To: K-list
Recieved: 2003/02/18 22:20
Subject: Re: [K-list] Philosophy and Non-Duality
From: felix
On 2003/02/18 22:20, felix posted thus to the K-list:
On Tue, 18 Feb 2003 15:49:19 EST
LBra782595 AT_NOSPAM aol.com wrote:
> I see you are student of the philosophies:^)
Not really, just attempting in some paltry way to say what I see. In the last coupla years a couple of friends have attempted to make me aware of a way of thinking some call solipsism. My basic understanding is that if someone says they experienced something in their person, no one can prove they're wrong. I kinda go along with this. I feel like I have to because so much has happened in my life unwitnessed by others that even I can't prove I'm wrong.
One of the interesting thing about solipsism that I read on some website, is that none of the major philosophers will take the risk to refute solipsism. Makes sense to me, and neither will I. That'd be a good laugh.
<>
> Just thinking that "you are the rock" does not make it so.
> When you have experienced "rockness" then you will know
> you are the rock. Unfortuneately our language has not
> come up with words sufficient to the description of
> "rockness". When you experience the state that is being
> discussed here as Non-Dual thinking, (which is really
> only a part of the experience) then it is possible to
> understand.
Jason, I hope that you will forgive my arrogance when I state that I have probably experienced about any state any other human has, and the one you infer probably just a coupla hours ago.
My point is that here I am clickety clacking away in my Dualistic state making the myself look like the perpetual fool I always have been... once again... with feeling! LOL
Below, I include an experience that happened many years ago, that I just reframed for a new friend and leaving out a lot of the little details I included in earlier efforts to make it more central to how I like to use it to make an argument that experiential knowledge is a hack that keeps one from experiencing the specious present. Something happened that my sensory experience could not categorize into believability.
****************
One of the most unbelievable events of my life happened when I took a hike in Yosemite National Park one summer morning in July. I climbed up an engineered asphalt trail to the top of one of the lesser peaks there to have a look from what was described as a wonderful vista of the beauty of the park. I got to the top without too much effort. The top of the mountain had a fairly flat area and one could walk around it with ease and see the entire surrounding area just by going to different viewing points scattered around the top of the mountain.
After an hour or so it started drizzling rain and most of the tourists left. When the drizzle changed to snow, all of them left. I felt great about being on top of the mountain all by myself.
What I didn't think about was that the snow would cover the trail up and I might not be able to find it to get off the mountain. I thought it would stop snowing at any moment, and didn't worry about it. After all, it was July. It was summer. This freak storm could not stand.
I should have left right then, because it started snowing harder, it got deeper, the trail head was made indistinguishable from all the other snow covered objects of the area, and I soon found myself marooned there wearing only shorts, a t-shirt, and a pair of canvas deck shoes with no socks.
I desperately searched for a way to get off the mountain, but the sides of the mountain were sheer drop offs and the trail the park service had cut was the only safe way down.
It continued to snow and by dark it was up to a foot deep. I got frightfully cold, and my extremities were turning blue from that cold. I knew that if I did not get off the mountain before dark I would die.
With the additional snow my chance of finding the trail was negated, and when it got close to dark I concluded that I was going to die for my foolish decisions.
Just as the Sun was disappearing over the horizon I saw one last-hope area at the edge of the mountain that might have been the trail head. It was fairly clear of trees and brush and had a little slope down to the edge of the precipice. But the deep snow had blanketed any sure indication that the trail was beneath it.
I sat down on my butt and scooted my way down toward the edge to see if the trail went down and beyond my view in that direction. But as I came to the edge I could see nothing that resembled a trail, and just over the edge was a sheer drop down the face of a cliff for what I estimated to be around 700-800 feet. If you've been to Yosemite... you'll understand.
I sat there weeping for a while, as my hope of surviving left me in despair. For some reason, I kept visualizing the Park Rangers coming up on the mountain the next day and finding my dead body. I imagined them speculating among themselves what kind of idiot would let himself be entangled in such a stupid situation.
Suddenly, I started scooting back up to flatter ground as fast as I could, and then when I could stand up I started running back toward the center of the recreational area in a big loop and then ran as hard as I could toward the edge of the cliff... and leaped out and over it as far as I could. I could not bear the thought of them finding me dead on top of that mountain.
As I took that final leap over the edge of the cliff I lost consciousness. When awareness returned I found myself walking toward a light, I assumed it was the light at the end of the tunnel I had read so much about and I seemed quite happy to be dead.
The light I saw in front of me was not that ethereal tunnel light, but a very earthly one. As I approached it and drew nearer, the light turned out to be a camping area light next to the bathhouse of an unused tent camping area. The door to the bathhouse was open, the inside was heated and the showers had hot water.
I was not dead... yet.
When I looked at my perfectly cobalt-blue body in the mirrors along the wall above the hand sinks, there was not a scratch on me, and my clothes were no more torn than when I jumped.
As I left the park on a bus down to Bakersfield and the warm desert, I suddenly realized I was about to forget the entire incident. I had to struggle to recall the event, and as I thought about what had happened I began to realize the implications of what had transpired. But, if I had not made an extreme effort to remember.. it would have faded away into the oblivion of the unconscious as if waking from a dream.
felix.
DISCLAIMER!
Home | Archive Index | Search the archives | Subscribe
K. List FAQ | Kundalini FAQs | Signs and Symptoms | Awakening Experiences | K. list Polls | Member Essays | Meditations | List Topics | Art Gallery | Cybrary | Sitemap | Email the moderators.
symbol.