Fantasies of Enlightenment 

I can happily try to describe my deeper spiritual experiences in all kinds of flowery language but the moment I try to draw conclusions from those experiences it feels a lot like being caught in a lie.

The intro is exactly what I look for in my dharma.

I only listen because of the music. and… “reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.’” ~ PKD

By "Orthogonal Time" I'm sure he was talking about what Katagiri refers to as "The Intersection of Time and Space" in his book "The Light That Shines Through Infinity". - Because I was "trying harder & harder to pin it down, and then veered off into crazy town. " In reality they probably aren’t referring to the same thing. We give credence to Katagiri because he carefully develops a framework in which to define the expression, whereas PKD kind of foists the expression on the audience (Ursula Le Guin). I caution people to be careful not to disregard all such clever insights. Katagiri makes some good points, as did Gautama. Perhaps the trick is to be wise enough to realize that you cannot get your own glimpse into reality across to others, without first preparing the (mind-) ground to receive the explanation.

The intersections of spirituality, the creative arts and mental illness can be complex.

Madness is the result not of uncertainty but certainty. Friedrich Nietzche

Normally not a fan of ukulele renditions but now I'm a convert.

I just about fell out of my chair from the first 2 seconds... The antichrist is playing a ukulele.

You hit the nail on the head with the kernels and egos.

What a smart ukelele! That's some collection of guitars you have there Mr. Warner...

This is important. You make your point very well.

This was very good, it profoundly struck me on people i have met and my own actions, or thought life really. Thanks

The mix of spiritual and physics/psychology/science/etc is common like you said and people latch on to it. I’ve had to avoid the traps like you mentioned. A few days ago, I thought I had a good idea for a talk, but sleeping on it illuminated that the neat idea was bunk. Thank you for the video. And, may the gods of Lazon 95 bless Ziggy with a long life and good health! Peace brother

Big PKD fan. Big Brad fan. Thank you.

There seem to be some existentials running through the history of human thinking (therefore the label "Homo sapiens sapiens", nomen est omen, so to speak). One main subject for "making (epistemologically) sense of (ontologically) being" seems to be what English speaking people use to call "time". And it´s more than logic from the modern world-view of physics, which posits that we, basically, live in the four-dimensional world of space-time. -- My first reference to the topic would be: Julius Thomas Fraser et. al., "The Voices of Time" (1966). It was the starting-point for a big series of (inter)disciplinary scientific studies on time. PS.: English language works more with Greek-Latin expressions than, e.g., German. In German, we can use "Epistemologie" or "Erkenntnislehre", and "Ontologie" or "Seinslehre", which, i.m.o., makes this philosophical dyade more readily graspable. The first two terms refer to: studying (the logic of all phenomena) from the standpoint of knowing (episteme). The latter refer to: studying (the logic of all phenomena) from the standpoint of being (onton). -- It´s a kind of mental parallax-device to view "things" (i.e., "me, you, us, them, the world, and all the rest") from two different basic perspectives; and one can even detect it working inside the tendentially no-two-ish World of Zen. Just saying. Hope this helps for some clarification.

Love the intro. 😂 Nope, Ursuala died in 2018. Was gonna write, “the D*ck strong with this one”, but I guess that is verboten. Ontology deals with the nature of being. Epistemology refers to knowledge; how we know what we know. Excellent video.

Wachtet auf means “Wake up!”. Imperative mood

I really enjoyed this video. In recent years I've realized how we create these kind of crazy stories, even many conspiracies. I see how the mind grasp the insight and then turn it into what you just said. If you cannot let go of the stories you create them you get badly stuck. I wonder what part of "crazy story" and what can be considered as reality is there behind the Buddhist mythology, aliens encounters, etc.

I used to want to be an "Intellectual" until I found myself surrounded by them. Then I retreated back into He-Man, Hot Wheels, and other "good for nothing" things.

I cannot find the video some mediation teacher was saying that FKD was using writing as a form of mediation until thoughts stopped. Apparently he got there

That was a good video. I love PKD and have read all of his novels and stories plus Selections from the Exegesis which contains all kinds of attempts to explain his mystical experiences. In there he really goes into some elaborate fantasies about three eyed aliens from Sirius or something. He was brilliant, but definitely an inhabitant of crazy town. Robert Ornstein and Charles Tart were two psychologists who wrote about altered states of consciousness back in the seventies. I'm not surprised that PKD read them.

Ken Wilbur's first book 'The Spectrum of Consciousness' came out in 1977. And its ideas were lifted almost entirely from the writings of Adi Da Samraj who wrote the 'Knee of Listening' and 'Method of the Siddhas' a few years earlier. Eventually, both of them strayed from the paths of tradition and tried to create something like a unified field theory that included both spirituality and science. If you check out a video called... "Adi Da Samraj: There is no ego or separate self" You can see all of Ken Wilbur's teaching right there in a nutshell.

As someone who can easily fall into the hole of intellectualization, this video is just the reminder I need. It seems your backyard is a work in progress? It is coming along nicely!

And how could ken Wilber be crazy??? He thought da free john was the most enlightened being ever, with andrew Cohen running a close second! 😂

😂😂😂. Luv it. My favourite punk song by the sex pistols played on a ukulele!

Ken Wilbur was a student of Phillip Kapleau Roshi, though I’ve not heard anyone talk about him at the Rochester Zen Ctr

Comment #3 (sick of me yet?): In my second interview with the Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn, he told me I should "become more stupid." I'm still working on it.

I'm reminded of how you mentioned Nishijima Hiroshi's idea of the Four Views in Dogen (at some point in some video!). These elaborate conceptions often seem stuck in the first or sometimes the second of those views. I find that idea of the four views a really useful tool when I am stuck, to notice I am stuck. I think it makes sense to accept this philosophising if it is in your nature, not to push it away. But to not round it out and pull the bird back before the sun goes down -- never mind make a whole career of it -- seems to me to be an un-useful path.

hi zen master ziggy👋 - i like the sound of The Way of The Stooges

Your thoughts on Wilbur remind me of a passage from Alexander Pope: A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again. I couldn't remember where I first read this; so I had to Google it lol.

I’ll reread my copy of Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. And see if I understand it this time!

Whoop-whoop-whoop! 🥴

The path of the Three Stooges sounds great to me. Larry, Curly and Moe had the spirit of Zen masters, imo.

it is indeed german: "wachet auf!" means wake up eberybody!

How do I know my ego isn't clinging to letting go of my ego? Is it like not attaching to anything even the teaching? What about finding refuge in the dharma? I'm confused.

J Daniel Gunther is a good example of this in the occult scene, but then so was Crowley from whom he took his lead. In fact that whole scene seems full of people of that type now I think about it.

This was a helpful utube video,my adversary ME was also watching,oh my god,not going to follow that thing around!

I feel like religions know about humans' neediness around myth and fantasy... they just replace their previous world view with a mythical world view... i think the lotus sutra is basically that, some pretty crazy stuff there!

Orthogonal (emphasis on the second syllable) means perpendicular. Orthogonal time must mean stepping out of time's direction, a great catchphrase but I don't think it corresponds to reality. BTW, people don't give support to the skepticism and insistence on observation of physics. I must have read everything PKD published. Loved him but he went off the deep end in his last three novels. I think he was trying to explain a mystical experience. Also, I enjoyed your rendition of "Anarchy in the UK."

I think you meant the Megadeth version for that Anarchy in the UK cover.

🤘

Nice rendition. Canyon do Cesspools in Eden by the Dead Kennedys

What are doing with my Patreon donations???? Buying yukalelees and bass guitars??? 🤪

weird how they’d have a problem with the word Philip

Lol awesome Brad, I think you meant better than the Megadeth version hahaha.

Were PKD and UKL related? Both their middle names start with K. LOL

I have no idea why you said all the good you do is coming from that! How about the bad, it has another source?

I've read alot of Ken Wilber No crazy town there. Just what do you mean.. I've got about 4000 hours on the mat and Wilbur's ideas have enriched my understanding of reality.

Question is the enlightenment the realization that there is no enlightenment?

How about Horselover Fat? King Felix?

Maybe Wilber understood things that you dont?

FWIW, I know the word orthogonal from math stuff (geometry). I've always or-THOG-un-ul, the THOG syllable gets the accent. * In 1 dimension, there's only one direction you can go (well, I guess there's kind of 2, forward and backward, but they are parallel to each other). * In 2 dimensions, directions can be parallel, or perpendicular, or somewhere in between. If 2 directions are parallel, they're kind of just the same. If 2 directions are perpendicular, then they have nothing to do with each other, if you travel in one of the directions, you can't make ANY progress in the perpendicular direction. * In 3 dimensions, you can have up to 3 directions that are perpendicular to each other (say forward/back, left/right, up/down), those directions are called orthogonal. Perpendicular is a special 2 dimensional case of orthogonal. When talking about other areas besides geometry, concepts can be called orthogonal if they have nothing to do with each other. This isn't a great example, but since orange is made of red and yellow, you could say red and orange have something in common, but blue and orange are orthogonal.

Check out Robert Orstein might be on same page.

You’ll know it if you see it. You’ll never know it if you don’t see it. Even if a bunch of people call you enlightened it doesn’t make it so. Even if no one recognizes you, it won’t make it not so. However, If you ever write cryptic youtube comments, it definitely means you aren’t

First, your version of the song is better. Second, as an intellectual and philosopher into big words, I’m also into “dumb stuff” … and sci-fi and garbage reality TV. Third, after defending my doctoral dissertation, my mentor/teacher told me to find a garbage can and scream into it “I’m a doctor”, listen to the echo, and then get over the bullsh*t and go help people. Mentors matter. 😊

I’d be very interested to hear you provide details on what you regard as Ken Wilber’s forays into “crazytown.” I don’t get that from his writings, so I’d like to hear your perspective. Thanks.

you know not everyone has heard of enlightenment ☝️

Unfortunately, Ursula LeGuin died in 2018. One of my favorite authors! And Lathe of Heaven one of my favorite books and movies (the original PBS version, not the remake)

Papañca

ur version of this song is definetly better. and the Original ist not Metalica. but of course sex pistols

zen is full of "manufactured" enlightenment experiences including just about all supposed zen masters. the whole thing is so fake its ridiculous a genuine enlightenment experience will put you immediately at odds with the zen "establishment" so is traumatic in that sense, when you have had it, you know what it is - accept no substitutes and you will get nothing but confused idiocy from those who have never had it they are a sort of answer, but can have subtle aspects that take decades to pick up on, in my own case its a movement away from zen's , what is effectively a form of monotheism into a more loose aggregation "of truths", there's really nothing, or no agency behind these truths, that's very hard for us humans to get, yet its not quite a flat surface so to speak

yes! strangely, this shit intro is good...lol...punk, lol, good, wtf?