13/12/05
A black man was executed in America by a lethal injection today. He had spent the last 24 years in prison. He did not want to die.
We are all of us in prison but much more than that. We are in a prison within a prison. It is an illusion to think that you have control of your thoughts. You are a prisoner to them. Your thoughts appear to dwell within your body (head, brain), again, which you have no control over. All of its functions are beyond your control (breathing, heart pumping, sleeping, eating etc). And your body is on the planet earth from which you can not escape except by death. Like the old lag in the film The Shawshank Redemption, even though the conditions here might be unkind, cruel, and malicious you have become institutionalised. You are afraid to leave. Only when the pain, mental or physical, becomes too much will you look for a way to escape.
You are without realising it, like the man who was executed this morning, queuing up to die. But you do not know when, how and what (if anything) will follow. As you get older you might become aware that your death will probably be unpleasant and painful. Your jailor will decide how. Cancer, heart attach, violence, hunger, accident, car or plane crash (the list is long). Some will die old and feeble, unloved uncared for. A small percentage will have a peaceful end to maintain the illusion that life is worth living.
These are indisputable facts. Would a sane intelligent person in control of his thoughts want to bring another into this prison with the high probably of pain and sorrow that would accompany that life? You are not in control of your thoughts or your emotions (the feelings that drive them). You are aware (and sometimes acutely aware) that there is a lot that is very wrong with the world but your thoughts are directed to work, relationships, children, money, your health, holidays, the elusive pursuit of happiness, as well as all the smaller things that keep you occupied. From the time you started to become aware as a young child you learnt a complete distortion of the truth in the world you live in. I heard on the radio that some young children insisted that their teacher give a funeral to a dead mouse that they had found. They are not told that the world is a battleground for almost every living thing and that millions of animals die every year. Also that millions of animals are raised to be slaughtered. Look at the corral reef and marvel at the beauty of the coral and the many different varieties of fish there. Yet every fish is in danger of being eaten by another fish. On the land bigger and stronger animals feed on weaker ones. A very naive and stupid man lived amongst grisly bears. He thought that he understood them and he would be safe. Inevitably one killed and ate him. As you grow and develop you come to believe that there is more good than bad in the world and that good will always triumph over evil. This view is promoted by your parents, teachers, books, films, art, and religion and is a blatant lie.
There has always been more bad than good and the evidence of it both in the past and at the present is not hidden. Your attention span may be good for many things but when it comes to the really important things you are not able to see or understand at all. You ignore it. You see, speak and hear no evil. A veil is placed before your eyes. Like domestic cattle which are being fattened for consumption you are indifferent to it all. Or if you do give it some thought you find it unpleasant and you close your mind to it, you are not in control of your thoughts.
From the time that you were born you have accepted all that you have been told is true by your parents, teachers and all the learned experts when in fact, it is all a lie. Yes, everything without exception.
What is a dream? A series of pictures or events presented to a sleeping person. The Germanic root of the word suggests - to deceive.
You are living in a dream? A very clever one in which everything (time, space, and continuity) seems totally real. That dream is controlled but not by you. You even dream within that dream but those are far less realistic than the primary dream and so complete the illusion that your existence here is completely real. The dream is perfect in every way. And like the secondary dreams you have no control over it at all. Unlike the secondary dreams in this perfect one you can feel pain, hunger and all your senses seem totally real. In this perfect dream as in the secondary ones nothing is, as it appears to be. As it is a perfect deception it is impossible to detect the grand illusion that in reality it is. That dream only ends when you die. Dan Berne wrote these lines in his song ‘Thanksgiving Day Parade’
And life is like a fairy tale
Every step feels like a dream
That keeps on getting nearer
And more and more extreme
Have you noticed that everything is becoming more and more extreme? It is there before your eyes to see. It is not hidden.
Robert
