On May 12, 2007, at 1:23 PM, new.morning wrote:
Re: Whole Brain Functioning - flaws of Unity
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
>
> New morning was talking about drugs earlier as a way to temporarily
> alleviate suffering, with the caveat that if we were to use them as
> a constant solution, we'd end up like Elvis or Rush Limbaugh (I'm
> paraphrasing here...). So learning to not suffer is just that, a
> learning process. Not a solution in a bottle, or a mantra by itself,
> or just thinking different thoughts, but an entirely new, integrated
> approach, where we transform ourselves in order to in effect live in
> a different world. One just as challenging and comprehensive as that
> in which we would suffer, but through our hard won skill,
> perspective and capacity, the suffering is no longer present.
Explaining my thought a bit better, and it is not inconsistent with
what you write here, what I was suggesting is that better
neurotransmitter (NT) / receptor (R), and uptake mechanisms,
particulalrly for dopamine, seratonin, GABA, noraepi, and the
endorphin receptor complex ARE a large part, if not the whole part
of happiness. At least relative happiness all the way through the
ananda kosha. (how such neurotransmittors relate to polishing the
reflector of Pure Consciousness is a broader and perhaps more
interesting issue).
And this is what psychopharmocology is supposedly doing with various
psychopharms.
According to some (e.g. clinically depressed patients) they are life
savers, yet to others dangerous and possibly damaging for life. They
provide physical elements of bodily-happiness, that's really all. I
would not confuse these with the ananada-maya kosha, which is at a
completely different level of subtlety and engenders forms of bliss
which are perceived on subtler than external sensory means.
I suggested drugs as an example of temporary means of achieving
"better", aka happier, such neurotransmittor/receptor states. The
larger question is how to culture and create such NT/R states without
drugs. Or via via better supplements than are now available -- perhaps
hidden AV rayasanas, soma, etc.
Yogic techniques for this have existed for centuries, probably millenia.
Even Patanjali said siddhis could be achieved via drugs.
Your twisting what he actually said. A decent translation of what
Patanjali said might be "botananicals" although I would extend that
to include herbo-mineral preparations, as many preparations
attributed to Patanjali for siddhis fall in this class.
(And if a
reflection of Pure Consciousness is necessary for siddhis, then by
implication drugs could be related to polishing the reflector of pure
consciousness.) And Maharishi said enlightnement could be achieved
through drugs -- either at Humboldt 70 or Squaw Valley 68. The caveat
is that they are not referring to current drugs. Still bliss in a pill
-- time-released I hope, or permanent IV,
is possible.
Or perhaps full hatha yoga, pranayams etc are such a way to culture
such. Or Tai Chi. Or perhaps they culture something else which also
brings on the bliss.
The full techniques of sun-moon (hatha) yoga are largely lost,
however the intact traditions do precisely work the nadis, the
bindus, the pranas and the four blisses via moving asanas,
visualization and linked to breathing to visualization to cultivate
finer levels of bliss. These have more to do with progressively finer
aspects of kundalini than it does cultivating neurochemical happiness
IME.
