Draw a timeline. One that starts at the beginning of time and goes until the end. I know it’s impossible but let’s have a go anyway. So, let’s say you just drew a line of some length starting at say the Big Bang and ending when time stops. How much time does that line represent? An infinite amount, yes? Now, draw your lifespan on that timeline. How long would that section be, relative to the rest of the timeline? Zero long of course. Exactly, zero long.
Ok, now what about space? Draw a cube. Let it represent all of space. Now draw yourself in that cube. How big are you, relative to the cube? Exactly, zero big.
Let’s continue. Imagine that you could draw a vector representing all causes in the universe. Draw that vector. Next to that vector, draw a vector (to scale) of the causes you can… cause / instigate / make happen through your free will. How long is that second vector, relative to the first one? Exactly, zero long.
Now for something different. Imagine a car. Let’s say it is stationary. What would cause that car to start moving? Well, the wheels turning could be a cause, right? Ok, what would cause the wheels to start turning? Well, the engine turning over could be a cause, yes? What would cause the engine to be turning over? Well, fuel igniting in the engine, for example. Cause? The accelerator pedal being pressed. Cause? You, pressing the pedal. Cause? Your brain sending a signal to your foot. Cause? Neurons firing in your brain in a certain pattern. Cause? Brain cells interacting with each other through biology, physics and chemistry. Cause? FREE WILL! 🤡
Ehm, no. Other causes of course, always leading back to causes that lie outside of ‘you’ in time and space and matter.
To sum up. You are infinitely small in time, in space and the influence that you could exert even if you had free will to exert it with (which you don’t) is zero.
One last thing. If the wheels of some other car start turning. What does that do to our car? Nothing of course, the wheels have to be part of the car to do anything. What about the engine? Same thing of course. Ok, how about the fuel and the accelerator. Same again. How about the driver?
Same bloody thing, you have to be part of the car to make it go. It doesn’t work if you sit in another car and press the accelerator. So… unless you’re an integral part of the system you can’t influence the system.
And finally, like I’ve said a gazillion times on this blog. Wherever we place the boundaries between one element of the system and another is arbitrary and made-up. There are no things, there is no you. There is just one big, great pattern in consciousness. And that thou art.
The conclusions of our experiments:
- you’re infinitely small in time
- you’re infinitely small in space
- your influence is zero
- you’re an integral part of the whole system
- without ‘free will’
- without actual existence
- you’re the consciousness to which the pattern appears, not the monkey in the middle
So let go of the tiller. Or more accurately, let go of the illusion that you were holding the tiller in the first place. Move back through the layers of shit that isn’t you. Which is all the shit. And go sit your ass in the center like the infinite awareness that you have always been.
Chill and enjoy the show. You are putting it on for your own entertainment. Enjoy it, but whatever you do, do not take it seriously for one second.