On Tue, 5 Aug 2008 01:24:02 -0700 (PDT), "bigfletch8@
gmail.com"
gmail.com> wrote:
>> One characteristic of mystics is that they invariably report
>> experiencing timelessness, and they insist that time has no basic
>> meaning. I suppose many or most of us have experienced some
>> form of "timelessness". When I first considered a timeless
>> reality it was impossible for me to imagine what it must be like.
>> Gradually, my imagination improved to the point where now
>> I have no difficulty. But it's a experience that I'd have much
>> difficulty attempting to describe. I wouldn't say my imaginary
>> exercises in timelessness are "spiritual" in nature but they
>> are transcendent in the sense that they don't correspond to
>> ordinary physical experience.
>>
>When that state starts to open up, it becomes abundantly clear that
>what used to be perceptions of shared reality, were just beliefs.
>If people think timlessness is difficult to comprehend, it is actually
>impossible to comprehend time, from a timelessness
>perspective(consciousness). The key to this phenomena, is the thinking
>process itself, which involves the illusion of time, and why masters
>show us how to transcend the mind.To get "above" the timetrack.
The way I look at it, one must sidestep the censor in all of us. The
censor automatically blocks ideas that are contrary to our beliefs.
It's a tyrant.
I don't blame "thinking". I blame reasoning from false premises.
Thinking (to my way of thinking :)) is vital to any kind of
endeavor, at least initially. Worship of the intellectual
faculty and limiting beliefs are stumbling blocks.
It's interesting that physics has progressed from Newton's
proclamation that "time is a absolute that flows from God" to
relativity and now almost to abandoning time as a fundamental
assumption. Physicists seem on the verge at least of being
able to explain how time (motion, change, clocks) arises. This
is a example of how science is capable of abandoning old
entrenched beliefs, dogmas and false premises.
I say that one must begin with the _thought_ or _idea_
that ones ordinary sense of time is illusory. One must begin
with the thought that he/she does not necessarily have to
be a slave to the naive notion of a time line ... that the
psyche knows better ... and one can experience what
timelessness is like if he/she chooses to do so. Of course,
people who are mystically inclined do this naturally.
>Thinking is also the source of all anxiety, and why certain yoga
>practices are recognised as 'stress relievers' from a scientific
>understanding.Evidence of progress always starts with evidence of
>overcoming obstacles.
Seems to me that fear of future events causes anxieties, not
thinking per se. In fact, thinking certain thoughts will relieve
anxieties and stress ... unless the brain is diseased and a person is
suffering anxiety attacks, in which case I'd advise seeing a
shrink and getting on meds for awhile :)
Art
http://home.ptd.net/~artnpeg
