I came across you on a free fall. While you are way more educated and articulate than I am, I get it, me too, So good to know I am not alone, that I am not the crazy one. Wouldn't it be nice if team human was a team thats end goal was for everyone to win. Every player was commited to being 1% better everyday. Every team member helped their brothers and sisters to reach that 1% goal. Every team member knew that that the work was hard, and the future was unpredictable, but they all had faith that the were doing the right thing for the right reasons. And every day individually and collective they re- evaluated the definition of the right thing, and the right reasons.
Enjoyed reading this! As I look at my skydiving rig collecting dust in the closet I can’t help but wonder if there is a Level Four. When one forgoes chasing the dopamine high of falling towards the one and only Earth and picks up the (inner) game of tennis on the weekends instead. Perhaps it’s a regression of sorts. Or simply some kind of a new way of being radically ok with the imperfect present.
What a ride, what a rush 😉. Just a wee bit of reflection if I may sir Jamie.
Anyone with the least bit of self-awareness should be able to recognize and acknowledge the destructive stupidity of becoming self-righteously bound up in the conventional mind of Consensus, or tribal, Reality. In times of fear and confusion human primates flock to authoritarian leaders, default to tribal tropes and the comfort of conventional beliefs and cultic associations. Humankind obviously needs to out-grow such childish motives and masks, and learn to think outside the box/bucket of merely social-political-religious conventions if we are to get our collective shite together.
But, respectfully, I must say that virtually none of the innovative thinkers, seekers, and glorious pontificators ever really get beyond a rather idealistic and self-based “solution” or reaction to the root egoic problem of Consensus-Reality bondage. In other words, there is an obvious and very useful distinction between your ontological buckets 1 and 2, but I would suggest that the distinctions that you make between buckets 2, 3, and 4 don’t really get to the “answer” or Realization that they seem to seek and suggest.
What about the “Mighty Monad” that Shines Prior to all ecstatic experiences of temporary absorptive Oneness? The crucial thing to understand is that all the higher/deeper “levels of Reality” that you are describing are really variations on the same kind of “conventional meditation”. “Conventional meditation” can lead to an infinite variety of far-out experiences but it never fully and finally transcend the ego-mind of separateness. As explained by my Teacher:
“Conventional meditation is a matter of getting attention absorbed in something, getting it absorbed in one kind of an object or another. Absorptive meditation is not real meditation. Absorptive meditation is beginner’s meditation, it is egoic meditation. It is the ego, or attention, getting absorbed in something, distracted from itself, and yet not ultimately transcending itself.”
Let us not forget, ignore, or neglect the Magnificent Monad; the ultimate point, purpose, and Happiness that completely transcends all the ego-based buckets, or Levels of Reality. The problem with making too much hay about the in-depth experiential potentials of the body-mind is that they always fall short of the ultimate point, purpose, and happiness of Existence which cannot be attained through ego-efforts of any kind.
Until this is really understood we will continue to be ensnared in our willful adventures of bucketing and unbucketing, that only seem to lead elsewhere but always return us back to ourselves. No matter how hard you try and how high you fly you cannot “take heaven by storm”. Icarus comes to mind.
Let us not confuse, conflate, or negate the Divine heart of Reality in the gobsmacking slurry of the countless buckets and higher states of our experiential possibilities. To do so is to remain fixed and fascinated in all the karmic and dharmic possibilities of cosmic wandering and to never find your way back Home.
Made me laugh- all those guys on the movie Jackass in a squirrel suit hitting the upper esh of free fall 😆! A bit deep. I'm hoping that I'm sinking into the right stream of consciousness for intuition.
Then on the other hand, last time I thought similar thoughts I was working out way to much. I'm so glad someone can verbalize those complexities. It's important that those we allow to mentor us have similar core values. Yet, a different perspective is nice to hear. I remember a trip to Tahoe and also Utah with friends. Fresh snow and skiing freely when we were really athletic, bounding down the mountain. Similar vibes. But also at the beach with friends.
I enjoyed your article very much, Jamie ... thanks for taking the time to pen it. Best wishes from the psychedelic-friendly mountains of Vilcabamba ... where we are lucky enough to have more than our fair share of intrepid "explorers of the realms." Cheers! :)
This is absolutely correct, I personally don't have proper words to express....... But this is salvation achieved through knowledge and nothing thing else.
Just finished my 65th trip around the sun. Jumped off the proverbial cliff without a parachute a little over 5 decades ago. Eastern philosophy, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience and quantum physics fit together like pieces of a puzzle that all makes sense when you pull back far enough: Spacetime is simply a substrate for and archive of subjective experience, created through both accidental observation and goal-directed intent by the original primordial force/property we call Subjective Awareness. And now we get to contribute to these archives, as individual entities with awareness, as we help create our ever-expanding Universe. Better make our contributions as positive and meaningful as possible! This edition of your newsletter sums up that journey pretty succinctly. Thanks!
I love this description. It helps me articulate my own journey. I’ve been playing in zone 4 and can’t decide how much is my ego confronting trauma and how much is my soul lighting a path to something I can’t understand yet. Good luck bad luck…who knows. Thank you Jamie.
Thank you for the explanation Jamie. Ontological Wingsuiting is starting to make more sense. I'm still trying to wrap my head around what this looks like in practice in different situations and what it does and does not apply to. In other words, does it apply just as much to engineering solutions to large scale problems as it does to action sports and exploring consciousness? If so, then I'm trying to understand if there is something different about ontological wingsuiting compared to being comfortable with uncertainty while applying the scientific method to figure out what is true. I look forward to learning more.
I came across you on a free fall. While you are way more educated and articulate than I am, I get it, me too, So good to know I am not alone, that I am not the crazy one. Wouldn't it be nice if team human was a team thats end goal was for everyone to win. Every player was commited to being 1% better everyday. Every team member helped their brothers and sisters to reach that 1% goal. Every team member knew that that the work was hard, and the future was unpredictable, but they all had faith that the were doing the right thing for the right reasons. And every day individually and collective they re- evaluated the definition of the right thing, and the right reasons.
Enjoyed reading this! As I look at my skydiving rig collecting dust in the closet I can’t help but wonder if there is a Level Four. When one forgoes chasing the dopamine high of falling towards the one and only Earth and picks up the (inner) game of tennis on the weekends instead. Perhaps it’s a regression of sorts. Or simply some kind of a new way of being radically ok with the imperfect present.
What a ride, what a rush 😉. Just a wee bit of reflection if I may sir Jamie.
Anyone with the least bit of self-awareness should be able to recognize and acknowledge the destructive stupidity of becoming self-righteously bound up in the conventional mind of Consensus, or tribal, Reality. In times of fear and confusion human primates flock to authoritarian leaders, default to tribal tropes and the comfort of conventional beliefs and cultic associations. Humankind obviously needs to out-grow such childish motives and masks, and learn to think outside the box/bucket of merely social-political-religious conventions if we are to get our collective shite together.
But, respectfully, I must say that virtually none of the innovative thinkers, seekers, and glorious pontificators ever really get beyond a rather idealistic and self-based “solution” or reaction to the root egoic problem of Consensus-Reality bondage. In other words, there is an obvious and very useful distinction between your ontological buckets 1 and 2, but I would suggest that the distinctions that you make between buckets 2, 3, and 4 don’t really get to the “answer” or Realization that they seem to seek and suggest.
What about the “Mighty Monad” that Shines Prior to all ecstatic experiences of temporary absorptive Oneness? The crucial thing to understand is that all the higher/deeper “levels of Reality” that you are describing are really variations on the same kind of “conventional meditation”. “Conventional meditation” can lead to an infinite variety of far-out experiences but it never fully and finally transcend the ego-mind of separateness. As explained by my Teacher:
“Conventional meditation is a matter of getting attention absorbed in something, getting it absorbed in one kind of an object or another. Absorptive meditation is not real meditation. Absorptive meditation is beginner’s meditation, it is egoic meditation. It is the ego, or attention, getting absorbed in something, distracted from itself, and yet not ultimately transcending itself.”
Let us not forget, ignore, or neglect the Magnificent Monad; the ultimate point, purpose, and Happiness that completely transcends all the ego-based buckets, or Levels of Reality. The problem with making too much hay about the in-depth experiential potentials of the body-mind is that they always fall short of the ultimate point, purpose, and happiness of Existence which cannot be attained through ego-efforts of any kind.
Until this is really understood we will continue to be ensnared in our willful adventures of bucketing and unbucketing, that only seem to lead elsewhere but always return us back to ourselves. No matter how hard you try and how high you fly you cannot “take heaven by storm”. Icarus comes to mind.
Let us not confuse, conflate, or negate the Divine heart of Reality in the gobsmacking slurry of the countless buckets and higher states of our experiential possibilities. To do so is to remain fixed and fascinated in all the karmic and dharmic possibilities of cosmic wandering and to never find your way back Home.
Peace out,
David
Made me laugh- all those guys on the movie Jackass in a squirrel suit hitting the upper esh of free fall 😆! A bit deep. I'm hoping that I'm sinking into the right stream of consciousness for intuition.
Then on the other hand, last time I thought similar thoughts I was working out way to much. I'm so glad someone can verbalize those complexities. It's important that those we allow to mentor us have similar core values. Yet, a different perspective is nice to hear. I remember a trip to Tahoe and also Utah with friends. Fresh snow and skiing freely when we were really athletic, bounding down the mountain. Similar vibes. But also at the beach with friends.
Much peace and love!
I enjoyed your article very much, Jamie ... thanks for taking the time to pen it. Best wishes from the psychedelic-friendly mountains of Vilcabamba ... where we are lucky enough to have more than our fair share of intrepid "explorers of the realms." Cheers! :)
I be waiting there
Beautiful. Certainty is the opposite of faith, not doubt.
This is absolutely correct, I personally don't have proper words to express....... But this is salvation achieved through knowledge and nothing thing else.
May be the correct term is APOTHEOSIS.
Just finished my 65th trip around the sun. Jumped off the proverbial cliff without a parachute a little over 5 decades ago. Eastern philosophy, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience and quantum physics fit together like pieces of a puzzle that all makes sense when you pull back far enough: Spacetime is simply a substrate for and archive of subjective experience, created through both accidental observation and goal-directed intent by the original primordial force/property we call Subjective Awareness. And now we get to contribute to these archives, as individual entities with awareness, as we help create our ever-expanding Universe. Better make our contributions as positive and meaningful as possible! This edition of your newsletter sums up that journey pretty succinctly. Thanks!
I love this description. It helps me articulate my own journey. I’ve been playing in zone 4 and can’t decide how much is my ego confronting trauma and how much is my soul lighting a path to something I can’t understand yet. Good luck bad luck…who knows. Thank you Jamie.
Thank you for the explanation Jamie. Ontological Wingsuiting is starting to make more sense. I'm still trying to wrap my head around what this looks like in practice in different situations and what it does and does not apply to. In other words, does it apply just as much to engineering solutions to large scale problems as it does to action sports and exploring consciousness? If so, then I'm trying to understand if there is something different about ontological wingsuiting compared to being comfortable with uncertainty while applying the scientific method to figure out what is true. I look forward to learning more.
There is a subset whose attention is only captured by the quantum edge.
I wish that I could afford to Sky Dive with someone with me. Not at 60s maybe 70s.