Might try some electroculture on my rather sensitive and petulant houseplants. 🤔🪴⚡️

Separate, but inseparable.
Neither One nor the Other, but both, simultaneously.

Beginning is also Ending,
Ending is also Beginning.
Yet,
There is no Beginning,
And there is no End.

Within is also Without,
Without is also Within.
Yet,
There is no Within,
And there is no Without.

That which is not your Self
Defines that which is your Self
And
That which is your Self
Defines that which is not,
Yet
They're both the same Thing
And No Thing simultaneously.

If you want willpower to keep going when you meditate you can consider this:

That which leads to your death is whatever succeeds in distracting you from the breath.

"All things change, nothing perishes: the spirit wanders and comes from there to here, from here to there, and occupies any limbs it pleases, and the spirit passes from animals into human bodies and from our bodies into animals, nor does it perish in any time, and just as wax is easily shaped into new forms, it does not remain as it was nor does it keep the same form, but it is still the same, I teach that the soul is always the same but migrates into various forms. And since I am carried on the great sea and have set my sails filled with winds: there is nothing in the whole world that remains the same. All things flow, and every wandering image is formed; even time itself slips away with constant motion, just like a river; for a river cannot stand still, nor can a fleeting hour: but just as a wave is impelled by another wave and is pressed by the one coming before it and presses the one coming after it, time flees in the same way, and follows simultaneously, and is always new; for what was before is left behind, and what had not been becomes, and all moments are renewed."

Pythagoras

What activates the visions, fractal images, and journeys during sound baths?

According to Thomas Orr Anderson, there are two qualities of sounds that support this process: spatial awareness expansion and mesmerization.
Primitive humans had greater 3-dimensional spatial awareness. They needed it to survive and were thought to be keenly aware of sounds, scents and vibrations in the jungles and forests. We currently live in contained space with little need to "survive" each and every moment. This has diminished our awareness of the 3-d world. Singing bowls and other instruments reactivate this spatial awareness during a sound bath. The overtones and harmonies create a hypnotic effect that is deeply memorizing. The combination lowers brain wave activity to the create, visioning levels.

@ITORUS

How lucky are we to live in these times?

We likely have all the options in the world.

You can read.
You could read all the books you want.
So what do you read?

You don't have to worry about your next meal.
You could eat all different kinds of food.
So what do you eat?

You have a mind.
So what are the contents of your mind all day?
Are you even aware?

Do something meaningful.
Do something that's meaningful to you and to others.

“Christianity is a creed embraced by billions, but rarely chosen by anyone. The same is true of Islam, whose followers now make up about one-fifth of the world’s population of six billion people. Jews are racially born into their religion. Today we have utterly forgotten that heresy derives from the Greek heraisthai, ‘to choose.’ To be heretical means to have choices and not be forced or obligated to believe what one is told to believe. A heretic is free to choose what to believe, or not to believe.”
― John Lamb Lash, Not in His Image: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of Belief

Image: Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel

Thoughts on synesthetic experience and implications for spiritual practice. (1/3)

Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.

You may have heard of people who are able to "taste colors" or "see sounds". Some people perceive unchanging facts such as letters and numbers in a certain location in space.

Synesthesia broadens the spectrum of information that is received about a phenomenon.
The synesthete perceiver is aware what is "real" in the external world and what is the involuntary overlay of information that comes from inside.

Many different writers, artists and scientists throughout history have reported some kind of synesthetic perception. Among them are exceptional minds like Nikola Tesla, Kadinsky and Jean Sibelius.


Image: Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata No. 28 Op.101 by Jorinde Voigt
Listen to the piece here.

Try a mirror fast.

Do not look into any reflecting surfaces for a week and see what that does to your self-esteem.

Literally, remove all reflecting surfaces from your life for a few days.

Go hiking out in nature, remove yourself from civilization or do a home retreat with your mirrors covered up if you can stand it. Resist the temptation to look at yourself in windows and do not use your phone, if possible.

Then after 5-14 days, see how you feel about yourself.

When you go back to looking into mirrors, you will find that your face looks different than you thought it did. This is the voidness of your prior delusion showing.

And then you will find that the one generating your self-image and forming judgements is looking right back at you.

And you - who's that?

Thoughts on synesthetic experience and implications for spiritual practice. (2/3)

Synesthesia creates esoteric leverage.

Let me paraphrase:
Creative association of sensory and cognitive impressions will amplify the influence you have on your own subconscious mind.

Inter-sensory connections let us get emotional at beautiful music or captivated by stunning artworks - because there's more to it, our experience goes deeper when we open our perception.

We transcend the external value of phenomena by association of different information. Usually, when we open associative pathways, we spontaneously remember stories, memories, emotions, daydreams, concepts. Ideas that we're fond of. Ideas we're attached to. They determine the value of our experience.

Synesthesia causes a similar response, but it's more abstract (think attributes, subtle qualitative information), and there's no emotional attachment to the associated perception.

So it's a very subtle phenomenon, and might even be unnoticable during much of our busy, buzzing lives.

With its subtlety, synesthesia functions on the wavelength of symbolic, non-verbal thinking.
Symbolism and metaphor are the language of the subconscious.

We can raise that phenomenon to consciousness through mindfulness practice and use it to get in touch with the non-verbal, non-dual nature of things.

This is the fun part.

In case it was a hidden trait in you, it will start to show.

In case you already know of your own synesthesia, you can enhance it.

And if you don't have it, you can learn how to intuit synesthetic experiences.

by Robert Hruska

So you feel ennoscriptd to a sense of control
And make decisions that you think are your own
You are a stranger here, why have you come?
Why have you come, lift me higher, let me look at the sun
Look at the sun and once I hear them clearly, say

Who, who are you really?
And where are you going?
I have nothing left to prove
'Cause I have nothing left to lose
See me bare my teeth for you
Who, who are you?

Now you're moving on and you say you're alone
Suspicious that this string is moving your bones
We are the fire, we see how they run
See how they run, lift me higher, let me look at the sun
Look at the sun and once I hear them clearly, say

Who, who are you really?
And where are you going?
I have nothing left to prove
'Cause I have nothing left to lose
See me bare my teeth for you
See me bare my teeth

Who, who are you really?
And where are you going?
I have nothing left to prove
'Cause I have nothing left to lose
See me bare my teeth for you
Who, who are you?