you, you are just exactly as lacking in rational understanding as the characters of a film or dream. Your attention is constantly immersed in one of the screens, and your intention, in the current frame. So your motives and actions are not in fact yours, do you see?
What happens, literally, is the following. At a certain point in time, you start to want something, and you struggle to do whatever it is. You think that these are your own motives and actions, whereas, in fact, they are spelled out in the script. You might think that you had the idea for something, but in actual fact, this is just the story twist for your role. You are consumed by current reality to such an extent that you stop being aware of what you are doing and fail to see through the illusion.
You have your own mannequins in the films stored in the Eternity archive. When you watch one of these films in a dream, your consciousness finds a mannequin, which comes to life and starts moving. As long as you are having the dream, you are living in the body of a dream mannequin as one of multiple different variants. Take a look in a mirror some time in a dream. You won’t recognise yourself.
In the film roll, along which your life is running, it is exactly the same. Your consciousness enters the next version of the dummy, which comes to life and becomes you in the current frame. But here’s the question: how are you different to the dream mannequins if in waking life, you live as if you were in a dream?
And generally speaking, what makes you any better than a snail? Repulsive, slimy snails, which respond equally as primitively to all external stimuli. They tuck away their horns and hide in a little house… Your fate is as predetermined as you are predictable.
Even the little that you have learned so far, my dears, is incomprehensible to you because it does not fit the mould of your worldview. And as long as it remains inaccessible to you, you will be free in dreams and bound in your fate. But when, finally, you see the light and ditch the illusion, you will be able to stroll through reality, like a living being inside a film. And you will be able to pick a new reality, like choosing a reel from the archive.
And now an interlude! I am exiting my film and setting off for a book. I’ll see you there. Bye for now, snails![1]
How to Escape a Trap
Pleasure before business, my little buffoons. Who said the opposite? Your pain is my gain, or even my amusement, so!
• There is illusion of image, and there is illusion of action.
• Motion is not what you do but rather, what is happening.
• You are not living your life – life is happening to you.
• You are directed by a strict script, and for this reason —
• You are free to daydream but bound in your choice of fate.
What other insulting things can I say to you? I’ll remind you of the main point of the previous lesson. You might think that you are your own master and that you act consciously. In actual fact, you are only aware of yourself in the moment that you ask yourself this question. The remainder of the time, your awareness sleeps and surrenders to the outer script.
The ability to show self-awareness for a single moment won’t free you from the script. You are characters inside a film and this is simultaneously an illusion and a trap. Regardless of how much you might think of yourself, – that is where you are, and the trap has its hold on you.
What is stopping you from escaping? Mainly, three things:
1. Ignorance of the fact that you are a character.
2. A reflexive psyche – “snail horns”.
3. The mould, limited by notions of the possible and the impossible.
Look livelier-livelier, happier-happier, amphibians! Everything can be put right. You already have the first thing you need to escape. This is very important, because anyone who is ignorant of the illusion, remains in it forever. Nobody has told you about the illusion of action, and you never had an inkling because such a thing, in your opinion, ‘is impossible’.
Now you know. But this is not enough. Let’s say you’re a snail, and you have learned about the illusion. Would you then stop being a snail? If you cry, “Oh, what a misfortune, I don’t want to be a snail!”, will anything change?
No. You cannot just come to life in a motion picture and start doing whatever you want without following the script. Here a slightly different approach is needed. There are still two hurdles that must be overcome: habits and views. In actual fact, you don’t possess these things, they possess you. But that’s ok, we’ll drag you out of the coma yet.
You are made snails by the habit of waiting and hoping for something to happen rather than composing your own reality. Will it come off or not? Will it work out or not? This is a passive position. From this position, all you are capable of doing is giving reality a prod and pulling back your horns at the slightest little thing.
In order to stop being wet and snotty and become beautiful and happy, you need to shift into active gear. Not wait and hope, but compose your reality. Your mould is an obstacle, as it tells you that it is impossible to compose your own reality. This is your little house, but I’ll drag you out of it, nasty and slippery though you are!
New habits and views are developed just exactly as the old ones took root – through multiple repetitions. Only from now on, instead of staring at reality and following it, you will actively control the movement of the frame. Can you guess which frame?
Not the one in which you find yourself in the present moment but the one that is coming up. As you already know, you can’t change the reality of the current frame because it has already come into being. You can only specify the nature of the reality that is yet to come. So your attention should be focused several frames ahead.
Just like when you tracked your attention, now, you will need to track the forthcoming frame. For this, there are three triggers:
Expectation — something is going to happen; you are waiting, hoping for something.
Intention – you intend to set off somewhere or do something.
Problem – something happened that needs resolving.
Whenever you expect something, don’t wait or hope – compose reality. Whenever you intend to do something, don’t rush to get on with it. First, compose reality. Whenever a problem arises, again, don’t wait, don’t hope, don’t fuss; compose your reality.
Frame illumination method.
1. Catch yourself at one of the triggers.
2. Wake up: I can see myself and I can see reality.
3. Activate the plait, hold the feeling, compose reality.
1. Drop the feeling off the plait.
2. If the event is very important to you, repeat the illumination several times.
Try to remember and constantly think about the forthcoming frame. It won’t work for you every time. At first, you will keep forgetting. Old habits aren’t that easy to unstick. You have to see it out, and replace it with a new one. Don’t be lazy, be smart, get on with it or else I’ll see you out. You’re good for nothing. Nobody loves you except me.
Reprogramming
Don’t get all steamed up, don’t get steamed up, my dears – mug up! Let’s repeat what we’ve covered so far.
• The snail horns and house keep you trapped in the current frame.
• To free yourself from the trap, you must shift into active gear —
• Don’t wait and hope, compose reality. Requirements:
• Constantly practice managing the upcoming frame. Method:
• Expectation, intention, problem – immediate activation and frame illumination.
Compose events in which the outcome is unknown but also compose things that