Alex Grey on Cosmic Christ

you know in reflecting on the nature of liberation usually it's from a limiting [Music] identity you know that somehow we feel like we're in the tight place you know and this could be like the egoic shell that we're very frightened to let go of you know the thing that our identity has crystallised around it might be our routines a lot of us are probably going through this you know if not a death and rebirth literally than a kind of at least for what our constructed social self has been we now have to rethink that we have God has broken down and we have to reconstruct or rebirth a new self and so these shells of selfhood you know are kind of shown reflected in the Cosmic Christ this is the Cosmic Christ is the cosmic form like the it's really like a Hindu archetype of the like when when Krishna revealed his divine form to Arjuna on the battlefield you know before going into battle Arjuna wondered you know who are you really reveal to me your true nature you know and so Krishna shows that he's really actually the entire universe and so in that you've got the expanded heads you've got the you know the the visionary contact the God contact that that our shounan needs in order to go into battle and so in that way this cosmic form of Christ is is a way of saying that the universe is within all of us and within these cosmic archetypes here Christ is the the spirit that dwelleth within and the Christ consciousness is the liberated consciousness like Buddha mind is as the enlightened mind and liberated consciousness and so in that way this higher essence of the cosmic archetypal sort of personification of godhood you know a formalization of that which is really transcendent and formless you know that but comes in to a visionary archetypal form here there's kind of a cosmic sombrero and there is the body of this cosmic Christ now in these little windows we got everything that's always going on it's the space-time continuum and in this the different stories that make up our lives because really I mean we're made up of our physical Anatomy but our mind is really made up of stories so there's all these ongoing stories at all kinds of levels of history and this is the multiplicity of being if we really consider it and the ongoing independent stories outside of our own head but millions of stories billions of stories are going on a coinciding with each other so this is just a very simple way of - that simultaneity of ongoing stories that also are part of the garment of destiny and that's a tournament that Martin Luther King used to describe how we're all connected and so that was one of the metaphors here you know to go with the Easter theme it's the planetary crucifixion and this is a good this past Good Friday you know with seeing that the crucifixion that seemed to be Good Friday because that means that's a cause in the Christian story of our also basically liberation if we're if we elect Jesus as our Savior in that way Christ becomes our ticket to heaven in that kind of doctor and so that fanatically and symbolically the Christ becomes the touchstone to heaven and here there is this suffering that comes first before the resurrection and this suffering I think of as we can look at it at this time at this time in the world I think unlike last month for instance we were not all considering ourselves as one world as one world affected by a thing such as mortality that unites us all now we have a threat and we feel fear but we also fear feel this sense of oneness and that's part of what shows up in the crucifixion thing it's we're showing up that everybody is connected you know but it's a painful connection because we're destroying the planet at the same time that we're waking up to our oneness so this is why the green child here the the Christ child in a sense this new green child that is aware of its interconnection with all of the plants and all of the animals this this new green identity is is being nurtured but it's part of the distressful type place of rebirth you know that is happening right now and so I feel like a lot of people have come live to the necessity of saving the life web the that nature has been nurtured by our quieting down as a species and so this we want to see we want to see the rebirth of nature we want to empower the web of life and this is what the blessing is happening with the with all of the forces of light and yeah I just wanted to tell you about a couple of the things I see that are related to liberation in this paint piece and one of them is the major section up here where we're showing the liberation from gravity we're showing the liberation up in the sky have lifted like like things that are just you know levitating floating and and and UFOs and all that kind of outerspace stuff and then there's like you were saying you were alluding to you know the liberation from the mists rain you have really like you know like shown a lot of scenes of pain and suffering and liberation and and suicide and drowning and and the end the liberation of the slavery and things like that so there's there's a there's many ways that I plus I was thinking about the black hole and the top there's a sense of the psychedelic or the the releasing through in an altered state through the through the wormhole black hole Channel so I think that's kind of a liberating off the top shock or a kind of feeling that's a pain that the painting has that the altar has it's more than a painting really isn't it yeah liberating into another dimension perhaps yeah now another question I had for you guys was there's this concept most particularly in Tibetan Buddhism of liberation through seeing or more particularly self liberation through naked awareness I think I believe that Tibetan Buddhists say can you speak more to this idea of liberation through seeing through something that has the quality that just merely witnessing it causes our liberation well it's a concept that is both the scene of an object because they have particularly the black hat of the Karmapa it's supposedly woven with Cecchini hair it's a black hat and so just looking at it you know you're it's said to plant a seed of liberation in the mind stream of the viewer and as a cause for the future liberation of that person so when we heard that as an aspiration for art like that's just the highest aspiration I've ever heard of you know that something could be in some way implanted in somebody's mind and that at a time when it made sense it could resurface as oh now I know what that means you know and that you in a sense was a cause now relates to their understanding of the nature of the guru or the teacher now for them the Guru is really a projection of our own inner master you know the spirit the soul that dwells within the creative spirit in all of us and as many times not so activated in in us and so we look to the teachers outside of us to inspire this and also to grow that quality in ourselves you know and so all of these symbols Christ but these are symbols external symbols of equality of enlightened mind that's the other element of seeing now it's self liberation through seeing with naked awareness now it's seeing with naked awareness having the enlightened mind is seeing with naked awareness it's not putting thoughts and filters and stuff that you've pulled from your psychodramas of the past into the present moment it's being clear clear Isabel and everybody has this quality of consciousness as the instant fresh moment every moment of now is an opportunity to realize that fresh liberated quality that consciousness has inherently and purely so the recognition of the true nature of mind and living from that perspective that's seeing with naked awareness and that is also quality that leads to self liberation and has that quality of self liberating as each moment is see that's the non-dual living in both the cosmic body and within the physical form mm-hmm yeah now a technique of self-liberation through naked awareness at least according to Timothy Leary was the use of psychedelics you know he he and Richard Alpert and Ralph Messner wrote the book the psychedelic experience based off of the ideas in the Tibetan Book of the Dead now what are your thoughts on the psychedelic mystical experience as a way to decondition our programming and dissolve our ego to allow this liberating liberating enlightenment to happen well the altered state of consciousness is a technique for liberation and and there's not really much more you need to say about it if you've had that experience you know how it changes you and liberate you from habits and and and regret and all kinds of past things that you bring with you into your everyday now so yes I think that's very good you know addiction and a lot of people are finding liberation from addiction some psychedelic that's an addiction have habits and behaviors as well you know it not just other drugs but it is very helpful for addiction if you have a true mystical experience it can be you know catalyzing true transformation and people that really you know helps their life it makes her life better so that we know that and psychedelic science is showing us that now

Channel: CoSM

Views: 21,091

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Id: EQdWfD0LH2k

Length: 14min 52sec (892 seconds)

Published: Mon May 18 2020