Do you have a place you go to sit, contemplate and alter your perception?
Is that why they call it an alter?
My brain should be like vegas...
Is that why they call it an alter?
My brain should be like vegas...
Altered consciousness
- Thread starter wil
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No special place, just sort of zone out for a while wherever I am.
Our human perceptions are very limited to the range of our five senses, and our truly wonderful scientific instruments and telescopes and microscopes and space landers are really just extensions of our human senses. Our mathematics breaks down at singularity, where time and space become infinite. We perceive what it is necessary for us as a species to perceive -- we do not perceive the full reality of existence.
There is no reason to assume that the universe is limited to what we as an animal and natural species are able to perceive -- or to conceive. It's like saying "If I can't see it, touch it, taste it then it's not there."
But we are also spiritual entities. We do have access to spiritual senses beyond our natural, animal dimension. We have been given guidance about how to find the higher, spiritual part of our being. The teaching in all religions is the choice between God and mammon. Sacrifice of attachment to the things of this world, to be in touch with a higher, eternal world of spirit, runs through all religions, IMO
There is no reason to assume that the universe is limited to what we as an animal and natural species are able to perceive -- or to conceive. It's like saying "If I can't see it, touch it, taste it then it's not there."
But we are also spiritual entities. We do have access to spiritual senses beyond our natural, animal dimension. We have been given guidance about how to find the higher, spiritual part of our being. The teaching in all religions is the choice between God and mammon. Sacrifice of attachment to the things of this world, to be in touch with a higher, eternal world of spirit, runs through all religions, IMO
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Yeah, limiting it to the five senses is, well, limiting.
In non-Western world views (such as Buddhism), there are different lists of "senses" or "sense organs" - my basic go-to is the Buddhist list of six sense bases, which are the western five plus cognition. After all, we can perceive mathematics - but it is a perception of thoughts and concepts, because the maths is not the visible chalk marks on the black board, but the concepts and thoughts these marks indicate.
Another aspect of Buddhism I am really into is the shift of emphasis away from "what is real" to "what is causal". I like this because, for example, the content of a dream is obviously not real, but a dream can have a causal influence on our day, it can color our emotions, haunt our thought stream...
On the other hand, all religions also emphasize how it is important to deal skillfully and gracefully with everyday concerns: money, sexuality, power, friendships, basic needs... so the religious ethical advice is almost universally not limited to "don't get involved with money/sex/power..." but "deal with these things responsibly". Mammon may not be the best object of devotion, but it is good to be respectful of Mammon's power and influence, as it were.
IMO there is the advice to the monk, to shed material attachment, and the advice to the householder about how to try to be 'in the world but not of the world'
The 'inner teaching' comes down to everyday householders as good social mores?
Then his soul is a lamp whose light is steady, for it burns in a shelter where no winds come.
(Bhagavad Gita 6: 19)
Then the seeker knows the joy of eternity: a vision seen by reason far beyond what senses can see. He abides therein and moves not from truth.
(BG 6: 19 Juan Mascaro translation)
(Bhagavad Gita 6: 19)
Then the seeker knows the joy of eternity: a vision seen by reason far beyond what senses can see. He abides therein and moves not from truth.
(BG 6: 19 Juan Mascaro translation)
It is total ego surrender:
"When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
(Luke 18:22)
Tony Bristow-Stagg
One Planet One People Please
Total submission to God's Will over that of the human condition, which is the apex of use of the sixth sense.
The Bible gave us teachings, the Quran taught submission, as did the Old Testament.
It is being born again.
"O SON OF BEING! Thou art My lamp and My light is in thee. Get thou from it thy radiance and seek none other than Me. For I have created thee rich and have bountifully shed My favor upon thee.
— The Hidden Words, Arabic no. 11
Regards Tony
Paul's advice to women regarding lustful angels getting off when hair is openly worn ...
Sysiphus was just a whistleblower about one of Zeus' affairs. Look what spiritual law got him into...
And I wonder how those milkmaids really felt about young Krishna.
Not trying to be contrarian. Just harping on the theme of "whom the gods love...".