What left me speechless when I read WWW’s “Open Secret” was that I knew, almost instantly, that he was talking about truth; that it exists, and that it dove-tailed with my unconscious suspicions about it, and that the apparent disparity between what we defend as “the truth,” and what truth might be, punched a huge hole in what I defended as “the truth.” It was clear that truth, as defined by most of us, is only a tiny slice of what consciousness includes, to the degree we occupy “The Small View” of reality which is at odds with “The Big Picture,” which we dismiss as false, non existent, or too “unscientific” for any serious discussion.
Consciousness includes “The Big Picture,” which we can abbreviate as TBP, from now on, as well as “The Small View” (TSV) of TBP we defend as “the truth.” Consciousness is TBP+ TSV, and time displays how we dismiss TBP with amnesia, which manifests as living in a trance that defends TSV as “The truth.” If truth includes both, and we dismiss half of the equation, then no one is ever consciously in touch with the truth about reality. When you wake up, what comes into focus is how everyone rejects TBP in favor of defending TSV of reality. This can’t be obvious when you are doing the same thing, too. Waking up is all about expanding into consciousness to shift from TSV to TBP so that you get to explore the equation in its entirety.
“The Recovery Process (TRP)” includes what it takes to assist someone to move from TSV they defend as “the truth” to TBP, which reveals that truth includes TSV, but it also reveals that TSV we defend as “The truth” is false. As long as we occupy TSV of reality, and defend it as “the truth,” we are living in a lie. Suffering is the price we pay for defending a lie as if it is the truth. Amnesia can shield us from the truth, but it can’t cancel it. TBP always impinges on TSV we defend as “the truth.” TBP always threatens to remind us that we are impostors. TBP includes the truth about who we are, while the defense of TSV defends who we insist we are. The disparity between the two manifests as suffering.
We suffer because TSV of reality can’t cancel TBP. We suffer from impostering who we pretend to be in defense of TSV. It takes a lot of work to defend who we insist we are in defense of TSV. Defending a lie as if it is the truth takes its toll on our health, both mentally and physically. Amnesia can obscure the fact we are impostors, but we feel the presence of TBP, ready to remind us that we are engaged in “mission impossible.” Living the lie feels like living in a house of cards. We feel fragile, at risk, and in some kind of imminent jeopardy. Fear is indirect proof that we know we are living a lie and that the parody we occupy to defend who we pretend to be faces disclosure on a daily basis. In this light, we can use our suffering constructively as a clue that the lie we are living isn’t defensible. Suffering can spearhead moving past amnesia to get in touch with what we are lying about.
The assumptions about suffering are testable. The question is, if TBP exists, and it includes facts that dispute our preferred rendition of reality, then it would follow that suffering should decline exactly as fast as we move from TSV to TBP. This is the goal of “The Recovery Process (TRP).” The assumption is you suffer precisely because you fill time defending TSV to the exclusion of TBP because you know, at some pre-conscious level of knowing, that defending the disparity between who you are and who you impostor is untenable. The mystery question is, why would we engage in a no win contest when TBP bleeds through amnesia to remind us that nothing we do has any chance to discredit, revoke or replace TBP with our rendition of reality (TSV)? The answer to this question exists, but it resides within TBP, which we treat as “public enemy number one.” The option to solve our problem exists, but the solution lives on the other side of amnesia, and we rely on amnesia to keep truth “out of sight and out of mind.”
What stands between who you are and who you pretend to be is amnesia. Amnesia has a job to do, and that is to maintain the fiction TSV of reality is “the truth.” When you wake up, you not only witness amnesia in action all around you, you observe that the defense of TSV is so untenable that it results in robotic patterns of behavior. We do the same things over and over again, expecting that what we do will prove TBP is false. All of life is devoted to pretending we can prove TBP is false, and that if we try hard enough, we can replace it with TSV of reality. We are pursuing a non existent goal as if it exists. To say that this is the origin of exhaustion is the understatement of the year. Stress is a direct clue that trying to replace TBP with TSV is a go nowhere enterprise. No one can, has, or ever will prove TBP is false. The truth is, everyone, in potential, has a date with TBP, if not now, then sooner or later.
WWW takes you on a trip through amnesia into the land of TBP. He drags you right through your amnesia so you can take a look at how you fill time ‘at war with truth,’ as if what you do will prove truth is false. You get to discover that TBP of reality is 180 degrees out of phase with TSV of reality most of us defend as “the truth.” If his synthesis of Buddhism is valid, it explains all our suffering as the futility of our stand in life. There is little fun in defending a lie as if it is a fact when it is a lie. Every day is another day to impostor who you pretend to be, and every day is another day of trying to pull off a hoax as if the game we play with truth is winnable. Truth can’t be canceled, only relegated to the back of the mind where it threatens to remind us that truth isn’t the enemy, it is the source of our liberation and freedom.
The minute I read his book “Open Secret,” I knew instantly that I had found what I was looking for: a way to reconnect with TBP, no matter where truth would take me. Amnesia acts like a doorway to what the truth is. We pretend we can’t live with it because it obligates us to surrender to the fact we have never been right about anything. The game we play with truth includes the invention of ‘the ego,’ the self we occupy to represent who we impostor. On the other side amnesia resides the architecture of “The Grand Parody (TGP),” the structure of which reveals exactly why nothing is what we insist it is. What is ‘going on’ is real, but the definition of ‘the real’ resides on the other side of amnesia. The shift from the lie (TSV) to the truth (TBP) could be a straight shot, since who we are never changes, but the game we play with truth makes the recovery of truth a circuitous, amazing journey. Life graciously provides the space to explore this journey.
In the next installment, I will outline the architecture of what the truth is, as seen through the eyes of WWW. His view is hard core because it is clear truth is absolute. It can include the fiction truth is relative, but in the end, it is clear truth is all there is, including the rationale for why we devote almost all of our time to the defense of TSV of reality.
Thanks for the helpful writings, Greg. Here’s a poem I thought you’d like:
if the question is who, what or why am i,
the answer is:
you are This, which is all there is;
this which is, is you.
if the question is how, where or what am i not,
the answer is That, which isn’t.