One of my favorite things in life is rediscovering a great book. When I sink my teeth into new ideas that are actually reinforced ideas I was introduced to years before, my mind whirs in a way that it doesn’t under any other stimuli. Take, for example, the magnificent chapter in Carl Sagan’s book Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium titled “The Rules of the Game” where Sagan talks about Game Theory as a basis for world politics.

He asks the valid question of who is thinking twenty years down the line. Despite my recent ranting on the subject of war and how it truly is an act of the human animal and not the human being; there is a time and place where war is absolutely necessary which then means that our animal natures are absolutely necessary to our ultimate survival. But shouldn’t there be a point where long-term execution overtakes the myopic gesture?

And by long-term strategy, I mean a world of real peace where human beings compete in the realm of ideas and in marshaling the best within their minds and hearts and applying that greatness to the limited resources of the Earth and the other moons, planets, asteroids and chemical matter of our solar system to truly bring the highest standard of living to every future human being. Isn’t that the noblest goal we can aspire to achieve as a species?

I have to be honest, I don’t like to talk in terms of plurality when I talk about humanity. I believe that culture is an abstraction from the measure of true freedom which only lies in the mind of the individual human being. The mind is the storehouse of memory and memory is the very substance of our identities; it is the essence of our greatness and at the same time the very genesis of our separation from one another. Memory is the medium by which we operate as independent entities in time and space and when memory ends and the mind is totally silent and quiet in the moment, something very special happens.

What happens to a mind that is no longer operating through time? Time is the movement of memory. When the mind is in motion, it is creating time, like human lungs create Carbon Dioxide upon exhale; and this time smear is always of the past never the present moment. Five senses deliver information from the present moment to the mind and the mind interprets that information and produces an image which is delivered after the moment has passed and the image dictates reality. Our reality is always based on the past, never the present moment. All of our science, all of our ideals, all of our self images are all of the past and can never relate directly to the present moment. This is a fact. Don’t take my word for it. See it yourself. Sit with it and the truth will wash over you like an Alabama rain storm.

So what happens to a brain that has seen this fact that it is always of the past and can never be related to the present moment?

What are you supposed to do with a fact? You can deny it but that is just the mind in movement again, creating the time smear. The attempt to deny is a denial of the fact itself and cannot lead one to truth.

Eventually, the mind which is serious, the mind which yearns for freedom and sees this fact, sits with it, accepts it; that mind becomes very quiet, still, stops moving in the moment, stops producing images in a futile attempt to capture the reality of the present moment. And when that mind stops moving altogether in the moment an enormous transformation takes place, something outside of time; time is the mind in motion and the mind has seen the fact that it is useless to attempt to define reality in the present moment because it is always of the past and this mind is now standing still in reverence of that fact and is therefore fully engaged in the present moment without past reference or projection into an idealistic future (which is still of the past–are you following me here?).

That transformation is what all the religions promise but none have ever delivered upon. This is because they are moving in the realm of time which is always of the past. Religions are constellations of metaphoric images and quaint rituals which are supposed to lead one beyond the words, beyond the ideas, beyond the images (graven or mental), to the promised land of peace and absolute freedom. But how many religions say, “Our metaphors and rituals are the best and anyone who doesn’t agree is damned to hell (another image) and take this sword in your gut, this musket blast in your chest, this stake to burn on, this cannon fire, this airplane in your building or this smart bomb for your troubles, you dirty heathen”?

Finding this still point is the essence of proper meditation and is the core message that Jiddu Krishnamurti taught about his whole life. He spoke of an absolute freedom beyond time and the constructs of man which populate time and in which the human mind and spirit is bogged down into like a quagmire of divinity.

Inside that still point lies the future of mankind and the human race. Inside that nexus of the swirling moment, always in motion and which never capitulates or bends to the feeble will of man in his attempts to saddle it and ride, lies the hope of future generations of our ancestors who are screaming to us from the very genetic code bursting from our cells, saying, “Please become stewards of this world and each other because we want to live. We Want To Live. WE WANT TO LIVE!”

ASSIGNMENT:
Which of the “rules” in the picture above do you think we are currently using to fight the War on Terror? Which of them is more likely to produce the outcome of establishing a peaceful world? Are they the same rule? If not, why not? Leave a comment or send me an e-mail to let me know what you think.

LINKS:

• Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Carl Sagan

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