Backwards Causality

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It’s quite fruitless, that thing we do, trying to control what’s happening in the present in order to make the future into what it ought to be, when it’s the future that’s causing the present, and not the other way around.

Isn’t it obvious? Or at least plausible – that what’s happening now is merely the prelude and lead-up of what’s about to become? That it merely serves to be in accordance with whatever eventuality is about to occur?

Of course, these ideas of causality, whether of the backwards or the ordinary kind, are merely ways of framing experience in terms of some kind of narrative structure. But as I get to pick and choose between them, this backwards way is how I like to think about it.

The way I figure, we’ve been conditioned to think about cause and effect the wrong way around. An anemic and depressing metaphysic wherein the action determines the outcome comes imposed through culture and language; but there’s no reason why we can’t unwind that philosophy and instead take on this more fascinating outlook on the whole thing. Because that’s what I feel; that thinking in terms of a backwards causality is much more fun than the other way around.

Under this view, things are allowed to happen for a reason. What lies ahead isn’t the result of what’s happening now, but what’s occurring in the present is the necessary alignment with what’s about to come into form. There’s something happening in the future with which the present must be in accord, that requires things to happen the way they do such that what lies ahead can be what it is due to become.

This also allows us to answer why-questions in terms of what we can expect from the future, rather than what follows from the past. Questions about the past—why it happened, and so on—are perfectly answered in terms of what the future and the present brought into being. Why did the house burn down? It wasn’t because you were playing with matches – but you were playing with matches because you were about to find a new place to live.

Why did you break up with your girlfriend? It wasn’t because of that fight you had. You fought because you were about to move on to something greater and more fulfilling.

And why did you get sick? It wasn’t a virus. That virus merely appeared to provide a narrativistic reason for the forthcoming episode of suffering and pain; which in turn established a way for a further element in the arc, and so on in an ever revealing storyline dictated by an obvious intelligence.

And You, as a distinct character inhabiting this dreamstate, is not the result of what happened before – rather, the past is what the future called for, such that you could arrive as you are in the present – and here, in the now, the future continues to shape your actions and your choices so as to set the stage for an ever unfolding account of how you will come to be what-you’re-about-to-become.

On board yet? I don’t know how to otherwise sell it, except to tell you that if there ever was an easy way of seeing more magic in life, I’d say this is it.

 

Words Point To Flow

lost-in-translation-picI’ve recently got some emails and blog comments with concerns about the language I use – how I talk so much about a ‘me’, and how I seemingly imply a ‘person’ who’s doing, wanting, resisting, and so on.

But my writing could only suggest that if seen from a perspective of the universe model. Therein, there’s people—that is, space-time entities with perceptual capabilities and cognitive faculties—that can move around and do things, want things and resist things – and coming from that frame of reference, any mention of doing, wanting or resisting naturally leads one to think of that space-time entity that’s central to the universe model.

But my work is all about deconstructing that model – and once that process have run its course and the model is abandoned, language is naturally seen to, no longer accurately or inaccurately depict an objective reality, but to be a mere poetic attempt at describing the flow of phenomenality.

In other words, any reference to a person is like a reference to Gandalf. Everybody understands that Gandalf doesn’t really exist – yet we can talk about him. We can tell the story of how he helped the hobbits and fought the orcs and everybody understands that we aren’t really talking about something that actually happened outside the screen. We’re simply describing how a particular storyline unfolds within the flow – not making any reference to an objectively existing space-time reality.

If I say “I took a walk and had some ice cream,” I don’t mean to imply that there is a space-time entity with perceptual capabilities and cognitive faculties doing all that. I’m merely describing a flux of sensations, framing it within a particular model – in this case, the universe model, around which dualistic language is built, and to which 99.9% of everybody subscribes.

So when I say: “Sit down and do this,” I don’t mean to tell you in a literal sense that there’s an actual space-time object called “you” that has the cognitive abilities and capacity to perform actions – I’m merely trying to invoke* a torrent of sensations, which, framed under the universe-model, would constitute you sitting down and doing something, but seen from a liberated paradigm, would be recognized to be just that – subjectivity unfolding.

Only if we believe that words could accurately or inaccurately depict reality would we ever concern ourselves with speaking ‘correct non-dual lingo’ – otherwise we’re free to use language in any way we want; because we know that we aren’t trying to capture reality in concepts – we’re merely trying to invoke an intuitive sense of what the the words could point to in direct experience.

(*please disregard the implicit reference to causality – that’s merely a make-believe model as well)

Resistance Is Futile

I think he found peace

A few months following my initial awakening, I had a profound realization. At the time, I was in the middle of an intense period of being thrown back and forth between non-dual awareness and ordinary, dualistic mode of perceiving, when I discovered something important when it comes to dealing with life stuff.

Usually, when I’d just been reverted back to ordinary perception, I’d get this huge knot of anxiety, right in the gut. And on this particular day, it seemed especially fierce – a tight, white-hot contraction of searing emotional pain, originating from a deep fear that I’d never return to wholeness again; and from being pretty pissed off, since I couldn’t help but blame myself for having fucking lost my enlightenment – again. Continue reading

Zen Hero

Zen MonkPeople are always asking what to do. They want to know how to play the game of life. But the only reason why all of this feels so overwhelming and difficult is that you’re thinking about it like a game of chess. You believe life is a big complex game that needs to be figured out – that everything needs to be carefully considered and all options weighed before making the next move.

But life isn’t supposed to be played like chess. It’s meant to be played like Guitar Hero. Continue reading

A Shift Into Enlightenment

color equals seeing

I think there were two factors that were paramount to my awakening. First, I spent a lot of time contemplating that color equals seeing, and that sound equals hearing; that thoughts equal thinking and smells equal smelling. I did that every spare moment – checking my experience, confirming that the apparent colors I saw, in fact, were nothing other than seeing, and that the body sensations I felt were nothing other than feeling.

I confirmed to myself over and over, not the inseparability of knowing and known, but the total lack of a ‘known’ altogether. Continue reading

Navigating the Dreamstate

218899_1804Question: The more I read about this, the more disconnected I feel from the people around me. It’s probably ego talking, but even though, not that long ago, “I” was one of “them”, it seems so stupid now to live life the way they do and not care about this tremendously important subject. But even besides that, I just find I can’t connect with others anymore, even worse than I was already unable to. They aren’t interested in that which moves me most, which fascinates me most.

I don’t think it need to be our values, ideas and opinions that connects us to other human beings. I think it’s the willingness to disengage in all of that and instead let life move on its own accord that allows for the most intimate form of connection to others.

But in order to do that one must first develop some basic trust. I’ve already written about moving from an intentionless place, but before you transition to that, here’s a quick primer on what you can start doing right now, from the top of my head: Continue reading

How this thing unfolds: Questions & Answers

phoneMany have joined the facebook group – and a lot of good, thoughtful questions have been asked and answered. Most have been about the argument put forth in the book, but some have been directed at me, personally. Here are two of them:

Goran, I find it curious that you publicize your work very assertively, either through your articles or the book – at several different groups or facebook pages. In the past, one of the articles you advertised the most was the one about your awakening.

What I find intriguing is that the wish to promote your work and ideas would seemingly come from either an egoistical sense of self (wanting to be seen as a guru) or from a more selfless place (wishing to help other beings dissolving the root of suffering and delusion). The thing is that these both seem to promote the existence of people who are out there needing guidance.

Please note that I am using the word “seem” very often. I know that life goes on. There never has been any self – seeing though this idea doesn’t make the manifestation/appearance vanish. But I would assume someone who is free from dualistic points-of-view to be, at least, a little more discreet. Continue reading

The Greatest Piece Of Art Ever Created

SONY DSCBefore I had the understanding, I was very dismissive towards art. I thought of it as an escape from life. Why immerse myself in movies and books and music – why care about all this imaginary stuff when the real world is waiting out there, I thought.

But now when the distinction between imaginary and real has dissolved, I find myself treasuring these things. Orcs, X-Wings and Agent Smith of The Matrix, are no less real than the computer I sit in front of as I write this – and to watch them on the screen is by no means an escape anymore. Continue reading

Perception: Another Way Of Thinking About It

freedomOne thing that became obvious once I shifted was how the triad of seer-seeing-seen no longer made sense when thinking about experiencing. While framing experience in those terms felt totally natural before the shift, it now referenced elements that was no longer part of my experience.

But there’s another way to talk about experience, a way more in line with what was now readily apparent after the shift, and I figured that I should write a few lines about that now since this new way of describing our experience might even help somebody to shift if they’re ripe enough. Continue reading

The Shackles Of Physicality

cageIt’s not that we awaken within a three-dimensional physical universe, as an ‘enlightened being’—as a space-time entity who has had some shift in her perceptual capabilities—it’s rather that the universe (including one’s body) is finally recognized to be, not a universe at all, but a mixture of sense percepts and conceptualizations – the non-dual nature of which suddenly become readily apparent in that moment of awakening, and makes it abundantly clear that there isn’t anything physical going on. Continue reading