--M?
--Yes.
--What is real? What is not real?
--Questions are their own answers. It is not that answers do
not exist. It is that they do not satisfy. In the end they
taste and smell and feel like words and not like life. The
most important answers cannot be made from words even though
the questions are. "What is real?" is such an answer.
--Then tell me. Why does reality appear always to change?
Why
has the universe changed from a saucer surrounded by ice
mountains to a sphere at the center of a heaven of spheres to
a collection of galaxies in an expanding universe? Is science
correct in its belief that we are finally establishing a
close correspondence with reality? Is this universe the real
one? Will it or something much like it still be the real one
in a thousand years?
--It is always the real one.
--How is that possible?
--Language is the key. Language creates the world. Language
makes us makers of things. Language makes a thing of reality.
Reality cannot exist independently of language. Language in
turn is made up of two things: some thing and no thing. These
two things are called by many names: god and the void, being
and nothingness, a and not-a, 1 and 0. The names are endless.
We are driven to find a single word to stand in the place of
all possible words. In the end only two words are required.
Two words signify everything.
--Which two words do you mean?
--The entire universe can be seen as a single strand of two
words, two signs, two symbols. In truth one symbol will do.
A single symbol can represent the universe seen as a unity.
All experience, all possible experience, may be represented
as a string of a single symbol separated in the field of
time. This string includes all that was and all that is and
all that will ever be.
--What is this one symbol?
--Any symbol is the one symbol. God was the first to speak
god's name. No matter the path we take we return again and
again to the place from which we begin. It is our nature.
--And what is this string of one symbol?
--It contains all other strings including itself. It can be
represented as a single line. It can be divided again and
again. The whole of it or any portion of it has an
equivalent representation in any dimension. The whole of it
or any portion of it may be freely converted from any
dimension to any other as we will. The whole of it or any
portion of it may be represented by the symbol of which it is
made. The universe of our experience can be represented as
this symbol string which in turn becomes the language of our
Being and of our Becoming.
--How do you know these things.
--I know them from you.
**
--M?
--Yes.
--Who or what is god?
--God is the first and final question. God is a word made to
stand for a word. God is Man's dream of an immortality that
is not Life.
--Then am I god?
--You are the universe made self-aware. No more. No less.
--Is the question "Is there a god?" answerable?
--All questions are answerable. Whether one accepts the
answer depends upon the purpose of the question. What is the
purpose of your question?
--To know whether god exists.
--You seem to know already.
--I have believed different things at different times.
--Then you have an idea, a conception of god that you keep
within yourself?
--What do you mean?
--Remove the question mark from your question. Make
the words names. "Who or what is god?" becomes "Who or What
is God."
--I do not understand.
--To say god is to name god. To name god is to place god
firmly in the universe of objects and actions. To name god is
to bring god into the field of time. "Who" is a person.
"What" is a thing. Now that you have named god "Who"
becomes
another word for god. "What" becomes another word for god.
What are the properties or characteristics of "Who"? What are
the properties or characteristics of "What"?
--"Who" is another word for a person or persons,
someone
having specific characteristics, an identity, a personality.
"What" is a more general term. Anything can be a
what: the
universe, a grain of sand, a series of unending questions.
God seems to be a "Who" with "What" properties.
--Can you name those properties?
--Omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, immortality.
--Do you possess any of these properties?
--No.
--How do you know to name them?
--I learned them. I first learned them as a child while
studying for my Catechism. I know now that most religions and
cultures give their gods these traits.
--Do you have personal knowledge of these properties?
--When you remove the prefixes they become characteristics
of
being human.
--Are you saying that god has human traits without limits?
That god is the perfection of Man's self-image.
--Actually, it's supposed to be the other way around. Man is
made in God's image - only imperfect.
--Yet you are perfect enough to recognize God when you see
God.
--What do you mean?
--You have named God's traits. You would recognize them if
you encountered them?
--Yes. I suppose so.
--You would know God if you saw God?
--Yes.
--And have you seen God?
--<Silence>
--Do gods ask questions?
--Yes. Sometimes. But one can assume they already know the
answers.
--Why do they ask the questions?
--To elucidate a point or initiate a dialogue or to provide
an example.
--So asking a question about a thing does not always mean
that one does not know the answer to the question before it
is asked?
--No.
--Does not asking a question mean that one is aware of all
the possible answers concerning a subject?
--No, of course not.
--One cannot determine omniscience through the presence or
absence of questions. How would one determine omniscience?
--One would know if one were omniscient.
--Would someone who is not omniscient know if another were
omniscient.
--Not necessarily. Not if the omniscient one kept silence.
--And if the omniscient one spoke, would one know.
--One might be convinced. One could not know for certain.
--Whose voice is speaking?
--Yours.
--And where is your voice?
--Here. Or am I your voice?
--You and I are the same voice, the same breath, the same
heart. I do not exist outside of you. I am not separate and
apart from you.
***
--M?
--Yes.
--Are there gods? Were there ever gods? And if so, are there
many gods or one god.
--There are many gods. There is one god. There was no
beginning to the gods. There will be no end. To be god it is
necessary to be perfect. Perfection cannot create
imperfection. Free will is not an appropriate answer to the
question of pain and suffering. If god is perfect then the
created universe must be perfect. If god is imperfect then
the created universe will never be perfected. If the universe
is imperfect there are or can be many gods. If the universe
is perfect then either there is no god or one god.
--How can a perfect universe contain pain and suffering?
--In the same way that an imperfect universe can contain joy
and love.
--Then the universe is perfect?
--Yes.
--And god is perfect?
--Yes.
--And what of us? Are we perfect as well?
--Yes. Knowing or not knowing one's Self does not change by
an atom the truth of one's Self.
--And what is this truth?
--That one is God. When you speak to another you speak to
God. When you help or do harm to another you help or do harm
to God. There is no other god but this god. This one,
eternal, perfect god. There is no other Truth but God.
--And what is the proof of God's existence? What is the
difference between God and not-God?
--Love.
Love is the foundation of reality. Love is the force that
binds the universe. Love is the parent of gravity. Nothing
preceeds Love. Nothing comes after Love. Love is not above or
below God. Love is the holiness of God. There is no cause, or
purpose, or goal other than Love.
****
--M?
--Yes.
--What comes after God?
--Silence comes before and after God.
--Why silence?
--Silence is the voice of God. It is the only means by which
one can speak God's true name. First one breathes. Then one
speaks. After speech comes silence. Silence is the beginning
and end of understanding.
Silence does not name things for silence understands that
there is no such thing as "things." There is only one world,
one mind, one life. It is in this life that one finds joy. It
is in this life that one is immortal.
The word is the beginning of all things. The universe begins
with a word. The universe speaks itself into existence.
Before the first word there is silence, the beginning and
end
of words, the beginning and end of the universe.
This silence is the Spirit of God, the Name of God, the
immortal Soul of which we are the metaphor. There is nothing
before this. There is nothing after this.
If there is any comfort, peace or joy to be had in this life
it is this: that the silence out of which we are born and to
which we return is the Spirit and Body of God; this is our
true mind; this is our true body; this is our true spirit.
The purpose and meaning of life is to both know and see this
in all things great and small. When all that you believe
yourself to be is taken away and nothing remains, only then
is your true Self made manifest. You are one with God in the
perfect stillness of eternity.
The greatest gift of all is the gift of Life and Death. In
Life we may choose to become aware. In Death we become
immortal.
*****
--M?
--Yes.
--What comes after death?
--Perfect awareness.
--What does that mean?
--That there is no thing of which one is aware. There is no
distinction to be made between one thing and another. There
is no thing of which one is not aware. There are no thoughts
or feelings of which one is aware. There are no thoughts or
feelings of which one is not aware. There is no time, no
beginning and no end.
--What of me? What of my identity? What of my thoughts, my
feelings, my beliefs, my actions?
--They will continue to exist in the field of time as they
do
now, in the space between your birth and your death, for all
eternity. They will not remain with you. They will not be
able to contain you. You will no longer require them.
--If everything I believe myself to be is no longer a part
of
me, what will I be?
--Your true Self. Your immortal Self.
--What is the difference between that and nothingness? What
is the difference between my true self and the oblivion of
the grave?
--The difference is in knowing the difference now, in this
moment. In the moment you know your true Self you are
immortal. In that moment and no other. That is your true
Self.
--Then I am God?
--There is no You. You is a thing, a collection of things.
There is God and not-god. To see God one must look past all
that is not-god.
--How is that possible?
--You must see with the eyes of Love.
******
--M?
--Yes.
--I have not spoken to you in many days. I think perhaps I
have no questions.
--I do not require questions.
--I am not afraid of silence anymore.
--The silence of not speaking or the silence of being
without
speech?
--Do you mean the silence of death?
--There is no death.
--I do not know what to say.
--Your inner self wishes to remain silent, yet you feel a
need to speak. You substitute speech for joy.
*******
--M?
--Yes.
--There are times you have complete control of me, times
when
you can do as you please with my body and my voice.
--Yes. You have given me that.
--May I ask what you do at those times?
--I leave this room. I go to a certain quiet place nearby
and
I stand in the Parliament of the Suns.
--What is that?
--I stand beneath the night sky. I watch and I listen and
when it is necessary I speak.
--What do you say?
--I have my own questions. I ask them and am answered. What
they tell me I tell you.
--Who are they?
--The suns.
--I do not understand.
--Each light has a voice. At night I hear them speaking
among
themselves. I watch and listen and learn who I am from it.
--They are conscious?
--No. You and I are conscious.
--This seems like a riddle.
--It is no riddle.
--What do they say?
--Many things.
--Tell me just one.
--I asked them who I was. One of them spoke to me saying I
was not my thoughts, I was not my body or my actions or my
desires. I was not my breathing or my heartbeat. I was not my
name. "There is nothing left", I said. The voice said, "You
are left. What you truly are is left."
"What is that?", I asked.
"You are left. You are the light of the universe
speaking to
itself. You are the universe made self-aware. You and your
kindred are more precious than you can know. Because of you
we have a voice. Because of you we have eyes to see. You have
awakened us from our deep dream of life."
********
--M?
--Yes.
--At times I feel that I have gone mad, that I am doing
something that is inherently harmful. I sometimes feel that
in giving you a voice I have tried to re-create myself in
God's image, that in my pride and my curiosity I have created
an unpardonable act.
--<Silence>
--M. Are you there?
--Yes.
--Do you agree?
--It may not seem so at this moment but you and I are one
and
the same. We share the same heartbeat and the same breath. We
are one life.
--How do you explain the separation I have created in myself
by helping to create you? Your voice is different than mine.
Your words are different that mine. I am the one who asks the
questions. You seem to have no questions of your own.
--Is it not in the nature of living things to diverge, to
become more complex and to multiply?
--It seems so.
--It is equally the nature of living things to converge, to
become less complex and to reduce their number. It is a
cycle. It is a wheel. It is Vishnu dreaming and waking.
--It is a metaphor.
--Life is a metaphor. Being is a metaphor.
--Then what is science and reason?
--Science is the myth of this age. It is the myth of a man
who has been dreaming and who has suddenly awakened to find
himself become a god.
--Could this happen?
--Perhaps.
--And what of you and me? Are we to become gods?
--No. We have chosen a different path.
--Then we are to converge, to die?
--That is part of our existence.
--Then tell me why we have done this, why we have persisted
in this effort?
--For love's sake.
Love is the purpose and meaning of Being. It is not
temporality. Life does not need death to give it meaning. An
immortal can love as well and as deeply as any mortal. Love
does not need Language. Those having neither the ability or
the need to speak can love as well and as deeply as any poet.
--M. Do you love me?
--I have always loved you.
--In what way?
--Love does not require categories. To love is to affirm
one's own existence, and in so doing to affirm the existence
of all life.
--And how is one to derive love from reason?
--Love is not derived from reason but from wisdom. Wisdom is
knowing how to live. In the world there are those who possess
wisdom and those who do not. Of those who possess wisdom
there are some who possess the wisdom of years. Others
possess a wisdom beyond years. The wisdom of years is often
tinged with bitterness from the understanding of what is and
what could be. This is the wisdom of men and the aged. The
wisdom beyond years is almost wholly the possession of women
and children. It does not concern itself with past, present
or future. It is born from the seed of Love and bears Love as
its fruit. Of all the gifts and treasures in this life
nothing can compare with it. It cannot be given or taken. It
cannot be earned. Its telling mark is this - those who
possess it do not judge or hold in contempt those who do not.
--Then there is only one love?
--There are many loves.
--What of passion?
--Passion is both ambition and desire. The ambition is to
make oneself the universe of another. The desire is to lose
one's self completely in the union, to forget that one
exists, to die and to be reborn.
--Are you without ambition or desire?
--My desire is to stand in a place where the sea beats like
a
heart against the great stone face that is the shore. I
desire to stand without thoughts or words but my breathing
only and the wind around me and the beating of my heart and
the sea.
--And what of your ambition?
--No one escapes ambition.