Momentary Gods
Posted: Tuesday, January 05, 2010
by Tony Brussat
http://qualiadelic.com
As the great philosopher of language and meaning, Ernst Cassirer revealed: "Every impression that man receives, every wish that stirs in him, every hope that lures him, every danger that threatens him, can affect him thus religiously. Just let spontaneous feeling invest the object before him, or his own personal condition, or some display of power that surprises him, with an air of holiness, and the momentary god has been experienced and created."
This habit of thought makes it difficult to experience new or unique ways of seeing. It pens us like sheep beneath the bell curve of what is normal and acceptable, and it robs us of individualism and spirit. What is "reasonable" hides "miracles" from our sight; just as the statisticians' bell curve excludes outliers that don't fit the mold, what is merely probable excludes the vast potential of the possible.
Learning to see every moment as disconnected from the patterns of mind we have inherited opens the doors of perception. Of course, when things fall apart like this, there is crisis -- but during crisis we encounter the momentary gods. Rest assured, their appearance will affect us with the same spontaneous hopes and fears that impressed our ancestors.
Thus, in crisis, the ordinary becomes the extraordinary. Reality becomes magical. Nature becomes supernature. The physical becomes metaphysical.
Along with the momentary god, who appears as if out of nowhere in response to a crisis, comes a ritual. The ritualing comes of our wish to return to the magical moment with the momentary god. It enables us to recapture the moment by reliving the crisis, by stepping out of the bell-curve with controlled spontaneity.
It is only when we see the world as outsiders, from outlying positions, that we can (as Cassirer puts it) "comprehend the nature and direction of noticing." It is only then that we can recognize the qualiasphere, where ideas and intuition cross from the known into the unknown.
Intuition and ideas are qualiadelic, new beings that continue to develop by laws of their own once we have taken notice of them.
In all animals, the momentary god who appears and saves our hide when things fall apart is acknowledged, but only humans give it a name. Only naming fixes that moment in our consciousness, allowing us to return to it. The attraction and our movement back to it helps us "see" better what compelled us about the original experience. Ritualing makes meaning out of the moment.
Alas, this is a viscious circle. Slowly, by virtue of our ritualing with it, our momentary god becomes visible, embodied, fixed, physical, real, natural, and ordinary. The act of noticing, recognizing the qualiadelic, inevitably and necessarily takes us back to the routine. Life leads us death.
But we wouldn't choose not to have lived! Nor ought we fail to "notice" the momentary gods, fleeting though they may be.
Be Qualiadelic. Be Conscious. Change the routine.
Tony Brussat has a Master's degree in Rhetoric and Communication, and he is currently a Registered Nurse in the field of Behavioral Health. Purchase BE QUALIADELIC for $9.95 to learn more about Conscious Ritualing. Visit qualiadelic.com
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Yes, you are correct; if we don't understand momentary insights and embrace them rather than letting them go, we really don't understand sunyata, emptiness, which is the very nothingness that frees us. The embracer, the seer, the experiencer is the problem and persists even into the full illumination that bathes us and that we believe must be ultimate truth. But it of course isn't. . . . Nibbana -"Blowing out the candle" means just that.
Great article! Thanks Tony.
Metta...........e
Thank you very much for adding to my article. I'm sorry I didn't respond sooner -- you are inspired right on!
This is a real good article! What beautiful way of expressing and sharing Your thoughts with us...!s Truly loved ur article...!Thank you. Fortunately, for me, I have lots of people around me who help me along to make these truths real in my own life. It's a wonderful journey.
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