The Little Purple Notebook On How To Escape From This Universe
Copyleft � 1998 by Maximilian J. Sandor, Ph.D.
Subscription Information: Maria Loren
[email protected]
Website:
http://transmillennium.net/pnohteftu/
Making the Ugly Look Gorgeous
This is a very basic exercise that has also a lot of practical uses in
daily life.
Nowadays, the second variation would probably bring the contemplator into
prison or the asylum. It is advisable to pick another item.
In these and similar exercises, care should be taken to end the exercises
in a positive way, or, especially if it is REALLY an ugly thing one is
looking at, the exercise could finish with a neutral perspective.
Fear, uncertainty, and a general whimpiness is leading many people to
'meditate' in groups. This is one of Gotamo's biggest 'no-nos' (cp. the
section on 'No-Nos').
There are many good reasons for physical solitude while working on
resolving one's case. These reasons are magnified if the 'group' members
are knowing each other very well or if they are emotionally connected (like
family members, for example).
An exception is a guided dialogue or process (cp. Transformational
Dialogues). Here a practitioner is literally part of the loop. The more
knowledge and experience a practitioner has, the less susceptible he or she
will be to the influences from the other person's case.
The practitioner should therefore have a good basic training before
guiding a dialogue and should avoid certain 'heavy' processes unless
expertise in handling entities has been achieved. For similar reasons as
above, the practitioner should not be a family member in order to avoid
potential problems. Optimally, the practitioner, being part of the loop,
will achieve 'case gain' during the process. Very often, the
'case gain' of the practitioner exceeds that of the client.
The exercises below are explicitly described in the Pali Canon and are
paraphrased for easier reading. A description of a simple havingness
process was added.
Gotamo never used any form like "we are...", "you should...", "we
cannot...", etc. Constructs like this have identity-forming properties and
should be avoided even in casual talk as much as possible. It may be a bit
unusual at first to see an exercise described in the form it is presented
here but, hey, what the heck!
Variation 1:
A person sits alone near a beautiful scenery in nature and as comfortable
as possible. (2,500 years ago, in lack of remote-controlled recliners with
built-in shiatsu back massager, this has been the 'lotus' seat.)
The person now begins to perceive the scenery as exceedingly beautiful as
long and as intensive as possible.
This was the good part!
Now the person proceeds to turn the picture of the beautiful scenery into
the perception of the most ugly and disgusting piece of landscape ever to
disgrace the surface of Mother Earth. Here it shows what a real guy can do!
The worse it gets, the better it works (as a process, of course)!
Now, at this point, certain people stop. Even worse, they now go around and
tell everybody, whether they want to hear it or not, how terrible and
horrifying life, Universe, and Everything would be.
But I trust that the reader will not get overwhelmed by their own thoughts
so easily, and will get on to either repeat step one or, even better, will
end the session by step 3 and a basic 'havingness' process.
Step 3 consists of looking at the same scenery as a bunch of atoms that are
structured in a way as to form a scenery in nature.
A basic 'havingness' process (described elsewhere) could be touching the
ground with the hands, breathing deeply, rubbing one's face and similar
movements that are bringing the person back into 'reality' and making the
person feel it has a body.
Having mastered the above process, several variations are possible. For
example, one can try to change perceptions of past viewpoints in a similar
way (and to the better, I hope!!!) It is also possible to increase the
speed (or frequency) of switching between 'ugly' and 'beautiful'
perceptions of the same thing.
At a certain point the person may also get aware of HOW exactly the person
is doing the switching. A facilitator or practitioner may want to induce
this question (and be surprised by the variety of answers).
Now, this wasn't too bad, after all!
Here's the heavy stuff:
(Again, don't try this in today's civilization! There is enough other nasty
stuff around - pick something else for Heaven's sake!)
A person sits down alone comfortably near a body of a person who has just
kicked the bucket.
(In ancient India where credit cards were unknown at the time, deceased
people with no money were not buried but put on a rack outside the village
where 'nature' did the rest.)
The person now observes as many 'submodalities' as possible, such as
colors, smell, etc, very carefully. Then, any perception of 'ugly' will be
turned into 'beautiful' (and 'neutral'), similar to Variation 1.
As the person comes by once every day, it soon becomes REALLY ugly.
The skin turns blue, the smell makes one puke...
Well, better not go into details here...
After a week, the birds,rats, and worms will have had a couple of picknicks
(no pun intended), and the skeleton is a somewhat easier item to confront,
hmmm...
Obviously, this exercise is not for everybody...
Now, how can I end this chapter on a more positive note?
Hmm, well, I can't.
No, wait!!
Take this chapter of the 'Little Purple Notebook On How To Escape From This
Universe' and, in your mind, make it appear even uglier than it already is!
Then, in your mind, turn it into the most beautiful piece of literature
EVER written in history of mankind!
Make a check out to me, put it in an enveloppe with my readable (!)
address, and don't forget to put a stamp on it!
Drop it in the next mailbox, lean back, and enjoy your wonderful karma!!!
(the latter exercise will give you a lot of Karma points - at least 500
times the amount on the check!)
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Copyleft � 1998 by Maximilian J. Sandor, Ph.D.
