Tom Robbins once said 'Reality is for those who can't handle drugs' which was a clever play on 'Drugs are for those who can't handle reality'. Well I have a new take: 'Reality is for those who can handle drugs'. I bought a book last night - David Michie's Hurry up and meditate. The title says something about how the book will read. Straightforward and to the point. There is a quote in the book attributed to Einstein (other quote sources range from the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius to the American writer Henry Miller): 'Reality is an illusion, albeit it a persistent one.'In the state of samadhi (Meditations from the tantras) 'the self-consciousness of the mind disappears. The duality of object and perceiving subject disappears so that the object and subject become one.' The book says it is almost impossible to describe this state but has a pretty good go at it. A friend commented that people might experience the same thing through drugs. I pointed out that they might get a glimpse of it, but it would not be lasting (other effects of the drug might be though!). Whereas someone who has jumped mind and other hurdles to finally experience samadhi 'maintains deep wisdom and peace and expresses it in everyday activities.' This conversation led me to the above twist on the original and the title for this blog.
2 comments:
At first quick reading I thought the title was Hurry Up and Medicate, but that would be a book about the American medical industry.
Ha ha. There may well be such a book title? Perhaps you could review it for Amazon?
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