You can find all things Seth here:
Including the recording from April 29, 1970 excerpted above.
Understanding no death and pre-birth planning.
Not seeing ourselves as limited beings trapped in physical bodies.
Using our “vitality” and our thoughts and emotions, consciously, on our own and together, to form a better reality.
That’s all there is…
Visitors from the BICS essay competition.
It is an honor to have you explore here.
You will see that survival of death is only the starting point for a new life perspective. A key to opening the door for meaning/purpose and agency/choice.
It also implies something I term “Radical Faith” and the nature of personal and shared/cultural/world reality creation/manifestation.
And then probable and alternate realities, pre-incarnation and reincarnation.
Reincarnation here is way different than proposed in any other place. It is a non-linear concept which involves something called “simultaneous time.”
Again, I am happy you are here. Now. 🙂
Eight years ago, over the course of about 6 months, I was inspired and motivated to set down the principles you find in the Core Material.
And then I went away for a while as I had created a new adventure, that of the corporate kind.
It’s been a trip.
There has always been the intention, with this site, to come back and take it to the next level.
To share in its practicality for navigating the Earth Experience.
The idea was to interpret examples from my own primary/direct events, as well as our shared cultural ones through the lens of WhatIfNoDeath thinking.
Ultimately so that you could apply all this to your daily life events, to your, and our, benefit.
This isn’t theory, you see.
It’s a map. Or a reference point.
For when things, experience, life, seem un-understandable.
For those “Why?” moments.
It is how reality is created and experienced.
Day in, night out.
For all who breathe, and not even just for our species.
And you already know this.
It’s highly daunting, almost overwhelming, to consider the implications.
And by the very fact that I’m here typing, means I myself still need the lessons that come from being on Earth with you and everyone else.
There is no perfection, where it all stops.
All done. Complete.
Nope. Only more growth, never ending, for all, including the Source.
The ultimate intention here is to share some knowledge that I was “lucky” enough to learn.
To raise human awareness/consciousness and simply offer ways to improve daily life, and possibly cure some chronic illnesses.
So that we all can move on.
And really, one of the main reasons I am doing this is that I’m not seeing this precise angle of wisdom anywhere in the zeitgeist, and I really think it will help.
Especially since things have gotten a bit out of control this past year.
Thanks very much for attending.
“To regain our full humanity, we have to regain our experience of connectedness with the entire web of life.”
Fritjof Capra
The Web of Life
There is this misconception in the New Age/spiritual world, and it’s kind of a cancer. Just saying this might be controversial and set me up to be slammed, but it’s bothered me for decades now.
The ego is not bad. Pure and simple. I repeat, and qualify a little:
In itself, the ego is not bad.
Every day I run across writers/philosophers/enlightened experts/plain folks who fear the ego, berate the ego, talk of eliminating, dissolving, transcending the ego, seek to separate themselves from the ego. That is a quest for Shangri-La, or the Holy Grail. Misguided and doomed.
It is an inherently self-destructive quest. Berate the ego and you berate your self—your (and our) whole Self. You basically distrust who you are, because you have this original sin of an ego blotting your pure spiritual essence? Poppycock!
Do you berate a child? Do you decry your thumbs? No. Or if you do, it’s pointless to do so.
The ego comes with the physical package and is as natural and normal and necessary and useful as your thumbs. And it is impossible to be human and to be ego-less. So get used to it and make it work for your greater spiritual self.
The ego is good. Especially when it is hooked up consciously with AllThatIs.
There are reasons and justifications for the fear of the ego and the attendant, sometimes cruel, measures taken to rein it in. And when I get in disputes on this there are conceptual and semantic differences that cause most of the disagreement.
I still hold, however, that the “evils” that the ego “causes” are a false blame. And I_You_We do a great disservice to blame the ego and not look directly at our own use of the ego as the cause of whatever difficulty. Egos don’t run amok, people with egos do.
Many spiritual and psychological teachings make it seem that we are victims of “the ego.” We should catch that tendency and stop those teachings. Again because it puts a divide on top of a divide. Instead, we can concentrate on putting the ego to good use.
Of course, at the other end of the spectrum there are those who simply serve their egos, and that is not putting the ego to good use either. But I would like to eliminate the justification they try to hide behind: “My ego made me do it.” Or when others enable them with the same thinking.
My_Your_Our ego is simply a reflection—but a powerful one that can take on its own perspective. Like in Sleeping Beauty. The ego is an epiphenomenon of the gift/Mystery of Being with the potential for self awareness. The ego is present at the form level, it is an attribute of form, just as consciousness is. Where there is consciousness there is ego.
Which is good. The ego is necessary for navigating the particular camouflage system the personality finds itself living in. The ego is the Conscious Mind’s eyes, the first level of filtering perceptions and external experience, and is as necessary as lungs are for the body to breathe air and make use of oxygen.
The whole darn world, all of this maya, is a reflection. Of our inner self, of our decisions and reactions made using the ego, individually and as groups. Getting lost in the reflections is what I think most are afraid of when they fear the ego. And it’s valid and easy to do. It’s a loss of sense of direct experience and with that a loss of perspective.
The scary self-centeredness that comes with an ego is natural and normal, it is used for each person’s purposes. This planet is a proving ground for determining just how far self-centeredness can go before it takes its toll on a community. The Earth Experience is in many, many ways an experiment in the use of ego.
It’s an experiment in having the ability to forget the Source, or take credit for being the source. That is the definition of this mirror self. The psychological ability to act completely free of all… well, of all everything. AllThatIs had to allow the ego this ability so that we can find out how far unpredictable free will and the idea of independence can travel.
We have learned that lesson. Unbalanced self-centeredness leads to gaingreed and bloodshed basically. To people with egos and no conscience or impulse control running amok. But that is the nature of Freedom, which allows the freedom to do harm to, violate, or even kill others or oneself. Lesson learned.
Now let’s return the ego to its rightful place—collaborating with the Conscious Mind, the part of the self directly connected to the Soul. The Conscious Mind is the part of the personality that can communicate inward with its own intuitions and knowings, as well as process external reality in a knowing way using the ego’s eyes/interpretations (thoughts, beliefs, emotions, expectations). The ego relays to the CM what it should report to or ask of the vast, vast inner/invisible realities. The ego tells its stories, and the CM believes every word so that it can then start the materialization process.
The Conscious Mind, and the entire Inner Self depend on a clear ego. And working together harmoniously, the ego focus with the spirit focus transform experience in ways that we still haven’t seen on a mass level on Earth, or very rarely. And in that collaboration, when we let the ego off its leash, we don’t blame it for running wild, it’s in its nature. Or have to worry about where it’s going. It is free to use its true powers of reflection and expression to be joyful, sharing, and super creative.
This is not a “taming” the ego concept. It’s a going with the ego and guiding it process. “Taming” the ego is like the use of the reasoning mind when doing T’ai Chi. At first you use your head a lot to learn the forms and the sequence of forms. To figure out the transitions from form to form. When the forms, transitions and sequence are ingrained into the body the head can simply witness as the body/forms/Conscious Mind joyfully express inner spirit.
The ego is the head that doesn’t have to always be on top of every moment. When a little direction is needed the head can assert itself. When it’s better to be a unified whole and let the other parts speak, then the head can observe and enjoy. It’s not all meant to be about the ego, but the ego has its part and can ride or surf the waves and steer into the swell or turn with it. Where is the ego in a tight, grooving band? Or in the flight of a flock of starlings?
You may ask, who is controlling the ego? Who or what is in charge of getting it to collaborate with the Conscious Mind? Well, that is for you to discover, because that is really the essence of I_You_We. A much bigger subject—My_Your_Our start, our Source, and the miracle/Mystery that we are here at all. (Hint: it certainly isn’t the brain.)
So. In defense of the ego, the ego is an essential, necessary part of the trajectory of My_Your_Our story. All the ego—the smaller self—wants is to give and receive Love. Just like it’s bigger Self. Just like all of us. In infinite forms/creations…
Now. The Core Material starts with a list. A list of assumptions taken head on to be broken. “No” this and “No” that. To come full circle and as a launching pad for the next stage of the blog I want to turn the “No”s into “Yes”es. But of course I add a twist to my “Yes”es, e.g. the first one could be Yes! Oneness!, but it’s not. My “Yes”es have to do with why we choose to come for The Earth Experience. 🙂
No Dualism=Yes! Illusion of Contrasts!
No Death=Yes! Every moment is valuable!
No Beginning=Yes! We came here with a purpose!
No Randomness/No Chance=Yes! We are free to choose!
No Time=Yes! Cause and effect and materialization!
No Pointlessness/Competition/Stasis=Yes! We grow! Together!
No Boundaries/No Outside=Yes! We get to play with form, personality, events!
No Victims/No Devil(s)=Yes! We get to play good guys/gals and bad gals/guys!
No Physical=Yes! Body: Our Friend and other Mind!
No Limits=Yes! We are Creative Manifesters!
I hope the Core Material is stretching you, especially past any attachment to any particular belief system that limits your limitless Self. Even if you want to tell me this is all crap, I hope for a minute you wonder What If?…
Enjoy the play! 🙂
CM328
“You get what you concentrate on. There is no other main rule.”
Seth
The Nature of Personal Reality
Buckle in, it’s a long one…
To wrap up the Core Material we will move from theory and speculation into the power of any true philosophy, or spiritual practice—praxis/application. All of this “wisdom” is meant to be practiced, the knowledge and its usefulness is meant to be achievable, repeatable, verifiable.
This last post for the Core Material is centered on the most powerful driver—literally—of reality and all life as story. This essence is embedded in all of existence—from God to individual—through and through. This force is expressed exquisitely in Nature and this is why humans are considered to be a crowning achievement, whether by evolution or divine design.
Creativity. Conscious creativity.
All of Being is because of incredible, immense, unquantifiable, ungraspable Love, and also overwhelming Desire. Union, orgasm, conception, and birth have nothing on the love and joy present at the creation of a universe, or a soul.
And coming into Being is not a one-way, entropic path. Nothing was made for it to simply then rust and crumble. No, Being is created and set forth freely but also imbued with the seeds and means of creative expression—from sexual to hallucinatory—to continue and grow, and to make more and share more, infinitely abundantly with all.
One is All and All is Many and Many are One. Way beyond our ability to conceive. I mean grasp, there are a lot entendres in this talk. 🙂
And it’s not all about us, the people, us humans, the supposed lords over this dominion. We created that notion, not the rest of creation. Imagination—as well as memory/association seems to make us homo sapien, right? Oh yeah, wisdom and intelligence…
But all of life is imagination in action. All of everything is imagination made physical. Every thing is a thought. Every thought and every feeling is a story. And we share that ability because all of reality is conscious.
We are right in the center of the Action. My simple way of explaining it is I_You_We create My_Your_Our Reality/Life/Self/Story. But the sole reason I coined I_You_We is to never forget the cooperative collaborative Nature of this enterprise/Earth Experience.
To those who would object loudly that we are the greatest species to ever rule a planet I would suggest we are not different in quality from any other consciousness. Yes we are unique and okay, special. But so is every single creation. That’s the beauty.
And who would want to be alone in one’s supremacy anyway? Lonely at the top and all. There is no pyramid leading upward to us puny humans at the pinnacle. There is way more “above” us, and many more stories for us to live and learn, way more selves to grow into—never ending.
As the rest of this blog takes shape we will investigate the practical aspects of these notions, all of the Core Material notions, repeatedly and rigorously applying and testing the model, and do so on group and personal levels. To “prove” these points, sure, if that’s your focus, but the greater goal is to make use of the knowledge for greater personal life fulfillment and to form healthier communities from local to planetary.
The objective is to use the New Story to write better stories with better parts to play for more actors/characters/selves to join. Maybe less drama and tragedy, perhaps. We can only hope, and consciously use our vast creativity.
When you see this throughout the blog and in any posts,
remember to take a conscious inhale, a conscious exhale, notice each of your senses, separately and then together, firmly establish your sense of place, adjust your posture and relax your tensions, and connect with your creative soul who loves you more than you can possibly know. And then let that love pass through and out of you to a target or in general. For this puts us in the Now, the Spacious Present and here is something else:
Our breath/breathing is where we are all equal. We cannot hoard or hold onto a breath—for very long—and we breathe the same air our enemies breathe. We pass air (and water) around, changing and charging the atmosphere with our own signature. And gladly accepting the air and water that has been shared since time began.
Remember that when you gather yourself into the present, then you can go back to the words on your screen.
I_You_We
Create
My_Your_Our
Reality/Life/Selves/Stories
YCYOR has been misinterpreted to be a very selfish notion, one where the ego exists in a vacuum of its own desires, free to create, out of “nothing,” the answers to its prayers for wealth and material prosperity—just by attracting it.
Things are way more complicated, but also elegant and easy to use properly when we learn the bigger notions. It’s mostly about getting out of our own way. Out of limiting ourselves, or letting others limit us.
The basic notion behind YCYOR is absolutely true. We can consciously create the world we want to live in—together of course. But we can’t not create. We created what we have now—good or “bad”—with the same ability. There is no secret in any of it.
The purpose of the Core Material is to see how interactive and dependent/interdependent “individuals”/egos are. I hope it’s both not too complicated and at the same time not too simple.
What is pointed out is that I_You_We are all dependent on “magical” processes of:
—our devoted, humble and hard working bodies, from basic atomic/molecular structure to all of the anonymous cells to collaborating/cooperating organs, maintaining our form and its perceiving, interpreting, reasoning, feeling capabilities.
—our social bodies and collaboration from “low” to “high” in our social stories, from providing supplies of water and electricity, to maintaining our city streets and our suburban palaces, for the food that is in our storage, and all of the other integrated services necessary to stay full and sleep warm (would that all on the planet be so lucky in luxury as here in most of the United States).
—our invisible/beyond physical partners, selves and realities, who are here and participating whether we know it or not.
—our own purposes and reasons coordinated with the themes, purposes, reason, stories of others.
—and of course we are ultimately dependent upon (but still possessing unpredictable free will) the amazing beneficence of the Creator of Creators and Mystery of all Mysteries. Way past our complete understanding, but still accessible and not beyond our knowing. What a God!
Side path:
This is why my goal from boyhood was, even if all else were lost, to preserve my sense of Wonder. And I don’t even know why it was so important, it just always was. I have protected that notion against all else, including growing up. 🙂 And what happened was that Mystery allowed me some insight, sometimes in ordinary ways, many times very dramatically. But I kept Mystery close, and it allowed me in to some of its recesses, so I could explore how It works.
For this access only one thing was asked of me in return: Share.
So in this blog you have me giving back. And it’s all I ever wanted to do with my life, here, now, always.
Now creation/creativity never stops and it’s our choice in what way to manifest/materialize our stories, our lessons, our hopes and dreams, the ordinary stuff, and the big dreams.
Our health and the events we experience as individuals are our first manifestations, and they are the quickest way to ascertain our trajectory. If we like where we are, who we are with, our individual Earth Experiences, good on us. That is the way it’s “supposed” to be. Balanced, joyful, fulfilling.
But if we don’t like where we are, where we are headed, then it’s time to look at what we did to create the unwanted situation(s)/people/story, and basically stop doing that/those things. It’s the inverse of the Nike slogan, if we don’t like something: Just Stop It.
(The planet’s health—locally and planetary—and mass species events are also primary manifestations, to lead back to assessing what we are creating on a mass level. Balanced? Joyful? Fulfilling? For all species and Mother Earth herself?)
Now, coming here we chose/agreed to our specific bodies as our personal platform for perceiving/ingesting/expressing our Earth Experience in a certain way—with certain talents/abilities, and possibly certain restrictions beyond those that come with the standard human vehicle. In the same way, at that same pre-birth planning “meeting” we also chose/agreed to our families, friends, enemies, and the places and approximate times for special events/meetings to occur or possibly occur.
This preincarnational “contract” is the given of entering physical life. And along with signing that multi-party contract comes the personal blueprint for achieving specific objectives in one’s specific personality—to live out a particular story with its own moral or morals.
We pick the Earth Experience because it is a unique place for us and others to highlight certain themes, problems, joys, etc. From single persons to masses of people (and plants and animals) we create, and then we admire or are horrified by the products of our artistry. And we thereby learn and grow. Of course, some if not a lot of the Earth Experience isn’t simply for educational purposes, enjoyment helps us grow as well.
Certain themes, throughout times and places, are common. Violence, war, poverty, greed, fear, oppression, discrimination are some interlinked negative ones. Heroism, love, justice are born out of aspiring past the negative ones a lot of the time, but meant to point out eternal truths beyond physical reality.
The reason this is a New Story is because it recognizes that story lines are not necessarily meant to be repeated, especially tragic ones. They are repeated because life is not a straight line but a spiral. And lives and themes and life lessons are repeated in different bodies, slightly different stories, until the creator learns or tires of the story and creates something new. When the growth occurs, the actors are free to launch into new roles and other stories.
Our civilizations do not have to rise and fall the same way over and over again. But they will until we grow.
Just yesterday I read a quote by the creator of Mad Men, Matt Weiner that says in regard to Season 6: “The guiding theme of the season, is that there’s a certain point in your life where you end up in a (negative) place where you’ve been before and you start to realize maybe you are the problem.” And solution.
So on that note, as the blog grows, we will look at practical methods of creation, and I invite people to share their stories of their growth, their breakthroughs, their moving into new spirals, better stories.
Some like to paint, some like to sing, or dance. We are born artists, we have no choice in that. Unlocking My_Your_Our potential, discovering and enacting the limitlessness of our imaginations and actual selves, to act in the stories that fulfill us and help fulfill those around us, call it a noble YCYOR perhaps. And this blog is a place to exult and share in our evolving paths. And maybe troubleshoot some blockages.
Quick note: the surface understanding of YCYOR is usually seen in a particularly American light: let’s get more stuff. I am hoping to unleash an abundance of spirit and compassion in this blog. Wealth and abundance can be useful—or a distraction. In its purest form abundance is a side effect of living a whole, creative life, and it can come easily, to anyone. (In practical terms that “law” is already known to the wealthy and in the cliches of “wealth begets wealth” or “the rich get richer.”)
Allowing energy to pass from “low” to “high” and freely around, sharing our breath, is Nature’s Way. It is a sign of a mature, not greedy or fearful community/country/planet. Money is purely a symbol.
It is hoped that the Core Material will be a new way to understand how all human riches can pass freely, even, or especially, in the commercial realms. So that we do finally solve for hunger and poverty, not by government, and certainly not by corporation, but by daily generosity in our hearts and spirits first.
The constipated economy where most people are hanging on for dear life, while a small group dances on their fingertips, and the slow suicide of being stuck in rathole cubicles working for miserable power managers is of course only one story (a relatively new, sad one in fact) and it’s one that doesn’t have to be re-created if I_You_We are unhappy in it.
The wisdom of the invisible hand will really be seen when we understand how we share lives, across time, with those of every other person and persuasion, and there is no need to fear the Other, and greedily protect our meager grievances. There is enough for all, always has been. It’s in our creative DNA.
Okay, so it’s not so quick a note but I will end it here, still focusing on how we all create our realities/stories. The New Story praxis to come will be the start of touching, owning and expressing My_Your_Our innate, limitless creativity.
For Love and Joy and Fulfillment.
Next Post/Epilogue to Core Material:
In Defense of the Ego/The world does revolve around you, and every body else.
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,…”
William Shakespeare, As You Like It
(NOTE: There are pictures inserted into this post that might not show up in your email, so you might want to go to the web site to view this post.)
Before we complete the Core Material let’s recap. It might have gone by a little fast, and admittedly this is a crazy endeavor. (To attempt to put daily life into perspective, in a practical, meaningful way, (whaa??) and to posit a new model of approaching the Earth Experience itself, well, that’s pretty nuts, right? Who does this guy think he is?!)
Well, this won’t prove anything one way or another, but these concepts have been all I’ve thought about since I was very young—over 50 years now. And in a few weeks I will post all the external sources I have drawn upon, just to show this has not been a dilettante’s diversion. I can’t site all my personal “enlightenment” experiences and assume that will make a difference to you. But I can tell you it’s been a long slog getting out of my own way to “prove” this method adequately in preparation to present it to you—so that it works as well for you as for me or anybody else on the face of the Earth.
And none of this is meant to even be about me at all. It is all about the ideas and the information and possibilities. And you, and we…
One last side note: Please do not take this blog as an attack on the religious/philosophical/scientific myths/mindsets that govern our current (and past) institutions and behaviors. I recognize when timeless wisdom is timeless and can not be attacked. And I can admit that the other precepts, not so timeless, not so wise, do, or did, serve their purposes and times.
But there comes a time when the species is ready for more, especially when in the midst of crisis. And we do face strain and crisis upon this earth. Poverty, hunger, bias. Inequality and injustice. Violence. These stories are not the only story, or the “natural state” of man/woman, no matter the scientific Darwinian rationalizations.
Nature, our best model to learn from, and our ultimate form of feedback is telling us to grow, or…
Ignorance and fear are what are holding us back. It’s never been some sinful self to blame and put down (no matter the religious rationalizations).
As wise and as useful as our past philosophies and mythologies could be at times, there is something missing. And the missing puzzle pieces are here in the Core Material. (Not to be too blasphemous/seditious.)
So here is a quick recap of this iyouwemyour Limitless Self/Selves blog:
1) The Earth Experience takes place in/on a “camouflage” universe/playground/stage of seeming duality. Dualism/the physical universe/the body are all one device/tool of contrasts/limits/obstacles and also endless diversity and opportunity. Life is a “way,” experienced in the form of physical events—to enjoy, preferably. If the events are painful, then they are to be overcome/healed/not repeated through learning and growing.
In the end, the sensual experiences of the playground yield incredible and indelible accounts of beauty, fun, and love, tempered and accentuated by the tears between the smiles.
2, 3) We survive bodily death, an absurdity but the source of so much fear, anxiety, and greed/oppression. But the truly empowering moment is to realize that putting on this body, in this time and place was a choice. That I_You_We we were alive before I_Y_W were conceived. (New Story bit!)
4, 5, 6, 7) We are meaningful in our Being, limitless, with unpredictable free will. We are one and and we are at the same time many. God is all, all, all, and that all is Love. I_Y_W in fact, have many lives/selves/stories. And all of those lives/selves/stories—probable and real—are occurring right Now. (Another New Story bit!)
8) These intertwining principles make it possible to think IYW exist in a purposeful, not random, life and universe. That villains and victims, bullies and heroes, sinners and saints are part of stories and purposes known only to them—but sometimes they live those stories, suffer those roles, to teach important lessons.
9) Last post we discussed the idea that much of My_Your_Our lives are invisible, out of reach of the simple senses. However, even in our limited, blocked physical bodies and brains, IYW can connect directly to our eternal, limitless, brave metaphysical souls—and God—in an instant, with our waking mind, simply by taking a conscious inhale and exhale. Regularly.
That is where we are now. Now.
So let’s wrap up the philosophical part in the next blog and get to the fun part where we can start to apply this New Story knowledge to every day life. To improve M_Y_Our Earth Experience. To make sense of the seeming inexplicable or bizarre. And to arrive at the joy and love beneath all of the stories—which can happen quickly when there is no drama to endure.
To arrive there we will explore our true nature, that which makes all stories possible and fun (or sometimes horrible):
OUR LIMITLESS POWERS OF CREATIVITY
“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.”
Fable?
We’ve discussed the “Radical” part of “Radical Faith” (i.e. no matter what). But lurking is the “Faith” half of that slogan. What about that?
The concept of faith is taken to be nebulous, invisible, impractical. Faith is just faith, it has no logical or philosophical weight. In itself it is no argument and therefore, most damningly, not “scientific.” Yet for the faith-full it carries enormous weight.
Only it’s usually in something outside oneself.
I mean to stand up faith as solid and practical and useful. As real as touching your finger to your nose. As real as a skyscraper. And not based on a phantom. (Okay, well, I’m also going to argue we are all phantoms…) But after the Core Material is published the focus of this blog will be on how “scientific” faith can be. How “Real” it is. Theory isn’t anything but abstraction unless it can be applied, so the rest of the blog will be devoted to Applied Spirituality/Philosophy.
So let’s get past the theory stage as fast as possible. There are just a few bricks remaining for this path.
Let”s go back to earlier on the path, when I was talking of God/AllThatIs, and we can bring in Quantum Physics here:
I averred that there are no clearly defined boundaries, to any thing, any body. I like to say that where we begin and end is more story, more cloud, than fact. Our bodies are an outline and they don’t contain us. Even within skin it’s hard to know where we end and the world begins.
Let’s take a side path for a moment:
Essentially, we live in a consciousness of our own description/definition. We live together in our “outside” world, on this beautiful planet, by agreement. We abide by certain taken-for-granted rules like specific spectrums of light and sound. We adhere, for the most part, to gravity and the surface of the planet, moving our bone and flesh structure around according to physical “laws.” We play with other bodies—persons and objects according to those laws and others that govern the playground.
Make no mistake, these are laws/rules/limits particular to this specific reality. In a big way, we came here because of them. We chose to play by these limits to learn from them, to test our self with them and against them. But we also knew coming in that we would not be wholly subject to them. Do you remember?
For at the same time that we move and play according to the laws of physics and biology, we have an “inner” existence that is not merely subject to the limitations of the brain, our sensual apparatus, and our physical perceptions. Because we don’t originate here, and we move on to other playgrounds after this one.
The only limits to the self who is playing here are what I_You_We allow. At a certain point in our growth as a human we should find that we have choice over what we think and feel, and over what others tell us. What limits us are only the filters of our personally held beliefs and expectations, and those we hold as a group.
I_You_We take for granted many of our thoughts, feelings, beliefs and expectations, and behave automatically from those habits. We make choices and take actions all based on many presuppositions. But we don’t have to follow the program(ming). And I am hoping we stop following some seriously limiting thoughts and beliefs once we know more about the ideas contained in the Core Material.
So back to the main path now:
We agree on (most of) the rules of the physical playground–where the trees are placed, how many miles it is from Point A to Point B. But not only are there gray areas, not dependent on gray matter, to this particular camouflage physical reality, there are wholly non-physical realities inside, outside, and betwixt and between this seemingly solid one. Dark matter, or light matter perhaps.
The next brick is: In truth, in whatever reality/form we find our self, we are more invisible, not physical, not form, than what we hold to be our current form/shape/body. Most of Me_You_Us is invisible, unperceivable—at whatever level and with whatever senses we are using at the time. We can begin to know that “more” of us, for in fact we are never without “it” or separated from “it.” But we usually identify with the visible part—of our self and others. But again, the “bigger” invisible Self is knowable and in constant contact with us as ego/form.
Non-physical reality exists, and is really where we spend most of our “time” anyway. We just haven’t been aware of it in the common mindset. Every night, however, we go to one, or several, of our non-physical realities. For hours, interrupted or un-, we leave our bodies every night, leave them breathing on their own, refreshing on their own, snuggled all alone, while we go home. Why? For play, but often for advice.
Dream reality is a reality. And I_You_We really go there. Sleep is like the halftime of a game, or, even better, a play’s intermission every night. (A commercial perhaps?) Anyway, we go there–somewhere–to consult with the coach or writer/director, about how the game, how the play is shaping up. While there we look at the previous plays, to go over what worked or didn’t. We test possibilities for the next act, acting out different scenarios. And then, before it’s time to awaken/return to the body, we choose a line to pursue, the next play. This is all done without our physical bodies, in another reality than this one, in our dream bodies. A reality with much different, and far fewer rules.
That dream reality is physical too. It is a real land, or cloud, or stream, and we row, row, row there, just like we row, row, row here.
And what is going on while we are rowing here, on this stream, in this real reality? Well, we are rarely fully engaged in the process. We spend most of our physical reality in our imagination, day dreaming, not even tuned to this channel. You may not be aware of much else than these words right now. However, on Earth our body and our environment is the channel, the wavelength we agreed to keep. Our mind drifts constantly in and out of touch with it. Past, future, maybes, really old memories, new fantasies, back and forth and hardly present. But there is only one reality.
Now.
And it is much more than synapses firing.
For the next sixty seconds leave this blog. Use all of your senses to take notice of where you are, what you are feeling, in your body and your emotions, come back from the mental gyrations my words have set spinning, and after you take notice of what you are seeing around you, hearing around you, feeling with your skin and bones and muscles, smelling and tasting with your face, take about a minute to just watch your breaths. You can close your eyes and simply inhale consciously and exhale consciously. Then you may come back here.
Go.
Now.
That was nice, right? Do it often. Get focused in your present as often as you can. So you have a solid footing on where you really are, in your direct circumstances, and that will help you know who you really are.
I_You_We mostly live in an indirect reality–one of news, opinion, imagination. It’s not My_Your_Our direct reality, any more than these “words” have an existence in themselves. I_You_We apply all the meaning to the words and things and events in our life. But that is because we are essentially not physical. The essence of My_You_Us, our Being, our Soul, is simply not physical. And solid as it seems, neither is the chair you sit on (and then again it is…). Yet our Being, our Soul, our life is real…
Here’s the thing, the big spoiler, and how we can make science really know faith: the physical is made from the non-physical, and not the other way around. Matter didn’t make consciousness, “matter” came from consciousness. And really, matter IS consciousness. The brain doesn’t make consciousness either, it interprets it, it filters it, it dumbs it down for use in a limited medium. The brain is not our higher power. It’s a tuner. To mistake it for the creator of reality is like calling your cable box God. Oh wait, it is for some… 🙂
And while we are at it: there simply is no outside and there is no “physical.” Only the appearance, and rock hard feeling of our maya. By our agreement. To be hypnotized.
This moment “in time” is a wavelength, and all the other wavelengths, all the other selves, all the other stories are going on right now. Invisible. In their “times.” We have tools available to us to change channels. We just forgot how to use them, or never were taught.
On Earth, our BodyMind is a marriage of the involuntary—like our heart beating, or our intestines digesting—and the voluntary—our thoughts, our feelings, our beliefs and expectations, our actions. (Some may think our feelings are involuntary, they rush up upon us unbidden. Emotions are both side effects and also malleable—or ignorable which isn’t healthy.)
The involuntary is taken care of for us, we do set it in motion, we do set up blockages, we do make things easier or harder, but it runs on its own. That’s the beauty of Nature. The voluntary is us acting, in Nature. Acting out our story/stories. Acting on impulses. Acting scared. Acting big. Or small.
We have more control of bodily processes than we think, and our body is more aware of itself than we know, but there is one perfect meeting place for the involuntary and the voluntary and that’s in our breathing. And it is another example of the beautiful, glorious design and engineering of this natural physical world. Visible meets invisible, physical meets Mind when we simply breathe consciously. And all of a sudden we are in the Now.
The Spacious Present.
Take a few more conscious breaths.
As for Faith? Our trust in the invisible, the supposedly unknowable, pure Mystery?
When we know how things work—not superstitiously, in fact—faith becomes an act of letting the involuntary and voluntary have their joy, together. An act of consciously participating in it, in creation of physical reality. Of knowing our choices make manifest My_Your_Our world/worlds/realities/stories.
Science is its own faith. This entire blog tries to point to where science (human understanding) will go when it recognizes our daily and nightly non-physical aspect, where it will go when that variable is factored into its equations—especially in the softer realms, like psychology.
Or, not waiting for the scientific arts to catch up, where I_You_We will go when we incorporate it into our daily philosophy.
Next Post:
“Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.”
Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Part 2–It’s God’s Fault (how unsatisfying) or Amor Fati
But even if you hold to the notion of victims, then here is the other big question: Why would anybody be cruel, be the villain who victimizes the innocent?
You can argue two ways here: Those people (all of us at one time or another) choose to be cruel–for whatever reasons, by whatever personal history. Or, they_we don’t know they are being cruel. Usually that comes with arguing that perpetrators simply feel they are pursuing certain good ends, albeit through means that are certainly cruel on the receiving end. To those who are cruel either by choice or out of some sense of purpose the ends justify the torture or mind games or rape (don’t know how on that one) or whatever ends up hurting one or many.
Often cruelty, or anger, or rage/violence, is a last desperate act. One of outsized aggression and power, born of frustration, fear, powerlessness—it’s a call, a cry for help, a last attempt to be heard. The pain of an imbalanced life on the inside and/or outside is too much and acts are taken against a seeming enemy.
There is cruelty for revenge. There is cruelty for justice. There is cruelty to gain an advantage. There is cruelty for a cheap thrill. There is cruelty, mostly for power. And mostly out of a life of a perceived lack of power, or love.
As it plays out relentlessly in our lives–in the news and on screens and stages–the line of what is real and what is “entertainment” blurs. As it is, many actors prefer to play villains. And people fall for them too. There is an allure to the bad guy, and there is an allure to being bad. A thrill. At a certain level it can be a very sick thrill. Like firing a gun at people or animals and not targets. But most reported cruelty happens, thank God, indirectly to the majority, whether in news or fantasy–which means it didn’t actually happen to the gapers at all. When it’s really happening, not on a screen or by gossip, that’s a different story. But the following still applies.
The lines blur and we live in world of stories. Good and evil is the biggest story, the biggest myth of all. And as the many variations of that one main myth play out we learn that you really can’t have a super hero without a larger-than-life foe. The bigger the obstacles the greater the lessons and the more intense the climax. All that.
One of the main things about the bad guy is, besides not having a conscience, he or she is usually powerful, but here’s the thing: he or she is also fearless. (Part of being Evil, it seems, part of being Crazy.) Cruelty and misuse of power has an element of conquering fear in it. The whole role may be based on massive fear, but the execution of the part usually shows a remorseless, fearless killer.
Let there be no mistake, there is massive fear in the backstory of the evil character. Fear of the “Other,” fear of power itself, fear of being betrayed, or being wronged, or simply and most likely, fear and immense frustration and anger that is leftover from having suffered repeated previous cruelty. Insane unleashing of rage does not come from nowhere. In other words, it is a response, a reaction, often like a string pulled repeatedly and violently until it snaps. This is what makes up most cruel characters.
Here’s the sad part: I_You_We all play into that narrative because what do we want when we confront a villain? Justice with a capital J, which is simply frustration and vengeance delivered in a white hat.
The most powerful villain in Western mythology of course is Lucifer, the Devil. A fallen angel, he started as good as a character can start. God’s favorite. The Morning Star though, turned bad, by and because of heated choice. (No angel even has choice, quite the running metaphor in our oldest religions eh? This freedom of choice, the knowledge of good and evil. Cast out of Heaven or Eden for exercising choice.) And now this disgraced angel is almost all powerful, with the incredible power to take men’s (and women’s) souls out of their bodies, out of reach of God even—usually by playing on the “victim’s” own greed.
These different sort of “chosen ones” may or may not suffer on Earth–but afterward look out! Their soulless selves are condemned to a perpetual, miserable, fiery not-end. Eternally returning to and suffering massive pain, the stuff beyond dread. (Interesting this mythology, because what it says is the soul is a thing. Something that can be lost or given/sold away. A soul as a thing is not even close to the Truth, but it makes for good theatre, good drama. Instead, we are souls wearing bodies and nobody can separate us from our essence. However, and where all of this stems from, is we have the power to delude our selves. This is a crucial point.)
With a limited perspective on our immortal, eternal Being as Soul, what do we fear most? Death maybe, but even more so, pain. With death the pain ends, right? But not if there is Hell. Hell is where there is only the hope of death, but never-ending excruciating pain. Hell and pain have many other faces, as does Evil and the Devil. But we attribute those powers to so many on a daily basis that we forget we made it up, and that Lucifer is a character, a role, meant to teach us Contrast, the power of our unpredictable free will, and how to use that to believe in Love, no matter the circumstances in the present. Oh wait… too soon??? Not really. It’s been a long time coming to finally get past these old myths.
In Truth, I_You_We create evil. I_You_We create cruelty. We act it out for our own purposes or because we have let things get so bad we have almost no control of ourselves. There are those who abuse power. Too many in fact. But we let them don’t we? Whether in a democracy or a dictatorship, I_You_We let them hold the reins. Why would we give over such power except because of fear. Fear to confront, or a feeling of helplessness. All because of a fatal ignorance about the fact that I_You_We don’t really die. So we have nothing to fear.
When we understand that a bully can only make us feel pain for so long as we allow them, and that they are the fearful ones, we regain our power. But sadly, might keeps making the rules across this planet. Bullies still arm themselves with their gangs and guns and take what isn’t theirs. We really don’t have to hold our tongues, or walk in lockstep any more. They only have power for as long as we give it to them, and they can’t really take away our souls. (The repeated hitch in the story, one that we have to get past, is that usually those who overthrow the bullies then become bullies themselves, and the cycle keeps playing.)
But first you have to believe that you are eternal. And you have to believe that if there is God, and God is AllThatIs, then there really cannot be Evil. Not as some preternatural outside force that can work outside or beyond God’s influence. If there is “bad” in this world, then it is because God allows it. Just as Nature allows any event to play out in physical reality, simply because if it is here it is natural, then because of the nature of the gift of truly unpredictable free will, God allows us to create even the most horrendous stories. We can do anything, good or bad. And then we see how the balance plays out. And maybe from them we decide we might not want to experience that kind of thing any more. Which becomes a guide to our future decisions and actions.
(On a short side trip that we will return to next post: The other thing that most people don’t consider is the reincarnational aspect of our stories–especially the brutal ones. In some plays we are the good guy, in others we are the suffering innocent. It’s not really necessary to keep playing these morality tales–that’s the entire point of this blog–but we are still doing so in the early 21st century. We are playing out, directly and indirectly these victim and cruelty stories, but there are much better stories to live.)
Still, when the worst happens, we need some way of making sense of such unfathomable pain. The term I use—to make sense of the inexplicable, especially personal and group tragedies—is “Radical Faith.”Not just “sometimes faith,” for when it feels right. Faith at all times, in all circumstances.
Radical Faith is a perspective in which nothing isn’t from God/Our Soul/Our “Bigger” Self. Nothing. Ever. As we have been arguing throughout the Core Material, no thing or event happens in a randomness vacuum–without Meaning/Purpose/Reason or outside of AllThatIs. Including the worst moments. The next post will try to explain the mechanics of thorough accountability, and most of it is non-physical but let’s wrap up the introduction of this concept.
The radical part of it is that it is faith that never wavers, for any reason. It may be a small bad thing, there’s a reason. It may be an epically horrible event. Still a reason. It usually will be inexplicable in the near and maybe even far term, from the Earth view. But there is still a reason, or many, and it’s never out of nowhere or completely “random.”
The hardest thing to resist is blame. Blaming others for bad events and situations. From parents to horrible neighbors, it is way easy to tell that story. Blame is the other side of shame. For creating an event and avoiding knowing how it was created—through collaboration.
Most of the interpretations of this Radical Faith concept says you are “blaming” the victim for their unfortunate experience. Victims are not to be blamed for creating horrible situations. In fact, take out the word blame and substitute “credit.” I know it sounds unbelievably callous, but there is a connection between the word credit, and roles played—in theatre and cinema. I think we can credit victims (and I suppose perpetrators even though it’s so distasteful) for the courage to create and live through really painful, ungodly awful experiences, in the hopes of learning something really important and lasting.
When you look back at a turning point in your life, even a painful one, you often are grateful, right? That event changed your life. But you would never have learned that lesson—usually a big moral—without that pain. You know the phrase “And they lived happily ever after?” That doesn’t usually follow an easy ride.
It’s hard to put things into context without a great deal of time usually, and there are those who will never forgive. But except for the most extreme cases, perspective does come later. And even in the most extreme cases there are those who forgive, for their own peace of mind, but also because they learned a valuable lesson that they couldn’t learn otherwise. Trial by fire, going through hell, but coming out the other side a better person, that’s how heroes are born.
This is where the Hell myth breaks down. There always is a reason for pain, no matter how bad, and it doesn’t last forever.
I coined Radical Faith based on learning that there is a Jewish prayer of thanks recited at funerals. How can you give thanks when so much sadness surrounds the fact that somebody has passed out of existence seemingly forever? But it’s there. I think it is the Baruch dayan emet and here is a link to a further explanation: http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1582773/jewish/The-Jewish-Blessing-on-Death.htm
It’s Bashert. “Meant to be” is of course fatalistic. But there is a far bigger meaning to the process—involving many actors and choices and agreements—than the usual connotation of fatalism. The old connotation says you have no choice in the matter. We are passive victims of events occurring to us. As you will see in the next post, choice—our glorious unpredictable free will—is part of fate. Maybe the new interpretation of fate comes closer to Nietzche. Amor fati.
There is also the phrase, used in the hardest times, “This too is for the good.” It’s easy to say that when things are good. It’s radical if you say it when things are bad. If you trust a greater purpose in any possible situation, then that is what I call Radical Faith.
All of these words are not meant to just be philosophy. They are meant to be tested, put to use and tested. To see if they add value to one’s experience, help bring peace of heart and peace of mind. These words are useless if they cannot improve one’s life.
The biggest upside to believing in meaning and purpose to everything and everyone is a sense of freedom, freedom from fear. With death a non-starter, and pain being temporary–I would argue that pain is most of the time an indicator of imbalance—then there is no excuse for fearing any moment, in the large sense, and for not trusting that there is a way out of the worst ones. It’s a far bigger freedom than that of those fearless villains. It’s freedom from villains. Freedom to stand up to bullies, and for the innocents. And freedom to not be a bully.
Nobody in their right mind would consciously choose horrible tragedies, especially if there were any other way. Right? But we have to wonder, in looking back, about the crazy number of coincidences that have to occur for certain events to play out—good or bad. You have to look at those who missed that plane, or called in sick, or slept late and wonder what they might have known on some other conscious level to avoid being part of the tragic story. As well as why those who were there, were there.
What it really comes down to is My_Your_Our God. If I_You_We think that there is evil, then My_Your_Our God lacks power at a certain turn. If My_Your_Our God is all-encompassing goodness and love then whatever evil occurs must have purpose and cannot be random. So if that is My_Your_Our God then evil events are chosen for a reason by all the participants, bad and good. For what? Learning. (Maybe also for “entertainment” and the experience, but that is really out there and will draw serious flames.) But “bad” events only happen because what needs to be learned has been avoided for so long that a really extreme lesson becomes the method. And ends up a powerful story with a mythic moral.
But that is the old Way. If we understand we do not die, that life is a story, that pain is real, but not necessary, that fear is to be conquered and may be the only evil (okay along with greed and jealousy and blame), then perhaps we can start to decrease the really ugly, sadistic, masochistic, cruel and unusual story lines and events that keep playing out here on Earth. Doing so I believe will free Me_You_Us to create and love on higher and deeper levels.
Even a catastrophic storm is connected to the choices we make and act out. A reflection/enactment/materialization of emotional turbulence possibly??? (I’ll let you consider that one.) I_You_We live where I_You_We live for My_Your_Our reasons. Come what may, we face it together. Or we move a couple months beforehand.
One other thing: this new Way also helps us face our fears of so many faceless foes. Bacteria, viruses, cancer cells, sinkholes… There is almost nothing we can’t find to fear. If we want to. Our choice how far to go with our fears, seemingly justified/blamed, or not.
There really is no evil, cruelty or tragedy that I_You_We don’t make/create/allow “happen” to us—for whatever My_Your_Our our purposes. God just allows us the full use of unpredictable free will in this defined space/playground called the Earth Experience, again, come what may by our limited perspective.
We write and then we live these stories. Mainly so we have some good ones to tell when we’re all done here. Let us put the shameful stories to rest. And take credit for writing way better characters, plots, and endings.
New England Holocaust Memorial
December 29, 2012
This is the toughest post I will ever write, the toughest concept I can try to explain. I will lose some readers because of this one but I hope that the intention behind this post is understood—it is for more love, compassion, and hope to exist in this world, not less. And freedom to create, freedom from fear. So let’s push on. (It’s become such a long post I am breaking it into two parts.)
The most confusing element of the Earth Experience has to do with suffering. Being born is a mystery, and death is a bad joke. But what stops us in our tracks when we want to make sense of the waking time between our birth and death, of being here/now in a body, are first the facts of hunger and cold and disease/illness. Basic physical suffering that, for most of human history, has been a bitch. Yet we can understand those types of suffering, they come with the package. In fact, men and women have done an amazing job in “solving” those problems the world over. (We have solved for hunger and shelter, it’s just not been fully “rolled out.” Disease still needs a little work/greater perspective.)
But then there is suffering by cruelty–suffering caused by the hand of others, or by the will of “fate.” The confusing part is that cruelty seems to be completely unnecessary. Yet every day innocent victims suffer because of evil people or indifferent Nature or even God’s bad side/evil twin–Satan.
(Some even think God creates some tragedies, for our own good of course. And the Greeks and Romans used the gods very often to explain suffering, but those gods often were mercurial, very human. There may be some truth in both views as we will see after these two posts.)
Unfortunate events seem to occur indiscriminately and randomly of course. “It (mayhem) could happen to you, at any time” is the slogan and self-justification of all insurance companies. How cause and effect and the twisted tangle of time, individual choices, and separate but connected events brought all the participants together at that tragic moment is attributed to fateful bad luck and really nothing else. “Coincidence.”
Whether it’s a lifetime of pain caused by being hit a drunk driver, or lives taken by madmen with guns, or whole villages swept out to sea by a cruel storm, the common thought is that not only was the suffering or death so unnecessary, but that there was no good reason for the event or for those particular people to have been there at that time. And the shockwaves travel outward to affect many not at the epicenter, to the point where some think they were there, but the overall feeling is that none of it had reason or necessity.
We call this being a victim of circumstances/evil. This is the model for when bad things happen to a person or group of people. Wrong place, wrong time. No reason, bad luck, evil. Except…
This is where I now tiptoe on egg shells. The rest of Part 1, Part 2, and the next post will argue that there are no victims–even if it really looks like it. And to stop believing in victimhood is the most freeing possible action one can take during the Earth Experience. Not easy to take or apply, but rewarded eventually. It really is the only way to believe in unpredictable free will, of knowing choice and meaning supersede chance.
I think that when we can look at events in a different way we gain way more happiness, life appreciation, resolution, and fulfillment than is ever possible in the old victim of circumstances/evil model. And it’s not just me making this up. Part of our nature is to feel like there really does have to be some reason, some explanation, some answer to this most basic of human mysteries (why is there pain and suffering?). It starts the first book of the Old Testament and is the centerpiece of Buddhism. With the Tetrahedron, and the rest of the Core Material, I think new understanding on this old model can take place.
Only a fool would come right out and say that a person chose to have his legs blown off, or chose to watch her child die, or chose to be born blind. I, in fact, have been that fool at times. When I was young and excited to reveal and teach some new things. I’ve learned that this is the toughest argument by far. I’ve learned that even with warning signs clanging and bars to block their path people will drive over the rails to meet a train. People will smoke and drink to excess and then complain when they “get” cancer or diabetes or something else. I’ve learned that people identify with their pain and that the suffering is often not because they seemingly can’t change the condition, but in not being able to arrive at the answer to “Why?”.
Unfortunately, it’s really really hard to suggest the answer of individual choice and responsibility, and purpose and meaning to the awful suffering. Often that’s because the suggestion isn’t given or understood in a proper context. (In reality, much of the focus of the Core Material, including the Tetradedron, is to simply frame the answer to that Why? question.)
For me, tragedy and cruelty and innocence lost is just more proof that this is only one life of many. Because it would be so depressing and useless if it were not. I don’t want to say we treat life/lives as “disposable,” but we sort of do. Karma isn’t instant in the Earth Experience. The cause or causes, usually repeatedly, can be set in motion and then warning bells can be clanging for a long time before the effect takes place.
There is plenty of time to change a path toward suffering. Any one of the many, many twists and turns, people and places that we turn down can be jumping off places to get out of the path of a hurricanes or a drive-by. It really isn’t all that random. We each take/are on a path to and from every event in our life. The worst events stand out and most of them blindside us, but we didn’t just arrive there blindly, without a choice, or many choices previously, even when born into a sad body. No matter what, we are living a story and comedy and tragedy and everything in between make up our personal story.
End of Part 1
Note: In these discussions it is important to draw a crucial distinction for clarity on this subject.
Either I_You_We are a direct participant in an event (in the cases of this discussion miserable, tragic events), or I_You_We are not. The magic and hypnosis of our technology and media sometimes make it seem as if I_You_We are there.
Unless I_You_We are actually there, I_Y_W have no true idea what the experience is actually like, and all of My_Your_Our opinions are as valid as the hearsay of reporters.
For those directly involved in a crime or tragedy, god forbid, they are the only ones who actually know the “story.” From their own personal viewpoint and their own circumstances leading up to it. All the rest of the ogling/gaping watchers are forming the story based on second-, third- or beyond-hand information. And according to their own personal stories, filters, beliefs.
I_You_We need to be very wary when I_Y_W are an indirect “participant.” It’s not the same and it would be healthy to keep some distance by staying aware of that fact. Then appropriate action, such as helping, can be taken. However, with social media this secondary participant phenomena, and the sheer lunacy of the discussions around many events, has already spun out of control. And does so every day.
Remember, if I_You_We aren’t there when it happens then I_Y_W weren’t there no matter how I_You_We feel about it or how much information I_Y_W compulsively gather.
Without keeping to the direct/indirect experience distinction we can all keep closing barn doors way too late because of not understanding how events/stories/realities–bad but also good–are created/manifested/materialized.
Part 2: Why Be Cruel at all?
Okay, no small subject here. The God concept has been expressed and understood at a way too shallow level. Man making God in man’s image.
One way to think of this is to try and define your own personal boundaries. You would say it is your skin perhaps but your senses reach way out beyond those limitations. As does your mind. And your heart goes out, and in.
If you are sitting, say, the only way you know where you end and the rest of the world starts is by the pressure of weight and gravity on your butt and legs and maybe the soles of your feet.
You feel your shape by your clothes touching your skin, but how about your head? If you aren’t wearing a hat and especially if you have no hair, and if the air isn’t particularly hot or cold, you don’t really feel a boundary line. Maybe pressure, or heat, from reading my words, 🙂 but no real sense of shape. Same for your face. (Without a mirror you could only know what you look like from astral projection.)
Same with your hands, you feel their weight and the separate fingers and thumbs, but not their actual shape or appearance. Most of the time we identify our body as a perceived shape, the feel of mass as against gravity through a structure like a chair or through sweat and hair and air temperature/pressure we “define” our boundaries. But for the most part we exist far beyond or “inside” that structure.
And while reside inside that perceived shape, most of our mind experience is completely non-local. It takes work to bring us fully into the present with our bodies and our direct senses. The rest of the time we drift far afield, into plans, into memories, into stories, etc. And our emotions follow and lead, rise and fall like waves drifting onto our shores, or clouds scudding the sky.
The big illusion we have is the separation of ourself from our environment, just because of the idea of skin really. There is an illusion/delusion dualism of an outside, again because we operate from the learned perspective of our senses “trapped” in a shell, this specific physical form.
However, our biggest definer of our boundaries is simply the concept of “me.” That is our real shape, and where our limits begin, and where we see a contrast between the “outside” and some notion of our individual self.
Yet even the personal physical me is a we—me and my body. As you are you and yours.
Each of our bodies is made of a host, a personal biological community of living breathing cells, and bacteria, viruses and systems and organs (not to mention the conglomerated atoms and molecules). Working mostly beneath our conscious awareness, this organization serving “me” carries out vitally important tasks, and not completely blindly—with purpose or perhaps a consciousness of its own. Let’s leave that for now.
But it seems our body is not only indefinable in its exact shape, but it is indefinable in how much of me is really an unconscious-to-me we. This is the first, but not the last, concept we accept but have a hard time grasping in all its brilliantly coordinated, cooperative complexity.
So forget the individual body, and that me/we for a second and go with this one. What does just a general “We” mean?
All of us right? The us in this moment.
What is the body of a We? Just all of our bodies? I don’t think so.
Gathered in a room it’s easy to see a we. But we mostly live in a non-local world. Take for example this experience as you read this right now. Our we as a blog community is almost purely non-physical. It’s mind and emotion and ideas but going on in different times and different places without us physically perceiving the others in this “community.” (In some online forums, there might be a green light by your name to indicate you are here, but here where?)
Of course, this is a bodily experience for each of us locally. I physically pushed buttons to make letters on lightscreen “paper.” You use your eyes and brain to decipher these symbols. These symbols attempt to represent and impart “meaning” which totally depends on how you perceive and conceive to your self these shapes you receive from me.
But I know I am part of this we, of you and us. But where is my me, and yours in this we? Not in space or time, really.
So let’s put this together. Each of us appears to be a unique, but hard to define “me” form. We do show a me to ourselves and to others. But each of us, at minimum physically, is made up of many, too many to count parts. And each of us, each me, whether we like it or not, sharing the air, is part of many—we. Yeah Wheeee!! Wild stuff.
So if we, and each of us in particular, are so non-local, and so much made of many, and part of many, why do we think God is just a guy sitting on a cloud in some particular distant place? God has to be way more than that.
I’ve used this before but think of a drop in an ocean, and defining that drop is really hard to do so suspend disbelief and just think of the drop as a me. Each drop/me is a part of the we of the ocean. But think of the ocean as being more than water between shores.
You will see that the me is ‘in” the we, and each me is a we, and we is part of a bigger we, at all times sharing this and other worlds.
In essence we personally as selves have no true definable limits. You could say there is the limit of the we at the end of our skin or where the ocean meets land. But we don’t begin or end with our skin, and the ocean is endless, at least to human conception. We are of an us, a “together” that each of us changes in every moment, but we goes way beyond us.
Add into this me/we mix unpredictable free will for each and every part of the we/me—which comes with consciousness—and… Oh wait, we haven’t gone there yet and I hear heads exploding. Let’s save that.
For now simply multiply the me/we idea by all of the probable selves we are, “me’s” that took different directions at various crossroads during this life. And multiply that by all of the reincarnational lives going on at this very moment. And multiply that by every being and creature and atom and molecule in this physical “camouflage” universe. And then multiply that by all of the other physical camouflage universes that exist at all times. And multiply that by all other non-physical/non-SpaceTime dimensions and… maybe, just maybe you can begin to feel the expanse of discussing even a hint of God. And then laugh when you turn around and see how shallow and flat is a character such as Zeus.
Altogether we are an even greater identity, which we haven’t even gotten into yet. But this is the essence of understanding a God that is beyond children’s storybooks, bible fables, and human agendas. A true multidimensional, multi-faceted God.
What If?… there really is no outside, that all is in and OF that much “bigger” God. And there are no limits to the personal self, the eternal me/we. What I am suggesting, and to break it down to its essence
God=All That Is
Here, beyond here. Now, beyond now (if that’s possible). Eternally and Everywhere. No separate Heaven (or Hell). No God up above looking down. No one particular God.
And to kick it up another notch, What If?… God/AllThatIs=AllBeing/EachBeing and What If?… God/AllThatIs=
Love.
(And this is not Love as an attribute but Love as essence.) So then EachBeing=Love—even without knowing it.
Awesome, but not terrifying. Just huuuuge.
(Okay, I know I took a big—unjustified to some of you—leap to Love, but that will come clearer later. It’s the only answer really and I will back up and explain in a post to come soon.)
And for a later date then, but I’d be remiss to not mention this. If God=AllThatIs, that includes Nature. We’ve known it all along by its name. Nature means essence. We are in Nature, obviously. In no way are we separate from Nature, being in bodies breathing air that circulates in our veins. And Nature and that relationship is an obvious metaphor for our relationship to this new, bigger, better God/We. We are, never were, and never will be separate from our source/nature/destination. Or love. (And Nature=Love too!)
We can’t physically exist in Nature and at the same time be separate, and the same goes for our “soul.”
Thanks for getting through the Tetrahedron, where all facets are different faces of the same principle, meant to coexist and not be taken as separate.
Next: No victims/No (D)evil
With your every breath, you change the composition of the atmosphere. With every action you change the shape of it. Even with every thought, and emotion, electromagnetically and chemically you change the charge of the atmosphere, and by extension, the Universe.
This holds true for every being, on land, in the air, in the sea. With every breath, you, I, we, connect. We share and exchange air and water with each other and with the other species—animal and flora. Each affects all, simply by existing, and more dynamically in choosing and acting.
And with every breath time stops. Because the atoms we share have existed since the universe was formed (and across universes and dimensions possibly). The atoms we breathe and exchange have been in the bodies of cavemen and courtesans. Pterodactyls and cacti.
Yes, we are a small speck in history, yet each of us is unique and influential for all of the moments we are here. You where you are, right Now. And the world would not be the same without you, me, or this unique, specific combination of We that exists in this Spacious Present.
Of course, it/life/Universes change, neverendingly, incessantly, relentlessly. All is Change/Action. No stasis, at any moment, ever. Pulsing, vibrating, living, breathing.
But, no matter Nietzche, it never repeats. It is life on Earth. The Earth Experience is the changes made by each of us, together, at every moment. And that is why you are important. You make the Earth new with every thing you do. Or think. Or feel.
You have meaning, in essence. And, as we will discover, you have purpose too. There is a reason you are here, and it’s for the reasons you chose. And for reasons you uncover. And all of it in collaboration with those who are each as important to Universe as you.
But your reasons are specifically your own, even in the context of every one else’s reasons and purposes. The word I use to sum up our meaning/purpose/reason (with attendant and implied personal responsibility) is: Value. Life is story but beneath that, Life has Value. Importance. Each life, and each moment carries Value. And we place value or importance, by choice or acquiescence (which is a choice), according to our “story.”
Value here is not a price, not a cost, something much more essential, so valuable it is sacred. Being is sacred value, the highest value. And it’s a total gift, which is amazing to consider and understand.
So breathe, and dance, and see the wonder of You change the wonder of All. And ask yourself: What should I do next to fulfill my values?
And while considering your possibilities remember: each who has been granted the gift of Being is just as important in their value essence, and none of us are independent agents. Not only is each body a wonder of living breathing cells, bacteria, viruses, atoms, molecules, and chemicals, all orchestrating a physical existence. (We depend on our personal retinue playing nicely to simply function healthily.) But all our bodies depend on each other to survive and thrive, together sharing and writing the Earth Experience. Primarily this is done in cooperation and collaboration because competition is far secondary to the amount of cooperation existence truly requires. (Universe does not equal Darwinian Capitalism.)
Much of this occurs automatically and effortlessly for reasons beyond our current knowing. All we need to understand is that your/my/our lives and life stories have inherent meaning and purpose, reason and value. And You/I/We are never alone.
NEXT:
LAST TETRAHEDRON FACET:
No Solo Act/Solo Me-o (No Boundaries/No Outside)
“Space and Time are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality.”
Immanuel Kant
I would say, so is the body, but that’s quibbling with Kant.
The second hardest concept to reach beyond is our standard notion of the Time/Space dualism delusion. (We will tackle the first hardest concept after we’ve absorbed the Tetrahedron.)
What is hardest about Time/Space is not simply overcoming the notions of past, present, future during our travels. It’s also reaching beyond a very earthly and neural construct: Cause and Effect. The apparently obvious pull of the string, the release of the arrow, the arrival at the target, the unfolding sequence of seemingly linear events seem completely natural and indisputable, right?
Well… did you know that in light there is no time? From light’s perspective, it is all, and only, Now.
Though made of light and sound we wear bone and flesh, and we experience time—or filter, and “construct” our experience/reality— through the appearance of time. But there really is only Now, the gift of the present.
In many ways, the illusion of time is merely delay. Of physically processing the perception. Or of manifesting the desire.
The time it takes for a thought/emotion to bear its fruit during this Earth Experience can be slow, painfully slow—for good and bad events/outcomes. Very rarely is Karma instant. The connection between the cause and the effect is often so delayed that as lessons in materialization the lessons go unrealized. Usually people forget they shot the arrow, and then balk at the consequences of the target hit (the arrow is usually a boomerang arrow and the target is often the self).
We will come back to this near the end of The Core Material but it is essential to understanding the Earth Experience.
This blog is entirely about this:
IYouWe experience the stories IYouWe write.
But very often we forget our authorship, and the roles we choose to play in the play. The often slow unfolding of cause and effect on this planet is actually meant to protect us, and of course is meant to teach many valuable lessons, but it allows all sorts of aberrational behavior. It allows in all sorts of excuses and finger-pointing. It is part and parcel of the concept of dualism and an especially insidious concept: the (Evil) Other.
But this cause/effect discussion is only prelude to introducing something way bigger (but necessary to unfold the entire Tetrahedron). Let’s move on from overcoming cause and effect/time and space (for now) and go into a more unique room and play with a new What If?… for the rest of this post.
If you remember, I showed you that a life “line” actually extends in both directions.
I used the word Pre-incarnation to describe the concept of existing before this life. And the picture is admittedly linear. But to keep it simple we will stay linear for the next several pictures.
There is also the concept, widely held, of re-incarnation—other lives before or after any given life (let’s just say they are all human lives because transmigration gets weird).
That standard notion, so quaint, of reincarnation could be depicted like this:
Here we see three lives, one after the other after the other, with some time in between death and the next birth. The standard conception (Reincarnation_Linear) also assumes this is the same person/identity/soul in all three lives.
This is super simplified but here is the WhatIf?… Let’s say there are, in fact, three lives, at different places and times in history, but instead of those lives occurring separately in a sequence, what if…
…those lives are occurring together, more or less simultaneously, as are those eras and places (Reincarnation_Simultaneous)?
This gets super complicated super fast. But here’s an easy way to start think about it, and we’ll leave you with just this concept until the next post.
Picture a radio or cable television or even the internet. No matter what station, channel, page to which you are “tuned,” all the other frequencies, programs, pages are still existing and going on right Now. Picture each song or story or post as a life, and while you are following the story of one life, an infinite number of other lives, and other alternate/parallel/probable lives are “playing.”
Or think of an apartment building, a high-rise with many floors and each floor is a different century and a different country and the people living in those apartments are all you—while you live in the apartment of this day in history in your place on Earth.
And here is the twist, using whichever analogy you want: the “past” is still occurring, as is the “future,” because there is only Now, a Really spacious Present.
We think the past is past, the present fleeting, and the future arrives and is gone. Well, maybe, perhaps, there is no separation of cause and effect, eternally.
We already know cause is implied in effect, but—and this returns us to the Choice? Chance? Bashert? post—maybe we would understand the really hard questions about life/story/reality better if we knew that no moment is lost and every moment is greatly enriched by the deeply shared experience of multiple lives in an infinite web of choices amid limitless, yet unpredictable, possibilities. Just a little something to ponder.
(Take a moment to “tune into” your invisible younger self and tell it something nice, then do it to the present self who that younger self became, and then stretch out to the future you and tell you you’ll see it soon.) 🙂
Getting back to our pictures, those three “reincarnational” lives, defined by their births and deaths could be seen linearly:
But any particular life could be better depicted by a 3D spiral, because we consistently return to themes and issues, don’t we? And I like to think of each life story as a “cloud” that is part of much larger cloud “Entities,” which I will explain later. But for now let’s just take those simple three lives and entwine them in the now and leave it at that—for now.
NEXT:
TETRAHEDRON FACET 3: No Pointlessness
Choice v. Chance
You have a choice… to believe in chance. Or choice. What do you choose?
Obviously it’s a trick question because if you don’t believe in choice you don’t have a choice, right? And you can’t choose if it’s all chance.
There is the illusion of choice, you say, choosing. Or, you say the other way, It’s really all so random. Another choice (of what to believe, what to believe…).
It is gray like this every day. In some circumstances you pat yourself on the back for a job well done. At other times you shake a fist at the sky and cry Why?! (The anger betrays disbelief in Fate, or victimhood, but not total belief in one’s own hand in the current negative situation/outcome.)
We argue for and zombie walk in a haze of Choice/Chance gray. We won’t pick one or the other because both suit our purposes.
Except for science.
There is no “Creator/Designer/Architect” that can be allowed in the equation there. No UberMind, or even Watchmaker. Or God forbid, free will.
So instead “Nature” or physics, math, biology, etc. become their own creators. Immutable laws and Reason to deduce—Universe itself—were just randomly set in motion (in the context of what? and by what pool cue?).
We dissect physical reality, finding everything in order—by Chance, by Randomness, not Choice. Objects exist and can be manipulated, by minds imagining new ways, but keep the subject, or the Why? and How? questions, out of the method.
It isn’t both. It really is one or the other. Choice? Chance? You cannot have it both ways. Somebody please draw me the line between events created by pure “accident” and ones for which we are responsible. We participate in each, but one just happened…
Each person drove to the accident. How did they get there—blindly, without a direction or sense of purpose? Only to coincide at that intersection like two random, mindless, choiceless particles?
“Accidents” happen. It’s just hard to take responsibility for being there holding that plate when it inexplicably slipped out of your hand. Some things just happen. No reason, right?
Fate/Destiny/God’s Will/Bashert
But where does “it just happened” become taking credit? Only when it’s a positive experience? And to top it off, there is a third option some choose, which is to believe in Fate—or destiny, God’s Will, “meant to be.”
In many interpretations this one is No Choice, not Chance, pure Puppet. Each direction we choose is inside a maze where the end is already determined for us. No matter which way we go, we have to end up at one destination, at only one possible time.
Cheeky story that one. Appearance of free will, none at all. Diabolical. Relax, sit back, and take it—whether it’s Heaven or Hell or a Soul Mate (both?). 🙂
Choice? Chance? Fate? There is a bright side coming. Unexpected answers will be revealed.
But until then, there is no wonder we suffer so much modern depression and escapism, violence and inertia, incessant gameplay and fantasizing. Ignorance has caused a lot of pain, and continues to do so.
When we consider the standard explanations into why bad things happen we have: 1) perpetrators using their free will upon helpless victims who have/had no choice in the event. Or 2) the bad thing/person/event came from out of completely nowhere, the radically random accident. Or 3) the bad thing was sent by Destiny. All three share the same thing, no Choice—also no meaning/reason/purpose/value/responsibility.
Choice? Chance? Bashert? Some Hybrid? We slide a slippery incline when we try to blend them to explain. Ye of so little (or so picked and chosen) faith…
Maybe it’s something we haven’t considered. Something unpredictable, yet meant to be…
NEXT:
TETRAHEDRON FACET 2: No Time
The next four posts were written in the aftermath of a mass murder tragedy in late 2012. The first post of this “Tetrahedron”: “Choice? Chance? Bashert?” was set to post on the day that event occurred. The post that follows the Tetrahedron, No Victims/No (D)evil was going to be posted the next day.
In light of that sensitive moment, and knowing it would be hard to explain the No Victims/No (D)evil post without more context the Tetrahedron was created. During the creation of the Tetrahedron a journey was made to the New England Holocaust Memorial. None of what is written in No Victims/No (D)evil is delivered lightly.
Also, none of these Tetrahedron posts are to be taken out of the context of the other three. (I guess the same could be said for The Core Material as well.)
Like Buckminster Fuller’s primal 3D shape, created from the theoretical and practical closest packing of four spheres, this is a solid starting place for practically and consciously constructing reality. The Tetrahedron will be helpful for putting into perspective some of the most awful of Earth Experiences. God forbid they happen very often and maybe they will happen less as more is known about how and why we construct our life stories.
The Tetrahedron is essentially this:
Each and every life, by nature, has meaning, purpose, value.
Each life/being shares its life with many other lives, physically and multidimensionally.
Each life/being/self has the attribute of consciousness and unpredictable free will, in the context of the free will of all the other lives sharing its realites, and according to the parameters of its form.
All selves are essentially and in fact limitless. We are:
made of,
“inside,”
and creatively adding to
what we call God.
After the Tetrahedron I will finish out the Core Material so I can then launch regular posts to, I hope, show that these WhatIf?… theories are inherently practical and useful in fulfilling one’s Earth Experience.
All of it gets its fuel from this:
There is no separating life/reality/experience/story from God.
But there are infinite personal interpretations.
IYouWe are making MyYourOur own interpretation right Now.
God bless.
“There was a time, before we were born, if someone asks, this is where I’ll be. Where I’ll be…”
Talking Heads
Naive Melody
Prelude to No Beginning:
A brief side trip to When Was I Not Here
There is a funny slash peculiar side to consciousness, to this being + identity stuff.
It has to do with the moments when we “drift away,” when we “lose” our selves in something, in some event or activity, or in sleep.
For an easy example, we often go on “auto-pilot,” say, during periods of driving a car. (And this brings up something curious about “body consciousness” that we will return to in a later blog.)
We lose our sense of self, or the environment, including others, often in a trance type state.
But here’s the peculiar fact, or the one side of a peculiar fact: We are still there, the actor, however without the “me” so much.
And then here’s the other side of the peculiar fact: we at some point return to our sense of “me.”
So, really, we dip in and out of “me,” and pretty often.
Now I would say that this is the closest we come to experiencing death (besides sleep)—when we “aren’t there” so to speak.
And the real interesting part of this is not the leaving, but that second side, the moment when we “come back.”
It’s almost like life, existence, identity, is a worldwide game of peekaboo. We cover our eyes, or divert our attention, and the world doesn’t exist. We drop our hands and There It Is!
We have always looked in the wrong direction for the proof of life after death. We have always wanted the dead other to come back to us, to once and for all prove there is another side.
But in fact, we’ve never known us, our “me”s to not exist. For every time we lose ourselves, no matter how long, no matter how deep the sleep, eventually the hands come off the eyes at some point, Peekaboo! We’re Back.
We will never know when we were not here. Others can tell you about life before you were born on this planet. But all you know is you woke up one day, today, right now, and you are here.
No Beginning, or,
Not the Beginning You Always Assumed
So now let’s talk about that waking up one day (every day!) and you are here fact.
We don’t really have any sense of a beginning to this life, do we? Early memories of life on earth is about all we can point to, and those drift in, out, and away, right?
Our basic understanding is we were conceived, grew for a time inside our mother, outgrew and was pushed out of that environment to start living a quasi-independent creaturehood.
As creatures we enjoy, or don’t enjoy, a number of days and dreams until, for whatever reason(s), we slip out of, or are ejected from our body forever.
Something like this, right?
Just a simple, inevitable progression from sperm smash ovum and then cut umbilical to the last blink, right?
What part of that line, signifying the waking days and sleeping nights, do we point to as “our life?”
The present perhaps. The dot between birth and death—You Are Here. And then our memories, conjured and recalled in whatever form, right? Of course the memories of others as well.And then there is our imagination, doing the projecting backward and forward. Perhaps a few artifacts to remind us of the past.
But if that is the conscious experience of our lifeline, the present and the memories and the imagination, where is the beginning of that life, in our conscious experience? An ultrasound picture? A video of arriving home for the first time? An in utero memory? Something we make up?
If the beginning is so sketchy or hazy or non-existent, then we are just taking a lot for granted about where we began, aren’t we?
In the previous blog I argued against the existence (ha, ha) of death. Now I am going to argue against conception/birth as the beginning of the life/self that survives bodily death.
The first logical proof is extremely easy if you accept that there is life after death. If you agree that we live after this life then let’s return to that previous lifeline, starting at the usual starting point, conception or birth.
If the person survives bodily death, then the line extends beyond death. Off beyond the edge of the page, into eternity.
Well, my logical contention is:
Eternity stretches in both directions.
I know that it is too easy, too simple, but that is what the definition of eternity and immortality actually implies—if you believe in surviving death.
If the immortality line continues past physical reality/being in a body, then doesn’t it make sense that it stretches back in the other direction, to the time before we had a body (“before we were born”)?
And if a conscious self survives the body, maybe a conscious self preceded the body. (And as was brought up in the prelude, we aren’t always conscious, strictly speaking, in the body either.)
Okay, so you don’t yet accept we survive bodily death and so don’t accept the eternity-both-directions argument.
Let’s go with our logic and intuition then and think about whether it makes sense that our consciousness started with cellular division.
The first question I would ask is: how does matter, dead and dumb physical “stuff,” become first of all, life, and second of all, conscious? Hmmmmm? But that’s too inflammatory and we will have to tackle that one on its own later on.
So let’s skip that false dualism and stick with how growing life matter becomes a full-fledged person.
I ask you: why does a baby already seem to have a personality as soon as you meet him or her? And that’s just at birth itself. Why is it that only months into the new life you know that there really is a unique individual already present? Simply a result of DNA? It can’t be culture/nurture. So where is the personality gene? Or is it the hardwiring/hardware? Then where does the software come from? From the hardware? That’s a weird loop. (Shoot, we keep returning to that first question. Let’s keep moving.)
I am just saying that it would be awfully hard to build a person from scratch from simple cellular division and “aging.” DNA and the layout of the brain is used to explain “characteristics” but character showing up immediately without the ability to process life and experience because of having a brand new mind? A lot has to be written on that tabula for a personality to take hold, don’t you think?
You can argue about a unique structure of synapses + DNA = the Person, from the very start. But you look a baby in the eyes and you know there is more to it than that. Where did she come from? And why does she seem so familiar?
And that goes for the experience with other strangers. There is the feeling upon first meeting a person, someone that you have never met in this life, and both of you feel you’ve known each other forever—from a time before.
Or the other way around, when you haven’t seen a good friend in years, that you get together and pick right up with the closeness you’ve always had—something that seems timeless.
You can believe it all, every bit of life, starts with a sperm/egg explosion—and something supremely powerful does occur on the physical end, in that moment—but that’s really an unfulfilling, but also very illogical premise to build a world upon. Again, we will discuss that more in the so-called future.
For now, let’s just “What If…?” the idea that maybe we “are” before we are born. That perhaps we come from some other “place,” not a physical location, to inhabit a body for a period of time. You know, for the “Earth Experience.”
Many cultures and religions do believe this. It’s not unheard of.
This “What If…?” brings with it a whole bunch of issues/questions of course, but this assertion also may answer a lot of nagging questions, and… it brings with it many intriguing possibilities.
I am only going to bring up one of those IPs today, and the rest can stew for a while until future IYWMYO blogs stir this pot.
The one revelation that comes from this assertion that I will throw out here today is the possibility that our life here has meaning/purpose.
That’s a big one. A game changer in fact.
If we come here from somewhere else, stay a while here, then move on to another somewhere else, then this place was either chosen or we were cast into it. (Perhaps a little of both?)
Stated another way:
If we were some self before this body (since we are going to be some self after this body), then why this body, time, and place, and not some other?
I would aver that it’s a combination of choices, but not made in isolation.
Look around you, at the people in your life, the ones that have been with you since the beginning, and those you have met and continue to meet on your path. Think for a second whether, as in the Talking Heads song, you might have had a plan for this life, and it included significant others:
(For those on a phone who might not be able to see the clip the lyrics go like this:
“I can’t tell one from another.
Did I find you or you find me?
There was a time, before we were born,
If someone asks this is where I’ll be. Where I’ll be…”)
The more you think about it the more it makes sense, and could start to explain a lot of nagging things, many of which happen every day and seem so right, or so wrong.
Most everybody has heard of reincarnation. I call this concept Pre-incarnation or preincarnation.
Robert Schwartz has written three compelling books on the subject, which he terms “Pre-Birth Planning.”
Think on this a while. Consider those close to you, and your “enemies.” There is a good chance you are not only playing out a planned story, for many reasons, but also you may be playing out your stories with the same actors in many times and places.
EPILOGUE
The hardest and maybe scariest bit is to not really have a sense of a beginning. And being stuck in the time/space cause/effect continuum, it’s really hard to grok no beginning at all. But at least the idea that we had a preincarnational plan for this life takes away the even scarier randomness of one sperm hitting an egg at the right angle and whoops, there you are!
Next Post: Every sperm/egg is precious. Just kidding.
Next Post: No Randomness/No Chance
Okay, I apologize for how not brief this is. I was going to break it up into several parts but I’ve worked a long time on it and want it presented whole. So here goes:
The grand dualism delusion not mentioned in the previous blog is that of life/death. It warrants its own treatment.
The notion of death—death of an eternal being who has permanently shed his or her temporal skin—is absurd. The idea of death is ludicrous, a materialistic fallacy (death of body=elimination of person). And it is a relatively modern phenomenon, one not entertained by all cultures at all times.
But this fallacy does/did exist, and it has had its purpose, mainly to generate intense passion for life. Death, the prospect of death, is meant to generate appreciation for even the most banal of moments, right?
Life=Story and we sign up for and buy into these life on earth stories for their morals at the end. For us, this highly entertaining reality offers unique, brilliantly conceived lessons that serve the ongoing enlightenment experience of our whole Self, the one not found in time and space. And playing this game on this planet, managing the back and forth of the many dualisms mentioned previously, takes place inside the biggest dualism delusion of all: life pointed straight at, hurtling toward apparent death/oblivion of the self.
That purpose still strongly sways much world culture, but it has also been spun very peculiarly, for religious as well as secular ends. And as we will see later, we’ve grown to worship (and profit from) death—and its children: violence and murder—instead of life.
So it is time to slay death, or the death fable, for it has run its course. It is time to set up a new narrative for Being on earth. We are slaying the dragon called Death, to release the magic that is Life.
Absurdity Theory
The way I’ve found to penetrate and vaporize the death concept is to point out that none of us really believe this fallacy, because it is absurd. We do a great job in pretending we do believe it, as we play our stories, but if you look closely, death has no clothes.
To betray the bluff I like to make some logical observations, based on one main observation:
If it all were to really end, for any one of us, or all of us eventually, we would conduct our lives in a radically different fashion than we now behave.
And there is one big logical inconsistency to our behavior in the face of eternal doom, and then a bunch of smaller, but not less important ones.
The Oblivion Paradox
If these moments were all we had, and individual life does end forever we would be faced with a horrible paradox, one that would cause mass anarchy and at the same time cause civilization’s motor to seize up.
On the one hand, we would want to squeeze every drop of living out of life, celebrating every second, hour, day to the fullest, never knowing if it were the last, never wanting to even sleep for we might never come back. If this were our only life, we would never work a boring job or get stuck in any sort of routines that might take away from our only precious life opportunities. We would want to sing, and play. We would love and laugh. We wouldn’t ever want to miss a chance to breathe deep and exhale loudly.
But… at the same time, if this were our only life, we would be paralyzed by an all-encompassing fear that any risk we take, any substance we ingest, any stranger we encounter might end it all forever for us. We wouldn’t ever want our thread to break if it meant ceasing to exist, so we wouldn’t dare do anything that might cast us into that eternal oblivion, such as driving a SMART car. Right? And funny enough, again, we wouldn’t want to sleep because we might never come back.
The Other Inconsistencies
If death were true:
All acts would be completely meaningless to individuals and groups. If it doesn’t matter once the light is switched off then almost any action would be fine, as long as you stayed alive a little longer. Self-preservation would be the only goal. There would be no reason at all for compassion, for even saving a life. Anarchy would meet non-risk-taking in complete uncaring for others, unless they could buy you more time.
If death were true:
War would be the stupidest use of human energy ever invented, and be completely counter intuitive. Nobody would fight for anything or anybody, and no parent would send a child to war if there is no life beyond this planet.
If death were true:
Speaking of children, gaining immortality by having children to go on living through a bloodline would be seen as a complete crock. Having children doesn’t preserve one’s own life or being, it only hands meaninglessness down to them. The worst thing we could do is bring children into the world where death ends it all. Making life would be the cruelest thing we could do to another.
If death were true:
Same thing for art, such as writings or other things meant to immortalize somebody. They don’t. Words or pictures or sculpted rock, they aren’t the person. The person is worm dirt, getting nothing out of being those representations, least of all “immortality.”
One Other Weird One
And then there is the other end of the spectrum where we survive death, but find us dying later, in Heaven, an even worse joke called Samadhi. To disappear into bliss is meaninglessness as well, like drinking the Kool Aid and not caring one is disappearing/dying. Completely dread inducing to consider. There is no point of ever having had a personality if the only “one” who benefits is the One eating its children.
So much of the above may be controversial or offensive to some. So let’s circle around for a second. In all of these groundwork blogs we are (okay, I am) killing sacred cows, like dualism and death, and it isn’t pretty. But somebody has to do it because there is a world of amazing stories beyond these limiting beliefs. So hang on, we will get to the Yes beyond the No.
(An example is what might substitute for the Samadhi vision. Picture your identity as, say, a conscious water molecule. A water molecule in a vast ocean. There is nothing to say that you and each molecule in the ocean can’t enjoy being molecules individual and at the same time enjoy being a part of the vast ocean experience, without completely losing your Self in the vast void. That really is the destination… and when the lid is off this death thinking, there are wild implications for limitless opportunities in the much, much bigger creation/co-creation Ocean of Being story.)
Wrapping Up—The Insidious Death Distortion
One final thing: it seems that the lid has been off this for a while, just without us consciously knowing it. And that has led to neurotic negative distortions, a strange strain of knowing we don’t die filtered through materialism. It’s bred much anxiety and troves of apocalyptic and zombie films as well. Oh yeah, and increasingly savage wars—hate empowered by technology.
The destination we are pointing to combines knowing we don’t die with appreciation of the life of every Being—sacredness inherent if you will.
Instead, what we see today is unconscious knowing we don’t die and a lack of appreciation for life or Being—even with the so-called religious who would damn another to hell, eternal hell, for not believing in their form of God, Prophet, or Messiah.
But mostly it’s on a secular level witnessed by a numbness to violence real or depicted, and to actual killing, whether for patriotism (tribal religion), vendetta, or sport. Life—and death—are being taken for granted, with death being worshipped, and glorified, more than life and being.
What has happened is that we don’t react the way we should when violence and killing color our days so thoroughly through “entertainment,” news, politics, business, and personal interaction.
Taking a life, or hearing about the taking of life has become ordinary, no big deal. The thread to sacredness was cut someplace and we’ve lost the fundamental understanding of and respect for Being—ours and others. It’s been replaced with fear and paranoia, complacency and a lack of nobility. You can throw in dishonesty and a lack of authenticity too. (There isn’t a strong enough word for the character defect, the obscenity, of allowing, ignoring, cheering or directly violating another (and not just human) being.)
(and a little Venting About War)
We know we don’t die, but life still is a gift that we don’t understand yet. And we throw that gift in “The Creator”‘s face when we send our children to war, or allow them to go, or bless them for committing suicide and killing innocents. (And god help those who have to perform the acts we give them the “duty” to perform. They need all the help we can give them when they return, for there is no returning from taking lives, and there are no virgins waiting.)
And if we aren’t directly involved we are standing on the sidelines, allowing it, even cheering it, when this violence and these wars are being staged to protect bias, and fear, and paranoia—ours, not theirs, of course. These battles need to be faced within each of us and not by flesh and blood proxies in deserts or mountains or on city streets. And these battles are not for politicians, generals and defense industries to decide to wage or so-called win.
When we know we don’t die, we have to then ask ourselves:
What do we want to carry into the next life—blood? regrets? I think not. But there are pretty powerful forces who don’t care.
In the end, there will have been a good reason humanity has walked and driven tanks and drones and hijacked planes down this path. Even our distortions have meaning in the long run. But it’s time to learn the lesson and get off the path of hate and violence. There are way more fulfilling paths to tramp other than the worship of death and destruction—and greed and profit.
So here we are. Strip away the fable/horror story of death and then what? Next blog: No Beginning…
New Stupid Catchphrase: Drop the Crappy Attitude for Happy Gratitude or Mulch the Crappy Attitude to Grow Happy Gratitude (All feel free to groan at once)
“T’ai Chi (Perfect Form) arises from Wu Chi (the Formless Void) and is the mother of yin and yang
(Action/Change revealed in physical form as complementary opposites).”
Wang Tsung-yueh
Our home is not this house divided. We harbor the illusions of opposites, not even attracting. We see light and dark, count days and nights, believe waking but not dream, separate left and right, men and women… on and on.
We wholeheartedly deem self is not other, play good versus evil–and we suffer for it.
The prime illusion of this particular “camouflage” reality–Earth, with humans–is the subject-object divide in “time.” Or what appears to be cause and effect, in mind and/or matter. A host of ills are introduced–albeit for our education, in this playground/classroom/laboratory–by the subject-object/cause-effect seeming divide in time.
This divide creates tribes and teams, competition leading to hate and war. This divide creates disease and an unnatural, unnecessary separation from Nature and our bodies.
This flesh, blood, and bone-real illusion, perpetuates the ego’s one main fault: forgetting its Source. So that if left un-reminded, human individuals get to thinking they themselves God–although God without responsibility–or unmoored victims when that serves the story.
Ego is not awful in itself. In fact, ego, riding with the conscious mind, has incredible access to power and beauty, love and wisdom. Being, born of eternal action can enjoy conscious creation.
But ego’s weakness is a byproduct of this experiment in dualism. The pure power in physical being and a rainbow of desires–and fears–can use dualism to its most outrageous conclusions, to birth what we call Evil.
For many, many people (not all) opposites are separate, dividable. And that mentality also suggests that there is just as much of one as the other. A balance that unfortunately means, for instance, that there is as much evil out there as good. And, black being black, and white, white, the two can’t intermingle.
Not so the T’ai Chi symbol/concept.
In this, opposites abide. There is some of each in the other. Together, inseparable, as two sides of one coin. Sharing essence and body.
This is also simplistic, but holds great power as a concept to refute dualism.
In true physical Earth reality, look at the globe from every angle. Where is East? Where is West? Where is North? Where is South? Where is up, or down?
Yet, as long as we are physical, we will hear wavelengths beating, resonating, canceling. We will see foreground, then background, then foreground again. We will breathe in and out, let our hearts push and pull our blood, walk left and right on our ways to our destinations.
It’s in our makeup to experience so-called opposites, but not necessarily to forget how it all works together. We can clash if we are passionate, but not need to ignore the connections to each other that go beyond our skin and opinions. It is a paradox born of flesh and ego. One for us to experience fully, in many lives. When we have learned we learn:
We have the control, when we give up controlling.
Dualism=Delusion
But then we know, it’s real too.
It is a wonderfully creative lesson plan for humans. Only by believing in race or gender, boundaries or war, can they later be learned from, or disavowed. Same for pain and death. We are entranced by this illusion/delusion made so compelling that the story, the drama can enfold.
And what might seem cruel–but for some reason is embedded in our storytelling nature and this way of learning–is that only after the illusion is complete can the twist at the end–the literal end–have its full impact.
And in a flash we find we are home. Not alone. Not divided in halves. And not dead.
It’s extraordinarily hard to convey even the simplest emotions using text. Typed letters, words, punctuation, sentences, paragraphs are a far cry from actual person to person(s) communication. (Even the page has disappeared in the blog medium, replaced by “Posts.”) So, first, take with a grain of pepper the words and work for the meaning–or ask!–if things get confusing. And it’s usually not on the surface.
That being said, I/We’ve been going round and round about the first-person narrative of a blog. First-person is what is assumed. And this is not being written by committee. I/We have revised the first “page” back and forth between I and We and I/We. But this can turn out to be a particularly ego-driven medium, by its nature. So my first thoughts were to never use “I” and even to try to avoid context.
But that’s too damn hard.
I am going to revert to simply I from now on–we haven’t even gotten into gender pronouns, yeesh!–but it should be made clear that there is no I without a We (or even You, especially in this or any Communications/Entertainment medium).
All “I”s are a collective. Every I depends on a mostly unvoiced, unrecognized crew of characters, maintaining the structure so the I actor can perform–and that is just the body. But the I can’t exist without the environment, and there are lots of “We”s and “You”s implied there, maintaining the stage/scene.
‘Nuf said, right? When I say “I” I mean I/We at minimum (not Royal We at that either). Just recognizing none of us, ha!, are alone or indivisible.
This blog is philosophical/mystical but inherently practical. (The story starts with a twist!) To repeat, the philosophical/mystical is inherently practical–it is the starting point of our narrative of course.
The full name of the blog is:
I You We My Your Our
(IYWMYO for short)
as in:
I_You_We
Create
My_Your_Our
Realities/Events
Basic YCYOR as it’s know by some. But wait, there’s more…
Before we start debating YCYOR and all of the misunderstandings involved it will help to know the starting point, the center of gravity, the root assumptions of that YCYOR philosophy/practice so we can look for a common ground as we discuss these ideas. However, these root assumptions are controversial, possibly revolutionary. They will upset some and be a revelation to others.
These are not any one person’s creation. These root assumptions are foundational to Spirit/Self Being/Becoming on Earth and beyond. These aren’t physical reality root assumptions, they are root assumptions of All That Is.
On Earth we take Form, like a drop of rain running down a window. And like with that drop, form is Change–Eternal Change/Action. Slow Change, Fast Change, and it doesn’t just begin and end here on Earth.
It might seem negative to start this way but here goes. (You will see these “new” root assumptions are direct challenges to our current/”old” operating assumptions.):
1) No Dualism
2) No Death
3) No Beginning
4) No Randomness/No Chance
5) No Time
6) No Pointlessness/Competition/Stasis
7) No Boundaries/No Outside
8) No Victims/No Devil(s)
9) No Physical
10) No Limits
Lots of “No”s. Behind all of the “No”s are lots of “Yes”s. I/We think we are ready for embracing these new perspectives, as a launching pad to solving issues that have bedeviled civilization(s) throughout human history.
No and Yes, Yin and Yang, Dreaming and Awake, Character and Plot, Good and Evil. I/We will begin with No Dualism in the next installment.
I/We hope you enjoy. (And I/We suggest you look at your reactions and ask why? to your self–why you think and feel the way you are reacting, especially if you feel angry–before beginning any thread, or in responding to anything written here, by IWYMYO or anybody else.)
Again, let’s have some fun writing our life story together!
NEXT:
IYouWeMyYourOur/What If No Death?... 