THAT-THOU-ART idea cannot be made simpler!

"Where did the world come from?"
"Why did God make the world?"
"Where was I before I was born?"
"Where do people go when they die?"


"There was never a time when the world began, because it goes
round and round like a circle, and there is no place on a circle where it begins. Look at my watch, which tells the time; it goes round, and so the world repeats itself again and again. But just as the hour-hand of the watch goes up to twelve and down to six, so, too, there is day and night, waking and sleeping, living and dying, summer and winter. You can't have any one of these without the other, because you wouldn't be able to know what black is unless you had seen it side-by-side with white, or white unless side-by-side with black.

"In the same way, there are times when the world is, and times when it isn't, for if the world went on and on without rest for ever and ever, it would get horribly tired of itself. It comes and it goes. Now you see it; now you don't. So because it doesn't get tired of itself, it always comes back again after it disappears. It's like your breath: it goes in and out, in and out, and if you try to hold it in all the time you feel terrible. It's also like the game of hide-and-seek, because it's always fun to find new ways of hiding, and to seek for someone who doesn't always hide in the same place.

"God also likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing
outside God, he has no one but himself to play with. But he gets over this difficulty by pretending that he is not himself. This is his way of hiding from himself. He pretends that he is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, all the plants, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way he has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear.

"Now when God plays hide and pretends that he is you and I, he does it so well that it takes him a long time to remember where and how he hid himself. But that's the whole fun of it—just what he wanted to do.

He doesn't want to find himself too quickly, for that would spoil the
game. That is why it is so difficult for you and me to find out that we are God in disguise, pretending not to be himself. But when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self—the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever.

"Of course, you must remember that God isn't shaped like a person.
People have skins and there is always something outside our skins. If there weren't, we wouldn't know the difference between what is inside and outside our bodies. But God has no skin and no shape because there isn't any outside to him.

The inside and the outside of God are the same. And though I have been talking about God as 'he' and not 'she,' God isn't a man or a woman. I didn't say 'it' because we usually say 'it' for things that aren't alive.

"God is the Self of the world, but you can't see God for the same
reason that, without a mirror, you can't see your own eyes, and you
certainly can't bite your own teeth or look inside your head. Yourself is that cleverly hidden because it is God hiding.

"You may ask why God sometimes hides in the form of horrible
people, or pretends to be people who suffer great disease and pain.
Remember, first, that he isn't really doing this to anyone but himself.

Remember, too, that in almost all the stories you enjoy there have to be bad people as well as good people, for the thrill of the tale is to find out how the good people will get the better of the bad. It's the same as when we play cards. At the beginning of the game we shuffle them all into a mess, which is like the bad things in the world, but the point of the game is to put the mess into good order, and the one who does it best is the winner. Then we shuffle the cards once more and play again, and so it goes with the world."

-Alan Watts (On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are)

Lincoln

Yesterday I watched Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln”. The film mainly dramatized the events leading to the passing of the historic, perhaps even radical 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States- the Emancipation Proclamation. And the extraordinary leadership that Lincoln provided in that point of inflexion of American, if not human history.

The film was an experience in the grimy dealings in politics and in passionately following one’s belief in the face of insurmountable odds. But above all, it was a story about the inherent nobility of the human spirit. A human spirit that has perhaps a visceral and timeless urge towards justice and fairness, and even if a millenia of prejudice and imploding social, historical and economic conditions pulls him away from that kernel of truth buried deep within his spirit, ultimately the truth manages to express itself!

It is but rarely that history blesses us with a man or a woman of such unbelievable character and sublime spirit. 

The overwhelming impact and the all-encompassing influence they have on the course of history is so astoundingly profound, that soon we become inured to the changed reality and it seems almost natural and self-evident. And we soon forget what extra-human effort and character went into making this altered reality happen.  

 That All men are created equal and that “negroes” are men as well, of flesh, blood, and perhaps a soul too, just like the “Whites” or the “yellows” or the “browns”, who would even think of disputing it today? In fact, in all likelihood, it is now almost impossible to understand how little more than a century ago,  the otherwise sensible and intelligent men and women found this plain and simple truth of basic human equality so nigh impossible to grasp and act on?

But if it not were for men like Lincoln, perhaps this self-evident truth that we talk so glibly about today, would have remained shrouded in layers of prejudice and darkness of ignorance! And perhaps we would not even be aware of our himalayan folly!

Sometimes I wonder, is it these amazing, almost impossible personalities who leave their indelible footprint in annals of time, and fundamentally alter the course of history? Or is it Time that props up such extraordinary character in the canvass of life, to fulfill the inevitable demands of destiny? 

Whatever it is, it is to these men, it is to these events, it is to these achievements of the human spirit, which stands out in the otherwise mediocrity, even pettiness of everyday existence, that points out, even if too briefly, to the nobility,to the inner strength and beauty, to the pinnacle of purity- that the human spirit is capable of achieving. And we remain forever indebted to these impossible men and women, for giving us a glimpse of our hidden potentialities. For reassuring us that it is possible to raise ourselves above our surroundings.