tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9158802131636052275.post1002539372404447946..comments2022-12-20T00:28:04.247-08:00Comments on The Numinous Den: The Artist and the OtherJeff Ritzmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15793262192698544038noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9158802131636052275.post-47533289338482552722017-11-29T06:51:17.982-08:002017-11-29T06:51:17.982-08:00Listening to the last part of the radio misterioso...Listening to the last part of the radio misterioso you were on and I came up with an interesting parallel. When you described the unrecommended method, it is almost exactly a form of meditation known as Self-Inquiry. Almost exactly, without the Pali (Buddhist) technical terms. <br />Also it is one of 2 main classes of meditation - Vipassana, Samatha and Vipassana. <br />Samatha builds a special type of concentration, can feel very good and powerful. Can also lead to visionary hallucinatory experiences more easily than one would think. It does not lead to a fundamental change in the mind that is commonly called enlightenment directly. <br />Vipassana is an intense examination, moment by moment of all sense perceptions. The concentration of Samatha is used to build on it and it CAN lead to a rewiring of the mind and the Big E, so they say. There are “stages of insight” (technical term) that one will pass through in Vipassana and one has been termed “The Dark Night (of the soul)” in the West. That is all your self, your life, personality, beliefs coming apart so you can see what is real and what is created. Some personality types get thru with only minor disorientation and some explode. This can happen with intense self-inquiry as well as other vipassana techniques. <br />Interestingly there are techniques that blend Vipassana and Samatha that claim to reduce the effect of the DN. In truth you can’t have one without the other but as in martial arts or magick techniques vary.<br /><br />Now this cure of dropping it all isn’t really a cure because it will cycle back. The REAL cure if you’ve gone past the Dark Night is to go thru. Keep doing the technique you were doing even if it feels like nothing or like stripping the skin from your bones. One learns the territory and eventually gets beyond it. This is one of the reasons for long retreats at a monastery where there is training and supervision. <br /><br />I also find a metaphor that some use in reaching the first stage of enlightenment that couldn’t have been described the same way in the past. There is a stage just after the DN where all of a sudden all thought stops, all perception stops, all feeling of a perceiver stops. This cannot be directly described by me but it’s in the lit. Usually 3 “hits” of it in a row. Then consciousness comes back but a bit different. The first time this happens it’s termed “stream entry” and to me it’s a “reboot” and a “garbage collect” of the functionality of the mind to use computer terminology. It’s step 1 to the big E. Like if Kirk in startrek got a computer into a logic loop, it freezes, they celebrate but then the computer comes back on-line with a “Oh, I get it now” and then they can reason with it better.<br /><br />Just a few thoughts on the topic. Thanks for the great show on RM.<br />Dan Gurzynskinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9158802131636052275.post-17995648287126767922017-08-08T10:30:55.116-07:002017-08-08T10:30:55.116-07:00I'm not sure what you mean here - that artists...I'm not sure what you mean here - that artists (craftsmen still at that time) were trained in guilds in the middle ages is historical fact and widely accepted in art history. There may have been non-trained artists at the time, sure, but the fact that guild marks were of more import than the craftsman's name speaks to the training and level of quality.<br /><br />"The thing everyone overlooks about art ownership in the dark ages was that art was only one of few places people could park money and hold the art like gold and its value would increase with the artist becoming more well known. "<br /><br />Which is exactly my point in saying that art at this time was a symbol of class status - the more you had the wealthier you were. <br /><br />"The precentage of people that ownd fine art didnt increase, it was the sudden increase in the number man that created increased desire to own art."<br /><br />I have no idea what you're saying here. <br />Jeff Ritzmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15793262192698544038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9158802131636052275.post-45397054731485995672017-08-07T08:19:47.373-07:002017-08-07T08:19:47.373-07:00Jeff,
I have to say, that your statement about ...Jeff,<br /> I have to say, that your statement about artist in the middle-ages having formal training is simply not true. I beleive your preseption of arts explosion in its popularity suddenly in the renaissance period wasn't An increase n its popularty, the difference most people dont stop to check, is the sudden large increase in world population experienced by man across Europe at the end of the dark ages? The precentage of people that ownd fine art didnt increase, it was the sudden increase in the number man that created increased desire to own art. The thing everyone overlooks about art ownership in the dark ages was that art was only one of few places people could park money and hold the art like gold and its value would increase with the artist becoming more well known. <br />Only two or three artist invented a vast numbers of the newly discovered priciples and rules and having the abality to put these rules into one location , the newly invented book allowed for easy acess for anyone to learn quickly to paint accross all of europe. KryptoKrakenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17079858411938621825noreply@blogger.com