“And you are amazed, thunderstruck . . . the fundamental thing is a state of unbelievable bliss.”
Watts’ quote here is THE unifying characteristic of all people who have experienced spiritual enlightenment. The unenlightened masses do not react positively to this sort of talk. Despite the very real and meaningful breakthrough experience of enlightenment, those same limitations of language apply—when it’s time to tell the normies about it. This is why it’s so easy for “society” (read: boring fucking normies who are generally miserable) to reject it. For one, they can’t see to through to the place they’ve never been, so the kneejerk reaction is to hate on it; for two, the language of “society” limits what the enlightened people can say. Even Watts’ quote above suffers from this very real and meaningful limitation, and ends up sounding—to the unenlightened masses—like self-help book psychedelic hippie-dippie drug babble. The doors of perception might as well be brick walls to them. Much, MUCH easier to concoct some ridiculous bullshit rooted in their more base values: like prosperity gospel. People eat that shit up! Why? Because it avoids the brick-wall doors of perception entirely, and instead appeals to, ahem, more earthly desires. Talk of “unbelievable bliss” won’t pay the bills: of yourself or the unenlightened masses whose dollars you covet. No, no, no. Better to invent some completely false nonsense like “Jesus wants you to be rich.” THAT is the kind of faux-enlightenment you can take to the bank. It taps into unenlightened people’s only “mystical” dogma they’ll accept—the ever-present “Judeo-Christian values,” and their very, VERY not-mystical base urges for material wealth. “So I can praise Jesus AND get rich?!? Hot damn! Why didn’t anyone tell me sooner!”
“And you are amazed, thunderstruck . . . the fundamental thing is a state of unbelievable bliss.”
Watts’ quote here is THE unifying characteristic of all people who have experienced spiritual enlightenment. The unenlightened masses do not react positively to this sort of talk. Despite the very real and meaningful breakthrough experience of enlightenment, those same limitations of language apply—when it’s time to tell the normies about it. This is why it’s so easy for “society” (read: boring fucking normies who are generally miserable) to reject it. For one, they can’t see to through to the place they’ve never been, so the kneejerk reaction is to hate on it; for two, the language of “society” limits what the enlightened people can say. Even Watts’ quote above suffers from this very real and meaningful limitation, and ends up sounding—to the unenlightened masses—like self-help book psychedelic hippie-dippie drug babble. The doors of perception might as well be brick walls to them. Much, MUCH easier to concoct some ridiculous bullshit rooted in their more base values: like prosperity gospel. People eat that shit up! Why? Because it avoids the brick-wall doors of perception entirely, and instead appeals to, ahem, more earthly desires. Talk of “unbelievable bliss” won’t pay the bills: of yourself or the unenlightened masses whose dollars you covet. No, no, no. Better to invent some completely false nonsense like “Jesus wants you to be rich.” THAT is the kind of faux-enlightenment you can take to the bank. It taps into unenlightened people’s only “mystical” dogma they’ll accept—the ever-present “Judeo-Christian values,” and their very, VERY not-mystical base urges for material wealth. “So I can praise Jesus AND get rich?!? Hot damn! Why didn’t anyone tell me sooner!”
Someone please dose Joel Osteen’s communion wine.