Latest Buddha at the Gas Pump

C

chuck.drake

Rick's latest episode of Buddha at the Gas Pump may be of interest to a number of folks who read here. It is a panel of folks who have achieved some level of awakening talking about the degree to which refined, or celestial perception plays into their daily lives. So in other words, a few of them following awakening are able to see devas, for instance. Others talk about their own celestial perceptions. All but one of the participants have already done one on one interviews with Rick, so if you like someone in particular you can go back into his archives and watch their stuff.

Rick allows each participant to give an overview at the beginning and the one person goes on way too long. I was tempted to quit watching at that point but was glad I continued because there was also some good stuff following.

http://batgap.com/panel-discussion-on-refined-celestial-perception/
 
I just listened to this, very interesting. The more I read/listen to these type of things, I feel I can only come to one conclusion : We just don't understand the true nature of reality. I suspect we are not capable of understanding it. We're like mice running a maze in someone's lab, only our maze is the perceivable universe.
 
I just listened to this, very interesting. The more I read/listen to these type of things, I feel I can only come to one conclusion : We just don't understand the true nature of reality. I suspect we are not capable of understanding it. We're like mice running a maze in someone's lab, only our maze is the perceivable universe.

Yeah. All these different people, all their different interpretations. None of them, nor you and I, really know what to make of it. And there's also a temptation to think that the more spectacular the experience, the more significant it must be. There's no a priori reason, I don't think, to believe that. It reminds me of something Idries Shah said along the lines of: one aspirin cures a headache, so won't a hundred bring enlightenment?

To be fair, I think it was mentioned that weird and wonderful experiences could be a distraction. Once talk of them used to impress me, but there's this little nagging voice that says the fireworks might not be of great and lasting significance, and indeed, lead one astray. Sometimes, very ordinary-seeming but subtle events that one can see every day without paying much attention to them can be very illuminating. A child absorbed in play; a person being themselves and doing something they love to do; a spontaneous small act of kindness; the squirrel in my garden robbing the bird feeder; the cows in the field beyond grazing; the way the fly that's annoying me evades being swatted: it can be and is everywhere when one finds oneself attentive to it.
 
To be fair, I think it was mentioned that weird and wonderful experiences could be a distraction.

I can sort of understand why Rick wanted to do this show. But on the other hand I think it creates an expectation in some people that these fireworks are somehow the point of greater awareness rather just a side effect for some. Clearly the one panelist is enamored with them and the savvy viewer can take note.

Buddha at the Gas Pump at its best shows the listener what a radical and lasting coexistence with non-dual reality can look like. It also gives us an interesting view into what it looks like when folks get snared into funny little areas that may look on the surface like awakening, but clearly are something else.
 
Back
Top