The Best Thing

Stian Gudmundsen Høiland, modified 12 Years ago at 10/19/12 9:29 PM
Created 12 Years ago at 10/19/12 9:02 PM

The Best Thing

Posts: 296 Join Date: 9/5/10 Recent Posts
Carolin and I are hiking. Stunning weather. I'm not very much outdoors so the effect of beautiful nature is that much stronger for me. On the way back, there's a path with a small forest right beside it. The trunk of the trees are bare from the root and 3 meters up, where the foliage starts. This creates a natural roof and one can walk freely among the well-spaced trees under the foliage-roof. Under here it's dimly and comfortably lit - very little light is coming through the leaves from the top, but the bright weather illuminates the forest ground. A small distance into the forest there's a small trickling stream. Oh my god what a beautiful stream. It's so stereotypical fairytale-like that my head spins thinking about it. It's wide such that one can jump over it. On the other side of the stream there are some more trees, then a clearing. The clearing has knee-high grass and because of the surrounding trees there are many and very distinct god rays. I'm gripped by something, a recognition. Things start brilliantly glowing, glistening, glittering, glimmering, glinting, gleaming, scintillating, sparkling. I stop dead and gape at the sight. I'm standing on the path looking in, completely spellbound by what I just described. I'm speechless, yet filled with an explosive urge to express.




On the far bank of the stream, right before the hip-high grass in the clearing, there's a patch of ground where a ray of light is hitting the ground, illuminating it. That patch of illuminated ground, that's what's doing it for me at this time. Something inexpressible about the contrasting, illuminated ground.

There's exceptional joy - immense and total, yet subtle and completely calm, still. There's nothing specifically causing the joy, hence I describe it as "inherent", or even "unconditional".

It's a very specific, exceptional and recognizable experience and it has happened only a handful of times. It's difficult to describe, but is always accompanied by the same kind of verbal thought:
  • That is so there
  • If I wasn't here, that would still be there
  • Without me, that would just keep being like that
  • With no one around observing, that would just keep doing that, by itself

I believe this is called luminosity, which I am aware is supposedly merely one side of the proverbial coin; the other side being emptiness.

In AF parlance, this thought is about how that thing is actually there, that it is actual, self-supported and independent, actually existing - in contrast with emptiness and dependent origination.




Walking closer to the illuminated ground, my eyes are drawn to the glistening of the water in the stream. The trickling sound is so sweet. The bed of the stream is partially lit by fascinating, fractal-like, playfully dancing water reflections. A ray of sunlight penetrates the canopy and illuminates the softest looking light brown pebble at the bed of the stream. The pebble has a vein-like pattern and is colored with an infinite number of shades of brown. It glows. I get the impression that I could watch the pebble until I wither and die. Time ends for just a moment.
Stian Gudmundsen Høiland, modified 12 Years ago at 10/19/12 9:23 PM
Created 12 Years ago at 10/19/12 9:13 PM

RE: The Best Thing

Posts: 296 Join Date: 9/5/10 Recent Posts
This is a real state/mode that I've experienced a handful of times and it's currently at the top of the list for me. Remembering this mode cuts through any doubt I might have about the path because it's so obviously the golden standard for experience.

I can't find the quote right now but I remember Claudiu mentioning that he had some palpable progress in getting PCE's when he was contemplating how some object was actually there, actually existing, and I completely agree with that.

But, in stark contrast to Claudiu, I find that emptiness has very similar and synergistic effects, but I'm not at all advanced enough to say anything definite about that. Just some food for thought for whoever's interested in this thing.

I'd like to repeat the utter conviction that this experience brings. Suddenly nothing matters anymore; conceptual models and maps, labels and metaphysics - all these kinds of things lose their perceived value. The only thing that matters is to introduce this mode as the default, 24/7 mode of experience.

You might have picked up that I'm implying that this mode/state is the PCE that Richard of AFT talks about. In that context I'd like to (once again) quote Jill:

TJ Broccoli:
(...) at that point i didn't know if that pce experience lined up with af or not, but it didn't matter anyway because perception had cleared up the way i had always wanted it to. (emphasis added)
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Richard Zen, modified 12 Years ago at 10/19/12 10:49 PM
Created 12 Years ago at 10/19/12 10:49 PM

RE: The Best Thing

Posts: 1676 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
When you're in the city a lot the contrast of forests and streams can be a breath of fresh air. I remember practicing HAIETMOBA/apperception there. The elation in the deep mindfulness and concentration helps the thoughts to just drop and what is just IS.

In my experience allowing more thoughts in made things even better. Trying to bat them away made the experience more choppy than it needed to be but compared to what I was used to it was astonishing.

Whatever it is it sounds good. emoticon
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Pål S, modified 12 Years ago at 10/20/12 3:55 AM
Created 12 Years ago at 10/20/12 3:54 AM

RE: The Best Thing

Posts: 196 Join Date: 8/16/10 Recent Posts
Funny relevant quote from Richard:

GARY: One of the things that was most striking about it was how uncommon everything appeared, how rich and variegated everything was.

RICHARD: Yes, I took particular note of your depiction of the stone in the gravel pit: sometimes peoples have looked at me in shock when I wax eloquent about actual intimacy with a stone, a brick, a glass ashtray, a polystyrene cup and so on, but I just tell them that I am officially mad and/or that I am a war veteran and they, presumably, go away content that all has been thus satisfactorily explained.

http://actualfreedom.com.au/richard/selectedcorrespondence/sc-excellence.htm
Stian Gudmundsen Høiland, modified 12 Years ago at 10/20/12 9:33 AM
Created 12 Years ago at 10/20/12 9:33 AM

RE: The Best Thing

Posts: 296 Join Date: 9/5/10 Recent Posts
That link was so helpful, Pål. I can't believe I've never read it before. Spot on for me right now.