Conversation

Mi’sen
@misen__
Contemplative fieldnote: An aesthetic triad: • play • skill • beauty Thinking of meditation as something deadly serious is spiritual materialism, it’s dead. Working with emotions and confusion is a considerable matter, be we can lighten up a bit. Why so serious?
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Mi’sen
@misen__
(Side note: why we’re so serious isn’t a huge mystery according to Seligman and pals, who suggest it is a symptom of a cultural drive for ‘sincere’ meaning, authenticity, coherent order, purity.)
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Mi’sen
@misen__
Theres a lot of fun and enjoyment involved in learning to handle our confused emotions, to look into this mind. We could delight in seeing our hatred as it arises.
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Mi’sen
@misen__
A teacher of mine said this once, and it has stuck with me: “It’s all part of the game; the feeling of satisfaction, rightness that goes along with being able to do this is the aesthetic side. That’s the beauty of it! Mind is utterly beautiful, sensitive, responsive, vivid!”
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Mi’sen
@misen__
Some of the tantras talk about the spaciousness, clarity, and compassionate responsiveness of awareness. In this way of understanding, awareness is not just a monolithic, space in the background; they built into the model the dynamic capacity for manifestation, expressive power.
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Mi’sen
@misen__
That comes from a particular context of practice, but in a general way it opens up the possibility that we might be able to enjoy this vivid mind, even in the midst of incoherence, confusion, chaos.
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Mi’sen
@misen__
When I’ve finished re-reading Grimes and some of Seligman et al’s stuff, I intend to revisit Dewey (HT @context_ing) So get ready for galaxy brain meditation aesthetic threads. Sorry not sorry.
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