Unconscious ~ Subconscious ?

“There must be an unlimited possibility beyond the boundary of human consciousness”.

But there is a strange myth ” We human is only using 20% (?) of our brain,  hence to develop its hidden

potential is limitless,  blah blah ” —— according to the Guru. —- What a beautiful dream.

( With the observation by the PET Scanner, no such hidden or inactive region of brain exists)

Since it is a myth, nobody know who said it or where its original research has come from.

And such myth has been used by ignorant youth to justify the experiment to the drugs and even many

grown ups is using it as an excuse to smoke cannabis,  saying ” This is to touch my Spirituality ”

I know a lots of 19 century poets, novelists and artists were the addict of opium when it was not a banned

substance and quite a lot of their works were said to be contributed by its influence etc etc. — THOUGH,

—– Really ?  The question is even though their poems, stories were written when they were under

the influence of the drugs, their works and the imaginations couldn’t be existed without it ?

And the drugs DID OPEN any unknown horizon ?

Did, LSD actually created anything new, unknown to human culture, other than colorful

so-called psychedelic paintings or rather dull monotonous, endless music ?

——

The surrealism poet / artists, Andre Burton, Poul Eluard tried the mescaline, alkaloid  from cactus

to have a hallucinated state of the mind and produced  poetries or so-called  Automatism scripts.

I spent quite a money to buy this expensive book and looked their creation or the description of

unknown ! (?)  when I was a poor student of the Uni’.   Though, there was nothing in it.

Just the meaningless, endless continuation of the words and words —– yet more words.

( Still, it was better than  Dadaism poetry  ( Ha ha ha  😀  ) as they are at least the words ).

—-

We, some times, speak or utter a word without conscious.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the word came out of the mouth disappear at once.

What ?  What did you say ? —– What ? Did I say anything ?   I don’t know,  I don’t remember.

( It could have been a Truth ! )

Though, it is almost impossible to write unconsciously.  Yet, in the written words, our subconscious

may show up without our intention, so the skillful writer could write hidden meaning using utterly different

description —– lots of poetry, especially  Symbolism Poetry is using this technique. ( Since, it is stronger )

Our vague inspiration would take a form of concept and then converted into the word or words, using

the notion or meaning of the word to carry and to express what was the original feelings or inspiration.

Therefore, it is often the process of the compromise.  Just borrow the meaning of the word which is likely

fit to the original inspiration, but not necessary exact.  (—– Some time, a  rigid meaning of the particular

word itself may give the inspiration as a trigger )

Unlike the spoken words, the writing leaves visible evidence, which can be objectively read

again and again.  As the written letters has to be visually read and its pattern has to be configured

as the word, then converted to the notion or meaning,  it is impossible to avoid the thinking process.

So, no unconscious writing could exist, hence  Automatism couldn’t produce anything significant to

the human creativity at all. —– ( finger itself may move unconsciously though, it would be hard to create

legible letter without having visual feedback of the graphic positioning ).

_____

So,  there is a funny misconception,  lots of people thinking as if there is a secret garden in our brain where

the treasure was hidden. And suddenly its door would be opened by the drug or meditation,  and make

us a genius or superman. 😀 —– Though as I wrote in many of my early posts, there is no such magic, but

we are living with unconscious / subconsciousness as a part of our life in every moment.

We are thinking unconsciously, —— and  when we converted  its result to visible or noticeable form as in

the last process in the brain, we start to feel ” Thinking “.

Our eyes are seeing the scenery mostly  without noticing anything —– until something trigger the attention.

Then, conscious process of  WATCHING starts.  Still, during this unconscious seeing, some of the images go

to unconscious memory and  its data process is taking place. ( Some of them may come back in a dream )

So, all about the matters of unconscious / subconsciousness are how to deal with those invisible animals. 😀

How to know or see its tendency,  and to know how to control them.

—— and this is what all about the Buddhism.

—–

When I was in my junior school,  we were taught to keep the school tidy and clean.

So too, pick up the trash on the floor.  Teachers told us ” Picking it up, while you are thinking ” This is a trash,

I have to pick up” is not good enough yet.  Pick it up without thinking is what you have to do “.

In fact, effectively  we were taught Zen practice in the junior school. ( Whether a teacher was

aware, this is the Zen Practice or not —– such Ethos has been  so deeply embedded in the Japanese culture,

people are no longer bother to distinguish its origin )

Picking up a trash without thinking ( ie; in Mushin )and put it into a bin,  how many second does it need ?

And living in a clean environment all day without bothered by dirt ( ie; in Peace of Mind ). Who needs more ?

So,  we were taught and learned the way to live in the clean environment.

And this Ethos and the Practice has been  embedded into our deep subconsciousness as a habit.

—— therefore one’s room would be clean,  not mention his (her) own life.  ( Well, ideally  😀  )

You may say ” What ?  Is this All about the Buddhism ?”—–Yes it is. It’s a Dog shit isn’t it.  😀

Yet this Dog Shit would clean up your life and give you a Peace of Mind and the Nirvana.  That’s

why ” Every body was born with Dharma and anybody can get Nirvana “

( Of cause, Buddhism and the Zen practice will not end with picking up a trash.

It is a start and it is a metaphor  😀 )

And how to utilize those mechanism of subconsciousness to more proactive situations, such as

in the creative front is what I wrote before —– ( Please refer to Category / Art )

___/\___

—-

My Starting point (2)

” What made me to go into the Buddhism “

( Sorry, the order of writing is not necessary follows  what you may expect, I just write about

the subject when / suddenly / its shape comes up ——To structuring  and make it solid is

the more logical,  intellectual process than the intuition of the Zen ——–Zen follows flash )

——————–

Strangely you might think, I spent 3 years of my High school time to read a book of

French Poet, Jean Arthur Rimbaud. (along side of mountain climbing, skiing and photos of  flowers)

Since, his symbolism poetry needed to be read 100 times to understand what he meant

but, his poems carries the deadly virus of self-destruction too.   Rimbaud was doing his

” Alchemy of Life ” (which is the analysis of his life’s journey and who he is ) which was depicted

in his poem “A season in hell” or ” Drunken Boat ” it led to the inevitable wreck,  which he

actuary got and end up in Abyssinia.

—– (After 3 years, I became a copy of him, seeing in his way and thinking like him )  I completely lost

the certainty of who I am. ( Later I found, anybody who was infected by this virus experienced the same )

—– From this experience, now I confidently say  “Anyone who read the same Mantra 1000 

times, it would be embedded into your subconscious and become the base of who you are”

—– so, be careful which one to read 😀

—————————-

What makes the reading of Rimbaud Poems somewhat common with Buddhists Pathway

was, that his approach to be a Boyant ( Seer / Watcher) in  Alchemy of Life  was,   

to examine the own mind again and again, deeper and deeper, exposing everything

like as a dissected dead body = effectively made his own mind (and the life) a completely

detached dried object.  Detachment while having cut-off the Emotion will lose the tag 

of the SELF,  hence creating a state of mind similar to the Buddhists’ Selflessness.

(This process is very similar to the Hinayana Buddhists practice  = Process of  Self-denial )

And as Rimbaud’s subject, include his own life became a detached object without the 

emotional attachment, it was described as a metaphorical object or the Symbol =

thence his poetry was called Symbolism.  (This detachment was the self-alienation too, so that

Rimbaud called the state of mind before, as a slumber of the animal —– he missed it

with tears but it was too late)

—————————

It was in the late 60th.  In order to re-construct myself, I resorted to Jean-Paul Sartre’s  Existentialism

and later, then popular  Structuralism  ( I liked this more than  Carl Jung as the theory extended to the

society )

The Sartre’s idea of  “The self defined by the self”, shifted to  “The self defined by other’s eyes”,   then to

“The self defined by the History”  was smoothly evolved to the  “self in the structure” in my eyes.

But in hindsight, I was more influenced by the Max Weber’s idea of Ethos. (as I was studying

Sociology for my degree )

Weber’s theory was, such as the Ethos of the self devoting Protestantism created the self-enterprise

of the own business and hard-working attitude, which led to the development of the Capitalism.

Yet, my eyes was a bit more afar, not just each profession or race, there must be more universal,

fundamental Ethos of Human being.—— My eyes turned to the Buddhism.

——- So that my starting point was more intellectual than the spiritual, and not because of my

farther’s influence. (though, the Ethos and the way of thinking of the Buddhism was THE environment)

——– ( Yet still, to cast the eyes to such direction instead of Technology or Art in my case,  it must be

driven by the deep spirituality,  which I can say only now, it must be the way  how the Dharma works.)

And this was the very timing of my  Karmic encounter to Master Kogetsu.

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