A side note: When I started reading the works of the Sufi poet Rumi, I was surprised at how often he mentioned drunkenness, especially considering his Muslim faith.
This was a lovely essay. Bravo.
I really like the idea of drunkenness breaking down the barriers between self and nature, self and others, and the desire to get drunk is the desire to sublimate oneself and become one with all. I think I have felt that before. But of course I was shitfaced at the time, so what do I know.
One thing is definite: being sober sucks.
I am a Dharma Drunk.
Look, are we getting the drinks or not??!
Oh - we are, I guess? . . . Okay, cool.
*holsters gun*
in other news, I didn't really get the essay. Drunkeness and sobriety are equals but separate but the same but different? And where are the promised Beatles? Also, I don't want to alarm anyone, but the author appears to have a vested interest in . . philosophy
All Together Now!
EEEEEEEEEeeeemmanuel Kant was a real piss-ant, who was very rarely stable . . .
The only Beatles I saw were a couple of cryptic references to "I Want You/She's So Heavy"
Oh...and
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar, who could think you under the table...
God has given us a dark wine so potent that,
drinking it, we leave the two worlds.
God has put into the form of hashish a power
to deliver the taster from self-consciousness.
God has made sleep so
that it erases every thought.
God made Majnun love Layla so much that
just her dog would cause confusion in him.
There are thousands of wines
that can take over our minds.
Don't think all ecstasies
are the same!
Jesus was lost in his love for God.
His donkey was drunk with barley.
Drink from the presence of saints,
not from those other jars.
Every object, every being,
is a jar full of delight.
Be a connoisseur,
and taste with caution.
Any wine will get you high.
Judge like a king, and choose the purest.
the ones unadulturated with fear,
or some urgency about "what's needed."
Drink the wine that moves you
as a camel moves when it's been untied,
and is just ambling about.
Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), trans. Coleman Barks
sorry... i know it's not exactly Monty Python...
May we hear from other than the Beatles?
In her hand was a bottle of wine, in the other, a glass
She poured some of the wine from the bottle into the glass
And raised it to her lips
And just before she drank it, she said:
Spill the wine and take that pearl, Spill the wine and take that pearl
Spill the wine and take that pearl, Spill the wine and take that pearl
I'd link to Beatles tune but I'm too drunk... ah, rah.
Those who don't feel this Love
pulling at them like a river,
those who don't drink down
like a cup of spring water,
or take in sunset like supper,
those who don't want to change,
let them sleep.--Rumi
--Rumi