Bodhisativa wrote:entheogenic-gnosis wrote:downwardsfromzero wrote:eg, may I ask what calendar - if any - do you use?
None I guess, I'm self sufficient and am pretty much able to generate my own schedule, most of the time I don't know what day of the week it is, let alone the month, though I do pay attention to seasons, particularly in interest of the local plant and fungi wildlife as well as my cultivated outdoor and indoor plants plants. I also celebrate the equinoxes and solstices...
I see the Gregorian calander and it's designated holidays as part of the culture that I honestly want very little to do with, most the holidays are marketing schemes any way, and have never been my cup of tea.
I organize time similar to nomadic and tribal peoples, it's based around seasons and plants more than anything else...
-eg
All of this applies to me too. To the bewilderment of my colleagues. I often forget the year as well. I don't remember my name or my birthday. Irrelevant information that just puts a burden on the mind.
...I still have to use my name and birthday at times, I still have to use money, and function in society to a minimal amount, I have to maintain research space for the time being, however I've been able to be fully self supporting.
I somewhat see a conflict with having to use money and a house and my spiritual ideas, however if I were to not have these things it would not impact me, attachment and desire are the source of so much self-inflicted and unnecessary suffering...
May be off topic but, I was watching a documentary centered on Buddhist monks "fighting" for Tibet, it was called "Tibetan warrior" and I was only able to get through about 10 minutes of it, some monks were lighting themselves on fire in protest, and this other "Tibetan warrior" is active in the fight for Tibet through social works and public presentations...any way I was thinking, their homeland of tibet is a possession like any other, and it's their attachment to their homeland, their desire to have it back, and the ego that is preventing them from realizing all things, even homelands, are impermanent that is causing this behavior and further suffering...shouldn't they just have let it go? I mean it's sad, and unjust, but from a Buddhist perspective, killing yourself or fighting to get your land back seems to be driven by attachment, by desire, and by ego, and this ties into the three poisons (desire, ego, and unmindfulness ; or greed, anger and ignorance), regardless this behavior seemed counter to Buddhist teachings, and seemed to be causing great suffering, the suicides where the monks burned themselves are tragic, and this "Tibetan warrior" guy seemed very angry, and appeared to be greatly suffering...and this would be expected of most people, but from a Buddhist perspective, if they let go of attachment for their homeland, and let go of desire to have it back, and prevented the ego from letting them think that anything, even land, is permanent, couldn't they prevent tons of suffering?
I'm a very happy person in life, and even if I did not have a home and my research space, I would still be just as happy, again, so much suffering is self inflicted and unnecessary, and driven by the three poisons, or driven by ego, desire, and attachment, and being mindful of this I avoid suffering.
I like the Rastafarian concept of Babylon. I can relate to being captive in a culture that is fueled by greed, materialism, consumerism, and so on...the Babylonians tore down king Solomon's temple and enslaved his people, making them live under Babylonian culture and ways, this is where the metaphor originates. My definition of Babylon may be just a little different from the rastas, but it's very close to the rasta meanings, and was developed based off their metaphor.
My views on culture resemble terence mckenna, or mckenna's shaman figure
Quote:The shaman is a person who is able to transcend the dimensional confines of cultural existence. . . . Only the shaman knows that culture is a game. Everyone else takes it seriously. That’s how he can do his magic -t. Mckenna
Quote:We have to create culture, don't watch TV, don't read magazines, don't even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe, and if you're worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered, you're giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that you want to dress like X or have lips like Y. This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told 'no', we're unimportant, we're peripheral. 'Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.' And then you're a player, you don't want to even play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.” -McKenna
the shaman is a very peculiar figure.
He is critical to the function of the psychological and social life of his community, but in a way he’s always peripheral to it – he lives at the edge of the village, he is only called upon in matters of great social crisis, he is feared and respected, and this might be a description of these hallucinogenic substances. They are feared and respected, they are misunderstood, they are only called upon often in moments of great crisis, and they are persistent, but always a peripheral part of the community. -mckenna
And I have actually been able to have my "hermitage in Babylon", I create my own schedule and culture and am able to limit my interactions to mostly close friends and family, or others who are not dependant on culture, I do live in what mckenna would call "my own private Idaho", only it's centered in Babylon, still, my contact with Babylonians is minimal.
-eg