 Davy Jones was asking a good question, especially since in that movie he had some control over the afterlife.
Here in the real world, however, there is no need to ask that question since we all would say “yes”. Stop it. Get your life together, and stop fearing something that doesn’t exist. *insert record scratch here* “How can you tell me death doesn’t exist? My mother, father, sister, brother, pet guinea pig, has died, I’m going to die, you’re going to die…" Oh sure, oh sure, keep wanting to die all you want, you sadist; and talk to me after you go to the swap meet and find a clue. The reality of the situation is that death is the cessation of bodily functions and cognitive processes. To be clearer, death is the end of life. This might sound so mind-blowingly obvious, but if it is so obvious, why do you fear death? You must not know what the end of life means; don’t worry, I’ll tell you. Then end of your life means the cessation of all your perceiving processes: your senses of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste, on top of your sixth sense which is perception gained from thought. All of these cease when you die, therefore, you will not be able to perceive your death. The End. ...well...let’s talk about birth too. Likewise, you are obviously not able to perceive your birth. We all come into this self-consciousness of personhood certainly by the time we reach two years old and start forming complex (enough) words and sentences with our voices. By this time our brains have become sufficiently wired (smart enough) to “think” and therefore, to perceive. Though it is interesting how the older we get, the fuzzier our earlier memories get. The shadow of our memories are right behind us as we step out the front door, but our shadow doesn’t stay on the stoop; it is always following us a few paces behind. If this isn’t evidence for a completely organic consciousness, I don’t know what is. Our synapses create cognitive maps of everything around us; as we age, the earlier memories are getting less electric firepower (voltage potentials and all that, ya know?). Nothing was bestowed upon us from an outside entity. Nothing is given to us unless we allow it. Don’t let fear, or anything, take hold within you without your permission.
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 When I was little, I was constantly told the usual affirmations of “do the right thing” and “do not act selfish”, or “be good and don’t do mean things”. When you become an adult, those “mean things“ evolve into “evil deeds” and the spectre of “evil” will be flying about constantly in your day to day life. Wars, (rumors of wars), death, disease, famine, serial killing, rape; these are the repugnant evil deeds that are so rightly chastised and abhorred. However, when you get an inkling for something “outside” of your conservative lifestyle and get a “spiritual” bent, a particular phrase will chafe at all your logical processing centers… all is well That don’t compute. How can everything be well when you have_____(insert repugnant thing in the world here)______?. Well, you know, there is no need for all that murder and rape; we all know that of course. But from this standpoint you can now branch off into two questions: Why do these bad things happen? What are these bad things? Now, if I were to say to you that one of these questions is the real one you should be asking, and the other is a straw man, which one would you choose? One of these questions is a little clunky, you probably picked up on it; and you would be correct if you thought that it was the second, however don’t let that throw you; the second question is the right one. The question isn’t “what is murder?” of course, but it is a call to do a deeper analysis that is severely warranted. What is the substance behind murder? Conscious beings, of course don’t commit murder (or do they?) who knows really. What one should be concerned about is separating the actor from the action. Would you mistake Johnny Depp for Jack Sparrow, or Harrison Ford for Han Solo? Of course not; one is the actor and the other is a fictional character, a persona. In this case, these actions are truly terrible...but let us not forget, that is exactly what they are, “actions”. If you understand that the ego, or the “I”, is a falsehood and yet so real, it will not be difficult to see the “evil deeds” situation in the same light. What is real?, your existence. What is false? The actions, only when you can see that there is no substance behind these actions, quite literally. Now does this mean to just let these bad things happen without penalty. Absolutely not. Seeing the action as separate from the actor can still result in the proper authorities being contacted and proper steps to be taken accordingly. These are actions themselves; facing an action with another action is the proper course of action. The original question was how can all be well when it isn’t. Well it is; your existence is well, your neighbors existence is well, my existence is well. Don’t mistake anything else for your existence; your reality. Your existence is everything; it is all things.  “Non-duality” is the state of seeing everything as one thing. The interconnectedness of all things. How can you can you see, in all of the million and one things that you can touch, taste, and feel around you, that they are actually one single thing exactly? Well, no need for heady, metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, the scientists have figured out what these philosophers were hypothesizing for thousands of years: Atomic Theory Democritus the Thracian said that everything can be broken down until you get to one indivisible part which he called “atomos”. Since then, scientist have been working in order to verify this claim; and they were successful. With the magnification of the electron microscope, the naked eye can catch a glimpse of these subtle particles that we were taught in school makes up everything around us. Every, single, thing around us, whether animate or inanimate is made up of ”atoms. problem is… Science is not true, and it was never supposed to be pursuing truth. Science is a tool with which we can construct the “known” out of the chaos of the “unknown’ and this is different from other “constructive” pursuits doing the same thing like religion or philosophy, from the interpretation of organized data. If the experiment can be repeated by obtaining the same results, the experiment works. What did the scientist find out about reality? Existence? Knowledge ? The scientist fails in all accounts, but that wasn’t the point of science. The religious figures too tend to fall short because they talk of pursuing truth based upon belief, which is ultimately a completely unsuccessful pursuit from the start since they find the truth through belief, which is oxymoronic. At least the scientist perceives that they start from an objective standpoint, holding no beliefs, claims, or magic that will influence the results. problem is… Science is no better than religion in that they both follow the same ritualistic pursuit of using belief systems. The Rites of Ceremony = The Rites of the Experiment Holy Scriptures = Textbooks Pontiffs = Nobel Prize Laureates So if you have questions that want to get to the truth, and science won’t give it to you, and religion won’t give it to you, and philosophy won’t give it to you, how will you get it? Moreover than just asking yourself what is there to get, ask what is there at all? Removing your tool belt of thoughts and constructions, what do you have to work with? You have existence, and that existence is yours; and my existence is mine, and person-over-there’s existence is there’s. There is only one question left, Do you feel it?  .Desire is quite a lovely thing. We have a need for something; an “empty hole”, let’s say, and we get it. Desire solved.
Is it? When a question is truly answered, there is no more question. Question solved. However, we all know it doesn’t quite work out like that. When was the last time a question you had was truly answered and you were content with the response. I bet hardly ever, especially if you’re of the questioning type. More often than not a supposed answer to a question itself can breed more questions. “Is that right?” “Ok. well what about this…?” Instead of satisfaction actually the exact opposite has occurred; more answers are being demanded from your state of confusion or at least, your state of “not knowing”. What don’t you know? You mean to tell me that you are perplexed by the situation of things around you? Why? You are discontented, dissatisfied with the things around you...why do you choose to be confused about the things around you? You might respond “well of course I’m confused, there are a lot of things going on around me and in this world that shouldn’t happen and I don’t know why.” Well, you seem not to understand yourself first of all. You do not realize that if you cannot control the things around you, you can control yourself and your responses to the stimuli. Perhaps the greatest line in the Bible comes in the 23rd Psalm: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death… I fear no evil. You are in control of yourself and yourself only, be contented by the fact that you cannot control others. You’re not supposed to. When the whole world realizes themself, then, there will be no problems. The pursuit of controlling others will cease when there is only yourself to blame.  The French postmodernist philosopher Gilles Deleuze stated in his essay Postscript on the Societies of Control that in the future totalitarian landscape:
“There will be no need to fear or hope, only to look for new weapons.” When we are faced with the situations that we fear in life, the flight-or-fight responses kick in. Flight: You can’t run away from the problem fast enough, seeking a safe place; when it rears its ugly head again, you run again. Fight: Pure and unadulterated anger completely take you over and it won’t stop until something gives; either you or it. These scenarios are objectively quite unfortunate, but there is no need to state this since having fear is such an obvious horrific thing to have; this is a given. But people do, in the face of danger, hang their hats upon “hope”, a brighter and better future...for tomorrow. The problem with hope is that the future never arrives. Tomorrow never comes. When the clock strikes 12:00 am it is right “now”.The constant waiting for a bountiful harvest is going to be provided for you when exactly? No one knows the day or the hour… This places us in an unfortunate double bind. Our hopes are born out of our fears. To hope for something means that your current situation is quite terrible or terrible-impending, and this fear causes you to strive for something better. But nothing born out of fear will get you anywhere you want to be. Do not fly away from your fears or let them consume you. Take a step back during your heightened emotional state. Feel as if you are mentally observing yourself outside of your person and analyze this state. Ask yourself “why” am I feeling this way? What is the problem “exactly”? What will I do from here on”. This questioning process is your ‘new weapon’, if it will not solve your problems born out of fear, it will at least distance yourself from your emotions. You will see that your emotions rise and fall, come and go seemingly randomly, and you can just quietly observe them when they are present and wave goodbye when they leave; all the while not affecting who you are as a person. |
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