Rapture

Reading Dionysus: Myth and Cult (1933) by Walter F. Otto . It's a good book because he's saying to our modern sensibilities we would ask for a mythical god to grant us favors because we understand it's mythical, but our modern conception is a barrier to really understanding how the cult works.

Not sure I'm buying the rope-a-dope writing of Otto, but it is somewhat interesting. It's rope-a-dope because you suspend your modern mind. I feel like you have some convincing for me to do that, and that this alternate way of thinking actually isn't modern. 

Cultic fervor is the thing that helps us more towards ecstacy. Cultus means adoration.

I read this book because Dionysus is the god of religious rapture, and I cultivate rapture in my meditation, and I'm curious about all religions, maybe I can get a hint about rapture, and maybe I can learn more about ancient Greece and Rome. 

Right Concentration (2015) by Leigh Brasington talks about understanding and expanding the rapture you feel, learning to control is some.

Multiple Iranian poets talk about getting drunk on wine in terms of religious rapture as well.

I feel like something positive is going on in my meditation I feel the concentration feels healthier. 

Lighting incense is a kind of offering to the Buddha. It has it's roots in offering something to the gods. Offerings are as primitive as the human mind, in the sense that our ancestral past came up with the idea, and I guess I feel like the human mind creates things for a reason and it's our job to try and utilize all the positive opportunities in our environment. Therefore offerings are an opportunity.

Another part of my practice is to try not to be so upset about the political situation in America, and yet somehow I think if everyone was paying attention, it wouldn't be the way it is. So I have this push/pull struggle to pay attention to current events. Nobody wants to talk about it though, and I want to be in tune with people and not force unpopular topics onto others. 

I feel like there's devolution going on in America, corruption and lawlessness, greed and power plays are rising up as we banish the justice of diversity, equity and inclusion. 

I'm also there for the comeuppance, and the fighting back.