Is the Present a Present?
[More thoughts on detachment, by Sha'Tara]
It seems like a long time ago now, though it's been only a few years, that I dedided to free myself from the bonds of earth. I decided that I had reached "the end of time" as to this life on earth and any additional "time" of days would be a bonus - and I called that state of mind living in sudden death overtime.
Things happen when you know you are dying; when you face it squarely; when you accept the reality, the truth of it. Whether those things are sad, unpleasant, prone to cause anger, or have the opposite effect altogether, depends entirely on yourself - no one else! It depends on how you go about dealing with this overriding reality.
I wanted something cut, dry, and simple. So I began searching for the meaning of life - for myself, not anyone else. I wanted to know what life was. What it was all about. Why it was. I wanted to find out if I could ever find the real "me" in this chaotic passage of one life on earth. In other words, I searched for a greater reality. I didn't find one ready-made, so I cobbled one for myself from bits and pieces of wisdom and experiences I had collected in my mind.
What happens when you superimpose a greater reality over the one you are aware of? Obviously, it makes the original much smaller, much less important, no longer all-encompassing. Suddenly you find yourself swimming in the ocean when some moments ago you were so proud to be able to swim back and forth the length of an olympic-size swimming pool. Now you look around and gone are the walls, the borders, the limiting painted lines and signs. Now you're looking at something that may as well be infinity - and all you can do is swim. And you are not doing it to impress anyone else: there is no one else here - just you.
This is my state of mind, the place where I live now. And speaking of the now, I want to explain something about the present. Is the present really a present? Is the present our reality, the past being gone except for mementos and memories, the future un-graspable, un-chartable, unknowable? Is that how it is?
For the rank and file Earthian; for the believer, that is how it is. Even for the religious, there is no knowing what the future holds - though there may be a "fanatic" (faith-based) belief in a pleasant after-life, some never-never land hidden in the folds of the god's mantle. By and large, Earthians live in a static reality. They eat of it because it is fed to them and they cannot find anything else, cannot conceive of anything else. Good, bad or indifferent, it is their daily bread, manna from their god; their system. That's the status quo, the Matrix. It is a reality made up of rules of order and the playing field has well-marked boundaries beyond which no one can go without penalty on the play. This Matrix reality is ruled by a trinity of forces called Religion, Money and Government. Outside of their fiefs, their hegemony, their sphere of influence there is no life - only death. "There be dragons here" says the map of all areas hidden by the Matrix.
What's it like living in the Matrix, in the now or the present? Imagine walking into a fast-flowing river and standing still, a safe distance from the shore. You see the river flowing all around you (though you can't see it flowing through you but it does) and you feel safe because you are anchored, not being swept away. Your achors are all the attachments life has wrapped around you: your belief systems, your family, your friends, your possessions. They are there, holding you firmly to the bottom, and there you stay until you die. If you let go, if you walk further, the weight of your attachments drag you down and you drown - living in the present does not allow safe interaction with either the (non-memory) past, nor does it permit you to simply let yourself fall into the stream and float down with it.
I could never understand "sudden death overtime" living until I learned detachment - literally from everything! In the Matrix detachment is a greatly misunderstood term, and no wonder - those who understand the concept of personal detachment can no longer be imprisoned, conned, lied to, bribed and bought by any of the Matrix' agents. Therefore the Matrix works hard to ensure no one understands the implications of real detachment.
Before I understood detachment I always found myself fighting Matrix agents - they're everywhere, maintaining, protecting the status quo - and although I got good at it, no one can win in an all-out fight against the Matrix. Its agents will eventually tire you out and beat you down. It's their turf after all and theyt make all the rules. The only way to defeat it is to die, but not at its hands. It is to choose death and go through it in your mind and come out of it freed from all attachments. You may still have to play in the game but it's not for the results: you know the "results" are misdirection pure and simple.
Having linked arms with death through detachment you can no longer be brought down against your will. You acquire control of your own mind and you learn to work that control. Matrix space is too confining for such control to be of any use: you can't fly your space ship in an arena, a church, a bank or a museum. You need open space, and that's what detachment gives you. It's called infinity and the way a freed individual flies through this endless realm is with imagination. The last limiting factor to be overcome is dealing with the realization that this spaceship is always a one-seater. Only one pilot, no passengers. You never encounter any other spacecraft like yours; no one else flies in your flight path.
This new experience is your own space - you are entirely alone here, and there is no present anymore for a "present" can only come from another as it has to be presented to you. No one gives you anything here because there is no one to do so and in any case, you have no need of anything. You fly your ship with increasing skill; you modify it as you go along and as you re-create yourself to match your new realities. You are now the past and the future and the things of earth life only make you smile. How small was that cradle and how silly to have remained a child so long when all you had to do was "wish upon a star" and jump.
As for the inevitable. I have been ready for it for some time. I leave with no regrets other than perhaps, an unfinished novel.
Ron
Its Called (You All) Taking Life For Granted,i.e. It
Makes You Think Believe You Are Infallible!
Until You Do Really Do Die Stupid Humans
Believe They're Still Alive-Then If Man (God)
Lets You Come Back Into This Evil World
Do Tell Me Your Story!
I Can Tell You Countless Things Happen After You
Do Die What You See, What You Hear,What You Know-
You Can Die In Car Accident (You Can Disappear With Your
Car Same Accident)Or Burn To Death Worse Of Your Fate--
All Everything Simply Molecular Matter...
Until Then You Will See Think Believe Only Physical
World Which You Will Continue To See Live In!
Matrix Is Simply An Illusion State Of Mine Next
To Insanity Which Most Humans Already Are-You
Don't Have Look Much Further Than Authors Den As
(Your) World (Mind)You Already In...
I Know You Can't Believe It But Who Cares-Huh!
TRASK....
hug
Kathi
Love ya!
Jane