A Zen Journey...

[bohemiandonut]

"Imagine you are God..."

This is how Alan Watts begins one of his most thrilling essays. He describes the self (the ego) as merely God dreaming. His logic is stunning, and though I can't really reproduce it, I'll at least try to explain.

Imagine you are the Godhead, infinite, eternal, yada yada. You could do anything you wished. You might create a cast array a buttons, where say, if you pushed one button, you could have glorious sex. Push another, and you'd be served the most delicious food you could wish for (you are God, of course.)

You would go on pushing buttons for a while, enjoying the trick, but after a while, well... You would get bored. "All these buttons are so... predictable," you'd say to yourself. And they would be. And so you'd sit there not knowing how to keep yourself (the universe) entertained until one day, you devise a big red button. And it would be labeled: "SURPRISE."

Though you had already been having all the adventures you wanted, you knew the entire time you were God. Hence, there was no fear, and even no joy. It would be like a dream you were aware was a dream. You would simply roll your eyes and laugh that your dream characters were taking their roles so seriously. It would be like making love to a plastic woman, no mystery in the response, no surprise outcomes.

So you press the big red button... And here we are. Surprise!

The pain is real, because you're in it, you're in this dream. But after going through the worst of this world, and even the best, when you wake up, you simply realize, "Ha! What a crazy dream!"

"It may seem like we're going around in circles, but if you look around, that's what the universe is doing!" - Alan Watts

My question is, does this parallel solipsism? I think Watts' concept here is really beautiful, but are we all really just the same consciousness, experiencing itself subjectively according to our environment? What do you think? Are we God?

[nomas]

Did you see "What the Bleep do we know?" ? It's like a docu-film, you'd find it interesting, if you found this crap interesting...just kidding, man, I'm sure I'd be interested in what this essay has to say too, but just regarding what you wrote, I don't find it that logical..I mean, right now I would like nothing better than to have a button that gives me all I want..but of course, I don't have these buttons, so I don't know if I really would get bored of having everything eventually. An another thing...you gotta realize, we can't possibly think we would know what God's logic is really like, but I have the feeling the average human being is far from comprehending it...but there are few who are probably much close than others..some really spiritual beings out there.

But my biggest question is...¿What does this have anything to do with Islam?

Freds

[bohemiandonut]

Haha, it has nothing to do with Islam, that's the best part!

The thing about God's logic is, we use it everyday, we just have no use for it within an analytical model. Think about your fist the next time you open it. Do you "know" how you are doing that? That simple muscle contraction? No, and yet, you know how to do it. What else are we doing that we're not aware of?

It's like the bird who asked the centipede how she walked so gracefully, without tripping over her hundred legs. The centipede was flattered, but then she started to think about just how she was walking! She couldn't take another step without falling over herself.

The point of these examples is that maybe you can "know" God without "knowing" God. The same way you know how to breathe but aren't exactly sure how you can control it.

The button analogy is still valid. You have to admit it would get boring being able to expect everything that could happen to you. You would want an adventure, a dream where you wouldn't know you were dreaming. That's what life is man! I don't know if you know about lucid dreaming, but it's basically where one is aware that they are dreaming. The thing about them though, is that they are not as exciting as non-lucid ones. Simply because you know there's nothing to fear.

Perhaps there is a joy in death, a waking-up from this all too real dream, a seeing your life as just one incredible ride, and being able to laugh at the playfulness of it all. The only thing is this: Who will be there to laugh with you?

[nomas]

I liked that "know" without "knowing" part. In a way it's kinda what the movie I mentioned covers...and what I've made some sense of myself. The unexplained spiritual phenomenon or people who are like this..

It's tough enough for the experts to explain it, it's damn near impossible for us, yet there's this feeling that, yeah, that sorta makes sense..and sometimes, if you concentrate, you can reach such spiritual enlightenment and/or understanding for instants at a time.

Good stuff, donut..

Freds

[Illusional]

[QUOTE=bohemiandonut]"Imagine you are God..."

QUOTE]

why imagine when i already know that i'm god.

raverboy

[KaWaiiSkYe]

you are not god, mike is.

[bohemiandonut]

You're all god! Don't you get it?

Nomas, that brief, "instant" feeling of spirituality? Yeah, how it turns from a feeling into a thought and then a contradiction all at once? Imagine if it didn't have to be that way. If you could feel it, and know, and see it running through your veins and pulsing in your pupils. You can... just be careful.

[url]www.shroomery.org[/url]

Of course, by the next morning, it will only be a memory...

[Innova]

Accually all of us being god, is back heavily by theory on Astral Projection, something practiced very much in the eastern side of the world, and such has been experimented on for decades now.

[Illusional]

haha sorry.. i actually didn't read your entire post, i just wanted to quote it.

as for innova being god.. i am the creator; past, present, and future.

raverboy

[Innova]

*rolls eyes*

[KaWaiiSkYe]

*rolls eyes* what-f, you can continue imagining that all you want illusional

[Illusional]

wow... let's take a little journey down email avenue.

raverboy

[KaWaiiSkYe]

let's not.

[bohemiandonut]

Let's get back to, um, not idiocy.

Eh? Yay!

[misombra]

this is a long ****ing dream man...

sorry that was dumb, i couldn't help myself. but yes, that is all very interesting. i've never thought of things that way, god's dream. he needed to spice things up a little, being god and all.