Jed Talks #2: Away from the Things of Man

Standing on the shoulders of Descartes, we can make the true statement sentio, ergo sum, I am aware, therefore I am. I Am/Consciousness. Now, armed with a true statement, we are able to divide the universe into two categories; known and believed. On the known side is awareness, and on the believed side is appearance. The pebble is not a fact, as we’d like to believe; it’s just a belief, and that’s a fact.

If philosophers were serious people, this would all be Philo 101 and there would be no need for Philo 102 because once you understand that you can’t understand anything, you’re free to leave the domain of egoic delusion and move on to more interesting realms of cocreative participation where you’ll discover your passion, your purpose, your function; the one lock for which you are the one key.

We can’t inquire into the nature of a thing without first proving the thing actually exists, which we never can. A simple pebble can be so obvious that no right-minded person would argue against its reality, but consensus doesn’t constitute proof and proceeding as if it does means that everything we ever learn or understand about that pebble is built on a foundation of belief, not fact. Before we can unravel the mystery of a pebble, we must determine with absolute certainty that there is a pebble, which we can’t, so we skip past that little detail and rush forward based on belief instead of turning back to figure out why we can’t prove the stupid pebble is real.

Just as Descartes did, we must start with a clean slate by determining what we know for sure. Can we ever be sure that the pebble actually exists? No, never, not possible, so what does that tell us about the nature of knowledge? Of reality? Of consciousness? Therein lies the real mystery of the pebble, but we just say yeah, sure, it’s just a pebble, it obviously exists, no great mystery, we can’t waste time on every little technicality when there’s a whole universe to explore. That whole universe, however, was right there in that pebble we just dismissed. Had we learned the real lesson of the pebble we might have moved on to more fertile ground for exploration, but instead we built a world based on the belief that the pebble is real and knowledge is possible. Science is thus reduced to a mere belief system, and since everyone believes, no one cries foul. That’s why philosophy can be king, while religion and science can never be more than a couple of jokers.

Carry that pebble in your pocket and whenever you hear philosophers, scientists, religious scholars, spiritual teachers or anyone else talking like they know something, take out the pebble to remind yourself that their authority is built on a foundation of belief and when you strip away their robes and diplomas and worshippers, they’re just daffy little kids playing dress-up. The world wants to be deceived so okay, let it be deceived, but what about you? What do you want?

It only makes sense that someone who is awake would live in a state of constant total amazement. You’d have to be asleep not to. You’d have to believe that hands, dogs, a drop of water, planets, order, emotion, ego, plankton – hell, life for chrissakes, life! – are all just normal everyday things deserving no special attention, but the fact is that if you’re awake to it, if you stop taking it for granted and allow yourself to fully appreciate this phantasmagorical dreamstate reality for even just a minute or two a day, then the whole thing explodes in you with such immensity that you just want to sell the house, sell the car, sell the kids, and dedicate your life to life itself and never fall sleep again.