--- In [email protected], akasha_108 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> A:
> > > > > No, thats not quite the angle that struck me as so funny.
The
> > > > > deliciousness of the phrase is more a "mu" experience, a
> > la "whats
> > > > > wrong with this picture."
>
> J:
> > > > What's wrong with the picture of somebody not
> > > > wanting to be overshadowed? You've got me
> > > > curious--can you articulate it?
>
> U:
> > > I'd love to hear akasha's answer,
>
> I may sell tickets then :)
>
> U:
> > but mine
> > > would be, "It's a marvelous way of clinging
> > > to the notion of unenlightenment. To want
> > > to not be overshadowed, you have to believe
> > > you are. And the funny thing is, the moment
> > > you drop that belief, you aren't.
>
> :J
> > Yeah, that answer would be bull.
> >
> > Especially from somebody who admits he isn't
> > enlightened.
>
>
> Does it strike anyone else as funny, even absurd, that the whole
> paradigm about enlightenment on this list is dichotomous, digital,
> either "on or off"?
YES! That's exactly the issue.
I realized that some time back, during the discussions
about 'appreciation.' Some comment by, I think, Tom
made me completely abandon my old paradigm and come up
with a new one that more accurately described my
subjective experience.
> Pure consciousness begins from the first mediation. If not before.
Before. There has never been a moment in my life when
I was not enlightened. I just never appreciated it
until a three-week period in Fiuggi, when the 24/7 wit-
nessing made it impossible not to appreciate. Since
then, that witnessing has slipped from foreground to
background many times, but what I realized during the
'appreciation' discussion is that it has always been
present. What I realized when I first appreciated it
was that it had *always* been present.
> And
> it can be delicate at first, and fade (yellow dye and cloth anyone?)
> or become "overshadowed". But it keeps coming back. Sometimes more
> noticable, sometimes present only when one notices it --- "where are
> my glasses?" ("you are wearng them, silly") is a good analogy.
And when you lighten up about it, you can bring it from
background to foreground any time you want. It's just
the neatest thing.
<snip a host of great experiences>
The thing that brought it from background to foreground
most recently was, strangely enough, watching an old
movie on DVD. It was Roger Corman's, "The Raven," which
starred Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, and
a young guy in one of his first film roles, as Peter
Lorre's son. This young actor was SO bad that it made
you want to cringe. It was just amazing to watch. It
was like I was watching a brilliant actor brilliantly
playing the part of the worst actor ever filmed.
I was. It was Jack Nicholson. The thing is, he was a
great actor even then. He just didn't appreciate it,
so his range was limited, and he clung to old ideas of
being a bad actor, trapped by ignorance and inexperience.
It wasn't true. All that he ever became was already
present, just not appreciated, and thus unused.
That's the thing that is striking me about all these
conversations last night and this morning. Some people
who have learned to appreciate what has always been
present are talking to others who have not. The ones
who have not appreciated their own enlightenment are
playing a role, clinging to the illusion of their
ignorance as strongly as Jack was clinging to the
illusion of being a bad actor in The Raven. It's
all very, very, very, very funny.
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