Woman of Words

cogenesis:

“So then, if you awaken from this illusion and you understand that black implies white, self implies other, life implies death - or shall I say, death implies life - you can not just conceive yourself, but feel yourself, not as a stranger in the world, not as someone here on sufferance, on probation, not as something that has arrived here by fluke, but you can begin to feel your own existence as absolutely fundamental. What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself.

“So, say in Hindu mythology, they say that the world is the drama of God. God is not something in Hindu mythology with a white beard that sits on a throne, that has royal perogatives. God in Indian mythology is the self, ‘Satchidananda.’ Which means ‘sat,’ that which is, ‘chit,’ that which is consciousness, ‘ananda,’ that which is bliss. In other words, what exists, reality itself, is gorgeous. It is the fullness of total joy. Wowee! And all those stars, if you look out in the sky, are a firework display like you see on the Fourth of July, which is a great occasion for celebration; the universe is a celebration, it is a fireworks show to celebrate that existence is. Wowee.

“And then they say, ‘But, however, there’s no point in just sustaining bliss.’ Let’s suppose you were able, every night, to dream any dream you wanted to dream, and that you could for example have the power to dream in one night 75 years worth of time. Or any length of time you wanted to have. And you would, naturally, as you began on this adventure of dreams, fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure you could conceive. And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each, you would say ‘Well, that was pretty great. But now let’s have a surprise. Let’s have a dream which isn’t under control, where something is going to happen to me that I don’t know what it’s going to be.’

“And you would dig that, and come out of it and say ‘That was a close shave, now wasn’t it?’ Then you would get more and more adventurous, and you would make further and further gambles as to what you would dream, and finally you would dream where you are now. You would dream the dream of the life that you are actually living today. That would be within the infinite multiplicity of the choices you would have. Of playing that you weren’t God.

“Because the whole nature of the godhead, according to this idea, is to play that he’s not. The first thing that he says to himself is ‘Man, get lost,’ because he gives himself away. The nature of love is self-abandonment, not clinging to oneself. Throwing yourself out.”

Alan Watts