Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The Rewards of Silly Wisdom Games





You struggle daily and work hard (working weekends!) to become "enlightened," because you believe that you have something to do with it. That's because you've been taught that you can make truth 'happen' and in some way 'manifest' the signs or symbols of an absolute truth.

This is essentially an unconscious hoax perpetrated by the "wise" seekers who have forced the "wise" teachers to play their silly games. If you didn't want it, they wouldn't teach it.

Problem is that this "ancient wisdom" is based in reality (learning paradigm, which demands you first be stupid and then get smart) and found in the world (it's 'ancient' and comes from the past). Yet, ironically, they claim that if you 'learn' what the world teaches from the 'past' you can transcend the world and "awaken" to timelessness.

Yea, right, in your dreams! (literally)

Nevertheless, this is what you demand they teach and they've had no choice in the matter. But, if "enlightenment" was not taught in the past, then how would you learn it? Yet, if it's past info, then what good is it anyway? It's the student that determines the curriculum and not the teacher.

Spiritual paths, no matter how ancient or austere, simply help you negotiate a very absurd reality and nothing more than that. Even calling the absurdity "all beautiful," instead of "completely absurd," is merely one way to cope with the absurdity. So, in that sense, you must follow the prescribed "Path" in order to minimize or mitigate your conceptual suffering. But recognize, it serves that purpose only and stop 'expecting' more, which only maintains your absurd suffering.

The world you experience 'exists' only for 'seeking'... not for 'finding.'

Or have you found something and now must teach the world? The problem is that if you 'found' the truth, then there would be no one to teach, because it would be known. Unless, of course, you think you're separate from everybody else and that you can get "The Truth," same as you got your high school diploma.

Enlightenment is a certainty. That is, until you attempt to learn it and, by doing so, put everything in doubt.


Spiritual concepts are convenient in allowing you brief, sporadic respite from guilt. Spiritual and religious ideologies have existed for centuries as the means of getting all "jiggy with it." The religions of the world serve no other purpose than helping you escape guilt (by making it more "real," through concepts like "karma" and "sin"). That's because if we all have to die, then we must be guilty of something, right?

So just keeping repeating your mantra, "I AM, I AM, I AM..." and the guilty ones can all go piss off.

For instance, if I slap the spit outa you and call you “a good for nothin’ butthead,” that’s okay, because my slapping the spit outa you and calling you "a good for nothing butthead" is a part of 'oneness.' HA!
Everything is a part of oneness and oneness is the essence of everything. Every choice is the only choice that could be made and therefore, we can define it as a “good” choice. It must be, since it was the only choice that could be made, based only on the fact that it was made.

Whew! Lucky you. Now you don’t have to experience guilt, remorse or regret, because... well... everything happens as it must and "everything is beautiful" (sing along with me brothers and sisters!).

However, the devout would argue that "I" just don't understand 'oneness' or "non-duality." I can only respond that if it is not understood by just one single separate mind, it's not true whatsoever, just more conceptual hogwash that you must eat with a spoon so you don't miss a drop.

Truth available to only a few, might be "real" just not true (but then, you really don't want the truth, just for your truth to be real). If you don't already know what they're teaching, then it ain't worth learning. And you thought that after all that hard work, it finally belonged to "you" (sorry, bro, we're all in this together, cause although "you" are certainly "real" you're just not true).

Let me put it to you in a different way:

Nothing “you” experience is a part of “oneness,” because "oneness" is not a 'part' of anything. You won't find the whole in the parts, but the parts are in the whole. See parts and, rest assured, you have missed the whole. Duh!

The ego is incredibly brilliant in the ways it seeks to avoid others in an attempt to find itself and the “I AM” is probably the most subtle.

"I AM not speaking to any 'body'.
I AM not speaking to any 'mind'.
I AM speaking to THAT I AM that I AM,
to that PRESENCE AWARENESS,
that expresses through the mind as the thought I AM.
Just THIS and NOTHING else."
(Sailor Bob)

In your egoic state, negate other bodies and you automatically negate other minds. But then, who will help you find "the promise land"? Do “you” know the way to enlightenment (or just the way to San Jose?) You are your own savior? Just “I AM” and nothing else?

How convenient!

Thank God you don’t have to rely on anyone else! Just think... what if your "awakening" was contingent on everybody else awakening with you? Now that would suck and make all your hard work and sacrifice a fools errand.

Good thing "you" know the way to San Jose, cause enlightenment ain't on the map.


"Do you know the way to San Jose
I’ve been away so long
I may go wrong and lose my way
Do you know the way to San Jose
I’m goin’ back to find
Some peace of mind in San Jose"

"LA is a great big freeway
Put a hundred down and buy a car
In a week, maybe two, they’ll make you a star
Weeks turn into years, how quick they pass
And all the stars that never were
Are parkin’ cars and pumpin’ gas"

"You can really breathe in San Jose
They’ve got a lot of space
There’ll be a place where I can stay
I was born and raised in San Jose
I’m goin’ back to find
Some peace of mind in San Jose"

"Fame and fortune is a magnet
It can pull you far away from home
With a dream in your heart you’re never alone
Dreams turn into dust and blow away
And there you are without a friend
You pack your car and ride away"

"I’ve got lots of friends in San Jose
Do you know the way to San Jose"
(Burt Bacharach/Dionne Warwick)


(Image by 'Libby')
Posted by at 5:38 PM
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4 comments:

  1. It's difficult to see all duality as love, or whatever "positive" label you care to put on it. duality needs good AND bad...perhaps oneness is beyond all concepts of right and wrong. Perhaps, if the ego-concerns slip away, what manifests is more naturally "good"...maybe. Jesus said, lose yourself, gain the whole world. "Yourself" may very well include all those belief systems about right and wrong...terrifying to let go of...what will happen then? Will I go postal in the local 7/11? Will I become an even lazier, selfish bastard, unconcerned with the plight of humanity? It's scary, very scary.
    ReplyDelete
  2. "It's scary, very scary."

    How apropos for Halloween!

    Good Grief! You're so opportunistic.

    mikeS
    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with the fear of chaos being outside of the proverbial box of religion, status quo, some kind of revelation and so on and so forth. M. Night Shymalen's "The Village" is a great example of having left the box only to construct a new one, using the same fears to build the new foundation under the guise of protection from some unknown harm.

    The hero/heroine always carries a talisman, the greatest being the trust in one's own wit. But does this hero/heroine save those dependent on the talisman or him/her self in the process? It is a double-edged sword. Death separates each one in a moment, yet comes to us all in another moment. What rests between birth and death is an attempt to make sense of any of it. If we gather in a collective, we may be right or wrong. Going it alone, same thing. Two or more, possibly a chance, but still the danger of making things up, because what else is there? None of the gods have descended to give us information, and those we claim have, are always so far removed from the present moment (sic)that the story only repeats itself, is added to, deleted, embellished, etc. that it loses meaning, especially to the more discerning. So, we look to new ones and call them gurus or priests or psychiatrists or the gold standard.

    Do we search for gathering to assuage the innate loneliness of being? And talk the talk so we might be seen as walking the walk? Then we are accepted? Even if it means being disingenuous? And if we are not accepted, is the punishment a consignment again to the loneliness of exile? Some make the choice for themselves, become the village eccentric, the dangerous lone mind vulnerable to the evil of thinking outside of the box, the one the medieval mind fears most of all. Some just gather into a monk hood and protect themselves from the scary stuff.

    Perhaps there is no answer and that's the answer. Perhaps therein rests the freedom. A congregate that agrees there is no answer, let us go out and grow organic. But then, in a season, a leader emerges, is assigned or slips into the role.

    Isn't the dream of so called "oneness" the dream of like mind? One of the best films I have ever seen which even comes close is "The People", a little known Francis Coppola film based on the stories by Zenna Henderson.

    Like mind is reached together, but it is either a long time coming or a long time gone. If things come full circle, as they often do in the scheme of things, tribalism will return from the chaos of individualism. But myth will always be the same and we will condemn the suspect stranger.

    Oy~

    :)
    ReplyDelete
  4. Nahnni,

    Yes, tribalism and individualism seem to me two sides of the same egoic coin. When individual egos gathers into enclaves (like churches) under the same belief system then this gives power to egoic beliefs, no matter how absurd the beliefs. When I speak of "collective" I tend to mean everyone with no exclusions.

    However, it does seem likely that when we accept that there is no answer, and answer will immediately be available. Can't prove it though, so it's just a hunch.

    Thanks,
    mikeS
    ReplyDelete

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