CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE UNIVERSE

The universe has no independent life outside of consciousness.  It’s a blank dead canvass that becomes brilliantly animated only when consciousness paints it red green and gold.  It only takes shape when consciousness renders its formlessness into an infinity of variety of styles.  It only becomes melodious when consciousness generates the music of the spheres.

A nice metaphor is a Star Trek DVD. 

If you look at the DVD all there is on close examination are pits burnt into it.  you will never find anywhere on that 6-inch platter the complex combinations of colors, shapes, forms, and sounds that fleshes out the story lines and breathes life into the characters; no dynamic full-of-life dramatics.  Without the DVD player the Star Trek story would never make a splash.  Without the DVD player the epic drama would never unfold.  Without the DVD player the characters could never live out their lives.  Stare at the disk.  It’s virtually dead without the player.  You experience no imagery, you hear no songs, and you are not enraptured by the spell binding oratory of the charismatic Captain James T. Kirk as he thunders on passionately with the icy and logical Mr. Spock. Without the DVD player there are no peals of laughter, no anguished wailing and gnashing of teeth on either side of the DVD.  You don’t observe the trials and triumphs of your favorite stars without the DVD player.  You don’t see the leading lady aglow, immersed in technicolored bedazzling panoramas, without that magic-making wand.  the adventures of the crew of The Starship Enterprise sailing at warp speed among the stars and the larger-than-life escapades of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Mr. Data and Geordi La Forge as they battle Klingons, compete with the Romulins for the galaxy and resist being assimilated by the Borgs, only burst onto the screen when you play the DVD in your Blu-Ray machine.  Without that spin doctor, the DVD dead dinks do not dramatize data-the-droid's daring dalliances.  And the still life imprisoned within the DVD. . . colorless, formless, motionless and silent. . . is a dream undecoded; a dream deferred.

Similarly, the physical universe has no color, no shape, no form nor dynamism without conscious awareness.  Without conscious awareness there is no nightingale chiming in the willow tree. Without conscious awareness no rainbows deck the heavens and there is no pot of gold.  Without conscious awareness there are no shimmering moon beams.  And without conscious awareness there would be no aurora borealis formations dancing in the northern skies.  You can’t smell the chrysanthemum or savor the sweet taste of a nectarine out there in the outside world without conscious awareness (playing it).  Only when it is "played" by consciousness does the pine in the forest explodes into existence standing tall and looming large.  The orchid does not have a scent when you are not around to smell it (play it).   And if you are not around (to play it), when the mighty oak crashes to the earth. . . 
it does so quietly. . . without a whimper. . . without a sound.

CHANCE, EVOLUTION BY NATURAL SELECTION, HUMAN DESIGN, DNA and GPS

On the one hand consider a bird and a smart plane. Throw The Bird skyward and say, "Bird, fly to area A". Then throw The Smart Plane skyward and say, "Smart Plane, Fly to area B".

On the other hand consider finding a bird-shaped stone and a plane-shaped stone that you per chance came across when you stubbed your toe on them. Now, in the same way, command The Stoned Bird, "Fly to area A", and Command The Stoned Plane "Fly to area B".

Almost a 100% of the time The Bird and The Smart Plane will reach their designated targets.  How is it that The Bird can overcome gravity, wind etc and reach its goal? The Smart Plane has built-in GPS that switches on and guides The Plane to "B".  Seasonal changes in The Bird's environment switches on its GPS and guides it to "A"

 It is not hard to guess why The Stones miss their designated targets 99.99% of the time. The Smart Plane can overcome  obstacles and vicissitudes to reach its goal as its  GPS gives it self-control over how it "falls".  There is a great deal of confidence that The Bird will succeed. The chances that the Stoned Bird will reach destination "A" is slim to none.  The Smart Plane is flying heads up with GPS sight. The Bird-shaped Stone flies blindly.  When you toss The Stones across the park they are strictly  under environmental influences that they have no power to resist; The Stoned Plane is twisted and flung, and so bounces around  here, there and hither. The Stoned Bird just "flies" uncontrollably.

  The similarities between The Bird and The Smart Plane are quite obvious but it is not always clear what makes them different. The Smart Plane's GPS  has "Designed by The Man" written all over it. The Man could not have programmed The Bird.  During the millions of years when The Bird was developing its GPS, the ancestors of The Man were mouse-sized rodents living in the shadow of The Dinosaur. True: a Stoned Bird and a Stoned Plane could have been around billions of years before The Bird and The Smart Plane took to soaring the skies in controlled flight. Maybe some lucky stone had a little GPS embedded in it. However, The Bird-shaped Stone with this tiny bit of GPS cannot make copies of itself and multiply.  The Stoned Bird will eventually crumble under the blind forces of nature, causing the accidentally acquired bit of GPS in it to disappear. An individual bird will eventually die, but, because it can multiply, the little bit of accidental GPS it acquired is preserved in its copies.  Over thousands of generations these copy/offsprings can accumulate improved GPS.  Unlike The Stones, The Bird was not shaped solely by chance.  Evolution by Natural Selection relentlessly weeds out the less fit and the unfit GPS birds, and keeps on improving the most successful ones.  The Stones can only "fly back" to Earth when flung into the air, and exactly where in the world they happen to land is anybody's  guess.

The Bird did not always have GPS.  How did it come to have GPS? Eons of time ago, within a bird population, one bird (let us call her Big Bird)just accidentally discovered a bit of GPS. Big Bird became more successful than the others, who had none. Its offspring, Little Bird, inherited its qualities. Little Bird's daughter, Grand Bird, had a bit more. It allowed Grand Bird to fly straighter, to have a greater range of access to more mates, food and breeding space.  A non-Big Bird descendant, lacking the advantages of GPS, left less and less offsprings within the population.  After many generations the population had mostly GPS equipped Big Bird descendants.

The Smart Plane did not always have GPS.  How did it come to have GPS?  Geeky Girl designed a simple GPS app for JetBlue.  JetBlue is now able to fly its passengers more quickly and safely to any desired locale, as compared to the non-GPS, Air Iguana.  Smart Geeky Girl, GG's Daughter, designed  a better version  for Air Spirit.  Caribbean Geeky Girl, GG's granddaughter, made a much better GPS app for Air Jamaica. More and more airlines competed.  The jets with the better and best GPS out-competed the poorer and non-GPS ones.

The Smart Plane's detail specs were written and assembled by The Man. The Stones' superficial  plane-and-bird likenesses were accidentally molded by random blind forces.  Bird GPS was perfected by thousands of bird generations slowly accumulating  chance improvements. And thousands of man-hours of preplanned design work went into advancing the perfection of The Smart Plane's improved GPS.

To reiterate, human  culture accumulates planned improvements. Fathers and mothers teach it to the next generation. The following generations add to the store of knowledge and teach it to their kids.  Much more slowly, bird "culture" (bird DNA, heredity) accumulates, stores and passes down GPS chance improvements genetically from one bird generation to the next.  For each lucky genetic improvement chanced upon, there are hundreds of thousands  of poorly serving "GPS gene" modifications that are rejected. Countless many mutant genes are tested by Natural Selection but only a scant rare few are not weeded out. These lucky discoveries of genetic gems accumulated slowly. Improvements are added by bird descendants stretching through epochs of time to the present. Tens of thousands of bird generations record these tidbits of "GPS" information within DNA heredity, thus passing on the cumulative stores to future generations.

 

So, the difference between the Smart Plane and The Bird is that one is designed and assembled by The Man and the other is self-designed and self-assembled by the bird's DNA.  Another difference is that it took The Man about 50 years to perfect GPS, but it took The Bird's DNA millions of years.  Once upon a time billions of years ago, by some quirk of chance (true story, no kidding), a certain type of stone got the ability to generate copies of itself. From that time forward that particular stone was known as The Replicator. It replicated copies of itself, and those copies replicated more copies of themselves. As time passed (millions and millions of years of time) The Replicator transformed and evolved into The RNA Replicator.  The RNA Replicator transformed and evolved into The DNA Replicator.  The DNA Replicator transformed and evolved into The Animal. The Animal transformed and evolved into The Bird and The Man. The Bird evolved built-in GPS first and The Man had no evolved built-in GPS at all. However, during those millions of years The Man had evolved The Intelligence and was able to design The Smart Plane with better built-in GPS (in which he flew to Paris faster than The Bird :).

The mode applied by The Smart Plane is The Man-designed preplanned assembly of various appropriate "Silicon Valley Stones". The mode employed by The Bird is self-assembly through Natural Selection of various appropriate "DNA Genetic Stones".  Of all the tens of millions of different types of molecular "stones",  only five kinds have the ability to naturally store information that leads to the evolution of The Dinosaur into The Bird and "The Mouse into The Man". These are the "genetic stones"  guanine, cytosine, adenine thymine and uracil(G, C, A, T, U).  

Stones on Earth without DNA are not evolvable. But, just by happenstance, a few may superficially resemble The Smart Plane and The Bird. "The birds and the bees" have "Designed by DNA Evolution" written all over them. However, the notion of a random plane-shaped stone and a random bird-shaped stone acquiring GPS navigation without being man designed or DNA designed just wont fly. 

 

Let’s look at a population of dice: marks on their six sides:

A, B, C, D, E, F.  Let’s call it the REDdie variant.  The chance of throwing an F is 1 in 6, or 16%.

The chance of throwing a Z is zero

An E on an unlucky (or lucky) die may accidentally change into (mutate into) an F.

Marks on this die: A, B, C, D, F, F. Lets call this variant REDDERdie).The chance of throwing an F is doubled:2 in 6, or 33%.

The chance of throwing a 2.02Z is zero.

A B as well as an E might accidentally mutate in an individual copy of REDdie.  Marks on die: A, F, C, D, F, F. Here we have variant REDDeepDIE. The chance of throwing an F is increased to 3 chances in 6, or a 50% chance.

The chance of throwing a 13.02Z is zero.

The above is all purely accidental, chance, luck, "miracles", acts of pure randomness. Evolution by pure chance is pure. . . well. . .  nonsense!

Yes.  Chance does play an important role in evolution.  If this is a breeding population of dice the above has it that the die species started out with a population of 100% REDdie.  Purely and spontaneously, by accident, a REDdie individual mutates into REDDERdie. Out of the blue, a cosmic ray slams into an individual of the original REDdie causing it to mutate into REDDeepDIE.

Among the three variants within the dice population, REDDeepDIE by chance acquire the ability to have offsprings fastest, with REDdie dice, the original, slowest. What may happen after some time is that the population of dice will consist of a majority REDDeepDIE and a smaller and smaller minority of REDdie. However, if the environment is such that REDDERdie makes the best fit it may thrive with greatest success and may out-compete the other two, even though it is not as fecund.  If the environment has a selective bias for one variant, chance matters less and less to its survival as compared to those that are the least adaptable.  Natural Selection can be viewed as a series of many sieves, one under the other.  If REDDeepDIE or REDDERdie variant descendants consistently passes through them, that particular variant is not simply being lucky.  Somewhere along the line one of its ancestors most surely acquired the adaptive ability by chance random mutation. But it is now nonrandomly being given a free pass through the sieves of Natural Selection because it has the best fit to the environment.

The variants of this breeding population REDdie, REDDERdie and REDDdeepDie have heritable qualities as well as non-heritable qualities. Only heritable qualities maybe nonrandomly preserved and consistently passed on down the generations.  And only heritable qualities may nonrandomly be weeded out of future generations consistently. 

What does it mean to say "The chance of throwing a. . .Z is zero"?  One, two, three or more individuals within the die species might all wear the same fad badge (Z) of identity regardless of belonging to different variants. However, only the heritable qualities of REDdie, REDDERdie and REDDdeepDie maybe consistently passed on by Natural Selection and improved or not improved by descendants. The expression is implying that, though the quality, Z, maybe accidentally acquired by various individuals within the die population, it is not of heritable quality; it is therefore not subject to Natural Selection. Only heritable traits are acted upon by Natural Selection's series of sifters. Passing fads like Z come and go at random because passing fads like Z do not affect survival within a given environmental niche.

If A, B, C, D, E, F qualities are the only ones that can be "thrown” (that is, the only heritable ones) then 2.02Z or 13.02Z (by definition of not being heritable qualities) cannot be "thrown".  Sure, all of the above qualities/traits (A to Z) are randomly changeable due to "the throwing of the dice" by blind unpredictable influences. The point about evolution is that the Natural Selection sieves are indifferent to changes in nonheritable traits, Z's. On the other hand, changes in the heritable traits (A, B, C, D, E, F) of living organic populations may nonrandomly affect the species survival fitness within their niches.  

Let’s move from A, B, C, D, E, F and Z to genes. Nucleic acid bodies (for example, the cache of genes/DNA within the human genome) store the information for growing amino acid bodies(for example, the cache of proteins/enzymes called a human being).  The latter's design specifications are stored in the former.  Random mutations in DNA may alter protein expression for better or for worse for the experience of an individual of a species.  A mutant gene allele that leaves the protein body it affects more adaptable in its environs than previous, may, at the expense of its other competing alleles, increase its frequency in the species gene pool (compare the frequency of the brown eye gene to the blue eye version/allele). If a protein mutates as a result of direct damage there is no consequence to the species DNA. On the other hand, direct damage/mutation of an individual gene may have widespread species consequences. For example, if Lindsey trashes her Optima, it is inconsequential to the future success of The KIA Optima. However, if the original KIA Optima blue prints are heavily damaged with the loss of some key specification information, this could prove to have grave widespread consequences in the manufacture of future Optimas.

Evolution will not occur solely by chance. A species evolutionary progress demands a combination of chance and selection. Random/chance gene mutations are necessary because it continually generates a wide variety of heritable DNA raw material within a species gene pool. But nonrandom/discriminating  Natural Selection is the final arbiter because it chooses what gene raw materials will advance the improvement of the organisms' fitness to their environments.

The Body & I

My body and I woke up feeling energized and in good spirits. My body felt renewed. I bounced up out of bed and stood stiffly upright on my knock-kneed legs. As my face and mouth contorted into a wide yawn my muscles shook all of my body. My arms stretched out taut seemingly reaching out to embrace the whole of humanity. My belly fat jiggled as I shook uncontrollably. A gaping noisy yawn from my throat brought tears rolling down the sides of my cheeks, and I was happy.

After enjoying a refreshing shower my body and I got dressed. There was an awful grumbling bellowing from my stomach. My body was saying that it was time to feed itself. I felt the freshness of the air as it was passing through my mouth filling up my body’s lungs with the life elixir of oxygen. I could feel my body’s powerful heart beating in the body's chest cavity as it pumped vigorously pouring more than a gallon of blood through all its veins and arteries, awashing and sustaining all of the body’s tissues and organs. I patiently waited and watched with interest as the hands effortlessly fixed my body and I a low carb, low sugar breakfast that I thoroughly consumed with relish and gusto. My body’s brain and mind became acutely awakened after my haughty breakfast. My body and I went out into the world to start our day.

I watched as my body placed its right foot forward and then its left foot forward as it sauntered me down Center Street towards Franklin Ave headed for ShopRite. While making my way through the park on Center I started to taste the salt of sweat seeping from the pores of my body, dripping off the brow of my massive head, burrowing into my eyes, snaking its way into the nostrils and seeping over and into my tongue and gums. My legs were now stepping less stridently. My body was saying it was tiring, to sit it down. As I relented the body sagged and sat its butt down on a park bench. “Ah! Isn’t this relaxing!” I said out loud to no one in particular. My body then proceeded to flop itself down as its legs jutted out, spreading forward wildly. Its long outstretched arms flailed out as its huge strong-man hands arched across in opposite directions to grip the top of the park bench. “How sweet it is!!” my mind exclaimed loudly to itself. As I sat there lazily my eyes began to focus on a family of swans swimming on the still pond. My lips formed a curious broad furtive smile as I sat with widening eyes transfixed and wide open ears perked up. My body even tingled a little as my brain processed the scenery of a pride-filled father swan and a doting mother swan playfully fussed over their six little ones. I sat and bonded with this dad as I laughed out loud, enjoying the “The Proud Swan Family Show”.

After a good thirty minutes my body told my mind that I was now thoroughly rested and that it was time I moved on to new experiences. We, my body and I, picked ourselves up as we briskly meandered on our way towards having our ShopRite shopping experience.

At end of the day I "stand back" and contemplate about my body and I. Who is really in charge here? Is it I who am in charge of my body or does my body "simply" runs itself. I know for certain if I was given the simple task of making sure to take a regular breath every second all the time I would fail miserably at it! I am glad I don't have to worry about making my heart beat! I really appreciate my body being responsible for that!!

However, I feel strongly that I give my body meaning and purpose. Without "me/I" my body seems purposeless. What is the purpose of that thing with a roof, rooms, closet space, a stove etc? What is the purpose of that thing with four legs, a seating and a backing? A chair would not exist as such if it did not "live" to serve as a purpose and meaning for me. A house is not a home if no one lives in it. A car "achieves its destiny" only when it "lives" as transportation.

The whole universe seems to be an extension of our bodies. Without us our bodies along with the whole of existence seems purposeless. Our center of awareness, or consciousness itself, "I", it seems to me, brings existence to life.

If I exist outside of time and space then why do you see me changing and growing in space and time, you ask? Because of our nature as a duality. I strongly identify with the various changing, growing appearances of Charley that is constantly being transformed in space and time. In my apparent nature, I live in time and space. However, the more real essential you lives outside of time and space. Our constant coming into being (from a cell to a baby to the person you are now , etc) must be balanced with and contrasted to the essential nature. This center, consciousness itself, is the well spring of existence.

It is beginning to look like you, me, we, sentient beings, are that which is timeless and infinitely spacious, or conscious awareness itself.

you are THAT which is the self-projecting projector that is self-generating the timeless, infinitely spacious screen. You are THAT which is alive with the experiences called existence.

The unborn, undying essential center, consciousness itself, is THAT which brought existence into being; THAT within which the whole universe is embodied. THAT which brought cellular life into being; THAT which became THAT which I identify with as "The Body & I"

"I"

Awareness is the witness to experience. It is like a projector screen. A constant stream of changing impressions arising from your objective and subjective experiences is being projected onto this screen. These impressions of reality appear, persist and change but the subjective projector screen is always a constant; it is always being “written on”. Your awareness has the essential property of wholeness. The center of this wholeness is your consciousness. This allows you to distinguish between YOU and THINGS that are NOT YOU. Things appear, persist for awhile and go through changes. However, this center is a constant background. Conscious awareness remains essentially unchanged while it constantly watches a constantly changing scenery of changing appearances.

Consciousness is not some supernatural entity foreign to material reality. It is a phenomenon rooted in objective reality. Let us compare consciousness to the hands. Your hands are material things interacting with other material things. As the hand feels out its world, it experiences a constant stream of impressions. These “feel” imprints, or experiences, come and go but they essentially leave the hand unchanged. The hand has all these experiences without losing its “HANDNESS”. That is, it remains itself as it continues to have constantly changing experiences. Theses marks made by it and on it come and go but your hand remains your hand.

The complexity of the brains of sentient beings is, unarguably, unsurpassed. The mind is an extremely subtle “organ” rooted in the material brains of conscious beings. Impressions made on our material organs of sight, hearing, feeling , smelling and touching are transformed via complex brain processes into mental perceptions. These external stimulations are transformed into the mental impulses of the mind. There are different levels of complexity of the mental, with our thoughts being the pinnacle of this complexity.

The mind has the property of wholeness. Your mind may appear to be a separate “body” from the brain but it emerged from it and remains deeply and firmly embedded in the brain at all times. Just as your hand “witnesses” constantly changing experiences and remains essentially unchanged by its worldly experiences, the impressions of reality coming through your material organs of sense (eyes, ears, etc) is projected onto the subjective screen that is the mind. Some of these perceptions become our thoughts. Thoughts are mind stuff. They come and go. Similarly to the hands, the mind’s center of conscious awareness witnesses these constant comings and goings but remains essentially unchanged.

Another name for your consciousness, or center of conscious awareness, is "I".

THE LONG EMBRACE

It’s Thanksgiving. I am having dinner with good friends. They happen to be half brothers; we are seated around the table. To the left of Johnny Kool De'Ego is Lewdecrous D. Id. (Lewd for short). He is the short one standing on the chair picking his nose. To the right of Johnny is His Majesty Emperor Gold D. Superego, the one with the diamond bejeweled crown dressed like King Henry The Eight.

“I could eat a horse or even a pair of sneakers I am so hungry!” Lewd complained loudly.

“Do I have to be in the same room with THAT thing?” sneered D. Superego, turning up his nose.

“I think he’s kinda cute, don’t you think, Charley?” Kool asked me as he patted D. Id on the head. I nodded and smiled sheepishly.

“You think he is funny? Look at him! Will you please wipe the mucus sliming down your nose!? Don’t you feel it dribbling into your mouth and falling off your chin onto my Fine China!? You PIG!! How disgusting!!” D. Superego ranted.

“Hey, Gold D, can we start eating already? Lewd is right we are all hungry”, Johnny pleaded.

“I MUST say grace. The victuals MUST be blessed. I will not touch one unconsecrated morsel ‘til I give thanks and praise to my Almighty God, and neither will you!” thundered His Majesty.

“Put a sock in it, you pompous blowhard”, replied D. Id, standing on the table, scratching himself.

“Lewd, come on now, chill. We have a guest. Don’t let him leave with the wrong impression. We should give thanks. There are a lot of people worse off than us. Let Gold D say grace so we can enjoy this delicious seven course Thanksgiving meal”.

(As D. Id climbed down off the chair he let loose a loud fart)

“Oh my God!! That’s it! I am through with him!!” D. Superego screamed, having a fit.

“What? Like you never. . .”

“Well I never! How dare you, you little impudent ape!” protested His majesty, seemingly mortified at the suggestion that he also passes flatus.

“Hey! Back off! I’m just keeping it real! Yeah, Real” said D. Id, Standing tall, giving D. Superego the middle finger.

(De'Ego is standing between them now, preventing them from coming to blows)

“Guys! Guys! Can’t you guys behave for even a minute? Both of you just cool it” reasoned De’Ego.

“I demand an apology now! Right right now! You hear me, Johnny; I will not stand for his insolence. Tell him to apologize, or else I am leaving!” demanded The Emperor, standing stiffly.

“I ain’t Apologizing for shit! I don’t need you! Go ahead, make my day. Leave, damn it!” retorted D. Id

(Kool looked at me. I tried not to make eye contact with any of them).

“How about those Yankees!” I said, trying to change the subject.

“OK. Lewd, my little brother, please. . . sit. Gold D, you really need to calm down some. Remember your heart. We almost lost you because of that heart attack last month. And you, Lewd, you were worried sick about him. You spent a week by his bedside. You spoon fed him chicken soup when we brought him home. You even read him his favorite poems. You know you love and need each other. Come on, at least shake hands”

(The two, D. Id and D. Superego, shook hands, grudgingly)

“Come on! Yous two can do better than that! Hug each other! You know you want to!” cheered on De'Ego as he pushed them in each other’s embrace.

I sat transfixed in amazement. Look at them. Each of them are so different yet they seem to need each other.

I sat there smiling as the three half brothers D. Id, De'Ego and D. Superego, hugged each other in a long warm embrace.


LESSONS LEARNED

Let us examine the lessons we can learn from this not-so-tall-tale.

On the one hand we are often times earthy, coarse, unrefined, etc. We have to eat, but we don’t have to eat like pigs. We have to use the bathroom but we don’t have to piss on fire hydrants. We necessarily need to indulge our carnal desires (but. . . get a room!).

On the other hand we have a wondrous spirit about us. We are prideful. We have high standards and values. We strive to maintain a sense of morality. We have to maintain standards of decency, after all, we are civilized human beings. But we don’t have to be holier-than-though. We have to strive for high spiritual ideals but we don’t have to be super self-righteous. We should do the right thing. It is proper to be an example of what is good and kind but we should not be unforgiving of those "of a lesser God".

THE NEED TO EAT

ID Sense:  "I need to eat otherwise I'll die! As a matter of desire, I'll stuff myself like a hog every chance I get!!


Superego Sense:  "If I have to eat like the ID, I'll dine less than the bare minimum or not at all!  I'll rather die!!"

Ego (Common Sense):  "Guys! Be realistic. We must eat to live! We can manage without stuffing, over-stuffing ourselves and without eating unhealthily (like a hog) or worse, not eating at all!!"



We should strive to find balance in our lives. We need both body and spirit. Above all else, we have to have compassion for ourselves and embrace everything that is in each of us.

NOW

I stubbed my toe on a rock April first twenty-twelve at one minute past twelve noon. It was a sunny springish Monday afternoon. I stubbed my toe on that same stone three days ago. You guessed it. Yes. I am a time traveler. Why, you don’t believe me? Well actually I only travel in the middle part of time. The NOW. I don’t need to travel to those other parts of time, the past and the future. I have that stone with me now. . . and now. . . and now. . .

If I spread out a handful of rocks all around me when are they? They are now. If I walk up to a rock when is it? Now. If I pick it up now when is it? Now. Can I pick up the rock in the past or the future? No. I can only pick it up NOW. Think of time as rocks positioned in a straight line from left to right. Events (the rocks) are moments of time. Time can be likened to an infinity of rocks layed out in a straight line from left to right. When you walk past the rocks in the direction of left to right this is like time “moving forward”. Way behind you is a rock in a place called WHEN I WAS. Way ahead of you is another rock in a town known as WHEN I WILL BE. Once you walk past a rock you are forbidden to turn around and pick it up. You are only allowed to pick up rocks ahead of you. . . now. . . and then pick up the one in front of you, now. . . When you get to a rock ten paces ahead you can only pick it up in the the present, or the now portion of time. For a rock further up ahead you have to wait until you reach it, and then you pick it up. . . NOW, because you are forbidden to skip ahead. You are only allowed to pick up the rock a mile ahead by stopping at each stone behind it; first passing the stone to your immediate left before you can get to the stone to your immediate right in the line. You stop briefly and pick up a stone now. You can't clearly see the stone to your immediate right and you are forbidden by time to touch it.

To exist is to experience this moment NOW. If you are not experiencing at this moment you do not exist. Within the real world outside of the subjective experiences, there is no past or future, just NOW. You are blind to any given piece of reality until your awareness comes in contact with it aided by the senses. Awareness is blind until you have an interactive experience. You cannot experience a piece of reality until your conscious awareness touches it. . . NOW. . . and NOW. It can make an impression on consciousness again. . . NOW. You can pretend and imagine ‘experiencing ‘ subjectively ‘touching it in the future’ in your mind but you can only experience any piece of objective reality when you actually interact with it, NOW.

I was born as Charley and first experienced the world outside of the womb in 1957. Charley appeared as a mischievous toddler around 1960. I, Charley, appeared as an intellectually curious teenager in the 1970’s. Then Charley experienced is first occasion as a proud father when his first daughter took her first breath of air in 1988, and the first occasion of a second daughter September 8th 1989. I remember seeing her popping her head out staring at me and wailed away crying until her mother and I bonded with her and she was consoled. Essentially I remain CHARLEY through all these different appearances and experiences. I remain essentially who I am.

The truth is that, essentially, time lives inside of you; you do not live in time. These experiences and appearances arise within and pass through the essential unchanging YOU. YOU are like a cinematic screen. The scenery and the dramatics keep changing and moving but the screen is unchanging and unmoving; in your essential nature YOU are this constant unchanging and unmoving presence. Consider yourself as an INFINITELY HIGH IMMOVABLE MOUNTAIN. From the infinite summit a future rock is tumbling toward your "I" of awareness. As it inches on down, you barely perceive it until it touches your conscious awareness, NOW. This rock experience then proceeds into the infinite past. All that is left of the original rock experience is the impression it leaves imprinted on your subjective awareness. You can re-visit the subjective impression of the original rock experience, but only by recalling it anew. . .NOW

We use the concept of ‘dates’ to book mark and track these experiences and constantly changing appearances as they come into being, NOW and pass away. . .NOW.

True, without the concept of time ""I"" would have a great deal of difficulty organizing the accumulating impressions constantly being made by the many many various unique appearances and experiences that just keep piling up quickly as ""I"" interact with the objective external world, but time is really subjective.

You are like a blind man with only the sense of feel/touch. You can’t “see” the objective rock until you touch it, and when you touch it the time is now. It’s six-o-clock now and I am subjectively recalling/looking at the impression of the rock experience. . .NOW.

“What time is it" you ask? Why, it is now. Welcome, fellow time traveler. Travel with me to the now; we have to do it at this moment because this moment is the only time we have NOW.

"I" AM JUST ENJOYING THE RIDE

An individual’s consciousness is a witness to his experiences. The conscious awareness chooses which experience the person is going to have. Thereafter his awareness just sits back and watches as the experience occurs. No effort needs to be made by me. My body just has the experience. “I” do nothing but watch the action. “I” say ‘I am going to the kitchen to make me a sandwich’, and my body just does it without any other input from me. “I” do not pull any strings; my legs pick me up from where I am sitting, walks me to the kitchen, and my hands make me a sandwich. If my body was just a puppet I would have to pull its strings to maneuver my arms, legs, neck, torso, etc in very careful, detailed and meticulous ways to get from point “A” to point ”B” to eventually get to the kitchen after arduous concentration and with great care. This is hard work! But I do no work whatsoever. None. My body parts just “know” exactly what to do; my legs, head, neck, torso, arms, hands and fingers are pre-programmed wonderfully to maneuver dexterously to accomplish almost any task I ask of them.

In fact when it comes to my body “I” am mostly an absentee landlord. It appears “I” don’t have to be a constant presence to direct most of the tasks that my body is involved in. For example, there are instances I jump in my car, turn on the ignition and don’t recall how I got to work! I have taken this route so often my body does not need me “present” to get me to work. “I” think: ‘If I leave now I should get to work by seven pm’. Then I look up, it is fifteen minutes before seven pm and I see my right hand removing the car keys from the ignition. I was not “present” for the whole six mile journey. After you “show” your body a few times how to do something it appears no longer to need you. All "I" do is nothing, except to sit back and enjoy the ride.