What is life?

a_mindsolver · April 4, 2006, 7:07pm

Dear ILP members. I’d really like to know your ideas on this subject. What is life? Humanity is not quite ready to give a firm answer, but we could make an attempt.

Gobbo · April 4, 2006, 7:53pm

Here’s one take…

So this whole episode is kind of creepy, right? And he’s telling his priest about it, you know, describing how he wrote this book, and then four years later all these things happened to him. And as he’s telling this
to him, the priest says, “That’s the Book of Acts. You’re describing the Book of Acts.” And he’s like, “I’ve never read the Book of Acts.” So he goes home and reads the Book of Acts, and it’s like uncanny. Even the characters’ names are the same as in the Bible. And the Book of Acts takes place in 50 A.D., when it was written, supposedly. So Philip K. Dick had this theory that time was an illusion and that we are all actually
in 50 A.D., and the reason he had written this book was that he had somehow momentarily punctured through this illusion, this veil of time, and what he had seen there was what was going on in the Book of
Acts.

And he was really into Gnosticism, and this idea that this demiurge or demon had created this illusion of time to make us forget that Christ was about to return, and the kingdom of God was about to arrive. And
that we’re all in 50 A.D., and there’s someone trying to make us forget that God is imminent. And that’s what time is. That’s what all of history is. It’s just this continuous daydream, or distraction.

And so I read that, and I was like, that’s weird. And that night I had a dream. And there was this guy in the dream who was supposed to be a psychic. But I was skeptical. I was like, he’s not really a psychic, you
know I’m thinking to myself. And then suddenly I start floating, like levitating up to the ceiling. And as I almost go through the roof, I’m like, okay, Mr. Psychic. I believe you. You’re a psychic. Now put me down
please. And I float down, and as my feet touch the ground, the psychic turns into this woman in a green dress. And this woman is Lady Gregory.

Now Lady Gregory was Yeats’ patron, this Irish person, and though I’d never seen her image, I was just sure that this was the face of Lady Gregory. So I’m walking along, and Lady Gregory turns to me and says,
“Let me explain to you the nature of the universe. Philip K. Dick is right about time, but he’s wrong that it’s 50 A.D. Actually, there’s only one instant, and it’s right now, and it’s eternity. And it’s an instant in which
God is posing a question, and that question is basically, ‘Do you want to be one with eternity? Do you want to be in heaven?’ And we’re all saying, ‘No thank you. Not just yet.’ And so time actually is just this constant saying No to God’s invitation. That’s what time is, and it’s no more 50 A.D. than it’s 2001. There’s just this one instant, and that’s what we’re always in.” Then she tells me that actually, this is the narrative of everyone’s life. That behind the phenomenal differences, there is but one story, and that’s the story of moving from No to Yes. All of life is like, “No thank you, no thank you, no thank you,” then ultimately it’s, “Yes, I give in, yes, I accept, yes, I embrace.” That’s the journey. Everyone gets to Yes in the end, right?

Right.

Kriswest · April 4, 2006, 8:24pm

Oh, thank you so much Gobbo, as if I did not have enough questions prancing around in my little brain you had to go and present this. Thank you soooooo much. Gaaaaaaaaah, it is like a roller coaster and merry-go-round at the same time. Where to begin hmm, forget it, now I will sleep with strange hyper thoughts.

Gobbo · April 4, 2006, 8:30pm

*Twirls his oily mustache"

Wuahah… I have done it, I have… MADE SOMEONE THINK.

The world is mine!

Kriswest · April 4, 2006, 8:39pm

LOL Aren’t you the twisted Elf of lore? Causing mayhem in thoughts and beliefs. Hmm, no wonder I like you. (lifts glass in salute)

Gobbo · April 4, 2006, 8:48pm

I’m something alright…

cheers!

xanderman · April 4, 2006, 9:03pm

Old_Gobbo,

Dude! You gave the whole things away!

Kriswest · April 4, 2006, 10:37pm

Psssssssst, Gobbo, What did you give away? Tell me please in simple terms, I won’t tell a soul and I wont tell Xander you told me. Hurry he is looking this way.

Gobbo · April 5, 2006, 3:31am

I cited a crucial part of a ‘Waking Life’, a movie me and Xander both like.

It’s basically the climax, if you can call it that, but it doesn’t really give anything away, it’s hard to explain that statment though.

Blindseer · April 5, 2006, 3:59am

Everything.

Murdoc · April 5, 2006, 4:20pm

Well shit if you put it that way I think I’ll go kill myself, now …

xanderman · April 5, 2006, 5:09pm

Suicide isn’t a suitable method to say “Yes!”

That is just another entry into what the Hindu’s call Samsara.

Murdoc · April 5, 2006, 6:35pm

Ah yes, of course it isn’t. I bet Socrates was pissed.

How about if I strategically manipulate someone into killing me?

xanderman · April 5, 2006, 6:52pm

Well if we accept that there is such a God and that this God wants us to say yes to the offer, then I think there could be no cheating allowed. One’s whole life must become part of the act of saying yes.

As in Amida Buddhism, it is not enough to just ask for the help of the Amida Buddha, it requires a wholehearted effort.

It is as if one much churn the chocolate of his essence by waterfall. That is the only way to get it just right.

a_mindsolver · April 5, 2006, 7:07pm

What is Everything?

Murdoc · April 5, 2006, 7:19pm

But, according to Gobbo or ‘The Waking Life’, merely experiencing time is the act of saying no. To say yes would be to be dead.

Now if there was a way to stop time while being alive then we have our answer. Right?

Inotherwords, to embrace God you must have the ability to stop time.

Naturally, from here you would question what time really is and if it is actually possible to stop it or who knows, maybe its already stopped and time moving in a linear path is an illusion. An illusion where we are saying no but all along we are actually saying yes. We just don’t know it yet.

Murdoc · April 5, 2006, 7:27pm

What is life?

I believe life is knowing.

xanderman · April 5, 2006, 10:31pm

This reminds me about what Joseph Cambel said in The Power of Myth. He talks about eternity. In paraphrase: Eternity isn’t a long time, eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is outside of time. We experience it in moments.
He points in his own life to moments of eternity that he experienced as a runner.

So death isn’t the answer. Eternity can be lived, right here.

Murdoc · April 5, 2006, 11:40pm

Excellent.

“You are surrounded by eternity.” - Don Juan

inhahe · April 6, 2006, 1:00am

does that mean we’re not allowed to give a firm answer?