Do you listen to Schönberg?
I had to listen to most of the works he named in the video in school. At first it was brutal and disgusting. But I needed to listen to them so often to understand them, that at one point, I suddenly experienced its beauty.
It’s strange to describe, but it’s there.
I have to say I liked his free tonal pieces, when he was still working with tonal centers, more than the later ones, when he already invented his dodecaphonical principles.
Forgot that our building is doing routine maintenance today. No electricity and no lifts. So after my quick morning workout, I got treated to an impromptu cool water shower and then got to walk down the stairs. (I’m actually a person who generally prefers stairs to lifts; but the stairwells in our building are not anywhere I want to walk on a regular basis.)
Told my 10:30 I’d arrive at 10:40. And now I’m almost there.
Meditation this morning was good. How’s that for riveting prose?
Anyway, it’s a little difficult to describe. Like trying to describe the overall movements of waves in a harbor.
It was just hitting me that the instrumentation in Head Over Heels by Tears for Fears is amazing.
The funny part is I haven’t listened to it yet. Probably haven’t listened in a very long time. I’m just replaying it in my memory, and it’s like, ‘wait a minute. how did they come up with that part?’
Very talented composers.
Full loops of my two programs today.
Gradually built up to this, but we’re here now.
The two programs that I’m running are the exact perfect programs that I need to be running. They match my goals, desires, aspirations extremely well.
At the same time, or maybe precisely because of the above, I have a lot of heavy lifting to do with them. I’m dealing with some of my longstanding circumstances, habits, and patterns.
This is how it is.
Another ‘secret’ of meditation
(beware of ever asking me a question @HumanBean )
In some cases, you do not have to make changes happen. All you have to do is stop ignoring the changes that have been going on the whole time. You don’t have to change yourself to become miraculous. You just need to slow down long enough to notice that you have been a miracle the entire time.
If you just sit down and let your mindbody be for a while, you will start to notice a lot of strange and interesting things that it is doing.
The Theory and Practice of Phenomenological Facilitation
The other day (26 May) as I was sitting in meditation that title popped into my head as something that I might write.
Today’s schedule was kind of interesting.
I had an 11 am meeting planned. On Zoom.
Part of my spiritual practice is doing magickal workings.
Did one this morning, and was planning to meditate right afterwards. Leaving me 8 minutes to shower and dress before the meeting. Probably a questionable plan. And probably for that reason, just before I was about to meditate, I saw that the person had WhatsApped me requesting to push the meeting earlier by 15 minutes. (Funny because I was opening WhatsApp to request that we make it later by 5 minutes.) I agreed, and as a result did not meditate in the morning, and instead showered and cooked myself a delicious breakfast. Two eggs, fried. Diced portobello mushroom, 1. And a raw yellow bell pepper. Delicious. Capped it off with a miniature raspberry yogurt. Finished cooking and eating just in time for the meeting.
Met, and then got into a taxi to work at the office.
At around 5:45 pm started thinking about whether I’d return home to meditate or just do it in the office. I have privacy here at work. So it can technically work, and I do it very ocassionally. This is probably the 3rd or 4th time in 2 years.
Eventually decided to do it here. At first I sat in a chair, which I do not like.
Then I decided to lie on my back on the floor. Much better position.
Had a pretty interesting experience of it. Cognitively, there was still a bit of ‘preoccupation’ or activity of some sort. Yet, there was an opening, settling, and unfolding process happening in the background at the same time. I really appreciated that.
and that’s my story.
As long as you’re trying to understand and explain people through an egocentric frame, you’re going to be dealing with cartoonish, flat, and corny versions of people.
No one’s place and meaning in this world can be reduced to simply the ways that they treat you or the ways that they make you feel or impact you.
Not saying those things are not parts of the picture; but to treat them as the entirety of the picture is fatally flawed, and is, ironically, sentencing yourself to life in an impoverished world.
(This very abstract statement was brought on by my reflections on women’s behaviors and the feminine and the ways that we, men and women, often try to make sense of it.)
Idm, thanks! Trying again this weekend
What’s some stuff you practice to prevent yourself from seeing those flat and cartoonish representations of people while simultaneously protecting yourself? I got hurt for a lot of years trying to consistently give people the benefit of the doubt vs trusting my own intuition and perceptions.
Trying not to turn this into a ask Malkuth thread lol. This one just caught my eye.
Make sure you’re (reasonably) safe/good/etc.
From that position, invest significant time in looking at (or imagining) life as it is experienced by other people who are not you, and who have nothing to do with you.
That’s it in a nutshell. But let’s be clear, I’m writing about this because I’m still working on it.
Those two brief points represent a project that takes centuries and lifetimes to progress.
Generally, if I’ve truly mastered something, I don’t spend lots of time thinking about it again and again.
The things I write about are things I’m trying to work through and process. As in right now. Haven’t mastered them.
It’s just that I have this thing where I download insights and connections. It’s always happened to me throughout life. It’s like a metaphysical GPS. But that’s primarily conceptual and intellectual. The body is where things really count (in my opinion). And it involves a much longer process to learn and deeply integrate things on that level than it does to type insights into a post.
Oh yeah, I’m under no impression you’ve mastered this. I understand how difficult it can be to pull ourselves from that egocentric mindset especially as it pertains to our own survival.
So this is interesting though. Does anything facilitate those downloads? Or do they just appear out of nowhere? I seem to have something similar except I don’t get things directly. It’s situations or people, or random signs. Like me commenting in your thread or randomly happening upon this one specific journal entry today. This is probably a springboard to something else and I don’t know what it is yet but I’ll probably get it within a day or two.
Indeed.
That’s insightful.
You’re in the process of birthing and midwifing your jewels and it’s a good thing to be able to recognize that while the process is happening.
It’s fun and an honor to have a supporting or cameo role in your unfolding process. Thanks.
I see it as a natural process. Partly conscious and intentional; partly organic, natural, and unconscious. I think it would happen either way; but the fact that I love, enjoy, and value it encourages it to be expressed even more.
One thing I do know though is that it’s been happening for my entire life. And I love it.
You’ve definitely planted a few seeds over the years for me. So I always appreciate your perspective on things.
And this right here is something I’m learning to value too. If we’re going with the GPS metaphor, I was given some pretty strong directions then got angry when I was lost after disregarding them lol. We really do have a capacity for finding the best path for ourselves. It’s a remarkable thing.
I just realized I ran Ascension Chamber this morning so this might be a mini manifestation too. That’s a sneaky sub.
At the beginning, your Imagination, far from being a distraction or an obstacle, will be your greatest ally in meditating.
Here’s why:
The primary ingredient that makes a thing interesting or stimulating is “Contrast”; it’s not the thing itself. We miss this because we’re trained to focus on content rather than context. So we tend to focus everything on the ‘object’ of our activity.
‘I want this job because it pays such and such or confers such and such status.’ ‘I like this woman because she has this physical shape and this personality.’ ‘I like this music because it uses these notes, and these chords, and is written in this style.’
Those are all reasonable statements, and probably accurate.
But they’re missing something.
You also strongly appreciate that given activity, person, target, etc., because it stands in contrast to many other things that are less desirable or just different.
This sounds abstract or weird so here’s an example:
You’re waiting for the light to turn green so that you can cross the street. You are somewhat in a rush to get where you’re going. You don’t want to be late. It takes 14 minutes to walk there, and you have about 14.5 minutes. You are listening to music on your phone and are really focused on getting to your destination. The light changes and you step into the street,and…
Just at that moment, someone breaks you out of your ‘focused trance’ and physically pulls you back by your arm.
As they do so, a large truck (breaking the traffic rules) barrels through the space in front of you, right where you would have been if you had just automatically crossed the street without looking. It is very clear that you would have been dead or badly injured, and that this stranger who pulled you back just saved you from that.
That person is in a rush too. So, you say thanks; she says, ‘Cool, no problem’ with a big smile. and you get back to walking to your destination; this time, of course, with more attention. You make it to your appointment on time. And also, thankfully, still alive.
Okay. What’s the point of this story?
For the next 2 or 3 hours—or even the next 2 or 3 days if you’re particularly sensitive—you have heightened appreciation for everything. The blue of the sky. The act of breathing. The feel of cardboard. The sound of your parents’ voices. It’s all so vivid and amazing, because you’re subconsciously contrasting it to the possibility that you would have been dead (and unable to experience any of it). Your sense of gratitude is heightened during that time. You recognize the truth that you are lucky to be alive. We humans are very ‘adaptable’, so the feeling fades after some time; but there’s a period of time where that CONTRAST makes just about everything more beautiful and more interesting.
Contrast.
You can introduce it either by manipulating circumstances and conditions, or by adjusting and applying your own imagination and perception.
Here’s one example (out of 30000 examples):
What if a disembodied ‘Alien Spirit’ was a scientist who chose to come to Earth and investigate the sensory experiences of being a human being. On that person’s world, people are in the form of gas clouds, and so they’re very interested in how a carbon-based, primate-style being might experience life. They have a technology that allows them to settle into a human body, interface with the nervous system, and basically ‘ride’ inside of the person, experiencing whatever they are feeling.
The alien’s goal is to pay as close attention as possible so that they can return to their own world and describe what it is like to be a human earth person.
Now imagine if you were that ‘alien spirit’, and you had the opportunity to observe life in the @HumanBean body.
That’s an example of using Imagination to create an artificial contrast that supports paying attention in meditation. It’s a story that reminds you of how stimulating your ongoing mind body experiencing really is.
But again, that’s just one possible story of a million.
It’s a tricky thing to describe the physics of a malleable medium.
People prefer to deal with things that are in fixed forms, and to then establish their patterns, rules, and laws.
Yet, many of the most important contexts and phenomena that we deal with are MALLEABLE. This means that they are shifting, dynamic, and fluid. It does not mean that they have no laws. They have laws; but those laws are more complex.
Human beings ourselves.
Consciousness.
Wave forms and movements.
I’ve been experiencing an unmistakeable boost in clarity and focus on my path and purpose. Particularly in the last 24 hours.
It seems like a direct response to my full loops of my subliminals.
It’s very interesting and I don’t have a lot to say about it.
Had to pause at 63 for a sec; then go down to do the last one.
Felt tired all day today. Was planning to take an extra rest day today. Showered and got ready for bed. Then suddenly got a shot of energy, focus, and determination. Figured I’d better take advantage of it.
So time for shower #2.
Many times it’s not about finding a better idea; it’s about finding more confidence in your current idea.
