According to Wei Wu Wei, understanding begins and ends with the realization that mind is all there is. There isn’t mind and a thousand other things to understand: there is only mind. Even if you doubt this, the utter simplicity of this ‘assumption’ is attractive. Instead of exploring plurality, or the many, you get to explore the workings of mind, including how it fills time with the fiction called “plurality.”
According to Wei Wu Wei, all roads take us to mind as the ultimate subject of all phenomena. There is no two, no duality, only mind, the one, filling time with a fantasy featuring the concept of two, or mind and ‘not mind,’ as if ‘not mind’ isn’t mind in disguise. Mind is always mind, and mind fills time with a drama we can refer to as ‘not mind,’ which identifies how mind features us as the agent for the ‘not mind’ parody. The goal of ‘waking up’ includes the shift from the fiction of ‘twoness’ (duality) back to the truth of oneness, and how mind features us as the vehicle for the ‘not mind’ parody. The progression is from mind as the source of everything, to how mind features us engaged in the ‘not mind’ parody, and back to the truth that mind is the source of everything.
“The Recovery Process” begins, therefore, with mind, since mind is the author of the ‘not mind’ parody. The question is, how does the absolute, or mind, feature us creating duality to engage in “The Defection Parody (TDP),” which is what the ‘not mind’ parody is all about. How does mind feature us pretending defection from it is possible, when it is all there is?
Life is the arena which captures the sum of all the ways mind features us engaged in “The Defection Parody (TDP).” Waking up makes it possible for anyone to move from ‘the relative’ back to the absolute; from the lie of twoness or separation, back to truth of oneness, or the realization that mind is the source of ‘everything.’ TDP features the sum of what we do to pretend our tie to mind doesn’t exist. If the option to defect from mind is zero, because mind is all there is, then time displays what it takes for us to defend ‘the relative,’ as if mind has no input into who we are, what we are doing, and what it takes to move from the ‘not mind’ parody back to the truth that mind is the source of the whole show we refer to as “reality.” Reality is the context which reflects exactly where everyone is with the fact mind is the source of “reality.” ‘Waking up’ includes reconnecting with why that’s true, and how mind makes this possible.
We can equate mind with “The Big Picture (TBP),” or the architecture of the mind/not mind parody. TBP features what it takes for mind to generate the ‘not mind’ parody. Once you reconnect with TBP, you remember how mind creates the ‘not mind’ parody. You get to identify how mind involves you in this parody. You get to see how you fill time with TDP to defend ‘the relative,’ to defend the fiction you have no connection to mind. You get to see how difficult it is to defend TDP ohing to do with who we are, and why we do what we do. Our goal in this parody is to prove that who we are has no tie to mind, such that we can run life on our terms with no input from mind. If reality is the context for the ‘not mind’ parody, then everyone, collectively and individually, displays how they fill time engaged in the ‘not mind’ parody. The more you ‘wake up,’ the faster you identify that everyone is filling time engaged in TDP. What wasn’t obvious, is now remarkably transparent.
Waking up involves what it takes to make the shift from “The Small View (TSV)” of reality, back to the fact the absolute (mind) is sourcing everything, including how we fill time engaged in TDP. Waking up illuminates how we create duality to engage in TDP, as if what we do will prove mind has nothing to do with us. Waking up is the shift from TSV to TBP, only to realize, in a burst of clarity, that because mind is all there is, mind is both TBP and TSV. There is no separation (duality) in fact between TBP and TSV. If mind is consciousness, then mind is TBP creating us engaged in TDP in TSV. Waking up involves reconnecting with the fact this is a fact, which amnesia made ambiguous before.
Mind features us engaged in the ‘not mind’ parody as “The Main Event” in this reality. Once you wake up, you get to witness how everyone fills time engaged in the ‘not mind’ parody. You get to witness how we occupy TSV as if what we do will successfully prove separation from mind is possible. You get to observe that we pretend TSV is “the truth,” when it can only include ‘the set of lies’ we require to defend the fiction defection from mind is possible. ‘Waking up’ includes retrieving ‘the set of lies’ we depend on to drag out the fiction mind has noting to do with us.
This brings us back to the dynamics of suffering. If mind is the source of ‘everything,’ including how we fill time engaged in TDP, then suffering goes with defending the lie defection from mind is possible. We literally suffer from defending the fiction we can achieve the goal of defection from mind. If mind is all there is, then suffering reflects the degree to which we fill time engaged in TDP. We suffer from pretending we can prove we are ‘not mind,’ which is comedic because it is futile if mind is all there is.
We suffer from pretending defection from mind is possible. If mind is all there is, then the defense of the relative, or the ‘not mind’ parody, is delusional. The closer we are to the truth mind is all there is, the faster our investment in the ‘not mind’ parody subsides. Conversely, the more we defend the fiction defection from mind is possible, the more time features us engaged in the delusion defection from mind is possible. When you wake up, what comes into focus is that our ‘mental health’ literally depends on where we are with the fact mind is all there is, featuring us pretending we can prove we operate independently from mind. This is a comedy, which can turn into ‘tragedy.’
The more you wake up, the faster the transparency of this phenomenon comes into view. You notice, for example, that those who are reconnecting with the truth are less distressed than those who fill time defending the delusion defection from mind is possible. We suffer from defending the impossible as if it is possible. Irony includes the fact that if mind is what everything is, then we already know, at some pre-conscious level, that the ‘not mind’ game is a parody.
The mystery question is, what motivates the majority of us to engage in TDP when the option to defect from mind is zero, meaning impossible? What’s wrong with truth if truth includes the fact mind is all there is? We treat ’surrendering to the truth’ as a fate worse than death. What is there about truth we construe as our “mortal enemy?”
It is no accident that we shift ‘the blame’ from mind to people, and that time accurately displays how we keep this lie in place as “The Master Lie.” Moreover, what stands between the truth and the lie is amnesia, which works to hide the fact we are only ‘at war’ with the truth, or the fact mind is all there is. No one is ‘at war’ with people, which is the good news. The bad news is that we keep people in place as the source of all our problems to dismiss the fact we are only ‘at war’ with truth.
The truth is, we would have to know what TBP includes in order to reject it as a complete lie. We can’t reject it in the abstract, as if we have no idea what it includes. We reject what it includes as “the truth” because truth is 180 degrees out of phase with our preferred rendition of reality. TBP includes TSV, and TSV includes how we rely on duality to pretend TBP isn’t the source of TSV. What we reject is the fact there is no separation between TBP and TSV, because if this separation doesn’t exist, then who are we if we can’t be separate from mind? Who we insist we are depends on the fiction we have no connection to mind. Time displays our level of devotion to the ‘not mind’ parody. The more you wake up, the faster you identify how everyone is engaged in this parody. What was obscure, is suddenly remarkably transparent. Initially, the seeing of this is astonishing, and then you settle in to watch this ‘going on’ all around you.
If mind is who we are, then we can’t be who we pretend to be. TBP dictates who we are, and TSV represents who we pretend to be. We are mind (TBP) playing ‘not mind’ (TSV), as if we can cancel the fact that mind is all there is. Mind (TBP) creates this scenario in which we fill time defensing the delusion that the goal of defection from mind can be achieved (TSV). Suffering provides the clue that we know, at some level, it isn’t possible to be separate from mind, and that, at some pre-conscious level, we all know we are “beating a dead horse.”
Once you wake up, you view everyone accurately as mind playing ‘the not mind game’ as ‘people.’ Our collective transparency includes the fact we are all mind, and that time features us engaged in a parody that features everything we do to defend the fiction we can prove we exist outside of mind. The problem is, we can’t be who we pretend to be if mind is who we are. There is no such thing as two (mind and ‘not mind’), there is only the one featuring us filling time engaged in TDP. TDP features how we create and use duality to feign separation from mind. Because defection isn’t possible, we suffer from the fiction defection from mind is possible.
If we can’t prove we are separate from mind, then we have no choice but to look at how mind features us engaged in the ‘not mind’ parody. All roads take us home to mind as the source of this apparent puzzle. If mind is TBP, featuring us creating duality to defend the lie we are separate from mind (TSV), then mind is all there is to explore. Technically, if mind is all there is, then we can only be mind exploring itself. Mind, being unitary, has no outside from which we could investigate it! The one features us exploring how we create and defend the fiction called two. Within the context of consciousness, TSV is nested, as it were, in TBP, which makes it the source of all drama in “reality.”
In the next installment, we will move in on the context for TDP. TSV features the sum of all the ways we fill time dismissing mind, as if it has nothing to do with our reality. If mind is TBP, featuring us ‘engaged in TDP,’ then the question is, how does mind make this happen?
