It’s a fact, you feel good when you forget about yourself even for a while. But self-forgetfulness can be difficult to do by yourself. That is why you seek conversation in the company of others (Listening can be transcendental). You consume information whether audio, video, or text. You use substances.
But the most noble of all methods is what is difficult to do—to just be and use your built-in media—your senses—to devour stimuli from nature. This is done through mindfulness. This is still forgetting oneself via devouring information and flooding the brain with it so thoughts are flushed out. But it is done naturally through senses alone and with no media, unassisted, bare bones. This state can be uncomfortable, but it puts us in direct contact with reality.
This also reminds me of annie dillard’s views on walking with and without a camera. She calls this unscrupulous observation:
But there is another kind of seeing that involves a letting go. When I see this way, I sway transfixed and emptied. The difference between the two ways of seeing is the difference between walking with and without a camera. When I walk with a camera I walk from shot to shot, reading the light on a calibrated meter. When I walk without a camera, my own shutter opens, and the moment’s light prints on my own silver gut. When I see this second way I am above all an unscrupulous observer.
Link to original
Unscrupulous because it is seeing without any preconceived bias. This state allows you to develop authenticity by managing attention.