On Flow:
‘Finding flow’ a meme that’s been ingested and taken to express the generic state of a sensation that’s beyond the meme itself.
This expression of flow is being twisted and used in ways that are both exciting and misguiding.
Exciting, because human potential and process of growing a human creature as an experiment we are taking on ourselves, as consenting adults, gives us one more cave of the unknown to explore.
Misguiding, because it is being lauded as something that it isn’t, the ultimate path to human awakening.
I’m pulling apart the ideas, teasing them apart from the knot that they are, to grasp the potential for what it might be.
But I have a bias that I need to put out in front of everything I share here, and I’m doing it in the form of a question, “Why do we not understand, experientially, that flow states are just on more phenomena passing before us, neither better nor worse than any other, even though it potentially may be worse in the level of attachment it instigates in all who seek it?”
My bias, is that it’s ultimately a chase of what’s impermanent, and in a true sense can only lead to additional suffering.
That’s not a complete statement, as much as it’s a warning sign, that like psychedelics it’s probably best to be acknowledged as a tool for greater understanding of what it means to be alive, to know what life actually is.
But it’s not the thing itself.
Flow is one state amongst many.
What is flow actually?
That question is beginning to look a lot like, “What does it mean to awaken?” A question I address often. (you can read more here)
In some sense it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a word.
Fantastic, because we already know that. But it’s important to see that it is a word and a word alone, as the experiences we have do not exist as a single thing, but rather as fleeting moment to moment, moments. And none of them are every the same.
Never. Never are they the same, just as the tree you see isn’t the tree you saw a moment before, and even more so not the tree around the corner from the tree.
Is this apparent stupidity to converse as such idiotic or needed?
Clearly it matters to me and probably to you as well since you are reading this.
We know what flow has been defined as.
But does that matter anymore?
Is the question now one of access?
Is the question one of use?
If we acknowledge the breakthroughs that might be delivered to us by way of this bridge, then might we want to ask the question, why do I want to have this breakthrough?
Why does it matter to me to live more in flow?
What do I wish to gain from it and what do I believe it will bring to me once I do?
Or
Maybe I am simply an explorer of the states of experience and this is one of my favorite states to dance within.
On Questions:
What of finding flow within the dream? What of living in flow in a lucid dream?
Dream yoga, exists around this concept, doesn’t it. But it’s beyond that because it is all of it.
We are spinning a web of a most intriguing kind.
On Metaphors:
Indra’s Net, you are a jewel and the intersection of an infinite we and each jewel is composed of the reflections of the jewels near it.
Welcome to the field!
Now we’re asking a question that intrigues me, can we become different jewels by transferring our awareness to another intersection of the web?
Shine and glow, your illuminance becomes a function of your awareness, and when you shine and glow those near you begin to reflect the very light you are.
Reflections…
Flow now becomes a reflection of an inner state.
Flow = a metaphor of being turned on.
Water, wind, and emptiness… Movement, flow…
All the ways we work a word over and over to express our conceptions of reality… Flow…
We all enjoy altered states of consciousness.
We seek them out from the beginning of our existence. As children we spun ourselves silly. As adults we do the same, but with different ingredients of many kinds.
My entire life has been dedicated to the exploration of altered states, literally.
If you follow my work, it always revolves around experiencing more of the experience of life itself.
That is why I’m writing these words, to continue going beyond my current understanding of life itself.
I am curious.
And that curiosity and desire to experience all of it, drives me.
You walk the path until it becomes you and then you are it.
On Lucid Dreaming & Flow States:
The enchantment and the questions continue to arise for me.
Lucid dreaming lives in ways that deserve more time and exploration, with a potential to go beyond the depths of our waking states, we have the chance to know even more of what our minds our capable of.
There are many questions to ask, and I’m simply hinting at what I am curious about, in this post.
Further exploration of all of these ideas will be required.
To continue as I do, the unfolding potential…