The Internal Tsunami

[whitewave]

It's 12 o'clock or so--Saturday night. I've been locked away from the world with a bunch of poets for two days. The first contact with the outside world came when I logged onto my computer tonight. The Pope is dead, I read. There is a storm raging on Block Island now as I write. The wind and rain on the windows are angry, or maybe exhultant. The death of the Pope, who seemed like he's been about to go for what seems like years to me, at this time, seems significant. Part of what I feel is the energetic, or internal tsunamie that is sweeping over earth right now. His death makes me fear the physical tsunami even less. So thanks Pope, for choosing to let go now. The Pope is taking a lot of destructive energy off the earth with his passing. I think Terri Schiavo is somehow tied to all of this, but I'm not sure how. I'd love to hear what you all think about this--and if anyone else is feeling the internal tsunami as well. For example, for the past two weeks I have been so angry and crying all the time. I thought it was about me, but now I think it was a reaction to the energetic blast earth has received. The anger and grief were mourning filtered through my ego.

[Rob P]

hey whitewave-

i agree about the
pope/schiavo connection...

i had the same thought
of connection
back in 1997 when
princess diana died, and
then mother theresa soon after...

seeya
rob

[Gift Horse]

For me, personally, I did not feel this to be a major event. He was a very unhealthy, aged man, who looked like someone who should've passed on a few years ago. I think it was more amazing that he lived this long.

As for Earth Changes website:

Pope John Paul II Has Died and Coming Prophecy

God bless his soul and for all of us who believe in the principle of "Ascension".



Many believe the Pope’s death is a prophetic sign of events to come. Some believe an uncomfortable shift in world tension will increase, others believe it is the precursor to cosmic or earth changing events.



Although I embrace ancient text and prophecy, I also believe in our collective power to influence current events. I also believe prophecy is to help prepare us for events to come; maybe not so much as to stop events, although this may be possible, but to best absorb or to “facilitate” events as they unfold.



But let me re-affirm ECTV’s position on breaking news events. It is not our intention to shock or scare anyone, our focus is on “awareness and preparedness”. It is our oath to never publish erroneous, channeled, or unharnessed conjecture. Published breaking news events will come only from reliable credible sources. On the occasion of conjecture (opinion), we will state clearly the article is based on such and absent factual backed data.



For example; ECTV will never post an article that says “Jane Smith has just predicted that an asteroid will crash into Earth on April 12th.” What we will post is something like this: “John Smith of the New Mexico Amateur Astronomy Society has just released information suggesting NEA asteroid “JS2005” has just been spotted and confirmed by five other amateur astronomers in New Zealand and South Africa. This news release states asteroid “JS2005” came from a less monitored sector of our solar system and was not detected until now. It appears “JS2005” may have shifted its trajectory and could cause a dangerous flyby next month”.

Remember…this is just an example!

[tana]

I believe that one's perception of external events can be affected (distorted?) by one's current internal processes...a sort of projection. I do think we can absorb external chaos, that it can reverberate within us, but i'm inclined to believe it usually happens the other way around...our internal state is projected out from us, like ripples on water.

Or...maybe it works in both ways simultaneously, like an equilibrium...i'm not sure, my mind is now going in circles on this point!

The Pope is taking a lot of destructive energy off the earth with his passing

...well, i hope so...that would be helpful! Actually, the pope's illness / death was a total non-issue for me (aside from being an annoyance media-coverage-wise)...i find the whole papacy completely meaningless...archaic and ridiculous...however, that's how i view Catholicism in general. I don't know how much political influence the papacy has on non-catholics. (hmmm...am i in some sort of denial?) You know, i may be going in circles on this also, considering the spiritually/socially/politically damaging aspects of Catholicism.

This past week, i have personally experienced a lot of acceptance and release...and subsequent internal calm...but then, i have been spending a lot of time gardening (in my basement "greenhouse", nurturing vegetable and flower seedlings)...and that activity always makes me feel like all's right with the world. The Indonesian quake initially shook me up a bit, but it was a purely selfish reaction...my brother was in Thailand at the time (gulf coast...so far, safe.)

BTW Whitewave...i took a fabulous solo trip to Block Island about ten years ago...off season (March...no big-city invaders yet)...i hiked around, saw the migrating seals, chatted with locals...a lovely, peaceful (and chilly!) trip.

[ April 03, 2005, 03:49 AM: Message edited by: tana ]

[Buzz]

And Neil Young nearly died from a brain anurism yesterday. And i'm sick with a sinous infection. I love spring except for the hayfever.
I'm not so sure this stuff is connected. Life and Death goes on. But the constitution is certainly under threat.

On a side note, Lucia, the miracle child of Fatima passed only a couple of weeks ago as well. I will give the Pope credit for not wishing to remain alive on feeding tubes. He chose to face death in his apartment at the Vatican.

Was watching a Nat'l Geo show on the Tsunami a couple of days ago. At the end of the program the Canary Island volcanic slide was mentioned with a computer simulation of it hitting the east coast USA. While scientists disagree about just when that will happen, they do not disagree that every 500 years there is a major Tsunami along the Pacific Northwest. 200 years to go till the next one, if thats the case.

Gestalt!

[whitewave]

Upon reflection, I think what I was really trying to say was not so much that the Pope was taking energy off the earth with his crossing, but that he was being swept away by this energetic tsunami that I think we are now experiencing. As for the Catholic Church, Tana, I understand it as one of the institutions that has perpetuated the disease of civilization--a greedy Empire that has been one of the main perpetrators of the mass hallucination that has a hold of most of the U.S and many others worldwide. In my eyes, it is even worse than corporations and governments in some ways since it does so under the guise of peace and love for humanity. The Pope may not mean a whole lot to some of you personally, but as the leader of one of the behemoth's of western civilization, in some ways, he is a symbol, rathern than just a man. Because of that, I don't think it behooves us to take his death lightly, as some annoying media event. As I have said in many other posts, I don't believe in coincidence. Everything happens for a reason at the time it is supposed to happen. I look at all events, no matter how trivial they may seem, as something that is bringing a message to me, and when something comes out in the media in a really strong way like the Schiavo case, I most certainly pay attention to what it could be saying about the zeitgeist, even when I think the event is banal or sickening. As for it being time for the Pope to pass on, yes, that's what I was saying! It has seemed like he was going to keel over for years now. Why now?

[whitewave]

Some further symbological ruminations about the pontiff's passing. In the tarot, the fifth card is called The Hierophant, in some decks it is explicitly called The Pope. This card represents received religious tradition. It is not a card that encourages exploration, but obedience. Five is also the number associated with the planet Mars, god of War. In astrology, Mars governs our level of aggression in various ways. Obviously, this is also the year 2005. Fives are associated with the change that comes after the stability of the fours--which represent grounded earth energy. To me, the Pope's death at this time signifies the death of obedience. The energetic support system for the mass hallucination has been swept away....thus the people and institutions which supported it will either crumble or pass on more peacefully to their next phase. I find it encouraging that this transition is embodied in the peaceful death of an old man in his bedroom, rather than a violent assassination or some other drastic, shocking event like the earth changes many on this board have been predicting.

[JCCamp007]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
A B C D E F G H I J
K L M N O P Q R S T
U V W X Y z

for example

johndonaldson=0+5+8+4+4+5+4+1+2+4+9+5+4=55 and the alpha and the omega.

Hallowed be His name.

[silentwolf]

I personally don't feel that converting English to numbers is practical or really even feasible. Other languages were formations of alphanumerics, such as the dead Hebrew. Since these languages were based upon mathematics, they will have numerical values assigned to each word and letter, and that would go into the labeling system.

It is possible that these symbols were better for conveying experiences, but today it simply isn't the case.

[Isaiah Mpski]

Your full of it,white man.
Of course it makes a difference and the validlity of the English expression is emphasized by the 26 letters.
It's the luck of the draw.Johndonaldson is a 10-(and not just a ten-but a 55 ten) and you're not Wolf.Or are you.?
The significance of numbers revolves around twenty-six-which is 8,which is really all the numbers in the world and is who the Messiah who may be remembered may be.
Probably the most significant verse in Revelation is Chapter 19 verse 16.John chapter 19 verse 26.
Behold Quetzoguatal(sic) Daniel.
Quanum Parker-Milam King- put a tattoo on my thigh when I was just a lad-King of Kings Lord of Lords.Told me it was to remind me who I am.Been there most of my life

[ April 12, 2005, 05:12 AM: Message edited by: Isaiah Mpski ]

[JCCamp007]

What?I better start reading these posts more often.
A flyby of asteroid JS 2005 next month?
Jesus Christ.
It could be the electric one.Totally destroys all magnetic devices.Good-bye computors,most cars,seeds ,crops, electricity and water.Creates a steam bath for about three years and then a total freezeup.Just like a giant air conditioner that's run out of freon.
Mpski.Will you post directions to your place in central America.

[ April 05, 2005, 03:46 AM: Message edited by: JCCamp007 ]

[forteanajones]

JC, the thing about JS2005 was actually fictional example intended to illustrate how ECTV prefers to report news...(or were you joking)?

Whitewave, thank you for the interesting analysis. I especially enjoyed "the energetic support system for the mass hallucination has been swept away". I wonder what the energetic reserves which remain might be based on. As for the internal tsunami, my own personal experience of it has been fairly steady since at least 2003 or so. Quite unnerving. I honestly can no longer imagine how it might feel when it lets up, but I'm still strangely optimistic.

[SecondSun]

Google gave an interesting definition to Hierophant courtesy of theosociety.org:

[from Greek hierophantes from hieros sacred + phainein to show] A revealer of sacred mysteries; title given to the highest adepts in the temples of antiquity, who taught and expounded the Mysteries. The attributes of a hierophant were those of Hermes or Mercury, being both expounder and mystagog or conductor of souls. In Hebrew an equivalent is found in the hierarchy of the 'elohim. Many names of man-gods refer to archaic hierophants, such as Orpheus, Enoch, etc. The hierophants of ancient Egypt handed down the sacred teachings, some of which were, however, lost by the deaths of hierophants before they
www.theosociety.org/pasadena/etgloss/hi-hz.htm (http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/etgloss/hi-hz.htm)

Seems quite different from the now dogmatic position played by the pope. John Paul II was a great leader for many reasons but would you really call him a "revealer of mysteries?"

Also, regarding numerology, I have never liked the practice of adding the digits of a number. It seems like you can make it add to almost anything by changing the base.

Five times five in base ten is 25. The digits add to seven. It is 11001 in binary. The digits add to three or 11 in binary. Adding again produces two (10). Adding again produces one.
Twenty-five is 221 in ternary, the digits add to five (12). Adding again produces three (10). Adding again produces one. It is 121 in base four. The digits add to four (10). Adding again produces one. It is 19 in hexadecimal (one-nine, not nineteen), the digits add to ten. Of course the digits in bases larger than twenty-five will always add to twenty-five.

Why would syncronocity prefer base ten? The sumerians used based 60! This trick would be unnecessary on numbers smaller than 60. What are the numerological properties of all the numbers between one and sixty? They each have a distinct numeral and cannot be reduced further for analysis.

What about factors of numbers? It seems like a number's mystical properties would have more to do with this than their decimal representation. 25 is a square. 3 is a triangle. 360 is 2^3 times 3^2 times 5. Does this count for anything?

Most numerologists are ignorant of even the most basic theorems of number theory, whereas mathematicians seem to be unsuperstitious by nature (there are some notable exceptions). It seems that if there was any truth to numerology that it would be very closely tied in to number theory. Why would God both grant numbers with fascinating mystical properties and fascinating mathematical properties and not have them be related?

Personally I think number theory is the shit. I like knowing why the number of primes is infinite. I like knowing that any number can be uniquely factored into primes. I find numerology to be vage at best and misleading at worst. Wouldn't numerologists benefit from rational analysis?

Ok this is begining to turn into a rant. My apologize. Still, am I the only one that feels this way?

Zach

[SecondSun]

Oh yeah, that's my name BTW. Thinks it's the first time I've used it on this board.

[JCCamp007]

Dear Zach and Jones,
Yes Jones I was only kidding like a kid I quess but really with the appearance of asteroids,anything is literally possible.
Zach a logical explanation in regard to 10.Christ came along and announced that he was a ten(alpha and the omega).That is one way you will have to identify him.He will be a 10 when he is recognised by those who need some sort of cement symbolism to latch onto.Do you understand?
Let me give you a reason why that is important.The meaning of the beast-666-add them up they come out to a 9,one short of Christ.Thus the beast is imperfection,that which is not complete,symbolically and literally.

[whitewave]

Secondsun,
Thank you for the information about the role of the hierophant. I have been thinking a lot about Orpheus lately--reading Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus--and he was in my mind a lot in the Love, Sex, Atomic Death thread, but I haven't quite got my mind around whatever thought it wants me to receive. Maybe it relates to the Siinging New Plants Into Existence thread. Orpheus was someone who could sing things into being. Some say that is why the Maenads killed him. Interesting, because the Maenads, as destroyers, are a manifestation of Kali. Is Kali energy currently trying to kill the ability in us to sing the world into being? Or is it that we have to surrender to being torn apart, like Orpheus--after the Maenads killed him, his head drifted downstream and came ashore on the island of Lesbos, the abode of Sappho, who as we know, was the first great lyric poet whose work has actually come down to us. Are Sappho's lyrics a link to Orpheus? Do we become Orpheus everytime we sing? According to many spiritual traditions, the world is made of sound. And as I have been pointing out all along, the vibration of the wave is changing. What will the new energetic support system sound like? According to my spiritual teacher it will be one of harmony rather than of the dissonance which civilization has been founded on. Also, according to her, it is fully present now. We are just not letting go fully to perceive it. Those who let go will stay in their physical bodies as the new wave grows stronger, while those who don't will leave their bodies and start the cycle all over again on whatever plane they need to land on in order to "come home." Home is the place where all illusions are stripped away. I have been slipping in and out of this awareness constantly in the past month. I have felt great anger and frustration. I am trying to view my enormous anger as a purging of all that is stopping me from staying in the new reality. I just tried to fast for ten days--made it to six. In some traditions ten is the number of wholeness, but I really don't know where these numbers come from. A number system based on observation of the heavens makes sense to me, but anything else seems like it would have to be subjective, not that it wouldn't have power if enough agreed of its signifigance. Anyway, the numerology discussion here has me confused. I don't relate emotionally to numbers, and that is how I learn. Not to stop anyone from discussing it! As far as I'm concerned, anything that comes into the discussion is there because it has something to say to me. And yes, SecondSun, I would agree that Pope John Paul II was a concealer of the mysteries, rather than a revealer. I would suspect that the institution which he headed was so corrupt that he didn't even know what the mysteries were!

[forteanajones]

Orpheus - interesting that you bring that up as that again evokes the Moloch/Molech thing for me. Fritz Lang's 1927 Metropolis depicts a Morpheus character called Freder who restores the Maiden/Mother to the world by descending into the lower world, crucifying himself on a wheel of time, and then engages in struggle with a satanic-looking creature called Moloch. (Freder's father rules like a god from the New Tower of Babel and tries to wipe out his people and start over, which in part inspires Freder to take his journey).

[Eagle Wing]

Whitewave,

thank you for the direction of this discussion, it's really interesting... that you introduced the numerology with the number 5 and relating it to the Pope's passing: there might be something there.

I think that the power of numerology does in fact lie in the intuitive and emotional nature of the numbers; the reality that numbers do indeed have metaphysical essences, abstract truths underlying them, absolutely.

Which is why 10 is the number of alpha and omega, or, to be more precise I would say that 10 is the number of COMPLETION. Why, you might ask? Isn't that just arbitrary?
Well, no...
Someone posted that the number 9, as numerologically equivalent to 666, is the number of imperfection (and also associated with evil)... but I think it might be more accurate to say that 9 is simply the number of eternal INCOMPLETION. This is a mathematical fact... 9 (3 to the 3rd power) does some really mystical and rhythmic stuff. Try checking out a base 9 number system and see how it flows... its weirdness is only matched by the relative simplicity of a base 10, 12, 20 or (best of all) 60.
The person who really investigated this thoroughly was Buckminster Fuller. Check out the last chapter of his "Synergetics" for an elaborate discussion of numerology, and #9 in particular.
Some other thoughts about 666... someone told me once that the meaning of that number was that 6 is the number of man, and 3 the number of God, so 666 is the number of man presuming to stand in the place of God (Lucifer). Contrast this with the number of Christ, 888.
888=6
666=9
Numerological meanings embedded even in the glyphs of the numbers themselves.
Also, Earth revolves around the Sun at 666,666 miles per hour.
(the mile, btw, is an equal-part subdivision of the circumference of the Earth)
food for thought!

[craazyman]

Sunday, April 10

New York City

Whitewave
Block Island, RI

Dear Whitewave,

In reference to your intitial post on this thread, and having suffered the same experience myself from time to time, I can easily imagine the psychological stress that you must have endured from being locked away with a bunch of poets for two days. If, as Percy Shelly famously said, poets are the "unacknowledged legislators of the world", then I believe that explains the propensity of many of them to tax one's spiritual coinage, and to spend it on themselves. It may have been for this reason that Plato excluded them from his Republic (although, truth be told, I suspect they would have found some entreprenurially minded friends inside that would have eventually prevailed on the body politic to loosen its standards). But I digress.

I am writing to you because, after scrutinizing some of your recent posts on this board, I have come to the belief that we may have an intersection of interests--one that could provide the foundation for a mutually beneficial business transaction of sorts.

Before I suggest what I have in mind, I want to assure you that I do not wish to take advantage of any temporary weakness in your psychological defenses induced by your recent sequestration, and yet neither do I wish to question your judgement. I am essentially a libertarian in all matters political, emotional, spiritual and religious. I do not possess an especially judicial temperment. Having made this disclaimer, I will proceed right to the point.

You seem to be discomfited by the prospect of an upcoming East Coast tsunami, as predicted on this discussion board and possibly elsewhere by a Mr. Harper and others of the precognitive persuasion. Indeed, Block Island is a defensless low-lying spit of land severely exposed to the north Atlantic and lacking in any terrain that might afford a dependable sanctuary from such an event. Your anxiety is well-founded.

It may well be that you would prefer to be elswhere on the foretold date. I live in New York City, on the upper East Side of Manhattan, on the 15th floor of a building whose foundation is approximately one quarter acre of poured concrete. More than six miles of thickly constructed city blocks lie between my building and New York harbor, which, in turn, lies inside of the natural defenses provided by the narrow straight between Brooklyn and Staten Island. If a tsunami were to hit, by the time the water reached my address the effect would be less than the residue of an April shower.

Due to a series of business-related projects that have necessitated my constant attention, I have not had a vacation in a very, very long time. My proposal is this. During the foretold week of the tsunami, you can live in my apartment in New York and I will occupy your house on Block Island.

My apartment is not opulent but it is comfortable, a spacious L-shaped studio with separate kitchen and bath in a well-maintained elevator building with friendly and cooperative staff. Taxis and busses are easily accessible from my corner and the subway is a short walk from my front door. As a plus, I have a sweeping southern view of mid-town Manhattan and a rather large balcony. Quite superior in all respects to even an expensive hotel room.

My requirements for accomodation on Block Island are modest. In fact, my preference would be a Thoreau-like wooden shack remote from any vestage of civilization, lacking electricity and supplied not by plumbing, but by well water. And yet I am familiar with the price of real estate on Block Island, and so do not expect such a fortuitious set of circumstances. If, let us say, instead of such a modest abode you occupy a large beach house, perhaps with an ocean view, backyard pool, patio with barbeque, well stocked liquor cabinet and private beach where I can fly-cast for stripers on the evening tide, well . . . I can be flexible.

I do not entirely discount the possibility of a tsunami on the foretold date. And so I have developed a plan. On the appointed day I intend to be on the island's southern, Atlantic-facing, beach with a vodka tonic, a large beach umbrella and an inflated raft. If the tsunami doesn't strike I'll enjoy a normal day on the beach. If it does, I suspect the collective rush to the higher elevations of Block Island will demonstrate forms of human behavior that would place the philosopher Thomas Hobbes in the camp of optimists, and so I will chance it with my makeshift sailboat composed of raft and umbrella. And the vodka tonic will also come in handy. In such an event, I will certainly need a drink.

At this point I am quite sure what you must be thinking about me, "If I go for this, will he chicken out and cancel as the foretold date approaches."

To that I can reply, definitively, no. I am dedicated to comporting myself in this matter as the Roman general Brutus did when confronted with Ceasar's ghost, in his tent on the eve of battle at Phillipi, as related by Shakespeaere.

I quote from Julius Caesar:

---

Brutus: Art thou some god, some angel or some devil That mak'st my blood cold and my hair to stare? Speak to me what thou art.
Ghost: Thy evil spirit, Brutus.
Brutus: Why com'st thou?
Ghost: To tell thee thou shalt see me at Phillipi.
Brutus: Well, then shall I see thee again?
Ghost: Ay, at Phillipi.
Brutus: Why, I will see thee at Phillipi then.

---

If some messenger from the spirit world should visit me with a warning of the tides of May, I will say, likewise, "Very well then, I will see you at the beach."

Best regards,
-C

P.S. I am a gambler but not a fool. If I hear of any unusual siesmic activity in the area of the Canary Islands in the week or so leading up to the appointed date, all plans are off. But you are still welcome. I'll put a mattress down on the floor, and you can have the bed.

[ April 10, 2005, 03:39 AM: Message edited by: craazyman ]

[Isaiah Mpski]

Went out this evening and sowed a half acre with purple hull peas.Spent the rest of the time planting green beans,corn and dill.Cultivated the carrots,onions,mustard,beets,spinach.Watered the tomatoes in the green house.
Thank God I'm not in New York City,the dogshit capital of the world.

Sell out and move to Oklahoma.There's work here.

[ April 10, 2005, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: Isaiah Mpski ]

[SecondSun]

"Dear Zach and Jones,
Yes Jones I was only kidding like a kid I quess but really with the appearance of asteroids,anything is literally possible.
Zach a logical explanation in regard to 10.Christ came along and announced that he was a ten(alpha and the omega).That is one way you will have to identify him.He will be a 10 when he is recognised by those who need some sort of cement symbolism to latch onto.Do you understand?
Let me give you a reason why that is important.The meaning of the beast-666-add them up they come out to a 9,one short of Christ.Thus the beast is imperfection,that which is not complete,symbolically and literally."

But it doesn't add to nine it adds to 18 which is two times nine and nine is three squared. What does three symbolize? What does two symbolize? And how about all 18 decompositions of eightteen: 18 + 0, 17 + 1, ... , 1 + 17, 0 + 18. If you diregard order you have ten distinct decompositions of 18. So you see I have worked it all back to ten. But does that mean anything? And how about alpha and omega, what does the number Alpha-Omega add up to in traditional greek numbers? How about in our own Roman alphabet. The romans used the letters I, V (which is really a U) and X for their numbers. There is no standard way of encoding numbers in the Roman alphabet. Cryptologist study esoteric and purposefully obfuscated letter/number cyphers as well as hopelessly uncrackable code. The Art of Computer Programs is about displaying the mathematical beauty of numbers in clear legible symbols. Does God's love of the power of numbers not manifest in man's ciphers and codes? What of our own human code, the human language? Is this not but the word of God as we all speak in one accord?

So I ask you what place does your numerology have in the mind of God?

[ April 10, 2005, 09:59 PM: Message edited by: SecondSun ]

[whitewave]

Craazyman--I've moved on from fearing a physical tsunami, although the internal tsunami still rages. In fact, I've been so depressed that I've been wishing one would come and sweep me away so I don't have to go through this anymore. Daniel, I know what you said about detaching from your emotions is true, but I just can't do it right now. This idea was also voiced by the workshop leader I met this weekend. He was not your typical writing teacher as he was a yogi. His name is Jeff Davis and he has a book out called "Journey From The Center To The Page." When I asked him how one could learn to detach, he said the way to do this was to practice, to form habits through practice.

Craazyman, most of all, I am glad my despair inspired your creativity. Your post was genuinely witty and cheered me up for the time it took me to read it. Thanks.

[Gift Horse]

Hi Whitewave,

(my name is whitewave in the old celt language)
I wanted to offer to you a couple of book suggestions that I found extremely practical in overcoming my own internal tsunami.
The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
and anything by Alan Watts.
And if I were to give you any advice it would be to be loving and gentle with your Self.

[Manning]

Daniel, I know what you said about detaching from your emotions is true, but I just can't do it right now. This idea was also voiced by the workshop leader I met this weekend. He was not your typical writing teacher as he was a yogi. His name is Jeff Davis and he has a book out called "Journey From The Center To The Page." When I asked him how one could learn to detach, he said the way to do this was to practice, to form habits through practice.

Ever since I read the article, The Buddha's Brain on the Night of His Enlightenment [Reference: Transformations Topic --> The Myth of Enlightenment], I've been wondering if there are different forms of enlightenment according to what "side" of the brain is neurochemically linked to an awakening experience.

Buddhists for example, seem to praise detachment from emotions. It's almost as if one is to be stripped of any emotional response at all -- a blank canvas, simply experiencing, but not responding to whatever arises.

A mystical path on the other hand seems to place great value in particular emotions, particularly that of love, which in it's most exalted form is probably the highest state of intelligence there is. (In my opinion, anyway.)

Meantime, most of us are well aware that if we put away an emotion before it's really been worked through, that repressed emotion often manages to leak out in other ways. This is especially so of more "negative" emotions -- anger, fear, pain, shame, depression, etc. And we're also aware that it's easy to cling to the more positive emotions and want them to overstay their welcome in our lives. So clearly, pretending that you're not sad/glad/mad/etc. when that's exactly what you are isn't the solution either.

The best I've been able to do is simply remain authentic to what's happening in that moment. If what I'm feeling is sad, I allow myself to feel that sadness. If I feel happy, I allow myself to feel that happiness. If I'm feeling sad, and something happens that causes me to laugh, I go ahead and laugh -- maybe my emotions will turn towards something less saddening then, or maybe they won't. If I notice that I seem to be stuck in a particular response, I see if I can trace it back to an originating source. Sometimes, there's some old work that needs to be completed.

That doesn't mean you have to repond to your emotions -- a person can be angry for instance, yet choose to not lash out at another -- but nor does it mean that you won't experience emotions or be affected by them.

As you work more with understanding where your emotional responses come from, and how they manifest in your life you might also spot yourself playing some games, or acting out repetitive patterns of behavior that you don't want to do anymore. Over time, with conscious awareness, you work to dismantle those.

Eventually, you might come to the point where you can simply observe or watch your emotional response to the events and circumstances around you. By then, you've laid the groundwork and can safely detach as opposed to repressing or prematurely putting away. But you have to be authentic to where you're at. If you can detach, great, if you can't, great -- either way, it's all a learning experience.

Bear in mind that "feeling" is also a rational function that analyzes and provides raw data. If, for example, a person finds themself chronically depressed in their job, relationship, position in life, etc. -- that doesn't necessarily mean they shouldn't feel depressed. Sometimes it means that particular relationship, job, or position in life is no longer serving them well and it's time to let it go or take it to a new level.

[ April 12, 2005, 05:06 AM: Message edited by: Manning ]

[craazyman]

Hey Whitewave, I've been where you apparently are now, and it's not fun. Slow step by slow step, powered by an almost impossible faith in something we can neither see nor feel, is about all we have for those passages. It's thin armor, but it makes us human. I wrote my post with a warm heart and good will. I'm glad you took it in that spirit.

[whitewave]

Tomorrow is the day John Jay Harper predicted the east coast tsunami will occur....I've been listening to the birds and the waves....all seems well so far...and walking counterclockwise. All feels well outside and inside. Robins hatching eggs and crows flying off the phone wires. My friends and I are planning to don our wetsuits tomorrow just in case.

[Woodpecker]

Was it May 15? I thought it was May 12.

Wondering in Boston,

Wpkr