I agree with most of what yuou said, much of it is almost a truism. However what you wrote has little or nothing to do with what I have written on NTs. You have either misunderstood (or more accurately I may have poorly articulated) what I said, or you have set up, perhaps unconsciously, some strawmen and then had a good run at knocking each of them down.
"a perfect state of mind at all times" "[not] getting uncomfortable as a feedback for our progress towards our goals" "Perfect fulfillment" "a state of mental fulfillment" "peak experiences" are all [strawmen, IMO] terms you used, none of which I used in my discussion of NT's mor anyone else as far as I remember. I used terms like "optimized NT and R (receptor) functioning. Thats akin, parallel to, being in very good physical shape, a high degree of physical fitness. The body is functioning not only well but strongly. Carrying the analogy further, physical endurance, strengh and agility are at high / optimal levels. Does such an athelete sit back and snooze saying "I am at a state of physical fulfillment so let me now be a couch potato"? Of course not. Such an athelete is NOW ready for a high level of performance in many sports and life itself. In fact, his/her conditionis is REQUIRED for a high level of applied perfromance in their sports of chioce. In a parallel fashion, optimized NT/R functioning provides the platform for really dymanic activity, pursuit of goals, and achievements -- for oneself and one's society. Why you think someone in top mental/emotional/physical/energy/mood/cognitive ability fitness would think "ah I am fulfilled let me sit back and do nothing" is well, puzzling if not mind boggling. I saw several amma videos last night so she is on my mind. (more on my heart, but I am using colloquial english). I would hypotheze that her body and NS are flooded with serotonin an possibly endorphins -- at much higher levels than "average". If so, does /would such stop her from spending every waking hours helping others? Or take vascular enhancing drugs. You maky be shocked, shocked! at this, but some guys in their 20's who wake up in a huge tent every morning and walk around work half the time with a banana in their pocket, so to speak, still try to get and use vascular enhancers to get EVEN better performance. Yet regardless of age, if one uses such vascular enhancers, do they go "well I have now achieved penile fulfillment, let me now snooze or do macramae? F**k no!. They are NOW ready for peak perfomance. Over and over and over again. "All night long" as Lional Richtie sang. There are a few drugs that do give fulfillment, mimicing what the body does after hard work. And use and reliance of such bypass measures, on a sustained basis is probably not so good. Opiates, alcohol and marijuana being three examaple that can do this at times, but certainly not all the time or universally. The image (not the universal reality) of heroin users is an example of this, immediate pleasure and left being topped over with a silly grin doing nothing. This is the situation in some cases, but many opiate users are quite productive including writers, -- Cooleridge was prolific under the influence -- as well as artists and musicians. I was prescibed some opiate containing meds after some dental work. I took it several times. I was so energized, and clear headed, I was amazed. Nothing dulling about the experience. Its like the lights went on physically and mentally. Long term regular use has severe drawbacks. But if the population were prescibed 4 tablets every 3 months, the world would be a better place, IMO Similar with marijuana. My friends who use such, as do many yogis and sadhus in India (Shiva is the God of Ganga and depicted as a regular user for God's sake), make the clear distinction between the major strains: Indica and Sativa. The Indicas are the couch-lock stuff. Happy but too stoned to move. The sativas are the get up and dance, click your heels, lets go take a long walk in the woods, I wanna write/draw clean the house, run, etc kind of stuff. But popular culture has mythified the latter as the typical stoner. Similar with alcohol. Couch potato six-packers are a common "myth" of the popular psych. And certainly heavy drinking can be dulling. And while I am not a drinker per se, if I am dull and tired, a small glass of wine perks me right up and gives me focus. I get why writers have often been associated with the bottle. And when I say "drugs", i an referring to NT/R balancing / optimizing drugs. I am afraid that you and others may be "hearing" opiates and marijuana, and buying into the half-truths even about this limited array of NTs. When I say drugs, I am referring to literally 100's of variuos NT/R drugs and 1000's yet to be designed (or found naturally in herbs and minerals). from > fulfilling my goals in life. I love the ride. It has ups and downs, > pain and pleasure, and I feel alive in each turn of the road. I would > never give up the grief I felt from the death of a loved one for any > state of heightened awareness. There is no state of mind that would > have helped or contributed anything of value to that perfect state of > pain. I didn't need to witness it from a cosmic perspective, I needed --- In [email protected], "curtisdeltablues" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Just a riff off of the neuro transmitter discussion. Is fulfillment > without achievement a worthy goal? It is an assumption in MMY's > system that it would be a good thing to have complete fulfillment > established without any reference to achievement. Now I view this > goal as more similar than different to people who take a lot of drugs. > In the people I know, only severe addicts want to be in a perfect > state of mind at all times. Most of us are comfortable getting > uncomfortable as a feedback for our progress towards our goals. > Perfect fulfillment sounds like death to me. I think that the whole > goal of achieving a state of mental fulfillment without achievement is > misguided. It is OK for a temporary state, especially to enhance > social interactions (recreational use anyone?), but the people I know > who feel compelled to live in such states all the time end up doing > macramé, or living on Purusha, IMO. > > I spent a lot of my youth pursuing fulfillment without achievement in > various forms. These days I enjoy getting my peak experiences from > fulfilling my goals in life. I love the ride. It has ups and downs, > pain and pleasure, and I feel alive in each turn of the road. I would > never give up the grief I felt from the death of a loved one for any > state of heightened awareness. There is no state of mind that would > have helped or contributed anything of value to that perfect state of > pain. I didn't need to witness it from a cosmic perspective, I needed > to surrender to the exquisite flip side of loving a mortal person, the > ass kicking that time delivers. > > This may have nothing to do with anyone here pursuing higher states of > consciousness. I just can no longer imagine a state of mind better > than the one I am riding right now. I have lost a desire to improve > my awareness. It has been replaced with so many versions of things > that I want to improve in my life and even about myself. I am > interested in becoming more aware of things, but I feel like my > awareness itself is doing fine, it just gets distracted sometimes. To > misquote a great song: "I've got 99 problems but awareness ain't one!" > > So how are others relating to expansion of awareness as a goal, and > fulfillment without achievement as a worthy state? >
