Remember kids:
In this toxic, turbulent, trauma, filled time.
Your attention is the most magical of spells.
It transforms.
I aspire to be ordinary.
It is in the ordinary, where one finds true transcendence.
Doing the dishes, weeding the garden, chopping wood.
Do not wait for the spectacular epiphany. Nor the moment of enlightenment.
It is in the so called mundane, ordinary, daily actions. That you will find the insight of interdependency. This will lead directly to transcendence.
~ me
@corlin What if you have zero interest in transcending the world, and your mission is to improve it or even save it?
Doing my dishes gets me clean dishes.
Other people not having water doesn't go away because I'm okay.
I don't want to transcend. I want to be here in the world.
Exactly.
Transcending self. Not the world. By noticing that the self is the main hinderance in "being in the world". One can more effectually help others.
@corlin My self is what is in the world.
I've grown weary of transcendant philosophy. It feels like escapism to me.
The work is down here in the blood, the mud, the love, and the busyness. It's here _in_ the pain. It's here _in_ the confusion. It's here _in_ that place that makes you wonder what it is all for.
Don't transcend. Be in it. Commit. Be present.
"Be in it. Commit. Be present."
To me this describes the "flow" state. A state of mind unconcerned about mind, transcendence, or philosophy. A doing state. A being state.
In popular culture and philosophy "Transcendence" has been completely corrupted. While in fact its original meaning was to "be in the mess", unconditionally and unselfishly.
@corlin It means to exist above or beyond, outside of, without. It is to enter an ecstatic state and remain there.
As in "Buddha transcended from mortality, leaving the wheel of existence behind forever."
I think what you're asking is for people to transcend being caught up in the _bullshit_, so they can be properly aware and help others and themselves?
@AskTheDevil
yes.
in a word.
@corlin Excellent. Then you are surely enlightened enough to forgive my linguistic pedantism, now that I understand the thing you're actually talking about is not the thing I assign that word-label to normally!
; )
@AskTheDevil @corlin
That's it.
Not escapism.
Being present in the mud, the blood, and the beer.
Not lost in it.
Seeing it.
Better able to deal with it because you are fully present.
Be here now.
Not somewhere else mentally.
Not lost in fear or projection.
Here. Now.
Check out "The Book" by Alan Watts.