03-05-2008, 12:00 AM
Hi Bob,
"An interesting idea from don Juan, and maybe some others, is that Emotion or control of emotoin , is key to alternate realities.
Like this: that the recall of emotion, not just memory, is the path to 2nd attention.
The damn thing about this is that for us, it is difficult, but, for aboriginals , it was common knowledge."
In the method and school of thought that I learned in we were taught "body awareness" as a first step to meditation. In other words to
be able to sit for hours not moving a muscle. It begins with discipline. Much like stories I've heard of aboriginals in Australia being able to stand
(sometimes on only one leg) for hours on end. So disconnectd from their bodies that a fly would crawl across their eyeballs and they would not move.
A side effect of this when done to a certain proficiency is that emotions also have no control over the practitioner (at least not during the meditation). We
were taught that emotion is just a feeling in the body. If you cannot feel your body, emotion has no effect upon you. I have experienced this when in deep
"body awareness."
Much of what we call emotion is just a "body memory" of that same emotion at a different time in the past. A secretion of the adrenal glands or some
other chemical reaction in our bodies. Kind of like "Pavlov's dog."
If a coon dog gets beat every time he chases a possum, he starts to lose his taste for possum.
There is a story there from my own family. My uncle Tom hunted coons. He had a coon dog named Buck who got in the habit of chasing opossums during a coon hunt.
One night Buck caught a opossum and my uncle caught him with the opossum. My uncle Tom said he grabbed Buck by his collar and the dead opossum by the tail and
beat the dog half to death using the opossum as a club. He said Buck never chased opossums after that night. The scent of opossum became a trigger for the dog.
A bad memory. Bad emotions. We all have these triggers usually a sick feeling in our solar plexus area. It can be regret or fear or sorrow etc. These emotions
get less and less frequent under the effect of "body awareness" and "mind awareness" or "recapitulation."
Most schools of thought have some kind of discipline concerning the control of the body, whether it is fasting or seclusion, meditation, comcentrated effort,
etc. How many times did Don Juan have Carlos out in the desert sitting or gazing for hours on end. Or doing the power gait two steps behind himfor hours in
complete darkness.
The first step in believing we are more than this "sack of meat" we live in is to distance ourselves from this "sack of meat".
"An interesting idea from don Juan, and maybe some others, is that Emotion or control of emotoin , is key to alternate realities.
Like this: that the recall of emotion, not just memory, is the path to 2nd attention.
The damn thing about this is that for us, it is difficult, but, for aboriginals , it was common knowledge."
In the method and school of thought that I learned in we were taught "body awareness" as a first step to meditation. In other words to
be able to sit for hours not moving a muscle. It begins with discipline. Much like stories I've heard of aboriginals in Australia being able to stand
(sometimes on only one leg) for hours on end. So disconnectd from their bodies that a fly would crawl across their eyeballs and they would not move.
A side effect of this when done to a certain proficiency is that emotions also have no control over the practitioner (at least not during the meditation). We
were taught that emotion is just a feeling in the body. If you cannot feel your body, emotion has no effect upon you. I have experienced this when in deep
"body awareness."
Much of what we call emotion is just a "body memory" of that same emotion at a different time in the past. A secretion of the adrenal glands or some
other chemical reaction in our bodies. Kind of like "Pavlov's dog."
If a coon dog gets beat every time he chases a possum, he starts to lose his taste for possum.
There is a story there from my own family. My uncle Tom hunted coons. He had a coon dog named Buck who got in the habit of chasing opossums during a coon hunt.
One night Buck caught a opossum and my uncle caught him with the opossum. My uncle Tom said he grabbed Buck by his collar and the dead opossum by the tail and
beat the dog half to death using the opossum as a club. He said Buck never chased opossums after that night. The scent of opossum became a trigger for the dog.
A bad memory. Bad emotions. We all have these triggers usually a sick feeling in our solar plexus area. It can be regret or fear or sorrow etc. These emotions
get less and less frequent under the effect of "body awareness" and "mind awareness" or "recapitulation."
Most schools of thought have some kind of discipline concerning the control of the body, whether it is fasting or seclusion, meditation, comcentrated effort,
etc. How many times did Don Juan have Carlos out in the desert sitting or gazing for hours on end. Or doing the power gait two steps behind himfor hours in
complete darkness.
The first step in believing we are more than this "sack of meat" we live in is to distance ourselves from this "sack of meat".