There are indeed numerous ways to achieve a state of ecstasy. I found it when I went to see The Band in concerts. The arts can always do it. Working with a shaman likely can do it. But I must take exception to MDMA--that stuff is poison and should never be ingested. Psychoactive drugs are mind killers. A little pot every now and then is OK, but the other things drive people crazy.
The opening was interesting - I've had at least half dozen conversations in the past few days where the Kantian/Jungian idea that all we ever know is within or filtered by our minds. The very core of contemplative practice, the very first step, is the claim that it is possible to know Reality directly, unmediated by the mind. Between Stephen Prothero and Stephen Katz (what it is about the name Stephen? You've got Hawking and Weinberg who are also fundamaterialists) it would seem we're utterly trapped within our own limited perceptions, ensnared within representations, doomed never to have Reality presented directly to us.
interestingly, Dr. Iain McGilchrist says that it is the experience of the world mediated by the left hemisphere - rather than any philosophic logic or scientific finding - that limits us to representations. How to go beyond this?
How do you get to Carnegie Hall... the old joke says.
There are indeed numerous ways to achieve a state of ecstasy. I found it when I went to see The Band in concerts. The arts can always do it. Working with a shaman likely can do it. But I must take exception to MDMA--that stuff is poison and should never be ingested. Psychoactive drugs are mind killers. A little pot every now and then is OK, but the other things drive people crazy.
Dr. Grosso, an inspiring essay as usual!
The opening was interesting - I've had at least half dozen conversations in the past few days where the Kantian/Jungian idea that all we ever know is within or filtered by our minds. The very core of contemplative practice, the very first step, is the claim that it is possible to know Reality directly, unmediated by the mind. Between Stephen Prothero and Stephen Katz (what it is about the name Stephen? You've got Hawking and Weinberg who are also fundamaterialists) it would seem we're utterly trapped within our own limited perceptions, ensnared within representations, doomed never to have Reality presented directly to us.
interestingly, Dr. Iain McGilchrist says that it is the experience of the world mediated by the left hemisphere - rather than any philosophic logic or scientific finding - that limits us to representations. How to go beyond this?
How do you get to Carnegie Hall... the old joke says.
Practice, practice, practice.
Same with contemplation of reality.