In tumescence, we dissociate from our stream of consciousness, thinking that is relaxation. We try to have an intermittent consciousness, taking our attention off the present moment when circumstances become displeasurable. However, whatever is not met by consciousness in the pockets where consciousness is dropped turns into tumescence.
If we can stay with everything that comes up, it will never be so displeasurable that we have to withdraw.
If we do withdraw, we will then have to use consciousness later to work through and convert the tumescence that has collected when consciousness was dropped. Everyone has to hit bottom with this behavior. Withdrawal of consciousness in the past or present always creates future suffering. Withdrawal of consciousness is not a form of self-care or relaxation; it is their toxic mimic—a way out that is actually a trap door.
True self-care or relaxation is conversely always the result of sustained consciousness.
That is the bottom everyone must hit.
If we want to do the world a service, the most honorable type of service is a consciousness employed in real-time conversion, digesting experiences as in-the-moment as possible. We become beacons of the embodied here and now, emanating a radiant light that awakens people. But not knowing how to digest, not being able to do this conversion in real-time, is a form of spiritual pride.
Any light that’s not converted will drag everyone around us down.
Digestion is a real-time method of preventing the tumescent smog from accumulating in us and in the people around us.
