​It is interesting how much we take for granted in this life yet we really don't know how much we take for granted exactly.

Take love for instance. We love in a multiplicity of different ways, but of course the most physical showing of love is just that, physical touch.

When we love one another we kiss them, we hug them, and if we are especially infatuated we have sexual relationships.

Now, many mystics have drawn attention to the point I will now make. The scientists, if they have not “proven” this, have at least rationalized this in theory as well.

Do you know that it is impossible to touch someone? You, first of all, are not feeling them but rather the “feeling” is yours; your sensations from your nerve impulses in response to the other person's stimulus. Moreover, in the realm of physics, it is said that an atom, made up of the sub-atomic particles protons neutrons and electrons, themselves weigh such an infinitesimal amount in the already super small size of an atom, but even in this ever so small atom most of its size is empty space.

In that all of your being is made up of these atoms, and that all of your atoms is mostly empty space when you touch someone it is only one empty space encountering another empty space.

Of course, this is all “mysticism”, whether by spiritual guru or scientist, it doesn't really matter for the definition of mysticism is simply a journeying through that which mystifies us. An understanding or a conclusion to something that we don't know.

There is nothing mystical about mysticism or being a mystic. The most common form of a mystic is actually a magician. Magicians don't perform real magic since there is no such thing as magic, what they do instead is present you with a different perspective. They show you a different way of looking at things.  

A “paradigm shift”, if we want to over-glorify it.

Now, a scientist is actually different from a mystic, since a scientist tries to show you reality. a mystic presents you with an illusion.  The Mystic doesn't purposefully delude you with this illusion, but shows you how you made the illusion yourself.

You are a part of the act, you are the one who bought your ticket to the show. Not suspending your disbelief like at the movies, wanting entertainment to be brought to you. At the magic show you can’t help but try your hardest to one-up the magician; trying to “catch the Illusion”.

Of course you can’t “catch” the illusion; in order for you to know the trick, you’d have to be in on the game.

You’d have to be a magician yourself.

You’d have to know the tricks.

Spirituality, the feeling of “oneness”, non-duality, god-nature, buddha-nature…

...enlightenment…

...are all “tricks”.

They are nothing but prestige and illusion to make you feel good.

Now you might ask where is the reality?

Well just remember…

There’s no such thing as magic.

​

When we search for truth, the line between fiction and reality seems to grow thinner all the time. One who spends great time trying to sort between the two is guaranteed more headaches and uncertainty than clarity.

Love is fiction. Meaning is fiction. Words are fictions. Everything thrown into doubt.

And have you noticed doubt always comes in endless supply? Just when something concrete is found, doubt destroys it with all but the effort it takes to say “but suppose it was not.”

As long as you search for truth using doubt, you are assured to never find it. You’re searching with your eyes closed.

Fiction cannot make sense of fiction.

As long as you divide the world into fact and fiction you will fail to grasp anything real. You’re still searching for ideas, rather than seeing reality.

Forget fiction and forget truth. It’s all fiction; it’s all true. If it’s fiction, why does it exist? If it’s true, how can it be doubted?

No then, reality cannot be fact or fiction since there is no such thing as the two.

What is. What is. What is.

Fiction is and is not. Truth is and is not. You must find which part is and which is not. That part which is defines itself is. That part which is not defines something else. Everything is self-evident.

An example: we say “word is fiction.” What we do then, is study what a word is and what a word does.

Words work like boxes. A label, a symbol for the spoken word, becomes the container in which we place what we call the meaning. To have access to this meaning is an ability of our complex brain. A mix and match.

A word's meaning is complex in this particular sense: it is not observed directly by the senses. Sight, sound, emotion, and every direct sense are bundled into a group and “meaning” is merely the label of the group. There is no way to objectively perceive meaning. It is not in the world. Laughter, beach balls, warmth, water, reflections of the sun off water -- all indicate a day at the beach. But the meaning of the word "beach" cannot be sensed directly. It is a group of sensations, tied by relevance.

This is what is an idea.

It is what it is.

See now that fact and fiction has in no way helped us. To study what something is, find its base in sense, not in other ideas like fiction and fact.

You cannot know an idea by an idea. Only by sense.

​Just as the eye cannot see itself, so I tell you, you cannot learn what is fiction with fiction, nor what is true with truth.

​

What are some of your favorite paradoxes?

The ubiquitous Catch-22 is probably the best known, even though it might not be people's "favorite".

But paradoxes are very fun, especially if you know how to solve them while watching someone else flounder over them.

You see, I know how to solve every paradox there is.

You want to know?

Well come closer...

Paradoxes need logic in order to solve, what you do is go beyond logic in order to solve them.

WOW!

You'll be a hit at your next party.

You see, paradoxes are paradoxes in themselves. They are apparently illogical conclusions based on true premises, but you see, if the premises were truly "true" the conclusions would not be illogical.

Kindergarten stuff.

Speaking of kindergarten, it is like the first-graders playing kickball on the playground, and then the fully adult fifth-graders come and chuck the ball into the freeway, clearing the space for the grown man's sport of football.

Don't waste your time playing child's games.

Take it from the fifth-graders.

​

The illusion of self stems from the identification with our language.

The same language that you hear in your head when you talk to yourself, or hear your thoughts.

 Languages have the personal pronouns with which we denote I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they as they come. Language, as opposed to actual things, is the communication vector with which we convey meaning; describing instead of "knowing".

We tend to get hooked up on trying to find truth by using our tools of language, science, religion, philosophy, but they are just that, only "tools" to get something.

If you are searching for the truth, you must realize that you will find it in its natural habitat of reality and not hidden away in a tool box.