Shawshank/Ouspensky prison

[D Rusak]

I was just discussing a topic (winning a brass band competition ) with a friend and he proposed the situation was similar to that in the film "The Shawshank Redemption" (admittedly, I have not seen this film in its entirety). When Morgan Freeman's character really wanted to get out of jail, he tried telling the committee what he thought they wanted to hear, and was rejected. Once he lived without expectation, and spoke the simple truth of his situation, he was freed. I immediately thought of Ouspensky/Gurd and the idea of prisons. We all are not going to escape, not even those of us who are Aware. If we focus on gaining knowledge to escape, we likely will not. When we focus on knowledge for its own sake, and live life in the moment without real Desire (it almost seems to me like this desire to become STO could almost be STS, arrgggh having a STS mind in a 3d world) to go to 4d, to become STO, I think it would be that much more possible. I think focusing on gaining knowledge and the joy of learning and sharing such with others is a pretty good way to live, regardless of what happens (all of this density/sto/s/hyperdimensional/aliens/etc stuff is all our best hypothesis anyway).
I'm not very convinced that this was the crux of "The Shawshank Redemption", but it made me think of this anyway. Just crystallizing what has been floating around in my head for the last year or so.

 

[a.saccus]

We all are not going to escape, not even those of us who are Aware.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here. There are many kinds of prisons. Midway through the film, Brooks is released from the physical prison, but has not left the mental prison that he has also been incarcerated in for more than half a century. It is the prison he carries within him that makes Brooks' release only superficial and not genuine. Brooks dies "in prison" even though his body is not within the concrete prison walls.

One of the senses of "to be aware" IS to have escaped from the mental prison, the Matrix, as well as the physical prison in the movie. This is what Andy does. In fact, after an initial period of confusion and struggle, there is a sense in which Andy has already escaped "prison" eighteen or so years before he finally wiggles through the physical walls.

If you mean, by your phrase quoted above, that "escape" is "not having to die," then I do not believe that is the case. Awareness frees you from the fear of death; awareness frees you from Blake's "mind-forged manacles" that chain you to lies about life and what really is. "Awareness" does not make you physically invincible or immortal, or immune to a comet falling on your head; it just enable you to grasp that part of you which IS invincible and immortal.

If we focus on gaining knowledge to escape, we likely will not.

If "escape" = "awareness," then whether we escape or not will depend on whether what we have gained is truly knowledge or not; and also on how well and how hard we have worked. There is no guarantee that if you set out on the Quest you will succeed. All that can be said is that if you do not try you will definitely not succeed.

If you mean by this a parallel to what Red told the Parole Board on his first two occasions, then it doesn't work. Red was refused becase he was lying and he wasn't really changed. When he really did change, when the man within him who killed was really dead, it was apparent to the Parole Board.

When we focus on knowledge for its own sake, and live life in the moment without real Desire (it almost seems to me like this desire to become STO could almost be STS, arrgggh having a STS mind in a 3d world) to go to 4d, to become STO, I think it would be that much more possible.

If you obsess on becoming STO, then that is an excess of desire, a misuse of desire, and it's unlikely you'll ever become aware. If that's what you mean by "real Desire," then I agree with you.

But desire in iself is not evil, it is a part of us, something we must learn to use properly, and it is the very engine that gets us to move from whatever rut we are in to a new, and hopefully, better rut. :)

I think focusing on gaining knowledge and the joy of learning and sharing such with others is a pretty good way to live, regardless of what happens [...].

Me too.