--- In [email protected], "Rory Goff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Yes, I have found as long as "I" am claiming C.C., G.C., or U.C., > and "Brahman" has not yet claimed "me," I am not fully liberated, and > am still attached or bound to experience. > > Along these same lines, when you were asking about how we fall into > ignorance, I find that consciousness *constantly* collapses into the > particle, to experience the effect of our causative and innocent > thought as a created being, to enter into the world of our own > making. If the consciousness *believes* the particle-experience, or > is caught in a given belief, it identifies with the concreteness of > the effect and forgets the subtle simplicity of its own cause; it > finds the bindu to be binding, and experiences the ignorance of the > particle, or more accurately the particle's ignorance of the freedom > of ourself, of That-Self. > > When we remember "Oh, yes, this particle-experience is not me; it is > only one infinitesimal particle in the emptiful, Indefinable, > Ungraspable That-Self," then Brahman remembers itself, and acts as > the "Cosmic Consciousness" of the particle -- and so on, as described > earlier :-) >
With all due respect, and I mean that earnestly, and I am not presenting an argument -- but rather simply making some observations. In college, I took a course titled "Altered States of Consciousness" taught by Charles Tart -- who had written the definitive text on the topic at that time -- and was on the map as a key, if not the key researcher in such. He once commented that he had friends who took lots of very pure acid every weekend -- and had experiences described along the way Rory descibes his. And we all nodded -- having had firneds or peers along the same lines-- many of us coming of age before LSD was made illegal -- and some vials of very pure stuff was "widely" available. But he lamented, that these friends did not seem to benefit any from such experiences --as real as they seemed to be. They did not change behaviors, they did not produce deep new insights in their fields, they did not become more compassionate or reflecting any sort of moral or ethical growth. Tying to Danas post, he ask cogently, the same sorts of questions / observations of Dr Tart (Charlie to many on campus). Jim may be eternally free -- Rory plays with his particles, Tom has his hardrive loaded every morning by the cosmic computer. All of which is good and fine. But there is nothing either in their descriptions of their states, or their manifest behavior, insights, cognitive and logical capabilities etc that appeal much to me, inspire me to do anything to move in the direction of their attainments. Nor does it fit my evolving view of a "meaningful" life. See my adjacent post. And a side point, going back to posts of last week: the discussion on how do you know you are awake and not in a dream. (That is in a state as analogous to waking as is dreaming). How do you know for sure you are not in Plato's cave. How do you know that 3 dimensions is the end all and be all and not missing out stupendously just as a flatliner -- in a two dimensional existence -- is compared to our existence. The answer, -- was weak in my view. the answer being, imo, along the lines of being awake is a state of being and not a state of thought, And thus open KNOWS a state of being, a priori, no proof needed. In conversations with a number of my acid gulping friends and peers, an some experiences of my own, the consensus was similar: Being on good acid is a state of Being and its obvious that one is Awake compared to "being straight". But how substantial was that state of being. Per above discussion.
