Ideas for a twilight world...
Proof of Love's 12 scenes have kind of imploded into 8, and it appears that the content of my play is now on the table.
Now for the hard part.
Immediately on re-reading, a flaw is apparent. The play is set in the world of the living. But the journey is Rustom's and he is dead.
(Guys, I hope I'm not being arrogant in assuming you all remember who Rustom is and what the play is about?)
And since he is dead, I need to write the world of the dead. Or rather, that twilight world of the dead still floating around the boundaries of the living.
I need to write the emotion, geography and physics of that world. What does music sound like? Are there colours there? Can energy be seen and not just felt? If a dead man cannot be seen and heard, can he at least be felt? Can he cry? Does he shit? Can he see inside your head?
I don't know anything about this world obviously, but then, neither does the audience or anyone else.
So it is an exercise in pure imagination.
My dad, who was in a two month coma five years ago, and literally came back having to learn to walk and write and speak again, gave me this gem: A dead man is always where his last thought was.
Any ideas for this twilight world - random, crazy (the crazier the better, I suspect), illogical, mythological, physiological ideas - welcome.
I'm fucking terrified. How do you guys do this on a regular basis?
Now for the hard part.
Immediately on re-reading, a flaw is apparent. The play is set in the world of the living. But the journey is Rustom's and he is dead.
(Guys, I hope I'm not being arrogant in assuming you all remember who Rustom is and what the play is about?)
And since he is dead, I need to write the world of the dead. Or rather, that twilight world of the dead still floating around the boundaries of the living.
I need to write the emotion, geography and physics of that world. What does music sound like? Are there colours there? Can energy be seen and not just felt? If a dead man cannot be seen and heard, can he at least be felt? Can he cry? Does he shit? Can he see inside your head?
I don't know anything about this world obviously, but then, neither does the audience or anyone else.
So it is an exercise in pure imagination.
My dad, who was in a two month coma five years ago, and literally came back having to learn to walk and write and speak again, gave me this gem: A dead man is always where his last thought was.
Any ideas for this twilight world - random, crazy (the crazier the better, I suspect), illogical, mythological, physiological ideas - welcome.
I'm fucking terrified. How do you guys do this on a regular basis?
posted by Anonymous at 9:35 am
1 Comments:
Food for thought - this is that Buddhist thing I couldn't find earlier, but which is quite trippy and might trigger off some associations.
The 8 stages of absorption at the time of death
1. mirage
2. smoke
3. fireflies
4. flame of lamp
5. white sky
6. red-orange sky
7. black sky
8. clear light
4 gross elements dissolve – earth, water, fire, air
1. a mirage like image appears to the mind as the earth element dissolves. limbs thin wither and loosen, strength and luster dramatically diminish, sinking sensation, eyesight becomes unclear and dark
2. an image like thin smoke filling a room or billowing from a chimney appears to the mind as the water element looses its ability to sustain consciousness. the tongue, mouth and throat go dry, hearing diminishes as ones ability to experience pleasant, unpleasant and neutral feelings arising from sense consciousness is lost
3. an appearance like fireflies or sparks or smoke arises as the fire element diminishes. body heat dissipates from top and bottom of the body towards the heart. ability to recall names of close friends and relatives is lost as well ability to understand wishes and actions. sense of smell is lost, breathing is difficult. longer exhalations, inhalations shorter – rasping or rattling of the breath
4. an image like the final spluttering of an oil lamp appears and gradually grows steadier as the air element loses ability to support consciousness. breath through nostrils ceases, tongue becomes thick, short, blue at the base. physical sensations of touch ceases, all gross conceptualization ceases
4 increasingly subtle and less dualistic levels of consciousness manifest
1. a white sky appearance similar to a clear sky in autumn filled with moonlight arises in the mind. one has a vast open sense as all gross conceptualization has ceased. this appearance arises due to the energy winds from the right and left channels entering the central channel at the crown chakra causing the white drop there to descend into the heart
2. a red-orange-sky like appearance arises as the winds of the left and right channels enter at the central channel at the base of the spine causing red drop at the navel to ascend to the heart charka
3. a black-sky appearance similar to the sky on a very dark night arises. this is caused by the white and red drops absorbing into the indestructible drop at the heart. during the first part of this appearance one is conscious and then during the later path swoons into unconsciousness
4. one arises from the black sky appearance into an experience of clear light, like a perfectly clear autumn sky with light before sunrise. it is free from even the slightest dualistic appearance or conceptual activity. "This appearance is like that of a consciousness in meditative equipoise directly realizing emptiness."
Got this at a prayer meeting I attended. Apparently the monks can distinguish each stage as they go through it, therby making their death infinitely more deliberate and graceful. (the monks do this kind of thing for a living so i guess they must be very good at it, i wonder how they figured it all out though!?! and how do we verify this kind of info?)
:-)
muahahahahahahaha
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