Cult_of_Chad t1_iqx9433 wrote on October 3, 2022 at 7:34 PM

Reply to comment by Shelfrock77 in When will our lives get better collectively. The clock is ticking!! by ObjectiveDeal

Happiness is such a weird thing.

I grew up starving in a third world hellhole and knew so many people that managed to be happy under those circumstances. Similarly, I now live a middle class life in a wealthy country and so many of the privileged people I know somehow manage to remain thoroughly miserable.

Gaothaire t1_iqxdse1 wrote on October 3, 2022 at 8:03 PM

Ram Dass tells a story of being in India, by a train platform with food poisoning, for several days, and the toilet was overflowing, so every time he went to expell from both ends he had to walk through it with bare feet, and it was a very populated place, crowded, while families waiting on trains or moving about.

He said, even among all that, he found himself happy, fully immersed in the life and vitality of the area, something so many young sub/urban professionals in the West who live alone and rarely interact with a community, they're disconnected from all the Life that comes from participating in that play.

bidragskungen1 t1_iqxkdr8 wrote on October 3, 2022 at 8:46 PM

Thank you for sharing a story from the fantastic baba ram dass

Gaothaire t1_iqxo653 wrote on October 3, 2022 at 9:11 PM

Of course, he's great! I listened to a talk from someone recently that recommended Ram Dass talks as satsang, a space of shared consciousness. Good to listen to whenever, and usefully grounding for anyone going through a spiritual emergency, and by my own estimation, also during challenging psychedelic trips.

Damien Echols was another one recommended, his book High Magick being mentioned as an example of a satsang book. He reads the audiobook version, and I listened to it from that perspective while high over the weekend, and it was so good. Terence McKenna is another person who I can just listen all day to the lectures he gave, it's just such a cozy vibe.