Found 173 posts tagged ‘buddhism’ |
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Restoring the Lost Sense –
December 20, 2022 |
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| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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Restoring the Lost Sense –
June 5, 2022 |
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| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought –
June 2, 2021 |
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A Contested Prophecy, Literally True?
Skeptics cite Jesus’ promise that “this generation” will see the end of days as a failed prophecy, yet — extraordinarily — in the light of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, we can see Jesus’ words as very literally true. We’ll touch upon this, as we’ve not seen the insight discussed elsewhere. Mark 13:24-30 quotes Jesus as predicting that the sun and moon will be darkened, the stars of heaven will fall, the powers of heaven will be shaken, the Son of Man will appear in the clouds with great glory, angels will gather from the four winds, and — crucially — “this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.” How can such a statement be literally true? It was literally true for each individual of that generation upon his or her death, for what Jesus described is parallel to the death experience detailed in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Skeptics don’t seem to see the individual trees for the forest. One at a time, human beings face the end of the[ir] world upon death. Light is extinguished and the soul navigates the turbulent “afterlife” environment of the Bardo, featuring terrifying winds and deafening thunders and deities and angels in the clouds.
Jesus makes an analogy four verses later of a man leaving his house and taking a far journey, and that, too, is parallel to the first day in the afterlife as described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. (“Thou wilt see thine own home, the attendants, relatives, and the corpse, and think, ‘Now I am dead! What shall I do?' and being oppressed with intense sorrow, the thought will occur to thee, ‘O what would I not give to possess a body!’ And so thinking, thou wilt be wandering hither and thither seeking a body” [Book II, Part I]). Indeed, Jesus’ prophecy of the future can be understood as fulfilling itself for one person at a time, upon death. As the Tibetan Book of the Dead explains, when one’s earthly nervous system shuts off, the light of the sun, moon, and stars are no longer visible; only the “astral light” would be detectable to the deceased’s etheric being. In Book II, Part I of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, we learn that in the post-death Bardo realm, “The fierce wind of karma, terrific and hard to endure, will drive thee onwards from behind, in dreadful gusts. Fear it not. That is thine own illusion. Thick awesome darkness will appear in front of thee continually.” Yet “the embodiment of all that is wise, merciful and loving” will appear “as clouds on the surface on the heavens or a rainbow on the surface of the clouds.” It is the father of heaven (whom the Tibetans call the Manifester of Phenomena, who has dominion over worldly existence) appearing in the center of the sky, seated in a lion-throne (Book I, Part II), attended by angelic Bodhisattvas shining amidst a rainbow halo of light. Those not versed in comparative religion might be surprised to learn that Tibetans acknowledge that one might see Jesus in the afterlife. The Tibetan Book of the Dead explains that the “Great Body of Union ... will appear in whatever shape will benefit all beings whomsoever,” meaning that the godhead will take the form most appealing to the individual, such as Jesus to a Christian.
As a final note, concerning the overlap between Tibetan Buddhism and Christianity, Philip K. Dick explored at length in his Exegesis the “perpendicular path” to salvation that Christianity offers, and this same “Great Straight Upward Path" to enlightenment is made explicit in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. (Dick, conversant with both philosophies, preferred Christianity’s.) Both feature the peculiar doctrine of instantaneous spiritual emancipation without further suffering, and this doctrine underlies the entire Tibetan Book of the Dead. “Faith is the first step on the Secret Pathway,” explains a footnote in the Tibetan text, “Then comes Illumination; and with it, Certainty; and, when that Goal is won, Emancipation.” As in the ancient Egyptian symbolism of the sun-god Ra, it is the “hook” (as on a fishing line) of the “rays of grace” that catch and drag one perpendicularly from the dangers of the Bardo (Book I, Part II).
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Restoring the Lost Sense –
April 1, 2021 |
(permalink) |
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| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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Hindpsych: Erstwhile Conjectures by the Sometime Augur of Yore –
March 30, 2020 |
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How the Mysteries of The Prisoner Series
Are Clarified by The Tibetan Book of the Dead
Though there are seemingly infinite theories to explain the cult TV series The Prisoner, we would suggest that the most elegant, comprehensive understanding is that the series deliberately illustrates the soul’s journey through the “Bardo” liminal state after death, as depicted in The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In the netherworld, when one is about to initiate a new birth, The Tibetan Book of the Dead’s first instruction for closing off a womb is to tranquilly meditate upon one’s tutelary deity until the deity melts away into clear light (Book II, p. 176). The Prisoner, in this still, is confronted by a choice: an egg or a Buddha.
The Prisoner repeatedly resists fertilization throughout the series, prolonging his time in the liminal state until his true awakening. The green dome of Number Two’s office symbolizes a womb, and it also grandly depicts Tibetan cosmology: “Each universe, like a great cosmic egg, is enclosed within [an] iron-wall shell, which shuts in the light of the sun and moon and stars, the iron-wall shell being symbolical of the perpetual darkness separating one universe from another” (W. Y. Evans-Wentz, in the introduction to The Tibetan Book of the Dead).
In turn, the dome contains a smaller womb (symbolic of nesting rebirths) in the form the Ball Chair by Finnish designer Eero Aarino. Here we even see the womb chair holding an egg:
By the end of the series, the Buddhist cycle of rebirth calls so strongly that the Prisoner is sealed into a womb made of steel:
The beneficent and wrathful deities one encounters in the netherworld are, according to The Tibetan Book of the Dead, generated by one’s own psychology. “Fear not the bands of the Peaceful and Wrathful, Who are thine own thought-forms” (p. 204). In these stills, the Prisoner confronts his greatest enemy and warden, “Number One,” the numeral 1 doubling as the first-person pronoun. He removes the mask to discover himself.
From the first episode, the Prisoner has been dead—he even goes down the classic long tunnel seen in near-death experiences:
And the events of his former life flash before his eyes:
However, he is not conscious of being dead. The externalized aspects of his mind, the “wrathful deities” in control of his netherworld prison, ceaselessly confront the Prisoner with his condition. Their eternal question, “Why have you resigned?” translates as “Why are you dead?” (In Tibetan as in Celtic lore, “no death is natural, but is always owing to interference by one of the innumerable death-demons,” as W. Y. Evans-Wentz notes in his introduction to The Tibetan Book of the Dead). Here is an explicit example of the Buddhistic understanding of the cycle of rebirth, with “resign” being a euphemism for “die”:
Throughout the series, we find the Prisoner being reminded that he is in the Bardo:
When the Prisoner becomes attached to this illusory existence, he is chastised in this Buddhistic way:
There’s a very subliminal hint in the title sequence of the series that the Prisoner’s entire journey takes place within his own consciousness: as he enters the subterranean parking garage to announce his resignation, there’s a flash of a sign: “headroom.” He’s confronting the underworld of his own headspace.
In this underworld described by the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the pangs of the deceased’s conscience rise up as a Good Genius and Evil Genius, personifications of a human being’s lower and higher natures:
The Lord of Death, who consults the Mirror of Karma (the memories of one’s good and evil deeds in life) is confronted repeatedly in the series. Here he is in one of his stern aspects:
Perhaps the primary guidance of the Tibetan Book of the Dead is which netherworld lights to avoid and which to follow. A dull yellow light lures one back into the world of humans, and such a light attempts to snare the Prisoner repeatedly:
A blue light lures one into the “Brute world” of stupid mentality:
A dull red light lures one into the realm of “hungry ghosts” who suffer insatiable addictions worse than humans do:
A green light lures one into the world of jealous warriors, the Titan-like “Asuras”:
A dull white light lures one into the worlds of angel-like “Devas”:
A smoke-colored light leads directly to the Hell-world:
No matter what, the Tibetan Book of the Dead promises that “the All-Good Mother … will come to shine … from eternity within the faculties of thine own intellect” (Book I, pp. 121-22):
As the Buddha says in “The Immutable Sutra,” “the phenomena of life may be likened unto … a shadow”:
As an aside, a near-subliminal detail in the title sequence recalls an insight by Philip K. Dick in his Exegesis. Behind the car of the Prisoner’s pursuer there is a dumpster that says “St Mary’s.” As Dick put it, "Lowly trash ... match folders ... tawdry commercials—therein lie the divine messages. … Therefore the right place to look for the Almighty is … in the trash in the alley."If you’ll be back, we wish you many happy returns …
… until you find your Way Out:
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| * Historians must reconstruct the past out of hazy memory. "Once upon a time" requires "second sight." The "third eye" of intuition can break the "fourth wall" of conventional perspectives. Instead of "pleading the fifth," historians can take advantage of the "sixth sense" and be in "seventh heaven." All with the power of hindpsych, the "eighth wonder of the world." It has been said that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Therein lies the importance of Tarot readings for antiquity. When we confirm what has already occurred, we break the shackles of the past, freeing ourselves to chart new courses into the future. |
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Restoring the Lost Sense –
June 19, 2016 |
(permalink) |
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| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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Original Content Copyright © 2025 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
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