thanks for your eloquence. it is really helpful. dude. you are never gonna be whatever it is you are think you are trying to be . Etc. I dunno. Kinda irked by your success and embracing of stupid money making shit. My angle is all 3rd World and YTs keep being YT. Anyway my contribution for any snowflakes (and we all are. this is an old tone from an old world discord poopiter.) Anyway. KEEP ON KEEPING ON. Defining and putting terms out is cringe when it just FEELS SO WHITE. #cringe #LTM = NON-BIPOC SHAMAN WITCH (#youknowwhatiamsayingYT) OWN WHItenesS. OWN OUR DIRTY PROJECTORS. sorry caps blah blah. mpfess@gmail.com shoot an email to sign up for mine. EtC . LOVE LOVE HEALING FEMININE BLACK CONTINENT THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY THANKS FOR THE MOMENTUM DARE TO KEEP DARing OUT THERE OUT THERE Jonathan GET OUT OF HERE any last remaining snowflakes out there? JT hands down
My first thought is that I could very easily have written an essay that says essentially the opposite: that in our modern world we are always oriented *up*: toward heaven as a Christian, or toward space (the final frontier) as technophile, or toward upward mobility, or "growing up", or "waking up", or transcendence, or enlightenment. And that we would do well to bring more of our focus downward: toward Earth and being present in the physical realm, toward embodiment and being fully aware of our bodies, toward our shadow selves that we repress, toward building collaboration rather than competing to "rise above." And this reminds me of Luke Bryan's recent hit "Up" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_VMgYebSJU) which feels like it encapsulates our collective obsession with "upness".
All that said, what you have written is also true, and so I wonder whether part of the imbalance is that we're oriented *metaphorically* up and *visually* down, and that we would do well to lift our physical gaze at the same time that we draw our attention downward and inward.
Such a keen observation! It’s like all our myths and idioms are trying to tell us that if we just look up in wonder at the world, we’ll feel a lot better. But what good are they if no one listens?
So they shout louder. Tearing us away from “conditions on the ground” and our embodied visceral experience, deflecting us upward toward rationality and away from the squishier intuition that is deep down in our guts. The myths scream “behold the wonder!” but we fetishize the screaming, we worship the hand pointing at the moon, never looking up at the actual miraculous satellite itself.
Hm, just riffing.
I felt an emotional jolt from this essay right away, because I’ve received feedback from more than one spiritual teacher that I should seek to ground better because they notice my eyes are always drifting up and away as if I’m trying to escape my body.
Another interpretation is that some of us are too far up and some are too far down and we should all pursue a little of whatever is missing.
Like the Ram Dass lecture about the zen instructor who tells students veering toward the ditch on the left of the path to lean right and the students veering toward the ditch on the right of the path to lean left.
It’s all relative. I bet a lot of our friends are more guilty of veering up, eh Markael?
The idea of endarkenment, as the opposite or balance of enlightenment and grounding into the present moment instead of only pursuing the ascent of consciousness has just recently come into my orbit and right away I want to implement. I also think that many things are inverted in the physical reality and so i think looking up would make people more introspective and grounded.
I’m fascinated by Wonder, and I appreciate this post so much.
My eyeballs and neck (and prob my heart, too) ache from all the looking down that I do, and they’ve been asking for more upward looking. I’ll get on that.
thanks for your eloquence. it is really helpful. dude. you are never gonna be whatever it is you are think you are trying to be . Etc. I dunno. Kinda irked by your success and embracing of stupid money making shit. My angle is all 3rd World and YTs keep being YT. Anyway my contribution for any snowflakes (and we all are. this is an old tone from an old world discord poopiter.) Anyway. KEEP ON KEEPING ON. Defining and putting terms out is cringe when it just FEELS SO WHITE. #cringe #LTM = NON-BIPOC SHAMAN WITCH (#youknowwhatiamsayingYT) OWN WHItenesS. OWN OUR DIRTY PROJECTORS. sorry caps blah blah. mpfess@gmail.com shoot an email to sign up for mine. EtC . LOVE LOVE HEALING FEMININE BLACK CONTINENT THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY THANKS FOR THE MOMENTUM DARE TO KEEP DARing OUT THERE OUT THERE Jonathan GET OUT OF HERE any last remaining snowflakes out there? JT hands down
A most interesting musing on the up-down axis...
My first thought is that I could very easily have written an essay that says essentially the opposite: that in our modern world we are always oriented *up*: toward heaven as a Christian, or toward space (the final frontier) as technophile, or toward upward mobility, or "growing up", or "waking up", or transcendence, or enlightenment. And that we would do well to bring more of our focus downward: toward Earth and being present in the physical realm, toward embodiment and being fully aware of our bodies, toward our shadow selves that we repress, toward building collaboration rather than competing to "rise above." And this reminds me of Luke Bryan's recent hit "Up" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_VMgYebSJU) which feels like it encapsulates our collective obsession with "upness".
All that said, what you have written is also true, and so I wonder whether part of the imbalance is that we're oriented *metaphorically* up and *visually* down, and that we would do well to lift our physical gaze at the same time that we draw our attention downward and inward.
Such a keen observation! It’s like all our myths and idioms are trying to tell us that if we just look up in wonder at the world, we’ll feel a lot better. But what good are they if no one listens?
So they shout louder. Tearing us away from “conditions on the ground” and our embodied visceral experience, deflecting us upward toward rationality and away from the squishier intuition that is deep down in our guts. The myths scream “behold the wonder!” but we fetishize the screaming, we worship the hand pointing at the moon, never looking up at the actual miraculous satellite itself.
Hm, just riffing.
I felt an emotional jolt from this essay right away, because I’ve received feedback from more than one spiritual teacher that I should seek to ground better because they notice my eyes are always drifting up and away as if I’m trying to escape my body.
Another interpretation is that some of us are too far up and some are too far down and we should all pursue a little of whatever is missing.
Like the Ram Dass lecture about the zen instructor who tells students veering toward the ditch on the left of the path to lean right and the students veering toward the ditch on the right of the path to lean left.
It’s all relative. I bet a lot of our friends are more guilty of veering up, eh Markael?
The idea of endarkenment, as the opposite or balance of enlightenment and grounding into the present moment instead of only pursuing the ascent of consciousness has just recently come into my orbit and right away I want to implement. I also think that many things are inverted in the physical reality and so i think looking up would make people more introspective and grounded.
I’m fascinated by Wonder, and I appreciate this post so much.
My eyeballs and neck (and prob my heart, too) ache from all the looking down that I do, and they’ve been asking for more upward looking. I’ll get on that.