Higher consciouness?

[MasterPain]

The phrase came up in connection with kata practice, and it got me thinking. What exactly is "higher consciousness"? The phrase comes up in many areas. Is it being more aware? More alive? Experiencing the moment in it's thusness? Hearing the sound of one hand clapping? Once you define it, how do you achieve it? Is it spiritual or psychological? Or is the spiritual just the way we perceive the subconscious?

Voodoo priestesses and house DJ's can produce a trance state through rhythm and dance. Does this count as higher consciousness? Does it matter that one is spiritual and the other is just fun, or is fun a spiritual experience in and of itself?

The Dog Brothers motto is "Higher consciousness through harder contact" The idea being that we are never so alive as when avoiding getting smacked with a big stick. Thoughts?

And concerning the idea of karate as a spiritual practice... Karate came from a largely Buddhist nation. Few Western practitioners are going to convert and accept the 4 Noble Truths and follow the Eightfold Path. Assuming you don't, can you gain the spiritual benefits while not adhering to the ideology of the place of origin, in effect growing better oranges by following the ways of apple growers? Or do you enter the territory of whited sepulchers?

[bushido_man96]

Great topic idea, MP.

This one is pretty simple for me. I don't think it is the job of an instructor or dojo to enhance someone's spirituality. I think many individuals believe this to be the case, but in the end, I feel the individual will eventually find what he/she is seeking, given he/she looks hard enough. If you want to seek it through kata, then that's great. I just don't want it pushed on me, and if it is, I'll just say, "oh, ok..." shrug, then move on.

I'm the guy who at the beginning of Aikido class sits in seiza and looks around at everyone else breathing and meditating. To me, that's time wasted that could be improving technique.

[MasterPain]

I'm the guy who at the beginning of Aikido class sits in seiza and looks around at everyone else breathing and meditating. To me, that's time wasted that could be improving technique.

To me, that's a good chance to put yourself in the right mindset to train.

But Aikido takes these things to extremes. There is a philosophy of pacifism, which bothers me. The art is related to and contains violence. It seems dishonest to claim otherwise. A passive aggressive aikidoka will hurt you far worse than an overzealous mma sparring partner. I've heard stories of such.

[Harkon72]

The perception of a Human can transcend the five senses. You don't need narcotics to do this. You do it when you dream. Being aware of more than the apparent is not spooky, children do it all the time; adults have just thought too much to allow it. I once asked a Psychiatrist friend "All the feelings come from me, don't they?", "Not always" she said. Some of us feel the rain - Others just get wet. Osu!

[MasterPain]

The perception of a Human can transcend the five senses. You don't need narcotics to do this. You do it when you dream. Being aware of more than the apparent is not spooky, children do it all the time; adults have just thought too much to allow it. I once asked a Psychiatrist friend "All the feelings come from me, don't they?", "Not always" she said. Some of us feel the rain - Others just get wet. Osu!

Are you a fan of Carl Jung, perchance?

[Harkon72]

Not really, but I'm aware of my Id, Ego and Super-Ego. Even these have their sub-archetypes, some see them as animals others as elemental facets of the human existence; just pick your philosophy - most are based on our experience, many have truths that are consistent with timeless ideas. Facts change, the Truth is an illusion.

[MasterPain]

So, do you define higher consciousness as a kind of intuition and acceptance of the moment?

Is kata the way you tap into it?

Can I not find the same type of experience through some type of randori, or golf, for that matter?

[Harkon72]

Kata is a Physical and Mental Exercise that has a Spiritual aura for me. You can have a Profound insight focusing on a candle flame so they say, or even imagining yourself as a tree.

[JusticeZero]

Seems similar to the idea of watching how someone behaves toward the help to discern their "true" self. There seems a presumption in it that an act is inherently superior if it is done too fast to deliberate upon the action.

Since the internal monologue is being inserted quite late in the mental process, maybe even so late as "while it is being encoded into the memory archives", i'm not sure that this holds as really being all that impressive these days. We've learned a whole lot about how our minds work in the past few years, and we don't actually use Freud's old model anymore any more than chemists use the four elements. Part of that is the discovery of how little the voice in our head actually has to do with anything.

Feelings are tricky; there's a lot of interesting things going on. If someone flips a rude finger at you, the cause and effect is interesting. The flip-er is communicating something to you, but you have to actually know what the finger in question is supposed to mean - and care - in order to feel anything from it. And it might vary based on the circumstances. So where did the feelings come from exactly? It's circumstantial and tied into peoples' cultural reflexes.

[MasterPain]

We've learned a whole lot about how our minds work in the past few years, and we don't actually use Freud's old model anymore any more than chemists use the four elements. Part of that is the discovery of how little the voice in our head actually has to do with anything.

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I agree to a point, but I think that little voice deserves some attention. We know and learn more than we can keep track of. That's why often when you are trying to remember something, often the best thing to do is to walk away and let it come to you when it will.

Another thing we have learned is the power of placebo, which would explain the benefits of faith from people of mutually exclusive ideologies. Have enough belief in your pet rock to heal you, and there can be psychosomatic results.

Seems similar to the idea of watching how someone behaves toward the help to discern their "true" self.

There's an idea I believe 100 percent. How you behave with no fear of repercussion says everything.

Edited October 19, 2012 by MasterPain