We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it 'the Equable.' We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it 'the Inaudible.' We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it, and we name it 'the Subtle.' With these three qualities, it cannot be made the subject of description; and hence we blend them together and obtain The One.
Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part is not obscure. Ceaseless in its action, it yet cannot be named, and then it again returns and becomes nothing. This is called the Form of the Formless, and the Semblance of the Invisible; this is called the Fleeting and Indeterminable.
We meet it and do not see its Front; we follow it, and do not see its Back. When we can lay hold of the Tao of old to direct the things of the present day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the beginning, this is called (unwinding) the clue of Tao.
Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part is not obscure. Ceaseless in its action, it yet cannot be named, and then it again returns and becomes nothing. This is called the Form of the Formless, and the Semblance of the Invisible; this is called the Fleeting and Indeterminable.
We meet it and do not see its Front; we follow it, and do not see its Back. When we can lay hold of the Tao of old to direct the things of the present day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the beginning, this is called (unwinding) the clue of Tao.
-Chapter 14, Tao Te Ching
Our lives are so mysteriously formulated, that we end up not noticing the mystery; for that is how completely and perfectly enmeshed we are in its illusionism. Day in and day out we lead the same melodrama of pain and pleasure, success and slavery conducted by our sensory faculties and composed by the great author none other than our mind. Some days we wake up on the right side of the bed and subconsciously lead ourselves to believe that our routine will go well, and that there will be no untoward incidents that may cause any imbalances in this self imposed ring of ‘destiny,’ and God(?) forbid we wake up on the wrong side, for then its an unnatural belief that something evil has already happened, why put on a happy face at all isn’t it?
This is the normalcy that human life has evolved into, and we ask ourselves sometimes why we are sad, for what reason is life an inexplicable riddle. The truth of the matter is that we shall not even recognize reality if it hits us right in between our balls, if at this point of time we have any, that is. What truth is this which I am referring to? Let’s see…
According to the age old aphorism, ‘I think, therefore I am.’ Spare me, please; for if this was so then we’re nothing but our mind, the evolutionary high point that differentiates man from the rest of the animal kingdom (forget the plants and rocks, why drag them into this mélange of absurdities). That being so, the mind would then be the holy grail that we’re all looking for, which can explain all the secrets of why we are here and what is our purpose. Yet of all the experiments of mine with the structure and functioning of the mind, I can safely conclude that the mind is a damnation of our intellectual process, influenced and ruled by our senses when the original plan was for the mind to be a collective buffer for all sensory input to be received and then processed by the intuitive intelligence in a logical fashion to arrive at a clear and precise logical solution to any problem encountered. Just a mirror for the world’s reflection.
However, the myriad conditioning which the human species has been subjected to ever since the corruption of the earliest civilized society began, the mind has taken on a dictatorial and fascist regime upon our decision making procedures (we never had stored procedures in the first place, for man was a highly intuitive being with razor sharp reflexes) and converted us into puny, emotional and destitute creatures craving the attention of material pleasures to satisfy this long forgotten ability and power. On what range does my mind function, and make the deception so real? I get engrossed listening to the Fifth Symphony, delirious to Floyd and mind-fucked on Maiden, now that’s variation. I can do four lines of coke to dance in an imaginary moonlight at 12 noon, and I can kill myself doing forty, that’s extreme. So the mind varies and the mind has limits, but there is a common factor underlying all this which I shall arrive at in due time. I must mention that psychedelics, entheogens, hallucinogens and the like are only for the explorative use of them and not for sad addictive-escapism from the real world issues and concerns. I know of a lot of folks who do it for cheap thrills and then move like robozombies to 16 beat baselines of psytrance, and their idea of new age awareness and spirituality is so faux pas. The moment the truth becomes clear as crystal, these tools of evolution outgrow their practicality and usefulness, thereby no longer aiding us and only hindering our journey.
So if not the mind, then what is the real deal? Ah, maybe it’s the body that I cherish and that is me. Sweet narcissism of mine, that I preen my plumes of heavenly desire for my body. Am I handsome, do I have the stuff to make women drool; what about that cleavage and cleft, the nose job and lypo to get the guys’ attention? The flesh rule pattern, a desire to fuck or get fucked... ten, twenty, a hundred and then someday I end up screwed in my head with a case of god-knows-what syndrome… maybe a wasted crack-addict whore desperately trying to sell my produce for the next available rock. Sex comes, believe me in various packages and so easily that too, in this world gone wild of ours; and one fine day, it disappears, along with my soul. What I eat, that which I drink and who all I screw will never matter when this body dies and decays, ashes to ashes, dust to damn dust.
Not the mind and not the body, then what else can the substratum be. The very substratum of life, to be found after experiencing all the vagaries and dualities, lies in the small, insignificant-till-now part of me: the ‘I’ that is constantly referred to in all the experiences. Where lies this I? In which secret, unknown corner of my existence can I encounter this, and realize for myself the cardinality of my life. There are many ways for this adventure, but the roads of many differences all lead to the same goal of what our ancestors spoke righteously, called salvation or immortality. That by which the illusion of the mind is transcended and the temporal nature of our body understood, can lead us to the higher states of living, to bliss and pure consciousness.
Volumes of knowledge, tomes of scripture or the handed down word of God(?) is not sufficient to get us started on this adventure, for it a personal journey of limitless significance for each and everyone. Each life is a separate path, and each of us travelers, vagabonds of various denominations embracing a common truth of purpose and a common map of consequences, of what-to-do and what-not. It is not for us to settle down to routine, gather the rust of money and mercy from society, but to break free of all set rules and restrictions and brave the frontiers of the human nature, to try everything experimentable and learn, to raise the stakes in every way and discern for ourselves, the evolutionary path to freedom and force the spirit within us to come forth into the sunlight of our lives.
We deserve to be free not just from sin and society, but in many cases from our very selves that keep us in silent subjugation. I ask one and all, to cast away all misapprehensions about their lives, to crack the mold and join me in this adventure of human consciousness.
Amen!
This is the normalcy that human life has evolved into, and we ask ourselves sometimes why we are sad, for what reason is life an inexplicable riddle. The truth of the matter is that we shall not even recognize reality if it hits us right in between our balls, if at this point of time we have any, that is. What truth is this which I am referring to? Let’s see…
According to the age old aphorism, ‘I think, therefore I am.’ Spare me, please; for if this was so then we’re nothing but our mind, the evolutionary high point that differentiates man from the rest of the animal kingdom (forget the plants and rocks, why drag them into this mélange of absurdities). That being so, the mind would then be the holy grail that we’re all looking for, which can explain all the secrets of why we are here and what is our purpose. Yet of all the experiments of mine with the structure and functioning of the mind, I can safely conclude that the mind is a damnation of our intellectual process, influenced and ruled by our senses when the original plan was for the mind to be a collective buffer for all sensory input to be received and then processed by the intuitive intelligence in a logical fashion to arrive at a clear and precise logical solution to any problem encountered. Just a mirror for the world’s reflection.
However, the myriad conditioning which the human species has been subjected to ever since the corruption of the earliest civilized society began, the mind has taken on a dictatorial and fascist regime upon our decision making procedures (we never had stored procedures in the first place, for man was a highly intuitive being with razor sharp reflexes) and converted us into puny, emotional and destitute creatures craving the attention of material pleasures to satisfy this long forgotten ability and power. On what range does my mind function, and make the deception so real? I get engrossed listening to the Fifth Symphony, delirious to Floyd and mind-fucked on Maiden, now that’s variation. I can do four lines of coke to dance in an imaginary moonlight at 12 noon, and I can kill myself doing forty, that’s extreme. So the mind varies and the mind has limits, but there is a common factor underlying all this which I shall arrive at in due time. I must mention that psychedelics, entheogens, hallucinogens and the like are only for the explorative use of them and not for sad addictive-escapism from the real world issues and concerns. I know of a lot of folks who do it for cheap thrills and then move like robozombies to 16 beat baselines of psytrance, and their idea of new age awareness and spirituality is so faux pas. The moment the truth becomes clear as crystal, these tools of evolution outgrow their practicality and usefulness, thereby no longer aiding us and only hindering our journey.
So if not the mind, then what is the real deal? Ah, maybe it’s the body that I cherish and that is me. Sweet narcissism of mine, that I preen my plumes of heavenly desire for my body. Am I handsome, do I have the stuff to make women drool; what about that cleavage and cleft, the nose job and lypo to get the guys’ attention? The flesh rule pattern, a desire to fuck or get fucked... ten, twenty, a hundred and then someday I end up screwed in my head with a case of god-knows-what syndrome… maybe a wasted crack-addict whore desperately trying to sell my produce for the next available rock. Sex comes, believe me in various packages and so easily that too, in this world gone wild of ours; and one fine day, it disappears, along with my soul. What I eat, that which I drink and who all I screw will never matter when this body dies and decays, ashes to ashes, dust to damn dust.
Not the mind and not the body, then what else can the substratum be. The very substratum of life, to be found after experiencing all the vagaries and dualities, lies in the small, insignificant-till-now part of me: the ‘I’ that is constantly referred to in all the experiences. Where lies this I? In which secret, unknown corner of my existence can I encounter this, and realize for myself the cardinality of my life. There are many ways for this adventure, but the roads of many differences all lead to the same goal of what our ancestors spoke righteously, called salvation or immortality. That by which the illusion of the mind is transcended and the temporal nature of our body understood, can lead us to the higher states of living, to bliss and pure consciousness.
Volumes of knowledge, tomes of scripture or the handed down word of God(?) is not sufficient to get us started on this adventure, for it a personal journey of limitless significance for each and everyone. Each life is a separate path, and each of us travelers, vagabonds of various denominations embracing a common truth of purpose and a common map of consequences, of what-to-do and what-not. It is not for us to settle down to routine, gather the rust of money and mercy from society, but to break free of all set rules and restrictions and brave the frontiers of the human nature, to try everything experimentable and learn, to raise the stakes in every way and discern for ourselves, the evolutionary path to freedom and force the spirit within us to come forth into the sunlight of our lives.
We deserve to be free not just from sin and society, but in many cases from our very selves that keep us in silent subjugation. I ask one and all, to cast away all misapprehensions about their lives, to crack the mold and join me in this adventure of human consciousness.
Amen!
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