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?

To die in peace is to die with no regrets.

After carrying out a task or even at the end of your day, ask yourself the following question:

Is this the best I can do?

If the answer is yes, all is well.

Lose your identity.
Ego will point to your attachments.
Let them go.
You don't need to be anyone.
Just have ultimate goodness in your heart.
People will love you.

You stand beneath this canopy of trees,
surrender will, hold still.   You close your eyes
and listen as the rustling of the leaves
and lapping breeze-blown waters tranquilize.
Inhaling deeply, you can breathe the smell
of dew-damp soil, the scent of pungent pine,
organic emanations.  All is well,
you’re in the zone in nature’s forest shrine.
Permit your eyes to open, now you see
the beauty of extraordinary things:
moss-covered rocks in shades of verdigris,
sun-dappled flapping of some insect wings.
Immerse yourself in all your senses, feel
the peace of this retreat restore and heal.

― Forest Bathing by Betsy Hughes

Image: Morning in a Pine Forest by Iwan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky

THE WANDERER
🌊🪐✨

Animated Short by Savva Tsekmes

I had a little boat. I called it life.
Once I went out and never came back.

All of a sudden, there was a big wind,
And waves like mountains.
Many things raced through my mind.

In the lonely chanting of the sea,
I heard the echoes of eternity,
And in the fantasy of clouded sky,
I saw the one who lives,
While all things die.

And I was swallowed by the sea,
And lost in the deep,
And washed up on the shore.
When I awakened, the storm was over,
And the sea was calm.

It was strange and wonderful,
Like seeing the world
And seeing through the world.

And when I told the people in the village,
that I went out and never came back,
they all laughed and called me the Wanderer.

And I laughed with them.
They didn't know:
They were the Wanderers.

So I found my way,
And found my home
On Eden's island,
Where the wind has been telling the truth
Forever and ever,
And ever.

― La Mar (The Sea) by Eden Ahbez

Lose your identity.
Mind will dissolve in Emptiness.
Let it go.
You don't need to be anyone.
Just have the Ineffable in your heart.
People will seek you.

Will that slumber lead
To everlasting death
Or is fate going to be
Changed before?

If the divine spark
In our soul Is to
Become a rising flame
Once again, a new
aristocracy, Not of gold
But of spirit
Will rise again!

From the ashes of decay
A new union will evolve
The highest principle
Back in full-force
And idealism will lead
Us, again to nobility.