How to become conscious of the sublime?

[Viking]

I feel like the world is empty of anything awe-ful, nothing seems to surprise me so to speak. I look at nature, I don't feel anything, I listen to music, I don't feel anything lately mostly, I watch movies/TV shows, they're ok, but not spectacular, like I used to perceive them. How do I become conscious of the sublimity of life?

[possibilities]

For me it happens pretty intuitively through my imagination. So maybe start training it. The more of the world you’ve perceived the more of the world you have to play with in your personal experience of awe.

But even in just observing yourself you still have so much wonder to realise, take your hand for example, you can zoom in to incredible degrees and discover worlds beyond worlds you never previously saw or recognised, you can do the same for nearly any aspect of experience in your awareness.

This is the power of the imagination. 

Edited July 24, 2019 by possibilities

[Bluff]

51 minutes ago, Viking said:

I don't feel anything

Tell me how is this possible

[Nahm]

@Viking How’s meditation going? That will settle the mind. Your natural state is bliss. 

[Viking]

4 minutes ago, Bluff said:

Tell me how is this possible

I lack the imagination? I got desensitized? I don't know, im asking you, lol

Just now, Nahm said:

@Viking How meditation going? That will settle the mind. You’re natural state is bliss. 

started the routine again, going on 5th day

[Nahm]

@Viking Awesome! That’ll do it. 

[Salvijus]

@Viking

14 minutes ago, Viking said:

started the routine again, going on 5th day

Nice. What do you do? 

[Bluff]

I want you to see.. it is not true that you don't feel anything. 

1 hour ago, Viking said:

lack the imagination? I got desensitized?

Feeling has nothing to do with imagination. Accept the things you become aware of, without judging. Calm your ego by telling yourself that everything is fine. Things are changing while going down the path. Some changes are challenging the ego. 

But you know IT is good don't you? 

[Preetom]

3 hours ago, Viking said:

I feel like the world is empty of anything awe-ful, nothing seems to surprise me so to speak. I look at nature, I don't feel anything, I listen to music, I don't feel anything lately mostly, I watch movies/TV shows, they're ok, but not spectacular, like I used to perceive them. How do I become conscious of the sublimity of life?

''The person who single-mindedly chases pleasure, finds nothing pleasurable after a while''

- Somerset Maugham 

The real issue is, you've been terribly de-sensitized to life and experience due to regular overstimulation of pleasurable content (food, sex, entertainment, leisure, comfort, conformity etc) for many years. This is the hideous cancer of our modern toxic culture.

You can recover from this by practicing stoicism. I'll share 2 classic stoicism techniques that help rejuvenating the sublimity of life.

1) Negative Visualization: Visualize everyday how things could be super worse. Like how you could be a cripple, without a voice or speech impediment, hearing deficiency, no money living in streets, everyone and everything around you getting swept by some natural disaster, having a chronic terrible disease, very low iq etc. even the most insignificant things. Deeply and actively visualize these negatives and see how easily you could be victim of many these misfortunes. Then immediately a deep sense of gratitude will well up in your heart for things being already super good than those disasters.

2) Self denial: Actively deny yourself of physical and mental comforts and goodies...for a time. If you starve for long enough, even the tasteless food will taste like ambrosia. Live this puritanical life for few months and then you'll start to enjoy the most mundane elements of life once again.

Edited July 24, 2019 by Preetom

[Telepresent]

@Viking An alternative perspective not to be dismissed: sounds like some of the symptoms of a low-level depression. Might be worth a little research to be safe

Edited July 24, 2019 by Telepresent

[Inliytened1]

@Preetom great advice.

@VikingThe world is pure Love but you have closed yourself off to Love it seems.  Did anything happen recently that might have caused that?

Edited July 24, 2019 by Inliytened1

[Viking]

2 hours ago, Salvijus said:

@Viking

Nice. What do you do? 

what you suggested 15 min body scan 5 min loving kindness.

1 hour ago, Bluff said:

I want you to see.. it is not true that you don't feel anything. 

Feeling has nothing to do with imagination. Accept the things you become aware of, without judging. Calm your ego by telling yourself that everything is fine. Things are changing while going down the path. Some changes are challenging the ego. 

But you know IT is good don't you? 

I dont have a problem with how life is right now, its pretty good relative to 1 year ago for example. im just asking how it could be better. I just havent experienced any "peak experiences" for a very long time. life isnt that boring to me, its just doesnt have very good elements to it like it used to have long ago sometimes. 

@Preetom Maybe you're right that ive been desensitized but im not sure. im not indulging that much in pleasures. but anyway, regarding both of the ways, the visualization i tried before, i kept a gratitude journal, and i didnt connect well with it, i started to resent doing it after a while. regarding the abstaining, i also tried it and in my experience it leads to neuroticism, so i would rather not experience pleasures than to be neurotic.

41 minutes ago, Telepresent said:

@Viking An alternative perspective not to be dismissed: sounds like some of the symptoms of a low-level depression. Might be worth a little research to be safe

 i think you misunderstood me a little, its not that i dont enjoy everything, i enjoy things, but not that much. my question was how to have extraordinary experiences, and not that my ordinary experiences suck too much.

40 minutes ago, Inliytened1 said:

The world is pure Love but you have closed yourself off to Love it seems.  Did anything happen recently that might have caused that?

nothing recently, its been like that for more or less 3 years, since i finished highschool, though it started in highschool, where i would have whole periods of boredom in insatisfaction. actually recently ive started to get more joy out of life, since i started taking responsibility for my growth, writing in a journal, going to the gym often, etc.

15 minutes ago, see_on_see said:

It's a matter of selective focus. Reality only gives you back what you put into it. You have put in the effort to see the sublime in order to see it, it won't come to you for nothing. You have to purify your mind first. A good start is to remove all the fluff and noise (e.g. TV, for fucks sake  ) that prevents you from accessing it. But also being curious about reality, putting an effort into finding interest and fascination in life. As I said it's a matter of selective focus. The more you are curious and fascinated about life, the more you learn, live, experience, and therefore recontextualize it, switching your focus on the more sublime aspects. 

very interesting. actually what ive been doing unconsciously is trying not to find beauty in things because i felt subconsciously that it would be bad because i would be "forcing" beauty. like it should happen naturally and not by forcing it, because usually forcing things brings about a chaotic mind and neuroticism.

i remember a period when i tried to get enlightened, lol. Forcing myself to believe i am a chair or whatever. I realized that this will never work because enlightenment is getting rid of beliefs and not adding ones. From there i concluded that forcing things doesnt work, but maybe it just doesnt work in enlightenment work, but in the dual world it can work. i dont know, thank you, i think this will help becoming conscious of the sublime somewhat. 

another example when forcing it doesnt work is with music, when im listening to music i have no idea what to listen to, and sometimes the meaning of the music just slips. its like i need to be at a lower consciousness state in order to really "hear" the music. i often get lost in thought when i try to "force" things too.

[Viking]

36 minutes ago, see_on_see said:

Also psychedelics. Do some LSD and that'll do the purification process for you in minutes/hours, you'll come back but you'll be able to access new dimensions and levels of consciousness and that can be a powerful experience in itself. 

yeah and i did experience a lot of fascination about life during and after my LSD experience, but it didnt last

[Viking]

1 minute ago, see_on_see said:

Don't do just one or a few trips, keep doing it and ask the trip to show you how to integrate that fascination in daily life. Make use of that higher consciousness and intuition the trip gives you. 

yeah, but i dont think im ready yet for that. i have at least half a decade to fulfill more basic needs.

5 minutes ago, see_on_see said:

try to fully feel the emotion without stories, by doing mindfulness with labeling which always helps me recognize I'm not actually a "me" experiencing the emotions or thinking stories around the emotional state

hm, i do something similar but instead of the labeling i surrender to the emotion, knowing that im just a little human and my life doesnt really matter. thats what works for my level of consciousness. i identify too much experientially with the "me" for now.

19 minutes ago, see_on_see said:

The mind tends to forget,

i do journaling instead

[Preetom]

51 minutes ago, Viking said:

.

@Preetom Maybe you're right that ive been desensitized but im not sure. im not indulging that much in pleasures. but anyway, regarding both of the ways, the visualization i tried before, i kept a gratitude journal, and i didnt connect well with it, i started to resent doing it after a while. regarding the abstaining, i also tried it and in my experience it leads to neuroticism, so i would rather not experience pleasures than to be neurotic.

 

 

There is a qualitative and process difference between stoic negative visualization and woo woo new age superficial, pretentious gratitude.

If you are at a down place in life, visualize extreme negatives and see how this present shit life is a lot better than how worse it could turn out. It breaks the de-sensitization patterns by continuously giving the mind contrasts and comparisons through which it can reevaluate happiness and well being.

And if you are at high place, contemplating death would be the nail in the head...how  transitory of a house of cards these goodies of life are. But this death contemplation wont work at a down point as one will already meh and kinda wanna die to avoid the shit life.

Edited July 24, 2019 by Preetom

[Viking]

9 minutes ago, see_on_see said:

I recommend going further with mindfulness + self inquiry. Being Nothingness is far better than being a little human. 

yes, of course, i realize that, im planning to

 

 

[pluto]

Find your passion, your joy, your excitement and completely immerse yourself in your choices of art because reality doesn't change until we change completely ourselves. Be in a spiritually mindful state 24/7 and you will notice grate change! Total devotion to spirit is Enlightenment.

 

 

 

[ajasatya]

@Viking Who are you? How does the world come to be? How come anything exists at all?

[Viking]

1 hour ago, ajasatya said:

@Viking Who are you? How does the world come to be? How come anything exists at all?

i dont know and i dont know how to find the answer to those questions or if its even possible to find an answer to these questions.

[Viking]

1 hour ago, pluto said:

Find your passion

how

1 hour ago, pluto said:

Be in a spiritually mindful state

what does it mean