Beelzebozo
Rising Star
There are many, many perspectives on the sensory soup that is existence, and, from my experience, not a single one that is not transitory and empty. What I mean is, there is no point of view that is the one right, true way to see life, each one is "correct" as long as you say it is, and as soon as you change your mind, suddenly it's just one perspective among many.
I start out saying that because my purpose in creating this thread is to posit, from a very open and skeptical grounding, that certain ways of modeling experience may be more relaxing than others. Hopefully, that mature starting place will prevent too much argument over whose view is "true," etc. (Ultimately, to me, we're just using letters to mold the unknown into different shapes of perception.) I'll share a perspective I find deeply, deeply relaxing and everyone else is welcome to share their own. Ideally, somebody somewhere will relax and enjoy their time here just a little bit more.
I think real relaxation and allowing ourselves to rest deeply into being alive without tension or fear is what everyone really wants. Although we tend to put images on that desire, like, for instance, "I want the perfect partner," but what we're really saying is, "I want the perfect partner because then I'll be able to relax and enjoy being alive." Insert whatever you like in place of "partner." In my life, at least, this kind of thinking has driven me crazy. Why not skip the imagined goal and go right for the relaxation? It doesn't mean you can't still have goals, but why deny yourself relaxation and enjoyment here and now, the only place we exist anyway, while you move towards them?
Enough blabber, here's a point of view I find eases all tension, like a deep massage:
In the culture I grew up in, there is a view that each individual has a life, a life which is built of blocks called years, months, days, and hours from a point called birth, and one day it will reach another point called death. Birth is somewhere "back there" along this linear structure, and "death" is somewhere "ahead." This structure, called "my life," creates a profound sense of anxiety. It's like we're in this teetering skyscraper being built up and up from birth, and we are terrified of death because this enormous thing we're perched on top of will fall over and we'll lose it all.
However, there is a way of seeing the world that alleviates all of that.
Look around whatever sensory experience is immediately surrounding you, here and now, and try and find "MY LIFE," this thing which you're striving to protect, perfect, and prolong. Is it in the room? Actually look for it. Open drawers. Look in the closet. You won't find it, I promise, but look anyway, or it won't have the same profound effect. Is "the future" anywhere to be found in the room? How about "ten years"?
Your memories haven't really been telling you the truth, this "moment" is the only thing there is. And you aren't actually "x" years away from your birth (SHOW me a "year," what is a "year?" ), this IS the same place where "you" were born, it's the same moment. Death, which the linear thought narrative tells you happens "out there" in "the future" somewhere, happens here. Death and birth are the same thing, of course, what else would they be? The nothing after you die is the same nothing as before you were born, it is untouched by this moment. When you die, it will be as though none of this, what you call "your life," has happened at all, there will be no trace of it, because it is only memory, even now.
Now, to relax even more deeply, feel into the fact that the Nothing which this moment, the big bang if you like, is immanent to is who YOU really are, under the words and story of you "as a person." You aren't a life that's going to die, you are Death having a life experience, or Nonexistence exploring existence. When you die, this temporary add-on called "something's happening" stops, but it's not original to You anyway. Don't intellectualize it, feel into it, feel what it feels like to see from the perspective of the Nothing before you were born rather than the Something that is all this stuff happening.
For me, it's like sinking into a feather bed. And it has real depth too. Next time you have an "ego death" experience, it makes it a million times easier to let go, because the Nothing is really you. You're already home, with nothing to lose.
Of course, this is just a perspective. It's not absolute because it's only helpful to living people. If you were dead, you wouldn't give two shits either way. There would be no need to relax or posit any of these things at all! :lol:
But why not relax while you're here? Existence is SO much more enjoyable when it's viewed as a kind of game or exploration, rather than this teetering structure that's hanging over some horrible abyss. I have no other reason to support this viewpoint, but for me, that's good enough. There are ways to argue that the opposite perspective is true, but either way, you die. Would you rather relax and enjoy this something that is happening or spend existence tightened up and fighting the inevitable all the way? It's a no brainer for me.
I start out saying that because my purpose in creating this thread is to posit, from a very open and skeptical grounding, that certain ways of modeling experience may be more relaxing than others. Hopefully, that mature starting place will prevent too much argument over whose view is "true," etc. (Ultimately, to me, we're just using letters to mold the unknown into different shapes of perception.) I'll share a perspective I find deeply, deeply relaxing and everyone else is welcome to share their own. Ideally, somebody somewhere will relax and enjoy their time here just a little bit more.
I think real relaxation and allowing ourselves to rest deeply into being alive without tension or fear is what everyone really wants. Although we tend to put images on that desire, like, for instance, "I want the perfect partner," but what we're really saying is, "I want the perfect partner because then I'll be able to relax and enjoy being alive." Insert whatever you like in place of "partner." In my life, at least, this kind of thinking has driven me crazy. Why not skip the imagined goal and go right for the relaxation? It doesn't mean you can't still have goals, but why deny yourself relaxation and enjoyment here and now, the only place we exist anyway, while you move towards them?
Enough blabber, here's a point of view I find eases all tension, like a deep massage:
In the culture I grew up in, there is a view that each individual has a life, a life which is built of blocks called years, months, days, and hours from a point called birth, and one day it will reach another point called death. Birth is somewhere "back there" along this linear structure, and "death" is somewhere "ahead." This structure, called "my life," creates a profound sense of anxiety. It's like we're in this teetering skyscraper being built up and up from birth, and we are terrified of death because this enormous thing we're perched on top of will fall over and we'll lose it all.
However, there is a way of seeing the world that alleviates all of that.
Look around whatever sensory experience is immediately surrounding you, here and now, and try and find "MY LIFE," this thing which you're striving to protect, perfect, and prolong. Is it in the room? Actually look for it. Open drawers. Look in the closet. You won't find it, I promise, but look anyway, or it won't have the same profound effect. Is "the future" anywhere to be found in the room? How about "ten years"?
Your memories haven't really been telling you the truth, this "moment" is the only thing there is. And you aren't actually "x" years away from your birth (SHOW me a "year," what is a "year?" ), this IS the same place where "you" were born, it's the same moment. Death, which the linear thought narrative tells you happens "out there" in "the future" somewhere, happens here. Death and birth are the same thing, of course, what else would they be? The nothing after you die is the same nothing as before you were born, it is untouched by this moment. When you die, it will be as though none of this, what you call "your life," has happened at all, there will be no trace of it, because it is only memory, even now.
Now, to relax even more deeply, feel into the fact that the Nothing which this moment, the big bang if you like, is immanent to is who YOU really are, under the words and story of you "as a person." You aren't a life that's going to die, you are Death having a life experience, or Nonexistence exploring existence. When you die, this temporary add-on called "something's happening" stops, but it's not original to You anyway. Don't intellectualize it, feel into it, feel what it feels like to see from the perspective of the Nothing before you were born rather than the Something that is all this stuff happening.
For me, it's like sinking into a feather bed. And it has real depth too. Next time you have an "ego death" experience, it makes it a million times easier to let go, because the Nothing is really you. You're already home, with nothing to lose.
Of course, this is just a perspective. It's not absolute because it's only helpful to living people. If you were dead, you wouldn't give two shits either way. There would be no need to relax or posit any of these things at all! :lol:
But why not relax while you're here? Existence is SO much more enjoyable when it's viewed as a kind of game or exploration, rather than this teetering structure that's hanging over some horrible abyss. I have no other reason to support this viewpoint, but for me, that's good enough. There are ways to argue that the opposite perspective is true, but either way, you die. Would you rather relax and enjoy this something that is happening or spend existence tightened up and fighting the inevitable all the way? It's a no brainer for me.
