The Adventure of Consciousness

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.

-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 experiment-able 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!