The mind creates a hollow simulation of reality and then proceeds to rule it with an iron rod. Thought is Lord and Master of a hollow Kingdom therefore – the hollow Kingdom of its own imagination. It is because thought’s Kingdom is hollow that it needs to be policed so ruthlessly – all tyrannies need to be policed because all tyrannies have to protect themselves from anyone seeing the truth of what’s going on in them (which is that everything about us is being controlled from behind the scenes. In order to be at all palatable, a dictatorship needs to put forward a story that lets us believe that what we’re buying into is solid and worthwhile and ‘fair for all’ (and not just a cheap and nasty scam). The scam has to sell itself as not a scam, which is of course the case with all scams. A lie – in order that it might function effectively as such – has to set itself up as being God’s Own Holy Truth.
When we buy into Thought’s hollow simulation then at the same time we buy into a police state, we buy into a self-perpetuating fiction (a groundless fiction that would be instantly destroyed by exposure to the truth). It’s because the world which thought creates is purely fictional that it has to be ‘self-perpetuating’; if it didn’t work non-stop on promoting itself then it wouldn’t exist. The simulation is – at one and the same times – both an advert for itself and the product that is being advertised. It is the advert and also what is being advertised. On its own terms therefore this simulation isn’t hollow, but full up with all sorts of good stuff. On its own terms, Samsara is not barren but overflowing with all sorts of richly amazing possibilities.
Taken on its own terms, the simulation is not a simulation, the game is not a game. What is being sold to us isn’t just the simulation (isn’t just the game) therefore – it’s when we mistakenly believe in what the simulation represents, what it implicitly claims to be. We’re being sold our own dreams, our own fantasies, in other words – I have a bias regarding what I’d like to be true (what I’d like to be real) and then the simulation hits me with a picture of that bias as being true, as being real. The simulation agrees with me. I want to believe that I am a good person, a decent person, an honest person, etc, and so the simulation shows me a ‘version’ of reality in which this is genuinely the case. In addition, we ought to point out that I don’t know myself to be harbouring this bias (whatever it is); if I was aware of harbouring a bias or prejudice (which is distorting the picture of reality that I am looking at) then I wouldn’t be biased, I wouldn’t be biased because I would be seeing reality as it is in itself. I’ll be seeing the truth, which is that I am biased! To be prejudiced is therefore to not know that we are – it is thorough-going ignorance, ignorance which is ‘ignorant of its own true nature’.
To be ‘biased without knowing that we are’ is to be psychologically unconscious, it is to be ‘asleep’. When we’re asleep then instead of perceiving reality – instead of having a relationship with reality – we dream and the dream that we’re dreaming has zero relationship to reality. When we are in the unconscious state (which is the default state) then what we have here is a situation where ‘the dreamed version of me’ relates to (or interacts with) ‘the dreamed version of the world’, and this is a perfectly empty tautology. When we’re in the unconscious state then we relate to our own mental projections as if they were not ‘our own mental projections’ and this is an error that super-effectively traps us in a continuously recycled (and utterly sterile) loop of logic. The serpent is snacking on itself whilst fondly imagining that it is ‘dining out’ on the real meal, a real a meal that isn’t itself, a meal that is nothing to do with itself. There’s no net nutritional value when it’s our own self we’re eating, after all. There’s no gain to be had in this.
If it was the case that I was fully aware of being biased and then the artificial environment or game that I am inhabiting suddenly manifests (or represents) this bias for me as being genuinely true (true ‘for real’) then this is in no way going to be exciting; I’m not going to be thrilled, I’m not going to be ‘over the moon’. There’s going to be no buzz in this. If I’m aware of having a bias then the confirmation of it going to ring very hollow, and if the bias-confirmation rings hollow for me then I’m not going to get any satisfaction out of it, there’s going to be no excitement about achieving the goal. There’s going to be no ‘euphoria hit’, not even a little one. If – on the other hand – I am profoundly unconscious of my biases (i.e., if I am in Unconscious Mode then when the simulation confirms one of these prejudices for me (as it absolutely will do) then I’m going to feel tremendous satisfaction, tremendous gratification and vindication. I’m going to be on Cloud Nine and no mistake! This is my ‘euphoric reward for being unconscious’, therefore. This is my ‘pat on the head’ from the External Authority.
When we’re in the unconscious modality (which is necessarily incapable of perceiving itself for what it is) then there are two sorts of things that are going to be happening, two sorts of ‘events’ that we can expect. One event is where our hidden biasing factor is confirmed (much to our great delight) and the other is where our buried-and-therefore-unknown biases are falsified, are shown to be wrong. When what we secretly hope to be true, what we secretly hope to be the case, is falsified / denied / contradicted then this of course gives rise to just as much dismay and frustration as confirmation does pleasure and satisfaction and this is the ‘conditioning factor’. The non-philosophical approach to life is thus where we go flat out to obtain the good feeling of winning and avoid the bad one of losing – we devote ourselves to chasing goals, in other words. We ‘idolize control’, we ‘play the game for all we’re worth’. This keeps us busy and because it keeps us so busy (busy trying to ‘turn a profit out of Samsara’) we remain 100% oblivious to the reality of our situation – the situation being that we are trapped in thought’s hollow simulation of life but are far too preoccupied with the important task of ‘trying to benefit ourselves’ to notice this fact…!
Image credit – wallpapers.com
