Another one of those taboo words, despite millions achieving it.
So nirvana means an extinguishing of desire, and of the self. Desire is my focus. Through achieving liberation from desire for material things you attain peace.
The way the buddha taught was to sit and focus on your entire body, for hours on end, practicing equanimity through all physical and mental aches and pains.
The buddha had spent his life doing three years here, five years there and mastering all the regions and meditative practices of his time. Then he decided ‘right’, and sat under a tree until he became enlightened.
I have a feeling that this ‘sitting under a tree’ was a lot more unpleasant than described. Same for the j-man’s visit to the desert. I have a feeling that they were activating their trauma defence mechanism against their entire self.
The way out is through. The way out of suffering is through suffering. You don’t put down the bottle until you’ve had enough.
Maybe these monks sit and flood their bodies with consciousness so they can put themselves in the most exquisite pain, trigger a trauma response, and code themselves to null.
Maybe it’s learned helplessness, gone full circle. Because life is pain, so might as well surrender.
…
I’ll get to brain chemistry later but there will be a specific brain state for each of these experiences and I think it could be mapped and/or replicated.
missing timestamp