It all makes sense if you take the frame out a bit and look at the big picture...
Mankind is a relatively young species
Although the data is debatable, archaic Homo sapiens only evolved between 250,000 and 400,000 years ago, branching off from their chimpanzee common ancestors around 5-7 million years ago.
But there's no reason to get scientific - truth doesn't hold values and numbers. Those things are made up, more or less. It's just safe to say that we ANIMAL humans today didn't emerge from mud and weren't magically created a few thousand years ago. Our ANIMAL ancestors struggled and evolved for millennia to get us to where we're at today. Believing anything else not only contradicts the facts, it undermines and mocks everything we are, have been, and will be.
So what's the point to this young species business?
It means this: we're liable to make a lot of mistakes.
All these gadgets, and cars, and tall buildings, and satellites, and laptops... things like the internet, and phones, and cable have us thinking we've really made it far, that we, as a species, have really made something of ourselves. The problem is: we're young. I mean really, we're basically babies, little toddlers full of a lot of foolish pride. We like to think we're special. Hell, the religious think we're created in the IMAGE OF GOD. I mean, huhh???
Even without getting into the whole "God" thing, this stuff just doesn't hold up. We are animals. We are nearly identical to other mammals and share a ton of things in common with even the most lowly of creatures - from a beating heart, to a form that senses the world around it. We weren't made in anyone's image, we just came to be. And, yes, we are still animals.
So what's this say? Well first you really have to soak it up, I mean really soak it up. You are an animal. You scratch your furry head. You go after sex. You shit. You piss. You feel emotions: anger, fear, happiness, depression, pride, hurt... the list goes on and on. But you must really, really understand this. You aren't some heavenly creature ordained by "God." You aren't even necessarily some master species. You are, simply, an animal. Once you have enough humility to accept that, you're getting somewhere. But this means you have to throw everything out the window. It means no Heaven. It means you are equal to a cow and a slug, at least in the eyes of nature.
You see from the first day we enter this world we start rapidly taking things in, comprehending them. The senses are flying and we just can't get enough. It's almost too much to handle - so we sleep a lot.
And as the years go by we begin to get so used to things and accept them as fact. We completely block out the reality that we're living in an infinite universe and just kind do the human thing, play the human game.
Not that there's anything wrong with this, of course. But it is true. Everything - and I mean everything you do - is just natural, and a part of it in the broad scheme of things.
That's also what you must realize:
In a sense, you have no control.
Almost everything you do is predetermined by the universe. Not to sound out there or crazy - it's not like the universe is literally pulling some strings that are connected to your hands... but in a way, it is.
You see, EVERYTHING IS NATURAL. That's what psychedelics teach you. They teach you that everything, everything... EVERYTHING is going on around you and you don't even realize it. You can't escape this sort of natural drive, so in a way things are predetermined. You can't escape it because you are in a natural world and a natural universe that is immediately finite. That's not to say that it's...
ALL finite...
but that you're immediate surroundings ARE FINITE, and thus you are restricted and controlled by that. It's inescapable. But if it were escapable, reality would be madness.
So some things are necessary...
BUT to really take the ride,
you've got to leave
everything
at the door...
Become a baby - that's right, a baby
Not "You," not the you, you've come to know,
you know the one:
the black, white, brown, yellow, or whatever one...
the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Atheist, Agnostic...
the one that prefers cold pasta, the one that prefers warm soup...
you've got to leave it ALL BEHIND
you've got to BECOME
a RECEIVER of LIFE
before we can really get this show on the road...
In his essay "Nature," Emerson talks about becoming
A ~ Transparent ~ Eyeball
^ That's what you have to become...
all labels, all notions, all "this is what I ams"
have to disappear
Of course, you have to realize you'll still be "you,"
but you can't get attached to that image in the mirror.
You can't say that image in the mirror is "me"
because it's not.
That image in the mirror will be dead in 100 years.
"You" will not be.
So let's really get "You" out of the way, shall we?
YOU are not YOU
YOU are a little blip of life that emerged in a
UNIVERSE that is BURGEONING with LIFE.
YOU have NO NAME, NO real IDENTITY
All identities you identify with were GIVEN
to YOU by other YOUS (or other "Mes")
You are an animal, you are natural.
You are no better than a fish and no less than the most
evolved species in our vast, vast universe.
All are natural and all just came to be. Some think they're
better than others because they have bigger BRAINS or bigger BICEPS
or something... but no matter what, we will all DIE, and the sooner
you accept that, the sooner you can really get LIVING.
Just look around. You are living in madness.
We are literally living in a world of natural madness. Some like to show off their big BRAINS
others like to show off their big BOOBS or big BICEPS or big this or that
but it's all HUMAN, it's all part of this natural game that's going on -
and all those things are just naturally occurring parts that have been given
N A M E S
Of course, this all may seem obvious. But to truly SEE it and truly ACCEPT it
is a big step in the process. It really means that
you can't take anything seriously, but also must take everything seriously.
Just like a baby.
A baby can't really take anything seriously because it hasn't learned to put value
to things, to really understand the worth that we humans have assigned to this or that.
But at the same time a baby paradoxically (never forget, the universe works in paradoxes)
takes everything seriously. It's the first one to cry and freak out when something goes wrong.
So you're in a body. You've FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING
that
mom, dad, police officer, government official, media, teacher, professor, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, cousin, sister, brother, friend, lover, religious leader, yoga teacher, mad scientist, musician, artist, writer, businessman, athlete, stranger, carpenter, prophet, sage, truck driver, taxi driver, sailor, army man, fisherman, congress, senator, spokesman, propagandist, flyer holder, toll collector at the booth, etc., etc., etc.
EVER TOLD YOU
and you are that little, strange, perceiving creature
FLYING OUT OF A WOMB
at the speed of NATURE.
Nothing is taken seriously. And nothing is taken for granted.
You don't have to play that human game anymore. Why would you? Why believe what they told you? They're just as human, just as ignorant, just as clueless, just as confused
AS YOU ARE!!!
Why believe them? Because mommy said so? Because Mr. Pastor said it was oh, so true? Some decades ago you weren't even here, and now you're going take everything these crazy humans tell you SERIOUSLY???
ARE YOU INSANE???
There were no prophets, there is no big, perfect government system that can control you, there is no media that can manipulate you...
You've seen beyond their shit, way beyond it.
You are:
A TRANSPARENT EYEBALL
It may sound crazy? But, really, is anything they told you that reliable?
They were babies once, and now they're just spewing the same shit their
mom, dad, police officer, government official, media, teacher, professor, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, cousin, sister, brother, friend, lover, religious leader, yoga teacher, mad scientist, musician, artist, writer, businessman, athlete, stranger, carpenter, prophet, truck driver, taxi driver, sailor, army man, fisherman, congress, senator, spokesman, propagandist, flyer holder, toll collector at the booth
said and SPEWING IT BACK TO YOU!
It's really not that hard to see beyond. Of course, it's not that you can't trust anyone.
That would also be insane...
After all, we're all in it together...
But when a cop says you did this yadayada
or you're breaking this yadayada
Or a preacher says you're going here when you die
if you do this
They are full of CRAP. (with all due respect)
You have to be that paradoxical baby, looking out at this strange human species,
and thinking what in the hell is going on?
Why?
Because it makes life FUN!
and it's HOW THINGS ARE...
so no matter what situation you're in
good
bad
painful
joyful
boring
exciting
IT DOESN'T MATTER
It's all a part of this giant ride that just is on continuos -
millions and millions and millions (multiply this by infinity)
lives just playing a part, playing along.
It's not that that police officer or that pastor is out to destroy your universal destiny
or anything....
he or she is also just along for the ride.
They've just forgotten
that it's A RIDE,
that you can't take things THAT SERIOUSLY
... they've been around too long... you know?
BE THE BABY, BE THE BABY!
As we grow up our minds get full of so much shit (SO MUCH SHIT!)
that we FORGET that we know NOTHING
and THINK we KNOW EVERYTHING
Drop your pride for a second.
People get so trapped in their crap:
I'm a Republican, I'm a Democrat
I'm a Christian, I'm a Hindu
I'm a fried rice lover, I'm a hot dog lover.
And they take that all the way to their grave!
They start to believe that THEY actually ARE a FRIED RICE LOVER
and that's it!
Well that's fine and dandy, but when death comes knocking at your door,
it may be a shock when you realize that you've identified yourself
so much as a fried rice lover that you've forgotten you're everything else too!
And then dying is a bitch because you think, shit, "I the fried rice lover
am going to die! How is this possible?"
You're not going to die, because you were
never a fried rice lover in the first place!
you were never the Christian
or the Democrat
or EVEN the HUMAN.
You were just another manifested form of the universe
consciously experiencing itself for the sake of EXPERIENCING
There's no point to it, you're not chasing after anything.
You'll experience hard times again and you'll experience good times again.
But either way you will experience again!
The idea of the spirit was made up by prideful humans who needed to give
themselves something to do...
You are not any better than a slug.
In fact, you've probably been a slug and will be one again.
That's life. It's unfathomable!
"How can I be here enjoying my favorite beverage - spiked root beer on the rocks -
and typing on the net and watching my favorite show and then suddenly die and
become a slug?" you say
BECAUSE that's how THINGS ARE!
It might be scary, hell, it might be unfathomable!
But just look around! Someone has to be those slugs, someone has to be that guy with a bad disease or those people being bombed... and the insects and animals... someone has to be the ant, and the fly, and the goat.
They aren't just magically dancing around while you get to experience the universe
uniquely in your oh-so-special human form!
Why? Because ... (another paradox coming here)
THEY ARE JUST DANCING MAGICALLY AROUND!
(just like you!)
Get it?
You are a part of it. You are dancing around just like that slug! Magically!
It's called life! And there's no explanation for it! There's no God behind it, no soul
controlling "you." Just a bunch of unanimous forms taking shape and then dying off
TO BECOME OTHER FORMS.
You are the snail and the snail is you.
The snail will most likely be human one day (though he won't know he was a snail once)
and you will most likely be a snail one day (though you won't know you were a human once)
You'll be too busy BEING WHAT YOU ARE!
Sometimes you'll get to be really savvy forms like humans,
other times not so cool forms like a cow about to be slaughtered...
it's all just a balancing game,
and remember this:
it has to be that way.
Why?
Because the Universe is too big for it not to be that way.
Just look around! 8)
The Universe is bigger than we can
ever
EVER
EVER
EVER
EVER
imagine with our centered brains.
It's simply impossible.
Think how peculiar the moment is.
That is, you sitting there on the net, drinking your spiked root beer and complaining about
some sports team.
What is sitting?
What is the net?
What is drinking?
What is spiked?
What is root beer?
What is complaining?
What are sports?
What is team?
What .... is?
We've LEARNED everything. We're playing THE GAME.
There's nothing wrong with that -
and yet there is...
You see, if you take the game seriously
then there's something deeply wrong with it.
And what's that you say??
Well,
if you're busy taking the game too seriously,
YOU'RE NOT ENJOYING LIFE
If you take life too seriously, you're not enjoying it.
You have to take the good and the bad, and look at them all from this sort of
"out there" POV,
you have to become that baby... you have to play life
like a video game, a very real video game,
but one you can enjoy, and one that is COMPLETELY REAL
and serious,
but not (more paradoxes).
Play the part, be human. But never take it completely seriously.
Never say things like "God created me in his form."
^ Because that's a bunch of bullshit. Things just happen for life's sake.
There's no "God" asking anything from anyone...
if "God" is anything, it's Nature,
and Nature only asks you to
LIVE, LIVE, LIVE!!!
... and reproduce some more, so even more can
LIVE, LIVE, LIVE!!!
You see, you could say you loosely have a soul.
That is, you'll never remember being who YOU are NOW
once you die.
Why?
Because you won't be you anymore.
Who knows what you'll be... the possibilities are endless...
the UNIVERSE is endless and completely manipulatable...
that is we can shape it how we like.
Just think about a flat screen TV or a laptop,
who thought - 150, 200, or 1000 years ago - that that would have ever
been possible???
And now we just sort of shaped it into existence using Nature - the ultimate
shaper and mover of things. Now it's everyday. We don't think twice about it.
That's what life is, that's what nature is. Tons of life taking different forms,
endless forms, impossible forms that somehow at the end of the day
are completely possible.
Life is a contradiction.
Life is a paradox.
Life is endless.
And this is why life is beautiful.
If you understood life it would lose its magic.
And getting back to the beginning of this post ---
that is why HEAVEN is an ABSURD notion.
Why?
Why would anyone want to believe there was a place where their current
form would be rewarded by being stuck in some floating reality of eternal bliss...
that's too easy to be reality. It's too human-made.
The Universe is vast... why undermine it with such notions as Heaven?
The Universe is more than any made up "Heaven" could ever be - so much so
that our human minds will never truly understand its vastness.
It is just that big, that unbelievable. Why spoil its TRULY endless possibilities with something so contrived as "Heaven."
I understand there will be times of pain and death and horror... but the times of true beauty and magnificence, bounded among the significance of the second - THAT IS LIFE.
THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE IN RIGHT NOW! Soak it up!
You will have good! You will have bad! Fuck a promised heaven!
Here!
Now!
Forever!
But really, it is like that.
Heaven is an idealized view made up by HUMAN ANIMALS of an IDEALIZED WORLD in which they LIVE. Nothing more, nothing less. You are in this reality, and your human ideas form and manifest from it - heaven included.
And the notion of Heaven is wrong because it teaches people to live for a tomorrow that does not exist, when they should be:
ENJOYING THE RIDE RIGHT NOW!!!
^^^ Right now DOES exist, just take a look outside! (listen to the birds tweet)
It really is that simple.
This is why the people most likely to be swayed to believe in "Heaven"
tend to be those who are currently
impoverished, downtrodden, depressed, hopeless, lost, scarred, etc.
(and that is a sizable portion of the human race, in fact everyone fits in there somewhere)
It's because THEIR HUMAN MINDS
want something better than the (perceived) tragic reality that has been given to them.
But reality doesn't have to be tragic if you embrace and accept it.
You don't have to create an idealized, made-up view of our world
to pretend you're going to inhabit after you die.
And why treat Nature like it's the middle man? Or like it's the bad guy or something?
Nature isn't an other.
Reality isn't an other.
Mankind isn't an other.
The universe isn't an other.
It is you, it is now, it is here.
You are 100% a part of it, and you always will be.
You can't deny that.
You can fight it til the day you die, but you can't deny it.
It has given you everything and it will take that everything away
only to give you ...
MORE!
It gave you the ability to believe in a Heaven in the first place!
That is life. That is its purpose. More life!
And it's unique, all unique!
It's the idea that all but one sperm don't make it to the egg.
That one that did is unique. It is completely and utterly singular and original and will
never be again! And the other sperm? They're already busy trying somewhere else...
You see, we, as individuals, are both unique and completely insignificant.
A little snail on a log to 99.9999999999% of the universe is completely insignificant.
Except:
There is nothing like that little snail anywhere else out there in INFINITY.
THAT SNAIL will only be on THAT LOG at THAT PLACE in THAT TIME once. And will never be again. It is literally a picture-perfect uniqueness that is unimaginable.
It is the picture worth a thousand words. And you...
You ... are that snail.
To 99.9999999999% of Earth you are insignificant.
To the bankers you are just $$$
To the war chiefs you are just another 1 casualty
But to you you are everything and more - you are your dreams and your goals,
your memories and your hopes!
You are everything and nothing!
The diamond in the rough!
That is life and it is that little snail TIMES INFINITY.
It is unimaginable.
And that is why people invent Heavens
that is why people drink themselves into oblivion
that is why people shoot up heroin
or consume their MINDS with
thoughts
madness
food
sports
conspiracy theories
what to do next
what I did 10 years ago
political parties
etc, etc, etc, times infinity
People are just so taken aback by the enormity of it all
that they have to put their minds to other things--
THEIR MINDS SIMPLY CAN'T HANDLE IT!
way, way too much shit!
So why not, I don't know...
turn off your mind?!
Once you turn off your mind..
once you stop trying to be
famous
notable
rich
sexy
respectable
etc.
Once you STOP all that MIND GAME BULL SHIT
you are truly
FREE
you come to realize that in an infinite universe ANYTHING is possible
and that eventually those things will come to you.
It's not that you can't try for those things. It's just that you can't take them seriously,
you can't put your entire life on the line for them.
You have to realize it's sort of a game, sort of a joke - but not at the same time.
It is very real. And as of today, it is you.
That's how it is:
THE PARADOX
But it makes sense.
Infinity isn't just some word.
Just take a look here:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
That's NASA's Astronomy pictures of the day, going all the way back to 1995.
That vastness isn't something the "devil" put there to trick us into forgetting about
Jesus or "God" or something...
It's REAL
That vastness isn't some kind of imaginary image. It's not a big screen above our everyday reality.
It's REAL
Completely and entirely REAL and you are in it.
Scientists generally theorize that
OUR IMMEDIATE UNIVERSE IS FINITE
That is, the Universe we know has boundaries to it.
But THE Universe in its entirety (including all possibilities that we have not yet discovered) is
INFINITE
It is generally accepted that WE WILL NEVER KNOW how BIG IT IS.
It is impossible. All the evolutionary states we could possibly reach will never take us that far.
THAT IS HOW BIG IT IS.
No space ship will travel those absurd distances.
It's the idea of the moving horizon, you just
can't
reach
it.
(but that's a good thing, to reach it - to know it - would ruin it! If it has no meaning, that defeats the purpose...)
IT
IS
THAT
BIG!
IT
IS
THAT
UNFATHOMABLE!
So accept that this little YOU is unique among this vastness
EMBRACE YOU
YOU ARE YOU
for a SHORT TIME
but never, NEVER
BELIEVE YOU ARE YOU
INDEFINITELY!
Why?
Because it goes like this...
We aren't traveling spirits or something.
We aren't spirits controlling a physical form.
We aren't going to continue seeing things or experiencing things the second after
we die.
WE ARE A PHYSICAL FORM
ENTIRELY!
So what's that mean?
It means you were LITERALLY born into this body.
That is you emerged kind of like a robot does when it is "born" into this world by his scientist "father" of sorts.
You are like a machine that awakes, perceives/lives, and then DIES.
You are chemical reactions and physical properties, you aren't some invisible
being on some higher mission taking control of a body...
you just ARE
THE UNIVERSE IS TOO BIG FOR THERE TO BE ANY OTHER POSSIBILITY
^^^
Memorize that, take it to heart.
The UNIVERSE IS RANDOM
and thus...
YOU ARE RANDOM
You are a human one day, you die, and who knows what you'll emerge as next...
Honestly, could you have ever imagined in a million years
(that is, if you had the ability to imagine before birth)
that you'd end up as you?!
TOTALLY RANDOM!
The Universe is entirely random.
Any mission or spiritual goal anyone ever says you're on
is probably made up,
probably a lie
...
it's that simple.
People just can't absorb the enormity of it,
they don't want to accept it - the randomness that is -
it's too vast, to limitless.
The possibilities are just too far out there.
BUT THAT'S REALITY.
COMPLETELY INCOMPREHENSIBLE!
Who knows what you'll be next?
The Universe is infinite and immeasurable
and thus what you'll be is immeasurable.
I mean, what the hell are you now anyway?
What the fuck is a human being?
Just a bunch of fancy words in reality...
You may be a shrew next, or a worm, or a spider... or something
COMPLETELY UNIMAGINABLE
in the INFINITE UNIVERSE!
It's fairly scary - that's natural -
but just because it's frightening or incomprehensible
doesn't mean you should write it off or turn your cheek at it.
IT IS YOU
AND YOU
ARE IT.
You aren't separate from Nature,
you are
THE LITTLE SNAIL ON THE LOG
in
Nature
PERIOD.
You are insignificant, but you are everything.
You are the reason there is life,
and you are life.
Any promise of something after is a lie.
The only true possibility is that you could die
at any time and turn up as ANYTHING at ANY TIME.
You can talk "Heaven," you can talk "Karma"
but IN REALITY
HEAVEN
and
KARMA
DO. NOT. EXIST.
The Universe doesn't know good and bad.
If someone goes out and shoots someone
Nature isn't going to punish them in some way.
A tree isn't going to fall on them or something...
Sure, human instinct is natural,
and humans may go after that murderer.
But that is still the human mind perceiving
good and bad, black and white.
Shit just happens.
it's wild. it's scary. it's crazy.
IT'S AMAZING!
(once you realize you are inseparable from it, it really, really, really is AMAZING!)
Karma does not exist because it's based on pre-conceived
human notions of right and wrong...
ALL THINGS DONE
ARE NATURAL
thus
KARMA
is
IMPOSSIBLE
Nothing NATURAL
CAN BE
GOOD
or
BAD
we just perceive it that way.
it's our minds taking hold again...
To believe in karma is to immediately start throwing superstitions around
like good and bad luck, etc.
It's false. It's made up.
In a balanced universe things just are.
It isn't some thinking, driving force
that's going to punish you by making you X for doing X
After all, when you were a kid were you like
"damn, I really wish I was X again, why did I have to die and be reborn. Now I'm here, 5 years old dealing with this crayon shit"
NO!
Because X is dead and you are now a crayon wielding 5 year old at it again!
You live in the moment always, even if you don't realize it, even if you are blocking it out.
It's because that's what you have to do! It's natural.
X could have been the King of an entire galaxy... but you won't remember,
once you're dead, you're dead.
Any notion of a soul is counter productive, because by it's very definition it implies some sort of goal, some sort of trip or journey.
But the journey isn't even a journey, it's a skipping around, a leap from life to life.
Not a continual endeavor by the same, determined entity
It really is that simple.
Just look around
THE UNIVERSE IS TOO BIG FOR THAT.
TOO BIG and TOO ENDLESS
for it to be anything but random, unconscious hopping around
...
TOO BIG
What I'm trying to say is:
Everything you think you know is wrong.
Of course,
that doesn't make me right either.
I'm just another snail - remember that.
From space we are just a bunch of human beings running around
chasing this and that
and we are surrounded by millions of other species
just running around
chasing this and that.
But WE ARE AMONG THEM
NOT ABOVE THEM
I'm not even trying to go PETA here...
It's just fact...
we aren't any better or any worse...
we're all in the same boat... sure we're a bit smarter...
but in the grand scheme of things
WE'RE NOT THAT MUCH SMARTER
There's a very high chance - no, a definite chance - that there are evolved species out in the Universe that would think we were a bunch of stupid apes...
We can think ourselves great...
but we are
Stupid Apes
...
Not to be a downer... but that's how it is...
Just remember there's nothing wrong with that.
Be proud to be human! You're playing the game right now,
living the life of a unique species.
Who knows when you'll be human again??
It could be a long, long time!
Dance the song!
Have HUMILITY
and you can laugh at the fact
you're a dumb ape
that chases after
sex
pukes on itself after binge drinking
dances to strange music made by other ape-like intelligence
drinks spiked root beer made by those same apes
and buys their papers and their automobiles and their collateral...
That's just part of it.
If you're reborn an ant, you'll do the ant thing for awhile...
If you're reborn a bird, you'll do the bird thing for awhile...
but *YOU* is being used abstractly here, because *YOU* will
die when *YOUR* human body dies...
but life is just one
MASS CONSCIOUSNESS
So you were never really *YOU* anyway...
just another perspective in the big THING
I really don't want to sound too far out here...
I'm trying to be clear.
MASS CONSCIOUSNESS
isn't supposed to conjure up images of Tim Leary or something.
I mean Tim Leary was good guy and all, but he gets a bad rap for being
too far out there.
This doesn't have to be far out stuff though.
This is reality.
The notion of *YOU* is just an illusion
and once you break it, you realize
it DOESN'T MATTER
what you come back as,
you'll dig it while you're
AT IT.
Right now you're a human and that's what you're concerned with.
An ant's an ant, and that's what an ant's concerned with.
An ant may not know it's an ant, but that doesn't mean it isn't conscious.
To think an ant isn't conscious is to only fool yourself
BECAUSE IT IS CLEARLY CONSCIOUS.
It is moving. It is making decisions. Is is reacting.
That is the very definition of being conscious.
You see people tend to look down on the rest of the living world,
but in reality, it's not that bad being, say,
AN ANT.
If you've ever looked at images of an ant's POV
you'll see it's actually pretty cool
sure you don't get to drive SUVs
or drink lattes, but really is this so bad...
(granted ants don't have vision quite this exotically colorful and shapely,
but it's simply the idea that these little worlds of consciousness exist within our own...)
IT'S A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.
THAT IS WHAT IT IS!!!
THAT IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT!
MEANING OF LIFE, PEOPLE!
(meaning of life!)
The Universe is all about unique experiences.
So you've been an ant and will be an ant again.
Good times indeed.
Let go, surrender.
And you'll see this isn't something to be fearful
or intimidated by... it's just life...
Right before you popped out of the womb
you were probably thinking:
"What the fuck?"
but now look at you...
not so bad is it?
The mind has a funny way of making things seem worse than they are.
Just surrender your thoughts, your notions, your expectations...
and you'll see that infinity is embracing you
not pushing you away...
That is reality, fellow travelers.
If you don't believe me just check it for yourself.
I'm not lying to you. Look up at the sky,
in the grass,
on the trees.
Life is everywhere, and each bit of life
contains an "experiencer"
inside that life.
That experiencer dies entirely,
but with each day an infinite amount of new
experiencers fill the void
and life goes on.
That is reality,
it is beauty.
It's a bit intimidating,
but it's truth.
It's a bit scary, especially when you're an animal,
but it's necessary to be some sort of physical animal being.
How else would you exist?
How else would things reproduce...
it's a pretty brilliant thing really.
You have no destiny, and you have no goal.
Your goal is now. Everything you do is a goal and a destination.
If anything, looking at the universe as a vast macrocosm of
experiencers will remind you that every drop of life
is unique and beautiful,
that even the most hideous and strange things to us
carry a perspective, a tale that is unimaginable,
yet is something we can somehow relate to.
The spider has a life. It lives in webs and darkness and in strange record collections
in your uncle's basement... but that is a unique perspective nevertheless.
It is a perspective that is worth experiencing.
And you're an experiencer, so you'll find out one day... more or less.
You will be born and you will die.
But as the Grateful Dead said:
"The first days are the hardest days, don't you worry anymore"
You've already experienced birth an uncountable amount of times,
birth is the hard part, and even it isn't so bad.
Death is as easy as 1, 2, 3 - hell, nature DOES IT FOR YOU
just like...
EVERYTHING ELSE
It's just the getting over the fact you have to die part that sticks hard on your mind.
Everything you've ever loved, hated, worshipped, ignored, despised, cherished, liked, created, destroyed, passed, glimpsed at, thought of, sought, dreamed --
IT WAS ALL GIVEN TO YOU BY
...
YOU
Why?
Because you are intrinsically linked to it all. You are a part of it and never separate.
What more could you ask for? You are a part of a giant something that only gives, gives, gives.
And you give back, even if you don't realize it.
That's the ride, that's the song.
It can be hard to fathom sometimes. It can be downright scary. But that's what it's all about
and it becomes a lot less scary and hard to fathom when you just...
surrender.
Such a simple word, and yet that's the answer.
(of course this takes some getting used to,
maybe even a lifetime of practice and preparation)
When you were coming out of the womb, you had to surrender.
There was a world waiting for you out there, whether you knew it or not.
You just let it take you,
you rode out and here you are today.
You're here feeding yourself on the very thing that brought you here, Nature.
For some reason lately mankind has decided that he can master Nature...
but Nature will always have the last laugh...
and even that's the wrong perspective...
Nature's not out to get you, it's not out for the last laugh...
It just is and is you
It's such an unbelievable gift that we fight back against it sometimes.
"Fuck this, fuck that"
you might say
on a bad day.
But this is it,
and here we are.
You, me, everyone
and all the days imaginable.
To think that one day
EVERYTHING
we've ever done
will be forgotten.
Our little planet is unimaginably small in the vastness of it all...
and yet so much has happened here... so many stories, and wars, and fables...
A Neanderthal that lived millennia ago was a conscious being with hopes and aspirations.
We are him and he is us.
And today he is forgotten, as we will be someday.
But being remembered isn't the meaning of life,
the meaning of life is NOW,
it is YOU
and YOU are NOW
in this PLACE and TIME
in the UNIVERSE.
No pictures, no home videos will capture what it was really like living in a certain place and time. People age and places age, and things are forgotten. But that moment once lived is the most holy thing there is.
It is so Unique, it's impossible.
And yet the world keeps spinning...
Humans forget that we have a long way to go, and the failure to remember this is a shame.
Do people really think that there will be churches and mosques in a thousand years?
Do people really want to hold on to these old world traditions?
Like I said, the Universe is entirely malleable,
we can shape it as we wish.
We must follow its laws, but the matter it gives us is moldable.
In reality we are still just apes typing on a fairly simple tool-machine, and we have a long way to go, a lot more to accomplish and live and be.
Our generations has no obligation to inherit the mistakes that our ancestors made. They may have been gullible enough to believe in a "Heaven," but we don't have to be.
Hey, maybe they needed it way back when just to get by,
but we no longer need that today.
We can see the World and we can see the Universe and we know
the possibilities of both, so why hold on?
Does it give us security? Does it give us conviction?
We must surrender these things that were passed down to us and become
that transparent eyeball Emerson was talking about...
we must become the baby that has never heard a word, never had an impression...
We are so caught up in our mind games,
in the things we think we know for sure,
that we've forgotten that we know nothing except our will to live...
Living for living's sake.
Why do we try so hard to invent realities that are not real? Why has the hardest thing for mankind been accepting the fact it is mankind, alive and present?
In all the madness--
the moving pens, the dropping bombs, the shuffling feet, the playing music, the moving cars, the humping thighs, the ascending buildings, the shifting satellites, the simmering coffee, the chants, the claps, the praises, the screams, the laughter --
It's as though we've never just stopped and taken a genuine look at ourselves.
We're nothing but a bunch of grown toddlers who have put complete faith in a mind
that is fallible as we attempt to form a society and a world.
This mind is good for survival, and it helps us define and see our Earth. But it has also taken over, turned us into mere shadows of what we can be.
It is time we envision the Oneness we've always been. We are a part of a Universe that we barely know...
and yet we are a part ...
and deep down inside we know
that it will always be that way.
There's no heaven among the parted clouds...
that was invented by humans who were just as clueless as you and I...
Only one thing is beyond the clouds and that's
planet upon planet, start upon star,
life after life after life after life after life after life after life after life after life, and so on...
Living for living's sake.
You don't have to be a part of any religion to see that the stars shine for a reason.
They shine because they feed life, they feed all of us. That is all.
Life and only life. Life on top of life.
And maybe somewhere way out there, stars aren't even a factor... who knows how truly vast, unique, and different the Universe gets when you reach the far, far, far...
Multi-universes are considered a very real possibility by scientists.
But that doesn't matter,
we are HERE
we are NOW
... and it is where we will always be,
wherever we are.
