The bardo of ego-loss or non-game ecstasy...

[space cadet swami]

So, I went on a journey recently & had the experience of bliss or euphoria. In trying to understand what it was that I had experienced (5hrs of bliss) I found this text by Timothy Leary...

The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Timothy-Leary-The-Psychedelic-Experience-The-Tibetan-Book-Of-The-Dead.pdf

My experience was limited to this excerpt...

quote:

If you reach the Clear Light immediately and maintain it, that is best. But if not, if you have slipped down to reality concerns, by remembering these instructions you should be able to regain what the Tibetans call the Secondary Clear Light.

While on this secondary level, an interesting dialogue occurs between pure transcendence and the awareness that this ecstatic vision is happening to oneself. The first radiance knows no self, no concepts. The secondary experience involves a certain state of conceptual lucidity. The knowing self hovers within that transcendent terrain from which it is usually barred. If the instructions are remembered, external reality will not intrude. But the flashing in and out between pure ego-less unity, and lucid, non-game selfhood, produces an intellectual ecstasy and understanding that defies description. Previous philosophic reading will suddenly take on living meaning.

Thus in this secondary stage of the First Bardo, there is possible both the mystic non-self and the mystic self experience.

After you have experienced these two states, you may wish to pursue this distinction intellectually. We are confronted here with one of the oldest debates in Eastern philosophy. Is it better to be part of the sugar or to taste the sugar? Theological controversies and their dualities are far removed from experience. Thanks to the experimental mysticism made possible by consciousness-expanding drugs, you may have been lucky enough to have experienced the flashing back and forth between the two states. You may be lucky enough to know what the academic monks could only think about.

Here ends the First Bardo,

The Period of Ego-loss or Non-Game Ecstasy

I hope that this document is of use to some people on this forum...namaste .

Edited April 23, 2013 by space cadet 101

[Scarecrow]

I've come to be able to slip in and out of no-mind effortlessly, but it's a little elusive also. Once I have that clarity, it stays for a little while, then seems to slowly slip away as my attention span falters and I start getting caught up in thoughts again. I'm not sure if this is exactly what the excerpt you've posted is referring to, but that's what it sounds like to me.

While I'm convinced there's a link between psychedelics and enlightenment, I don't think it's possible to attain enlightenment purely through psychedelics (or at least, it would be a very confusing path to walk). I think the experience of ego-death under the influence of psychedelics is fantastic practice and preparation for when that moment comes in meditation, but that's pretty much it.

I think it's important to remember that you're in an artificially altered state of consciousness, and that you haven't really gone to that state voluntarily. Ego death while tripping is kind of like being grabbed off the street, pulled in to the place that contains what you're looking for, having your face pointed at the thing you've been missing, and then hurriedly kicking you out on the street again (although you can obviously resist more or less and make the experience more or less pleasant), leaving you confused and not really sure what just happened.

My point is that psychedelic ego-death shows you what direction to move in and how to surrender, but the real experience requires you to find a path of your own accord.

[space cadet swami]

Leary isn't speaking of no-mind, he's referring to a state of bliss/ecstasy/euphoria (non-ego ecstasy)...no-mind, is the void or shoonyata.

He doesn't say that this state is because of the drug, but more a case of the drug acting as a catalyst or key, to kick start this state of being. He says that this state of being is because of the individuals intention & that the amount of the drug has nothing to do with the state itself. During this state it is nearly impossible to communicate, as the bliss is like a constant orgasm of the mind (or even beyond mind). You exist in 2 realities simultaneously, but only just have a grasp of this reality...like being trapped behind the looking glass.

If I could use the analogy of a "cerebral palsy" sufferers body, with a conscious mind existing inside that body. While at the same time this consciousness flickers between normal consciousness & a state of pure ecstasy. Bodily functions become quite a difficult manoeuvre, as in the example of a cerebral palsy sufferer.

[Scarecrow]

Oh, that's a clearer description. I wasn't really sure what you meant without the context.

I haven't experienced that exactly, but I think I understand what you mean. Someone who isn't me has experienced similar things on two occasions; once on psilocybin mushrooms, and once on a (smoked) DMT trip. I think the two experiences could easily come together to create the state you're talking about.

On the mushrooms occasion, SWIM was indeed "in two realities simultaneously" as you have described... however, there was resistance to one of them, due to fear of the unknown, so SWIM wasn't able to shut up and enjoy the experience. Trouble functioning was there for sure, he couldn't recognize a sandwich and pretty much had to be carried inside.

On the DMT occasion, SWIM experienced bliss, having learned his lesson and let go completely. However, the trip wasn't long enough to experiment with trying to experience the other reality at all in that state.

I imagine what you're describing is a combination of the above two experiences? Being both at the tipping point between worlds, and in blissful acceptance, that is.

[endorfinder]

edit

Edited April 23, 2013 by endorfinder

[Scarecrow]

Who are you asking? I know some good teks for mushrooms... SWIM got too ballsy before he understood the true power of the mushrooms, and decided to try all the teks he knew at once... as mentioned above, he got shown just what he was dealing with!

I'll just list them while I'm here, in case anybody is interested;

- use of MAOIs (SWIM only had access to very mild ones at the time though, so maybe this didn't really do much)

- fasting (faster digestion -> faster onset, stronger peak, shorter duration)

- the "lemon tek" (soaking powdered material in lemon juice for a while. pretty much digests it a bit for you, giving a strong addition to the effects of fasting)

- and one SWIM invented; "stacking peaks". normal material is ingested, then a lemon tek preparation is consumed just when the peak approaches.

All of these used in combination with appropriately high doses is probably guaranteed to provide a breakthrough experience. Although in hindsight, SWIM suggests fasting was probably unnecessary and only added discomfort throughout the trip.

Not for the faint of heart, either!

[Alchemica]

Interesting concept. Having quite possibly a lifetime of non-intentioned 'tripping' to endure these days personally, I'm finding this blog to be a useful expansion of concepts to the psychiatric terminology: http://www.disregardeverythingisay.com/