The New Evolution

I changed the things people said it was impossible to change. I did things differently because I liked doing things differently. We are the new evolution, lets start having some fun being weird. This is more important than anything, although it comes off as a compulsion for defiance! To be continued....

Zen Master has Reached Completion

With the interaction with the zen master complete, I am done with the first part of the first world of the big machine: religion. I understand how preachy it may seem, but, hey, that's the nature of religion. DON'T HATE! It seems like my hopes for this story keep growing as I write, but I feel like the premise of the story is pretty ambitious. I would love to have a professional writer write about this topic, but I'm not gonna be able to convince people to write things they don't have the impetus to write themselves. So I guess I will do it myself! For you fanatical readers of my blog, if you're out there, "Meeting with Zen Master" is much longer than it was a few days ago, though its date has remained original. "The New Religion" will be placed at the end of the first world: "Religion," once I have it all done.

The New Religion

You know you have a good leader before he is ever elected or enthroned. Not too early though, when the appeal to power is the strongest. We have to appreciate all the time that goes into producing a personality which coheres with being a good leader. If you try to reduce it to the time when they realized it was what they wanted then you are barking up the wrong tree. That moment is the simplest, and can be identifiable to almost everyone. The first moment usually happens when someone realizes all the good things about being someone with political power, and hasn't an inkling about all the hardship that must be traversed before and after he ascends to the throne. Therefore, blessed is he who realizes his aspirations over time. If he doesn't, realizing his aspirations all at once, he may be prone to existence which is oriented to new knowledge which is hardship. All the good things that you thought about was only part of the story of political power, and if you didn't realize that then you will be unprepared for what most of it has to off. You must allow your friends and acquaintances to find your inner leader, and to follow their lead when they tell you that you have something to offer. If you can lead a small group of acquaintances to come together, you can often bring a larger group toward a similar recognition.
Upon realizing the power of the national anthem I looked backwards at the things that made this country and what allowed it to continue to exist. I thought about all the men who had sacrificed their lives for the country and how we would be very different without them. I wondered how strong this feeling was in the others, if they wouldn't or hadn't forgotten about how important everything that happened before was. Only one thing had to change and start a chain reaction for things to be completely different, and I wondered if they knew that. I thought about all those men who would have died in vain had not each generation fought in the next war. When I wonder how our society can go into war after war after war for each subsequent generation, I know that the children and relations of veterans have seen the immediate impact of fighting for their country and have faithfully followed in their footsteps. Therefore, blessed is he who realizes the impact of each and every one of his actions and acts accordingly. If I regretted anything it is because I was younger, and if I was younger then I am now older, after having gained knowledge of my impact on the world. If your father would've taken another wife, or if he had met your mother at a different time in his life then you no longer exist. This is the feeling of death before birth. Never get involved in a genetic experiment, because if you do, then your mind will meld with the body you inhabit, and the continuity of your consciousness will be threatened. We will only begin to appreciate our bodies when we feel the way that they are our only foundation of existence. Without them, the intensity of our emotions will never resonate through the entirety of our soul.

Meeting with Zen Master

When I took my eyes off the walls I saw the zen master sitting in the exact center of the room in lotus position. My first thought was to wonder how long he had been sitting there. There was no furniture or anything for that matter, so he probably had been sitting there since his last meal. I did not want to disturb his peace by introducing myself, but I figured that since my conversation would attempt to deeply disturb it I figured introducing myself was not much of a sin.
"Excuse me."
"Yes?"
"Hi, I don't know how I got here but this room is really great."
"Thank you, I painted these walls with my mind."
"I noticed, how long did it take you?"
"Not too long at all, once I was taught how to do it. Would you like to learn?"
"Oh, thank you very much for the offer but I'm here with some questions of my own."
"Really? That's wonderful! Most people just sit here for a long time and expect me to impart my own wisdom on them."
"Well, one thing I find when I meet people is how intimidating it can be when I meet people. It always feels like they measure themselves up to some high standard that I have no idea about. With you though I think it is your smallness that brings me comfort. I know that you have something that takes time and adequate care to render palpable."
"Yes, that is part of my practice, young man. I find that in trying to find my inner smallness I become attuned with my inner self. I become attuned with what is real, not what is far off and powerful."
"I can see that. Often I notice how our measurements define us. People are expected to follow certain rules while they interact. The more fundamental the interact the more rules there need to be to contain that spark and make that spark malleable. Take sports for instance. To play, you must understand the rules, but not what they are based on. You must have a fundamental understanding of the way the forces of the universe interact, but not necessarily what put them there. What you don't need to know though is often the most profound. The rules provide just enough physical space to contain the very best athletes. The fastest pitchers in baseball can throw 100 MPH. This is dominant, but is still hittable for the finest hitters in baseball. Were the proportions different the best would rule the entire sport, but baseball is designed to keep that from happening."
"If you can fit it all in your mind then you will find that you can master anything. Calculus is part of the human mind's relationship with space, and if you can attune yourself with your mind you will attune yourself with everything in it. Do not search for religion in any place other than yourself, for it is taught that the kingdom of god resides in every individual."
"Players talk about the game slowing down or the ball looking big. Can you explain that?"
"That is just a side-effect or manifestation of inner awareness. It is notoriously difficult to explain the nature of awareness, so we quantify it as time slowing down or space enlarging. It is so close, yet so far, because in order to look within we must forget about the things we think we know yet come to know the things we know most deeply. It is a balance."
"So awareness makes the machine big? Is this the true nature of the big machine?"
"This is part of the true nature of the big machine, yes, but you are only at the beginning of your journey and have much to learn. The big machine cannot be grasped without pure awareness, but then again that is the case with everything. You have not gone very far."
"I believe that in order to know anything you must challenge what is immediately apparent, so let me propose to you a very unsettling idea that might help me further my journey."
"Of course."
"I know that yoga and zen have some very similar ideas, and it is one of these ideas that I would like to discuss. You are taught to let things go, that the only way to inner awareness is mindlessness. You are told that you will know what to do when you reach the truly aware moment, and that the practice is preparation to attain the moment but not instruction on what to do once you are there. You say there is no short cut to this awareness, but I know this is false. We are convinced that it takes a long time just so that we can appreciate it and classify it as being rare. Not to mention the fact that the short cut can be extremely unsettling and harsh. Zen masters know that they would lose followers if they conceded this fact. What I am speaking of is feeling yourself disintegrate. You teach that we are to let all things go, but it is in this moment that we must assert ourselves. As we feel our self fly away, we must grab this moment with all that we have, that is the balance which you speak of but do not know. You must realize that you must assert this very experience, and to simply let it go would be undermining the essence of zen. The idea is that the point of zen practice is to lose your self, but if you ignore the sensations that exist during your loss of self then it is all for naught. You cannot continue living this way when you ignore that which is at the heart of your practice. These lyrics keep coming to me, so I must say them, 'no matter how hard you try you can't stop us now.'"
"Young one, I have an answer for your conundrum. There seems to be an irreducible part of the self which lies deep within us. I believe you have found it, but are quite inexperienced with it. It is the irreducible aspect of our existence which will prevent warp speed from ever occurring, for warp speed requires the destruction of every atom of your physical being. What your lyric should say is 'no matter how hard you try you can't write us off.' Souls react to certain frequencies, and if you quiet yourself enough your soul will come rushing out without the need of your self. That is your true self. This is why you can continue to "let things go" and know that you still have something to call your self. However, I believe you are on the right path, because you understand that the irreducible self exists without having to be assured or told of its existence, and that is very important. When you understand your true self you will understand the nature of the big machine, because the big machine is ingrained so deeply into who we are. We have always been working on the big machine. But now we can put this into action. Move along."
When the zen master finished speaking I realized that the idea of plugging myself into the big machine was a false choice. I had always been part of the big machine, but I had never asserted my awareness of it. I guess the big machine was bigger than I ever could have imagined, that it exists outside my awareness and yet inside the workings of my mind. This journey that I had decided to take was under the assumption that I would never fully understand the object of my attention, and that was O.K. with me.