some of the taoist immortal sculptures have a very powerful vibe. underrated in art history. here’s a 1400s sculpture of lao tzu, author of the tao te ching: https://hell.twtr.plus/media/46b17e8ec7d9edc2d1d8bf5c9a298bd372f7b40fcbefaa820e1c951f290ef714.file

i have no way to interpret this image. these guys are just wearing normal clothes. hoodie. t-shirt. collared shirt. this is a meta level i am not on: https://hell.twtr.plus/media/4f8718208e46596cdf3edb222df1a6b179e986052a31bc9e3b1d639efb30af20.file

the world would be completely different if this weren’t the case. you have probably never thought hard about your pancreas - unless it malfunctioned. if “comfort” had a form of awareness like discomfort, we would all see the world in such a different way that its hard to imagine.

it seems like there are aspects of every craft where once you crack a certain skill level, you are operating on this principle: being able to deploy “not thinking”-ness as a positive quality. interpersonal interactions have this as well: awkwardness is essentially lack of comfort

if you sit in a really comfortable chair, your awareness is free to be elsewhere entirely. the chair is excelling at being a chair because it allows you to not think about it. conversely an uncomfortable chair is a chair you cannot stop thinking about. it makes you aware of it.

a feature of this universe is: comfort feels like nothing - “comfy” is often characterized by lack of awareness. your shoes are comfy, so: you’re not always thinking about your feet. discomfort is a form of awareness. odd to apply this to specific domains: art, relationships, etc

people liked this phrase from tom cruise that he used in an interview: “put your manners back in”. its a twist on L. ron hubbard’s language: you have your ethics out, then correct it and “put your ethics back in”, as you can see in a definition for his use of another term below: https://hell.twtr.plus/media/f36d7f1e79a69aaa2a1d30ba0d707b700e14117ee0d60f17e6dd4d08d45eefbf.file

was listening to an “official” theology talk sometime recently and one of the guys said “most people get their theology from things like far side cartoons”. the others panelists laughed, as it’s obviously true. huge artist flex. https://hell.twtr.plus/media/faf0677abf31338db1ac75282fa48032aa8c5ce774624aafb0282b153bef2cb1.file