As the new look and title of this blog suggests, it’s time for
something completely different. The
above video was made by Sanna, a Finnish friend whom I met on a recent Dave Oshana
retreat in Finland called “Ego Death.” I haven’t talked about Dave or the Enlightenment
Transmission at this blog until now. (I wrote an account of my relationship with
Dave a few months back; I may post it here in a little while.) Partly I kept my
silence because I wasn’t sure how people would react to my finding another spiritual
teacher so soon after the last (you might start calling me a spiritual slut).
But I guess now is the time to let the secret out, especially since I am currently
living in Estonia, which is next to Finland, having attended the Easter E.T retreat (which Sanna also attended), and planning to go to the Summer one in
July.
When I saw Sanna’s video I liked it enough to want to share
it with other people, which gave me the idea to post it here. That then gave me
the idea of changing this blog into something different. Funnily enough, the
last re-name I gave the blog (in a seemingly endless series of re-names) was “Exquisite Corpse,” which comes from a Surrealist
game of group-creativity. I liked the phrase, even though it didn’t accurately
describe a one-person blog. Now, “coincidentally,” I am thinking about using
this space to host creative work and personal expressions besides my own, starting
with Sanna (and I hope other members of the secret “E.T” team).
After however many years it’s been of banging my own drum, tooting
my own horn, and grinding my axe, I feel ready to place whatever skills I have learned
in service of a more collective endeavor. Team work.
It’s pretty hard to teach a dog new tricks or to get a leopard
to change his spots. Even writing this post is proving pretty difficult. But I aim
to follow through as best I can with this intention. So — if anyone has any
work they’d like to see at this blog, that they think would be well placed here,
let me know.
Of course, everyone has their own blogs now, and it’s not as
though you’d be getting into Rolling Stone magazine or anything. So why would
you want to put your stuff here rather than at your own space? Well for one
thing, I have lots of followers (mostly silent ones). But more importantly, there’s the potential for blogs to become more
community-oriented spaces, which might meet the demands which are currently being
“served” (i.e., exploited) by sites like Facebook and Twitter. Maybe, instead
of getting sucked into one great corporate space and fleeced and fattened by Mammon, we can start creating our own specialized communities, inside
of which we can co-create, communicate, and interrelate?
That’s my idea anyway, loosely improvised as a way to introduce
and give context to Sanna’s lovely video above. I encourage you all to go and
make your own version of personal expression, and, while I can’t promise to put it at this site, I can
promise to watch it. Some of it anyway. In Sanna's video, in my opinion, there’s
nothing superfluous, so be sure and watch it all the way through,
especially since otherwise you may miss seeing Black Superman!! & I assure you, that's
an experience you would not want to miss.
And if you think you qualify for active participation at ET Anonymous, send me an email, or post at the comments section below, and tell us why!
14 comments:
I would totally participate in this project. Will you be providing submission guidelines? It would be easier for me to play if I could color inside a shape.
The poison of my second youth
And all the toying with black
Magic and the idea of the
Arthurian quest
Really got me in a hole man
And I was a head scratcher and
God forbid a lotus eater
But it really
Got
Me
Thinking
.
.
.
Hi Z
after the first couple of offerings, I am inclined to stipulate that submissions be filmed self-portraits in a similar style to Sanna's
that way, it ensures a degree of vulnerability and authenticity, as well as simplicity, which is what is most compelling, to me at least
It is maybe too easy to hide behind the written words. That doesn't mean people shouldn't submit other stuff, no hard n' fast rules, and no everyone is capable of editing video... But try to make it as personal and open as you can, whatever it is -
"The Naked Truth of You" figuratively speaking, of course. ; )
The words I offer you, I couldn't ever hide behind. Just so you know...
Somethings always remain hidden.
Yeah, Sanna's video is really cute. One of a kind.
In the US, since our conservatives have adopted the mentality of Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, and the John Birch Society, if you participate in May Day you are either a communist, anarchist, or lazy parasite.
The US has gone mad. Please pray for our dying civilization.
J, I have my eye on you for quite some time. You are quite brilliant just as you are. I had my share of enlightened courses and I'm quite certain now: man has to accept himself as he is. But you already know that. Shine on, crazy diamond!
Funny how I can be absolutely cynical about something and yet at the same time be quite sincerely open to it's value. For instance 'enlightenment transmission' -Dave said this in an interview - 'Transmission is the resonance caused by my soul and your soul interacting and arranging your eventual freedom. Transmission is an intelligent insubstantial energy; its effects are felt in the body and energy field. Transmission is a word for something that happens when people are in contact with me. Transmission is consciousness come into the world of form.' It does sound valuable and I have experienced something like this during reiki attunements, I just wonder if people get quite addicted to him personally to get their transmissions or whatever, especially when there's this hierarchical thing of there being one enlightened person helping the 'unenlightened'.
But then I notice you title the blog entry - 'You too could be an Enlightening Transmitter'.
In my experience Dave not only discourages dependence but works diligently to prevent it from happening. One of the things that put people off him, from what I have heard (besides the financial aspect), is that he doesn't invite passive attendance but participation.
And yes he seems to want people to activate their own uplink as soon as "humanly" possible so as not to keep coming to him for a hook in. My own feeling is that the more I start to get what Dave is offering, the less I will want or need to go to him for it. Which is of course how it should be, but i know that many 'gurus' (which IMO Dave isn't) seem to work like any other industry and carefully control the supply in order to maintain the demand.
'In my experience Dave not only discourages dependence but works diligently to prevent it from happening.'
But in a way, it seems judgmental to suggest that dependence is 'wrong' or undesirable , especially considering in India they talk of the path of bhakti yoga, which involves devotion or surrender to God or Guru. It seems to me that 'being in love' with the teacher (romantically or otherwise) is a natural or inevitable path for some, especially for those who are predominately emotional, (as opposed to jnana yoga, or path of knowledge, for the more intellectual seekers). Presumably devotion to the guru opens the heart allowing enlightenment in or some such thing, also perhaps by surrendering to the guru one would experience their helplessness and lack of volition and thereby realize?
But somehow, for me, the idea of western seekers being 'devoted' or 'surrendered' to a western teacher seems distasteful, somehow in India where its more of a tradition it seems much more natural, maybe thats because westerners are left brain intellectual predominant and asians more right brain emotional?
It's probably natural as well for people to project their own 'godness' onto other idealized figures/teachers, which seems ok if the person realizes that the teacher really is, in a way, a part of their own psyche and always present in themselves. For me Ramana Maharshi is the perfect image of a realized person, luckily he is dead so I'm less likely to become disillusioned by him. His guru apparently was a mountain.
I don't buy it. I think it's just refined ego, like Teruel says. Even people who worship God are worshiping their own projected self-image.
See here
'He repeated that awakening was not some blissful state but that it was the awakening of the body to all the distortion, all the way into the cells, which unnecessary and delusional thinking had caused it, and the discomfort of that.'
Nice, I can relate to that - seems that would bring peace and relaxation at last.
Thanks, your post inspired me torwards some kind of creative effort with my blog - http://mergingmind.blogspot.co.uk/
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