[MD] Thus spoke Lila

[Horse]

Hi Dave

On 13/12/2010 20:59, David Thomas wrote:
> [Dave]
> In some cases he refers to "mysticism" as "philosophical mysticism" in
> others "religious mysticism", Is he referring to the same phenomena? I'm not
> sure but surely it must have something to do with "mystic experiences" of
> real people and how they explain and integrate these experiences into their
> "real life." Whether this is "knowledge" or not, I'll leave up to you.

My interpretation of the difference between religious and philosophical 
mysticism is that there isn't, 'practically' speaking, a great deal of 
difference. It's more about the way that mystic reality is categorised 
after the experience. Mystic reality is mystic reality! What you do with 
it after that is about chopping and dicing.
As I see it, knowledge is always after the fact and conceptual, not 
something that can be associated with no-concept, no-mind, mystic reality.

> I recently found this interesting book:http://mystrokeofinsight.com/  by
> Jill Bolte Taylor on the publisher remainder (cheap) table, bought, and read
> it. At 37 she was a PhD brain researcher on the fast track when she suffered
> a massive stroke in her left side of the brain. She maintained consciousness
> through the whole process while the left side nearly completely shut down
> leaving her almost paralyzed on the right side, no speech or language skills
> and many other problems. After brain surgery it took her nearly eight years
> to retrain the left side of her brain to near normal functioning.
>
> But what is relevant to mysticism is her account of her experiences living
> with primarily only the right side of her brain functioning. She likened it
> to the account of Nirvana in Buddhism. During her recovery she had to
> actively fight against this feeling because trying to regain use of the left
> side of her brain was so difficult and tiring that dropping back permanently
> into a "la la land" right brain state was always a very real option.
>
> Look at her TED talk for synopsis of the book and then re-ask your self: If
> mystic reality is Dynamic Quality, the highest good, is that where you
> really want to be?

No - or at least not too often! In the same way that I wouldn't want to 
spend my life stoned, drunk or tripping. I tried it on a pretty much 
full-time basis some time back and came to the conclusion that it's very 
nice occasionally but to be permanently zoned-out is counter productive 
to doing a lot of other things that I want to do.
I like the patterned world of stuff and ideas and dipping in and out of 
the unpatterned to re-charge batteries is where I currently exist.

Cheers

Horse

-- 

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
— Frank Zappa