• Registered: 2005-03-07

Topic: Reigniting Enthusiasm

A few years ago I sat at a party with a friend.  The song, "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal began to play on the stereo.  My friend--who is very much awake--turned to me and told me how, as a teenager, that song mmm-moved him, how it was connected to his first love, the feeling of first love...  Then he said he wondered if he'd feel that potently again--full of tears and excitement and longing at a song.

We concluded that, somehow, adults learn to block the purity and force of their experiences.  ...But there is something to say, too, for a natural (at least understandable) loss of wonder for something once one has experienced it many times.  Even being in the moment, can you wipe out your memories of every time you experienced something before?  How do you help from, after a time, being full of schemata and expectation? 

Can anything old to you be new again?

My friend and I, in our conversation that night, concluded "Yes."

But what are the keys to it?  Present-time awareness?  Wonderment?  Enthusiasm?  Or is it silly to deliberate over the vividity of experience?  Does vividity matter?  Or is it the lesson that matters most?  Re-membering?

...I've been looking over old writings of mine.  While the old writing isn't necessarily better, I can't deny that it's--at places--more...enthusiastic. 

...Sometimes it seems like enthusiasm is an energy that can go missing.  Does Soul-loss=loss of enthusiasm?  If enthusiasm means "to be inside God," as its roots suggest, then yes.

You can't change a tiger's stripes,
but you can avoid its teeth.
  • From: the mine
  • Registered: 2005-11-15

Re: Reigniting Enthusiasm

Ignorance is bliss.
That's my take on this.
I think it's the weight of reality that gradually squashes enthusiasm.

It is a vicious paradox, the less we know the happier we seem to be.
I have thought about this endlessly over the years, to no avail.

We all close doors because of one or two bad experiences, one pursuit after another suddenly becomes a
"waste of time".

Jaded.

It is heartbreaking, seeing the light in a child's eyes, knowing that zest will most likely fade.

I think that's it. To somehow be able to look through a child's eyes once again.

How though? After our psyches have been so utterly corrupted?

Our logical minds, over the years, come to take the fairy tales that were the fuel of fantasy, as merely lies.

Then the victim mentality emerges.
Some will lash out, some will bottle it. Feelings of unbearable futility usually ensue, either way.

Sometimes I wonder if a real good crack to the skull might knock out the junk. If only it were that easy right?

How do we disregard so much cold hard truth and somehow get back there?

Maybe some can just stuff it back into the box- me I haven't learned that trick yet.

One thing I try to remember- appreciate the little things. We have all heard that one a million times. If we take it to heart though, I think it's a start.

"I hate dreaming. because when you want to sleep, you want to sleep. Dreaming is work. Next thing you know I have to build a go-kart with my ex landlord"
-The late Mitch Hedberg
  • Registered: 2004-10-26

Re: Reigniting Enthusiasm

Great posts, both of you.
That song by Seal gave me an incredible rush.  He hit all the right notes that
tapped into my ecstasy circuits.  Although the song doesn't have the same
emotional impact it did that first night I heard it, it still touches me.  Not
necessarily the words, but the feelings it evokes.  And those places can be
still be accessed.
But enthusiasm...hmm.  Some people are born with more of it available
than others, I think.  And some of those people have an ability to not see
the downside or to ignore it and march merrily on.

Instead of a good crack on the skull to knock out the junk, how about
detoxing with some sort of high-colonic for the psyche?

Many of the things and activities we have and do may be meaningless
anyway.  Except to keep us distracted from finding out what the hell
we're supposed to be doing.  Or were we supposed to play like all this
really matters?

Dreamosis, I had no idea that Henry Miller could be so profound. 
(He must've snuck it in between the sex scenes!)

btw,CortexVortex, The Prisoner is my all time favorite series.

TP

  • From: the mine
  • Registered: 2005-11-15

Re: Reigniting Enthusiasm

tom paine... love the "high-colonic"
analogy! ..Reminds me af an old SNL skit "super colon blow" cereal, with Phil Hartmann sitting atop a pyramid of cereal boxes...

Music is a huge part of my life and you both mentioned Seal, who I do like but isn't in my usual genres of choice.

It's funny I can't single out 1 that had that effect on me,,,, there were so many-

but that feeling- man is that priceless or what!

I've likened it to many things, the least of which is sex, and it obliterates all of them for me.......

It makes perfect sense that you would begin this particular thread, dreamosis, with a song.

That is the feeling we are all after isn't it.....and it only involves one of our senses.
To equate that feeling in all five senses is what it is like to be a child.

.......p.s. Tom Paine- indeed I am not a number, I am a free man. ;-

"I hate dreaming. because when you want to sleep, you want to sleep. Dreaming is work. Next thing you know I have to build a go-kart with my ex landlord"
-The late Mitch Hedberg

5 Reply by dreamosis (edited by dreamosis 2005-12-05 20:12:23)

  • Registered: 2005-03-07

Re: Reigniting Enthusiasm

CortexVortex wrote:

It makes perfect sense that you would begin this particular thread, dreamosis, with a song.

That is the feeling we are all after isn't it...

I won't speak for everyone, but yes, I suppose I am after the "feeling of song."  Golden song.

However, I'm not necessarily after an emotion .  I've had emotional highs before that did very little to steer me towards more positivity or harmony in my life.

The Seal song, right now, represents to me an energy: of uninhibitedness, of giving yourself entirely to Love's spirit.

The Source, that which I am after as a seeker, I think is comparable to that feeling , that feeling of aliveness.  ...Lately I am thinking, though, that this feeling must be given in order to get it.  A paradox, but still...

Bringers of the Dawn by Marciniak mentions that emotions, feelings, can be portals.  (I know that's been brought up before on this board.) 

If nothing else, external music can serve as a "Lifeline."  We've each probably experienced the effect of our favorite music as a lifeline.  But with deliberate, conscious focus, I imagine external music--or even the vivid recall of it--could be more than simply saving, but could serve as a platform to launch you into a new ascending spiral of vibrational growth.

Trying to preserve "The Feeling" for a whole hour, or whole day, might just fall into mechanical motions of effort--I don't know, I can't say I've really tried it as such.  But it would be a fun experiment, wouldn't it? 

Anybody care to try with me?

It might bring an unexpected development into your day...

(I think I'll try it with "Absence of Fear" by Jewel)

You can't change a tiger's stripes,
but you can avoid its teeth.

6 Reply by Jen

  • Jen
  • Guest

Re: Reigniting Enthusiasm

Songs have played an incredible role in opening me up emotionally and energetically also.  And to me,  many poems are songs as well.

I can "hear" music in my mind, always have.  I've gotten to the point where I rarely use my CD/tape player because it's ultimately more satisfying to listen within.  It's almost a form of meditation, I guess.
I "tune in" regularly throughout the day to lift my vibration and mood. I also like to sing, myself.

I was hopelessly/helplessly in love with a guy in high school, we never really got together, but the experience undoubtedly did open me up to new realms of feeling and understanding.  And while I was in the throes of this (a year or so), I discovered this poem by W. B. Yeats:

The Song of Wandering Aengus

I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire aflame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

Love as an undying ideal, eternal hope, bliss--that's what my feelings for that boy opened me up to, and the poem was the perfect accompaniment to that.

It's been recorded by several artists, including Judy Collins, Donovan, and Richie Havens.  I haven't heard any of them but I hear it on my inner radio, and never get tired of it...

7 Reply by tenetnosce (edited by tenetnosce 2005-12-05 22:45:15)

  • From: The Singularity
  • Registered: 2005-09-23

Re: Reigniting Enthusiasm

CortexVortex wrote:

It is a vicious paradox, the less we know the happier we seem to be.
I have thought about this endlessly over the years, to no avail.

We all close doors because of one or two bad experiences, one pursuit after another suddenly becomes a
"waste of time".

I think that's it. To somehow be able to look through a child's eyes once again.

How though? After our psyches have been so utterly corrupted?

I think the key is forgiveness; to give as before.

Better yet.  To pardon.  To live as if none of your life had ever happened.

Who are you?  Right now. 

We've all lived through suffering and loss and heartache, but really if you meditate deeply on it, you will find that none of that has diminished your being in the least.

I've heard that before, several times, and I frankly didn't agree.  But just recently I have come to realize that it is true.  I can give and give and give of myself, and yet there is still more of me to give.

To be sure, giving where it is not accepted can be a waste of time.  But on the other side of this dimension, on the other side of time, it doesn't really matter whether the gift was received or not.

I find that my mind hates this idea.  It warns me that I may make myself a martyr.  But I've already made myself a martyr, and I know that's not where I want to be. 

So fine.  I can please my mind and myself.  There is no need for conflict here. 

When our consciousness begins to vibrate faster than this dimension, we will look back on 3D as it continues to happen, and we will realize that we can leave for an eternity, and come back whenever we please.

Imagine if you could wake up tomorrow with the wisdom of ten thousand years.  Would the unkind word you spoke yesterday mean a thing?  Would the losses you have suffered matter anymore?  Would the bomb that somebody exploded a week ago really make one lick of difference?

No.  Because you have already seen the future.  And you know that it is wonderful.

It is not for us to understand love, but simply to make space for it.
  • From: aworld w/out invisible borders
  • Registered: 2005-06-09

Re: Reigniting Enthusiasm

Music acts as a dialogue and "theme song" in my life.  The music that I listen to describes my current life situation and feelings.  Its amazing and surreal at times.  It makes me jump up and dance and sing along too.

To answer your Q dreamosis.  Old is to new as new is to old.  If your mind is clear with no expectations, anything "old" can be percieved in a "new" fashion.  Thats why when you may read a book for the second time over it may seem different, as we are interpreting and percieving the words and meanings in a "new" meaningful way to ourselves.

"Beyond the stars a new world awaits me now" - Wintersun

Natural Mystic's Website

  • Registered: 2004-10-26

Re: Reigniting Enthusiasm

What we're talking about here is vibration, isn't it? 
What chakras do the Rolling Stones vibrate at?
What trills and rills (thrills) do we get from Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares
which blast open the portals of higher awareness which cannot be put
into words?
Music can definitely be a lifeline, or an anchor, or a skyhook to raise us
out of our mechanical habits.
The C's mentioned something about vibrations and certain frequencies
which are keys (!) to awakening.  It was in a session where LJK had
asked about the ancient stone circles and their use.
Natural Mystic, your answer is right on.  Especially when you re-read
a book you read years ago, and you perceive a whole new spectrum of
meanings from the words---because you have more depth of experience
and perception at your command.
Jen---btw, W.B.Yeats was an original member of the Golden Dawn.
TP