Objectification for all of us can come in many forms. Sexual objectification is perhaps one of the most talked about.
How can one thumb through any popular magazine or walk down the street and not be hit-in-the-face with the "sale" of
trivializing human complexity into just a sexy image. A lifetime of it. And guys, especially guys, to one degree or another, love to build a story ever so rapidly about an image. Brain cells storing all that imagery don't just go away, nor do the
beliefs-of-self reacting to those images. Nor do the cultures that worship and promote it in such a quirky ways. It's individual and collective. It's the present "storage" of all the other present impressions. So much clutter! Am I talking about karmic causality?
But, it's what one does next, or rather now, this moment that makes the difference. Not to be rid of it, not killing it. In sitting, it goes by not hitching a ride with it. The proclivity of a man, for instance, to hitch-a-ride on the impression of an attractive female who just walked out of the store nearby, is just that, an impression....how long and far are you going on the ride? How much are you going to let your past (present) mandate your present? And there is complexity and distortion in that very split second of image. Because at first, it is just color, form, sound. Not an attractive female. And takes less than a second to devise an "opinion" about it. But, doesn't have to be. It can be more "just color, form, sound" and for a while having a good laugh at the initial "opinions" that pop up (they too are just color form sound) and somehow disappear before we can say they disappeared, as if that "something" wasn't there afterall. I believe that over time (if we can really say that time passes)
one gets out-of-practice of forming so many instantaneous opinions that are manifestations of ignorance, greed; and for some anger.
Let the sexy imagery be there. You won't see it, because it ceases to be there. That's not stoicism, it's just real reflection without concern of dust.
Gassho
Richard
How can one thumb through any popular magazine or walk down the street and not be hit-in-the-face with the "sale" of
trivializing human complexity into just a sexy image. A lifetime of it. And guys, especially guys, to one degree or another, love to build a story ever so rapidly about an image. Brain cells storing all that imagery don't just go away, nor do the
beliefs-of-self reacting to those images. Nor do the cultures that worship and promote it in such a quirky ways. It's individual and collective. It's the present "storage" of all the other present impressions. So much clutter! Am I talking about karmic causality?
But, it's what one does next, or rather now, this moment that makes the difference. Not to be rid of it, not killing it. In sitting, it goes by not hitching a ride with it. The proclivity of a man, for instance, to hitch-a-ride on the impression of an attractive female who just walked out of the store nearby, is just that, an impression....how long and far are you going on the ride? How much are you going to let your past (present) mandate your present? And there is complexity and distortion in that very split second of image. Because at first, it is just color, form, sound. Not an attractive female. And takes less than a second to devise an "opinion" about it. But, doesn't have to be. It can be more "just color, form, sound" and for a while having a good laugh at the initial "opinions" that pop up (they too are just color form sound) and somehow disappear before we can say they disappeared, as if that "something" wasn't there afterall. I believe that over time (if we can really say that time passes)
one gets out-of-practice of forming so many instantaneous opinions that are manifestations of ignorance, greed; and for some anger.
Let the sexy imagery be there. You won't see it, because it ceases to be there. That's not stoicism, it's just real reflection without concern of dust.
Gassho
Richard
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