was a case in point, in that regard. Even as late as the 1990s he let on that he was being "attacked by demons" at night. He and his cult rationalized this in every way except acknowledging he was simply meeting the shadow side of his own psyche.)
If you are still given to nightmares, be honest and objective about it. Nightmares are the sign of your undeveloped subtle awareness -- your lack of knowledge and facility in that area of your totality. You may be a genius with mental abstractions and reasoning, you may be sexual adept in bed, but without subtle awakening you are a spiritual and emotional cripple. (And, may I add, without subtle awakening you won't be that good in bed! Your sexuality will tend to be dominated by the unconscious parts of your subtle body -- even your worst "complexes".)
Anyway, that's it for now...more stuff later.
Elias |
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