On Travel and Spirituality

reply to post by BlueMule

I'm not insisting that your spirituality is weak. You're demonstrating it. I'm just observing it. You have nice manners though. Not that they matter. Spirituality requires neither manners nor travel.

There are common denominators in mystical traditions, travel isn't one of them. One can achieve Buddha-hood without ever leaving home.

But, one can't achieve Buddha-hood without altered states of consciousness. States that transcend time and space. States that are transpersonal.

Traveling through time and space is nice, but its no substitute for transcending time and space. They are after all just illusions.

Exactly. You share your opinion, I share mine. The cave dweller demonstrate's his, I share my observations on it, and vice versa.

Buddha had to leave home. Loazi travelled west. I could only imagine what their philosophies would have been like if they didn't see the world first.

reply to post by Itisnowagain

“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

Interestingly enough, I was reading the Pensées this morning. You should read it in it's entirety. It's quite beautiful. You'll notice the aphoristic style. There's a free copy on Gutenberg.org if you're interested.

I would also recommend the maxims of Goethe. There's great thought in this book as well. Maxims and Reflections

reply to post by Aphorism


I am checking out Blaise Pascal online and life his story is remarkable and he died just 39 years old.
en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Itisnowagain


Yes. He was a very devout man but also very mathematically inclined and scientific in his reasoning. The Pensees was considered one of the finest example of French prose ever written. Pascal's wager is used as a theistic argument which still troubles thinkers to this day. I didn't know he died so young.

Aphorism
Buddha had to leave home. Loazi travelled west. I could only imagine what their philosophies would have been like if they didn't see the world first.

Buddha didn't have to leave home. He had to cross a threshold from known to unknown, as every mystic does. Leaving home was just the form it took, at first. Leaving home was an outer symbolic manifestation, a foreshadowing of the inner threshold from personal (known) to transpersonal (unknown) consciousness.

For people who can't physically leave home or travel for one reason or another, that threshold will take another form. Form is secondary. When they are ready, it will come to them in a form appropriate for them. The iterations of the monomyth are infinite.

Aphorism

On Travel and Spirituality

 

seeking imaginary worlds rather that the real one

How quick one is to judge of what is imaginary and what is real. Also, just because something is illusion, does not mean it loses its value to the observer, that is another judgement of the mind. Has the illusion of the world of man lost value in the heart of the Buddhas? NO. Test the value of things, that is the only true way to know where it fits and how it fits, but in order to test correctly, one must have a radiant heart and mind, everything else is practice.

In all acts of stationary meditation and prayer, one learns mostly what the back of his eyelids looks like, or how to sit, how to kneel, how to lay down, how to calm, how to seek quiet of environment for quiet of mind, how to seek quite of mind for quiet environment—how to not experience. Meditation without movement is instead a desire to sleep; and it is no wonder that meditation and a good nights rest have the exact same health benefits. Seeking mindfulness involves first seeking an external world to be mindful of. The rest is seeking sleep, seeking not-seeking, rest, retirement, resignation—they call it bliss, divinity, nothingness, peace—the satiation of desire, idleness and a self-satisfying, self-gratifying, hedonistic affair with oneself. If one doesn’t get an adequate amount of sleep this method might be useful; but beyond that it is called laziness. Being able to rest isn’t necessarily a quest of the highest order. Even the most evil of people sleep well and dream.

Hear this first, a man who has found rapture and release in the mind, and who has worked in clearing all defilement and ignorance form the heart and mind, so that it becomes pure and radiant, will have his treasures stored in happiness, wisdom, compassion and understanding.

Meditation is not 'to not experience.' That is completely wrong, and any views of sitting in mindless bliss, empty being, is misunderstood. Everyone wants the golden ticket without knowing how to get it, or what it really is. So they think they have it, there they sit, mindless empty and in bliss. THAT MEANS NOTHING. Rather, it is the work that you put into your meditation when one has achieved powerful states of mindfulness and concentration, where one can do good work and not be in the swells of resistance of heart and mind.

If you think that mindfulness is sought in the external world, then you know nothing of it, and will never find it. You might be mindful about your surroundings, but you are ignorant of their true being, you see nothing but shadows on the cave wall.

Meditation practice is not about sleep, it is about being more alert and connected than ever before. Seeing things internal and external for what they truly are, by dissecting all the relevant points of experience interrelated in the external and internal positions. The world MOVES through you my dear, you do not move through the world.

It is the hardest thing in the world to reach the highest point, it is beyond laziness, and is often anchored straight in the heart of suffering. There is nothing lazy about it. Selfishness is what you ultimately lose, in all its forms, and the practice becomes one that benefits all of man, not just you.

3.

A spiritual path is never so linear and straight a line. Certainly it is never a point. Then why go straight? Why stop? Why not change directions?

"There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting." - Buddha

You can get stuck, you can get sidetracked, you can get lost, but all of this is progress, it might be slow progress, it might be progress in the wrong direction, but that is what progress is, getting it wrong until you get it right.

4.

Spirituality requires movement. Braving spiritual valleys and mountains requires going through real ones. One cannot learn about oneself without putting oneself in different environments, different languages, experiencing new things, new cultures, new customs, new religions, new gods, new food, and the highly unconventional situations a wayward wanderer often finds himself in. To learn about oneself requires new scars, new memories, stories, experiences, variety, new perspectives, new peoples, and an affair with the rest of the world. True mindfulness is finding ourselves mindful not in in rest and relaxation, but out amongst our lives, neither here nor there for too long a time lest we become stagnant. Spirituality requires travel, not rest.

This all depends on you, yes YOUR spirituality might require just this, and many others might have the same view. But this is not correct for all, and eventually, whether its in this life or the next, you TOO will take to the meditation seat and not leave. But for now, there is a whole word to see, and grow dissatisfied of. Have enough, drink enough, eat enough, brave new worlds enough, you will see, that your spiritual heart will eventually grow tired of it all, but for now, eat up.

A teacher once said, that meditation is the way to release, and it is the practice. Practice for what? Practice for the actual game that is our lives in the world. And release from what? Well... thats not too important for now.

Much love to you and may you always be safe and happy in your journeys, send me a postcard.

reply to post by Aphorism

I didn’t write this for them. I wrote for myself and the ones walking by.

indeed you did, you should know then, where you walk, and who the ones walking by are

as a master once said, your path is your own

dont get fooled into thinking you're too far along, you're at a great place, but you are still wandering, thank you for wandering for the rest of us

'for all others they are still asleep, but I am awake'

The one who does the wandering, is the one who is asleep and comfortable as the dreamer in the dream.

Aphorism


I'm not sure I would recommend one (introspection) over the other (extrospection). I am saying that one without the other is useless. But yes, spirituality is applied mostly to the immaterial or internal. Why can we not apply it to everything else? Because spirituality teaches only inner-value, and it's advocates teach that we should hide and retreat inwardly instead of act.

I personally prefer to try to balance the two, if not at the same time, at least with an equal amount of attention at different times... I agree that knowledge and experience of the exterior physical world and self is important too... and that it can be considered a part of spirituality.

There are some spiritual philosophies that teach of two paths of study or development- that of passivity, and that of activity. They both develop different skills of mind and body that I think can be valuable.

But that's just my opinion. I wouldn't want to tell someone they are not spiritual if they have only been focused on a pathway of introspection/passivity.
I sometimes, however, suspect that an exagerated focus on that can be a sort of fear of engaging in the physical world- a way of running away from it, despite all the "enlightened" claims of fear being "negative".
Some New Age adepts seem to have gotten rid of their fear of death, but remain afraid of living....

....which I also kinda suspect is what you're poking at here, no?

reply to post by Aphorism


It is ironic that the key to both Spiritual success and business success is to have an open mind. As you say, travel has the effect of opening the mind and linking it into far more dimensions.

What is behind the opening of the mind is the ability to take in more of the universal truth because you liberate and stretch your mind. Hence your mind maps/interfaces better with the cosmic mind. Travel is only a trigger but a useful one as the more you travel the bolder you get.

reply to post by Aphorism


I never said my path was better. As a matter of fact, I never said I had a path at all. I merely asked a question, to which you responded with a deflection, so I will consider my question answered in the negative.

Wow!

Not one of us can say what the path is, only how one walks it themselves! Who can say what is right really! Some can stay at home and see everything, while others have to get outside. Like people on land or the sea, one or the other really.

2 ways to Travel, if your simple minded. Think about it? ...................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................

Never stop! Even dreaming your doing what? What works, works! There are no rules to Spiritually; unless you have read them storys from long ago! Now it's time to break yourself's from stories told from long ago.

What is, Spiritually? Sad part is, how many wars have brought this on?

Anyway, lets get back on topic -K-

Peace

Why is it that Atlas holds up a sphere that is supposed to be the Earth, when in relations to how one is generally educated. Evidence that the earth was a sphere (in general) was not officially admitted to by the European Powers until 1492?.

Differences between our cultures could very well be totally irrelevant.


Any thoughts?

reply to post by BlueMule

Buddha didn't have to leave home.

But he did. He didn't have to do anything but he did. He threw himself into life rather than hide behind his palace walls.

reply to post by Chronogoblin

I never said my path was better. As a matter of fact, I never said I had a path at all. I merely asked a question, to which you responded with a deflection, so I will consider my question answered in the negative.

Neither did I. Nonetheless you responded to my OP with a deflection. However, it was positive enough.

reply to post by Bluesma

Some New Age adepts seem to have gotten rid of their fear of death, but remain afraid of living....

....which I also kinda suspect is what you're poking at here, no?

That was quite brilliant. That may be the one thing I've been trying to say but have never been able to articulate.

Luckily, I'm not writing about them. I'm writing about myself. I haven't travelled in a long time and suffer for it. But, if they see themselves amongst my sentences they get angry, and attack, even though I have no clue what goes on in their day to day. That is the nature of vanity.

reply to post by preludefanguy


Thank you for the advice.

Meditation is not 'to not experience.' That is completely wrong, and any views of sitting in mindless bliss, empty being, is misunderstood. Everyone wants the golden ticket without knowing how to get it, or what it really is. So they think they have it, there they sit, mindless empty and in bliss. THAT MEANS NOTHING. Rather, it is the work that you put into your meditation when one has achieved powerful states of mindfulness and concentration, where one can do good work and not be in the swells of resistance of heart and mind.

Mindfulness and concentration do no require sitting or hiding in a room somewhere, that is basically all I am saying. One can be mindful in the most mindless of situations, and none of it requires any sort of divinity, spirituality, or special psy powers as some seem to imply.

reply to post by Kashai

Why is it that Atlas holds up a sphere that is supposed to be the Earth, when in relations to how one is generally educated. Evidence that the earth was a sphere (in general) was not officially admitted to by the European Powers until 1492?.

Differences between our cultures could very well be totally irrelevant.

Atlas apparently held up the celestial sphere, not the earth.

reply to post by Aphorism


Right, those things are at best lamp posts to strengthen the faith of others and ease their suffering, and at worst cheap parlor tricks to sway the minds of individuals for ones selfish purpose

effects FROM practice in these things

but remember, psychic abilities does not equal purity of heart

Buddha did not concentrate his teachings on those kinds of things, in fact, what he said his teachings were about was simply suffering, and the end of suffering, nothing more nothing less.

Aphorism
reply to post by BlueMule

 

Buddha didn't have to leave home.

But he did. He didn't have to do anything but he did. He threw himself into life rather than hide behind his palace walls.

Then why didn't he teach people to leave home too? Whys isn't travel part of The Noble Eight-Fold Path?

Because it isn't necessary.

He threw himself out of himself rather than hide behind his ego-self walls. Leaving his palace is a metaphor.

That's what you must do too.