If you read Wei Wu Wei’s books, sooner or later you ask the question, which is stranger, his synthesis of the Buddhist view of reality, or how we fill reality defending the lie truth is false? It is no accident that we are firmly entrenched in our defense of what we insist reality is. Amnesia successfully shields us from the possibility that what we defend as “the truth” is false, and that what amnesia keeps out of mind, successfully, is the truth. What comes into focus is the growing awareness that the defense of what we refer to “the truth” is “The Main Event.” As long as your own amnesia works to obscure what the truth might be, you can’t see that you are part of a vast team devoted to proving truth is false, or doesn’t exist. This is what we do. Time is the venue for TAG, or “The Anti-truth Game.” As truth comes into focus, you identify that TAG is an index of the degree to which someone defends the lie truth is false, from some of the time, to all of the time. The more this becomes transparent, the faster you identify the connection between our ‘mental health’ and where we are with the truth.
If time is the venue for the game of TAG, or the sum and intensity of what we do to pretend we can prove truth is false, then it should follow that those whose presentation indicates they are in sync with truth should display what we refer to as “good mental health.” In fact, low TAG individuals, who don’t fill time ‘at war with truth,’ come across as objective (awake), rational, non delusional and appropriate. Conversely, the high TAG individuals display increasing ‘mental instability,’ the more they fill time defending the fiction it’s possible to prove truth is false.
The implication is startling: suffering is the consequence of defending the lie it’s possible to prove truth is false. If truth exists as a constant, then the option to prove truth is false is zero. Those who are relatively in sync with what the truth is, or might be, don’t fill time pretending it’s possible to prove truth is false. Stress is a clear sign the individual is ‘at war with truth.’ Stress serves as indirect proof that we know, at some pre-conscious level, that ‘the war against truth’ isn’t winnable. What we suffer from is the refusal to accept the fact nothing will work to prove truth is false.
“The Recovery Process (TRP)” confirms this: those who reconnect with the truth, and face the fact TAG isn’t a winnable game, display improvement in their ‘mental health.’ They begin to let go of the parody they occupy, which is delusional, and let go to who they are. They shift out of “The Victim Parody” they occupy, back to the realization nothing is wrong with them. Once it’s clear no parody can cancel who you are, defending a parody as if that’s possible is viewed accurately as comedy. The shift from the lie to the truth works because who you pretend to be is only a parody, and a parody is amusing because it’s the act you adopt to dismiss who you are. “The Victim Parody” is the sign we are busy filling time ‘at war with truth.’
If time features you occupying “The Victim Parody,” which we can abbreviate as TVP, can you consider this indicates that you rely on this parody to play the game of TAG with truth. Once you can own this, you are set free to identify the degree to which everyone relies on TVP, in some form, to dismiss who they are by pretending they are who they pretend to be with TVP. No victim parody can revoke who we are, but time displays our level of devotion to the game of TAG. Waking up includes the startling realization that almost everyone is playing the game of TAG, somewhere within the realm of what the truth is, from being one with what it is, to ‘the full time war against truth.’ What makes us “crazy” is the degree to which we defend the lie it’s possible to prove truth is false.
Parenthetically, amnesia also works to obscure the fact we are only ‘at war with truth’; that and nothing but that. TAG features us dismissing this detail to shield us from what ‘the war against truth’ is all about. We don’t want to know we are only ‘at war with truth,’ because the seeing of that would reveal why ‘the war against truth’ can’t be won. The game of TAG features us shifting from the fact we are at war with truth, by making it look like people are the problem. Truth includes why people can’t be the problem, and why we keep them in place as ‘the problem’ to obscure the fact that every problem we have stems from the impossible war we wage against truth.
“The Recovery Process” (TRP) makes it possible to downshift from the fiction people are the problem, to the truth ‘the war against truth’ is the origin of what ‘problems’ are. Conventional therapies reinforce the fiction people are the problem, not as some conspiracy to distract us from the truth, but because we agree to pretend our problems are “people based.” TAG reflects the degree to which we work as a team to agree that people are the source of our suffering. As TAG increases, it comes as no surprise that animosity keeps people in place as ‘the problem.’ As TAG declines, the client downshifts from this fiction back to the fact everyone is only ‘at war with truth.’ The seeing of this results in a shift from subjectivity to objectivity, from the delusion our problems are people based, back to the truth suffering is the sign we are ‘at war with truth.’ People have absolutely nothing to do with your suffering. Amnesia shields you from this fact so you can steer clear of what truth is all about.
If you listen to language carefully, you will identify our determination to keep people in place as the problem. The more you wake up, or reconnect with the truth, the more this observation jumps off the page. TAG features this lie as the center piece in the game we play with truth. Almost no one wants to know we pretend people are the problem to stall our date with the fact reality is the arena which displays the sum of what we do to give truth a hard time. Once you wake up, the truth of this becomes remarkably transparent. You realize you always knew we were engaged in some kind of a group parody, but amnesia worked to keep this insight out of consciousness.
Couples engaged in marriage counseling, for example, keep each other in place as the source of the problem. In this regard, they work as a team to obscure the fact they are both at war with truth, and obscure this fact to defend the lie problems are people based. Without this fiction, the concept of ‘blame’ is dead in the water. The intensity of ‘the blame’ is equal to the intensity of the war they wage against truth as a team. It should come as no surprise, that our first allegiance is to the fiction the game of TAG is winnable, precisely because that’s not possible. Pretending the game of TAG is winnable takes precedence over everything, including love, happiness and peace of mind. The last thing we want to know is what ‘the war against truth’ is all about. Defending the fiction the game of TAG is winnable takes us to the origin of what suffering is all about. TRP makes it possible to downshift from the fiction problems are people based to the truth problems are what we get as long as we fill time defending the fiction we can prove truth is false. Suffering is the sign it isn’t possible to prove truth is false, and that once this comes into focus, we are set free to identify that suffering is inevitable as long as we pretend the game of TAG is winnable. As Wei Wu Wei said, we have to “lay it all down” to come to grips with what ‘the war with truth’ is all about. The pursuit of why this is true takes us from the standard, Western view of reality, to “The Big Picture” which is always present, albeit obscured by our collective amnesia.
In the next installment, I will outline the Buddhist view of ‘reality’ which resides upstream of amnesia, in tact in the unconscious mind, waiting for us to come home to what it is. Life is a “cliff hanger,” because you can’t predict who will emerge from their trance. Those who no longer treat ‘judgment’ as reliable, are probably just a few insights away from what the truth is.
Excellent stuff. Encourages me to go back to Wei Wu Wei’s books and have another look. I’m grateful for this.
For anyone who hasn’t read any of Wei Wu Wei’s books I can recommend them wholeheartedly. Where Alan Watts pokes one gently in the chest in a friendly manner Wei Wu Wei tends to smack one in the mouth (in the manner of best friend, of course).