The Doors and the Bathtub

[Mole]

I am surprised more of us aren't inflected with the inner life because the inner life is all around us but we only see the surface.

The surface is quite permeable we can enter into things simply by paying attention.

It's like we are walking down a long corridor with doors on either side, but we are in a hurry to get where we are going and so don't open any of the doors. But behind every day is a world of its own.

To be practical, we need first to learn how to open a door and enter then how to leave and close the door, otherwise we might get lost in the room.

I learnt how to open and close doors in the Sports' Union of the Australian National University with the psychologist John Turnbull as he taught athletes how to improve their performance through the inner life.

We can hear The Doors sing Break on Through to the Other Side by clicking on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzxHx-mOqRI but there is no need to break down the door, all we need to do is to learn to turn the door knob and ease the door open. And we can do it in the bathtub, as below -

[h=2]The Bath and the Ineffable[/h]

I feel in love with the bath and would spend three hours at a time in the bath periodically topping up the hot water.​

Indeed I was so in love with the bath I learnt to meditate in the bath.

The first sign of meditation was my thoughts running free, and free and free and free. But then my thoughts settled down and my imagination took over. And I would just bathe in the waters of my imagination.

But then all of a sudden my thoughts would stop, completely stop, and there I was wide awake with no thoughts at all - it is an ineffable experience, to be completely awake with all self talk stopped - no wonder I was in love with the bath.

- Mole.​

 

[Forever_Jung]

Huxley would be proud.

 

[Mole]

Cleansing the Doors of Perception

Huxley would be proud.

Yes, Forever_Jung, Huxley quotes from William Blake's 1793 poem, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell -

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.

Huxley tried to cleanse his perception using mescaline. Unfortunately mescaline only clouded his perception.

Rather I suggest we follow Dennis Wier in his book, From Magic to Technology, and find the natural way to cleanse our perception.

Here, Forever_Jung, you can read, From Magic to Technology, by clicking on https://books.google.com.au/books?i...#v=onepage&q=From Magic to Technology&f=false and like William Blake discover the marriage of the Inner and the Outer.

 

[Forever_Jung]

Yes, Forever_Jung, Huxley quotes from William Blake's 1793 poem, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell -



Huxley tried to cleanse his perception using mescaline. Unfortunately mescaline only clouded his perception.

Rather I suggest we follow Dennis Wier in his book, From Magic to Technology, and find the natural way to cleanse our perception.

Here, Forever_Jung, you can read, From Magic to Technology, by clicking on https://books.google.com.au/books?i...#v=onepage&q=From Magic to Technology&f=false and like William Blake discover the marriage of the Inner and the Outer.

Thanks Mole! I might try to find it at the library first since I prefer to read books on paper, but I appreciate the recommendation. Ever since high school I have always been fascinated by "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell".

 

[Lark]

 

[Mole]

Thanks Mole! I might try to find it at the library first since I prefer to read books on paper, but I appreciate the recommendation. Ever since high school I have always been fascinated by "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell".

Yes, the Marriage of Heaven and Hell precipitates us into an untenable situation, into cognitive dissonance, and turns off our critical mind in our prefrontal cortex allowing our imagination to come out to play. In short the marriage of two opposites is a poetic trance induction. Or in other words, the Marriage of Heaven and Hell successfully suspends our disbelief, and so is a successful work of art.

 

[Mole]

I've always had a strange friend or two, and I have wondered why. Perhaps it is because the strange are socially excluded and so suffer from loneliness. And whenever I feel lonely I go looking for another lonely person, and we recognise the need for company in each of us, and so by sharing our loneliness, end it.