3 ms·
this piece reminded me of the way i sometimes regarded the world, maybe specifically the natrual world, as a child; that is, i felt that every piece of it was j
by mbil 4y ago
this piece reminded me of the way i sometimes regarded the world, maybe specifically the natrual world, as a child; that is, i felt that every piece of it was just bursting with meaning for its uniqueness. e.g. a tiny sun-speckled piece of ground under a pine, covered in needles and maybe some bugs, was sacred merely for being singular in its configuration in space and time. and the world felt so, so huge then because every bit if of it was overflowing with information. it would be impossible even in a lifetime to make it from here to the edge of town and know everything about all of it.
within the last couple years i've been occassionally trying to cultivate that sense again, but with only blips of success.
- dbtc 4y agoThis sounds similar to what both psychedelic trippers and meditation practicers often describe.
- kerpotgh 4y ago[dead]
- ilkke 4y agoWonderfully formulated! I have been making a similar effort and found that gradually these glimpses became easier to get into and I've even had some spontaneous ones. I do wonder how much this can be expanded alongside an urban 9 to 5 life.
- fredrikholm 4y agoThis is a central practice of Buddhism; consistently taking the time to deliberately stop and observe things gradually teaches you to appreciate things for what they are and helps to ween you off of your preconceived notions of what you think things are. For example, after my first few months of practice I increasingly got awe struck by everyday things. Even though the bricks of the church are identical in that they were made from the same mold, they are all unique after centuries of erosion and sun exposure. This might be intellectually obvious, but is a whole other thing to realize through subjective experience (as if looking at a masterpiece painting up close).
- mettamage 4y agoCan confirm, thanks to meditation I've been fascinated just looking at a pavement, any pavement. With that said, I've also experienced the dark side of meditation. It's not all roses.
- fredrikholm 4y agoWould you be comfortable sharing some of those darker aspects? I hear this sentiment every once in a while, but I've yet to experience any myself (a few years in).
- mettamage 4y agoI didn't recognize myself intuitively or emotionally in the mirror. I had to logically deduce it was me. I felt like I was looking at a different man that wasn't me with a face I couldn't call my own. The reason was: there was no "my own" I just was. So I couldn't feel that what I saw was me. Because of this, it felt like I was looking at someone else. To summarize, I almost failed the mirror test, lol. There were smaller issues, but that's all they were: smaller issues. This "almost not recognizing myself in the mirror" thing that felt scary as hell and I concluded that I couldn't wield the Buddhist philosophy properly and I was developing myself towards an unknown place with unknown consequences.
- hprotagonist 4y ago“the disenchantment of the world” or “re-enchanting the world” is a body of literature probably worth your time to look into.
- alan-crowe 4y agoI bought a microscope from a second hand shop. I guess it was obsolete medical equipment (it didn't have a built in light, you had to fiddle with a mirror, so make that very obsolete). I never got the hang of the higher magnifications, but even the x50 lens showed vast amounts of hidden detail. Everything was singular in its overwhelming confusion of intricate detail. Perhaps a microscope could give you a few more blips of success?