April 3, 2011

"A glowing ember, moved round and round quickly enough, appears as a glowing circle. When the movement ceases, the ember remains. Similarly, the "I am" in movement creates the world. The "I am" at peace becomes the absolute. You are like a man with a flashlight walking through a gallery. You can see only what is within the beam. The rest is in darkness." N.M.

Happy trails!

I think the history of the phrase "happy trails" deserves comment. It originated in the theme song from 50's TV cowboy Roy Rogers and his faithful wife Dale Evans (not to mention his faithful horse, Trigger), who harmonized the closing words: "Happy trails to you, until we meet again."

The little boys and girls of the black-and-white TV era then carried this phrase into the next decade, but with a twist. A few of the more inquisitive ones explored the unknown with LSD. One common hallucination involved writing one's name in darkness with a lit cigarette.  Thus was born the Kesey- and Owsley-influenced 60's catchphrase: "happy trails." There is much to be experienced in a LSD trip. It can run the gamut from ecstasy to terror. For example, I went fishing once tripping, during which time I discerned the cosmic joke of life (since forgotten) all wrapped up in the coils of a worm pierced and dangling from a hook and line. I was doubled over in hysterical laughter, making the fishermen across the way very nervous. Then a friend pointed me away from a rattlesnake nearby, a real one, after which I hallucinated rattlesnakes everywhere for the rest of the day. Such is life is it not?

The point of LSD for the serious seeker is how it confirms that what we take for reality is bound up in our body-minds and can be radically altered by chemicals. LSD opens, however transiently and artificially, other dimensions of experience. Also, the chance to listen to your favorite music at least once on LSD is simply not to be missed. It is chemically induced rapture and truly intense being. But Reality is not temporary, not induced, not found in somersaults of the mind. As N.M. says, these tricks of mind are still limited to the beam in which they appear. Reality is beyond limits and no limits.