Magick and Self-Obsession
nagasiva yronwode
> Neurologist Antonio Damasio ("The Feeling of What Happens") considers
> the self to be a neurological representation of numerous body states,
> taken as a whole.
quite a pare-down
> As such, it is, as you say, a vital aspect of our
> consciousness, but it tends to be so attractive that it obscures the
> rest of the world around us from our attention. This then coincides
> without a pretentious stature the world in which we proffer.
>
> Much of what is taught in Eastern meditation practice has the effect
> of taking our minds off our conceptions of the self and directing our
> attention elsewhere. This is much like masturbation.
hardly
> This is also an effect of magick in the "Western Mystery Tradition",
> as my very close and extremely good friend Carroll Runyon would
> phrase it. The dogmatic and social aspects of exoteric religion tend
> to function in precisely the opposite way, by positing the self as a
> centrally important figure (with all the powers of Heaven and Hell
> constantly fighting over it) and seeking to preserve it unchanged
> forever....
only within certain socially-mediated conventions. individual careers
do not consistently exaggerate the self in this way and sometimes do
in fact move beyond it, integrating it artfully into background.
> It seems to me that to assert yourself as the center of the universe
> and the source from which it all springs promotes self-obsession
again, too generalized. the posture or condition determines result.
> and
> makes it even more difficult to see the world as it is, undistorted
> by our expectations and presumptions....
possible, and it is, with clear insight, easier to see this about oneself
than about others unless one knows them well or recognizes the signs. what
is not being accounted here are the positive aspects of identification and
self-engorgement on a short-term basis as from a posture of impingement.
--
nagasiva yronwode
http://www.luckymojo.com/nagasiva.html
Tom
Impingement? Bah! You have no facts, you're drool-slobbering and
regurgitating my established philosophies, twit.
Sorta pathetic when you're trying to accuse others of being puppets and
shit, but then that's the very best we've come to expect from this leg
humping knob polisher. :(