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?

There is no beauty that does not consist of struggle. No work that lacks an aggressive character can be considered a masterpiece. Poetry must be conceived as a violent assault launched against unknown forces to reduce them to submission under man.
– F. T. Marinetti

Inked sketch from 2019.🌿

I rarely draw or paint these days, but it sure is grounding and helps in developing visualization skills.

Coloured sketch of Primordial Buddha, Vajradhara

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

Okay, let's play!
Go fake a synesthetic experience.

Give it a shot, generate some random associations, have fun with it. You can do this with friends, too, see what they come up with.

What does a song look like?
If it were a dance, what would the choreography be?
What does a painting sound like?
What about architecture?
What about people?
City lights?
The shape of a tree?
Animals?

Find qualitative information:
What kind of atmosphere can you intuit?
Is there rhythm?
Texture?
Movement?
Direction?

How much sensory information can you generate about a single phenomenon?


Here are some points to show you what makes this a powerful esoteric tool.
If you practice for a while, you will be able to:

- make deeper, more profound, eclectic observations that stay in your accessible memory for longer. Realizing the profundity of the mundane experience will accelerate your learning.

- intensify empathy. You'll get more receptive to subtle nuances. This will increase the ability to pick up others' experiences as though they were your own.

- better access multilateral thinking. Your pattern recognition will enhance, helping you in utilizing universal principle that all solutions are grounded in.

- feed your creativity. You'll find connections between things that other's can't see. Your output will become more vivid, your ideas more inspiring.

- improve your rhetoric and use of metaphorical/symbolic language. The pool of vocabulary you can draw from will broaden, making it easier to find the right words at the right time.


Yet, there's more to it.


How deep does it go?

When two different phenomena are triggering the "same taste" (taste in synesthetic terms; triggering the same sensory overlay response), are they not of a similar quality?

And when two different sensory pathways are stimulated simultaneously, or two phenomena occur simultaneously, do they not have the potential to become of the Same One Taste?