"It did not work the way I wanted it to. It worked the way it worked,
and only that way. I just needed to
get my fingers out of the
machinery."
...
"Once something is
discovered,
you find yourself actually being knocked back by what you have
discovered,
saying 'Oh wow!' or wondering how you could not have perceived what
you now perceive. You are being knocked back, as if you opened your
refrigerator door and found yourself peering into
the Grand Canyon.
This is sometimes referred to as Einsicht, or an
'A-Ha!' experience."
...
I am indebted to Richard Dawkins who inspired this conversation.
There are any number of classic realizations, revelations, and profound
"A-Ha!" experiences that
we human beings
have from time to time. They belong in a class of experiences that
Werner
likens to opening the fridge, and seeing
the Grand Canyon
in there. Of all the experiences I've ever had ie of all the Einsichten
I've ever had, there's one that's arguably senior to all the others in
the genre as the most mind-boggling, the most forehead-slapping, the
most "Of course!", the most "A-Ha!" experience
human beings
can have ie one that stands out over all the others as the most
extraordinary
of them all.
At the outset, it seems like it would be a hard choice to name only
one, a really hard choice. And yet
upon reflection,
there actually is one that stands out, from which all the others get
their validity. For
my money,
that experience would surely be the sudden, undeniable, shocking,
enlightening
realization that all of life and everything in it ie all of
it ie the whole damned shebang, has always been, and will
always be perpetually and permanently on full, total, and absolute
automatic. Being totally and completely automatic, is the nature of
life and everything in it.
Now as soon as the possibility of all of life and everything in it,
being on full and total automatic comes up, someone is
going to ask "Wait! What about free will,
Laurence?
If it's all on full and total automatic, then what about free will?",
to which my response would be something like "We either have free will,
or we don't. And if we do have free will, then we have free will
inside of
the broader context
that life and everything in it, is on full automatic. It always has
been. It always will be. And we, mankind, have always been so involved
in and focused on
ego,
that it's simply never occurred to us before.".
Being on full automatic, things turn out the way they turn out, and
never any other way, no matter what I do. If I do something,
things turn out the way they turn out, and never any other way. If I
don't do anything ie if I do nothing at all, things turn out the
way they turn out, and never any other way. This is simply the nature
of life and everything in it: being on full automatic always. You
don't like that? Too bad!
If you can let it in that it's all on full automatic, what it teases
out is the practicality, the pragmaticalness of altering our
relationship with life. Until I realize life is always on full
automatic, I relate to life as if what there is for me to do with life
is try to change it, to manipulate it, to get what I want from it, to
influence it in my favor. But in the reality of
the automatic universe,
none of that works (and none of that matters either, for that matter).
It all turns out the way that it turns out anyway, and never any other
way. So a more appropriate way ie a more
enlightened
way of dealing with life ie a more workable way of dealing with life,
is to let it all be and (as
Werner
realized) to
get your fingers out of the
machinery.
<aside>
... and that's when you
discover
who you really are.
<un-aside>
Letting it all be, doesn't equate to doing nothing. If I
do do nothing, that's what turned out. It always and only
turns out the way it turns out, and never any other way. If I do
something, if I do anything at all, that's what turned out. If I
have free will or not, that's what turned out anyway. If there's such a
thing as destiny, that's what turned out. If there's not
such a thing as destiny, that's what turned out anyway. If there's such
a thing as fate, things turn out the way they turn out. If there's not
such a thing as fate, things turn out the way they turn out anyway. And
look: once you get over yourself as an
inflated little ego
in a
vast
and
tyrannical universe,
how could it possibly be any other way?
