The Present

[laughingwillow]

.... This morning I flashed on a reoccurring theme of past shows that were "difficult" for me to handle. In many instances, I became afraid that I was about to glean information/knowledge that would forever change my world. Almost like a potential loss of innocence. A feeling that I was about to cross a bridge that was for one way traffic only. An egotistical belief that once I crossed a threshold many more would follow and we there would be no looking back.......

At that point, I would think of affairs that needed to be to put in order and karmic obligations to meet before that flight of universal consciousness was possible for me to experience. Meanwhile, I got the feeling that mission control was tiring of the false starts and delays...

lw

[Jethro Tull]

I'm not criticizing the author's work, efforts, or intentions. While they don't resonate with me they may with some, and that could be a good thing. My take on LW's discomfort (and, speaking for him, I could be wrong) isn't so much with the product, but with what you think has been accomplished. The Present is but one story out of an infinity that can be told, and the fact that it doesn't resonate with any particular person doesn't mean that said person is close-minded. He or she may just resonate better with different stories.

The author appears to know the mind of Albert Hoffmann, but I find confusion and ignorance in the authors comments. The author has no patent on the truth, imo. While reading "the present," I get my monthly fill of pop culture references in a few short paragraphs and little else. I'm glad to see you have connected with this particular works. Unfortunately it rings few bells for me.

I agree with both of you entirely.

Page 262 of The Present
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This time the truth is not dependent on a single leader. In the past, a lowlife could kill a prophet and stop the truth from getting out, but not now.

This book is just the spark that will get people talking about the real truth. I am just a guy with a match that is trying to start a truth fire.

Tuned in: I am just a tuned in guy, throwing out things I can see, that no one else seems to see. When others start to see them, people will come together and better define the truth. We will see the issues clearly for the first time and the solutions to our problems; we will then solve them as fast as is possible.
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Pages 262-263
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Write a book:  As Paul Simon says in the song, "Slip Sliding Away", the closer you get to the truth, the more you slip slide away from it. The truth makes you feel better, so you start doing better in life and are distracted from the truth. It is usually nothing heavy or earth shaking, it is just people lose interest and go off into something else. People slip slide away from it without even noticing they are doing it. That is why it helps to write your own book to stay on track.

The only thing we all have in common is that we play tricks in order to force ourselves to abandon the quest. The counter-measure is to persist in spite of all the barriers and disappointments. Carlos Castaneda

Just start writing what you think the ultimate truth is and why. Work on it a little everyday and it will grow and so will your understanding of the truth. It keeps you on the spiritual path, so it is important and everyone should do it.

What you know: Your book will tell you what you know you know, so you will just concentrate on and research, what you know you do not know.

Your book will evolve and change as you evolve and change.

It is like working on a clay sculpture. You add a little here, take a little there, until it begins to reveal the ultimate truth in a way that you understand it perfectly.

I received the revelations in this book one or two sentences at a time or one idea at a time. One thing would just lead to another and it just built into this book. Most of the time I will get just a little change to something I have already written. I would just write the ideas I received on a note pad until I got a few pages and then I would turn on my laptop and add them to this book.

The next best things to knowing the ultimate truth, is seeking it.

Writing a book keeps you seeking and organized in your search. It leads directly to God/life. Doing it on a computer makes it easy. It would have been difficult in the past, but now you can delete and add stuff easy and you can watch TV while you do it. When it gets complete enough just send it to the contest and the judges will help you refine it.

Judges: Everyone that makes an entry becomes a judge, so by competing with the other entries, the entries keep getting better.  I think someone is going to say what I say in this book a lot better than I do. I am not a writer and just wrote this to get the ball rolling. I expect this first try at it, just to inspire other people that will do it better, maybe you will.
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Here is my take on it.  "The Present" may or may not suffice; I personally think it does, and that is why I provided the link.  Regardless, more entries will be submitted and ultimately confined into one entry that is the most understandable, and the most complete.  It will be written by everyone, and no-one, just as the collective unconscious/universal mind/Holy Spirit is everyone and no-one.

The Present is just a spark, we are the kindling, and the internet is the oxygen that fuels the fire.  Now is the perfect time to spread the truth, because we can reach the masses in the blink of an eye.

[laughingwillow]

Here's a little "truth for you, mon...

The first line of the tao teh ching as translated by Hua-Ching Ni....

Tao, the subtle reality of the universe cannot be described.
That which can be described in words
 is merely a conception  of the mind.
Although names and descriptions have been applied to it,
 the subtle reality is beyond description.

Chapter/Verse 33...

One who knows others is clever.
One who knows himself has insight.
One who overcomes others is forceful.
One who overcomes himself is truly strong.
One who knows he has enough is rich,
One who does not divert his mind from
 the realization of integral virtue is wisely willful
One who preserves his natural integrity will endure.
One who embraces the subtle essence dies
 yet does not perish
 and thus enjoys true immortality...

I don't see the internet as the vehicle to communicate the ultimate truth. But that's just my opinion. The ultimate truth comes from inside, imo. The truth is, I have more questions than answers and tend to shy away from those claiming to be spreading the "truth" for mass consumption.

lw

[JRL]

I run from those with more answers than questions

Like they called Ken Kesey the man with questions for all the answers

[senorsalvia]

I run from those with more answers than questions

Like they called Ken Kesey the man with questions for all the answers

:smoke:3       Keep runing bro, and make sure 'ya don't get flattened by that outta control bus driven by that crazy Kerouac fella fella :e_wink:

[Jethro Tull]

Here's a little "truth for you, mon...

The first line of the tao teh ching as translated by Hua-Ching Ni....

The Tao Te Ching is excellent.
Currently, I'm re-reading Gilban's "The Prophet," one of my favorites.

I don't see the internet as the vehicle to communicate the ultimate truth. But that's just my opinion. The ultimate truth comes from inside, imo. The truth is, I have more questions than answers and tend to shy away from those claiming to be spreading the "truth" for mass consumption.

I hear ya, and I'm not here to rock your boat.  Just trying to get some thoughts about this.  I think the internet is the perfect way to communicate and spread the ultimate truth, at the very least to help others get on the path of truth seeking.  Even 100 years ago, prophets would be killed for saying these things, but with the internet, it is anonymous, simple, and less confronting, IMO of course.

I run from those with more answers than questions

Like they called Ken Kesey the man with questions for all the answers

Yes friends, I am full of questions too.  Life is magical and mysterious, always new and surprising.  The magical mystery tour is waiting to take you away, dying to take you away.  Although The Present is full of assertions and "answers," I think it is worth showing to people, so I thought I'd share it with you to know your thoughts and learn from you.

[judih]

i think what's being said here is that there is no 'ultimate truth', rather only people's opinions of it.
dust in the wind

[laughingwillow]

And voila! Just like that, sistah-j cuts to the heart of the matter at hand and gets my vote for the bestest, most concise explaimation of the ultimate truth.

lw

[Jethro Tull]

i think what's being said here is that there is no 'ultimate truth', rather only people's opinions of it.
dust in the wind

But are we not all trying to pose opinions of that which applies to all of us?  A universal message?  An ultimate truth that unites all beings?

"Truth is neither holy nor unholy. Truth is neither love nor hate. Truth is neither pure nor impure. Truth is neither simple nor complex. Truth is neither heaven nor hell. Truth is neither moral nor immoral. Truth is neither of the God nor of the devil. Truth is neither virtue nor vice. Truth is neither birth nor death. Truth is neither in the religion nor without religion. Truth is as the outside water flowing, it has no resting place. Truth is life."
-Jiddu Krishnamurti

Truth is life, and it is found in the present.  

[Amomynous]

I don't think the two are necessarily incompatible. There could be an ultimate Truth... but still, all we would have would be personal experiences and opinions about it...

[laughingwillow]

The way I read it, the linked author has assembled a collection of quotes by famous people along with personal takes on pop culture that has been presented as the ultimate truth and accepted by the author of this thread as such. To me, the piece reads like something that was put together little by little, as each idea and inspiration came to the author. Sort of like a journey into the person's unconscious train of thought. Imo, there is no coherency of theme nor idea. Its a random collection of thoughts and theories to me. I make no connection with the piece what so ever. Then I read a quote by the linked author above that seems to verify the fact that the author did indeed write the piece in bits and pieces, just as it reads to me.

No offense, but the detail I find the oddest is the fact that the author of this thread feels like he has discovered the "ultimate truth" by reading the linked piece. (Supposedly written by a third party.)


What isn't addressed, however, is the idea/theory that those unrelated quotes and suppositions happen to trigger an understanding in the author due to his/her particular life experiences. And each individual has their own, unique set of personal locks that are manipulated by knowledge that is accumulated over a lifetime of experience.  

I think its as unrealistic to expect to find the ultimate truth on the web pages of the internet as it is to find the ultimate truth on the shelves of a bookstore.

lw

[judih]

'ultimate' implies finite. For if the universe is infinite, then there'll always be one more 'truth' just after the last one. Unless by 'truth' one rolls everythingness into one huge, incomprehensible abstraction that is simply labelled 'truth'.

i agree with l-w's summation - that in dealing with quote after epiphany that leads to one person's deeper comprehension, then it is personal 'truth', considered ultimate for that split second, but probably still in the process of morphing as days grow into years and one's experiences spiral and deepen.

what is truth? a million different facets of something unpronounceable.

One huge lie detector could nullify that 'truth' - or even a sudden trauma could reverse all previously held truths.
I know people who travelled India, Nepal and further, only to come home to embrace religion, needing to have someone else interpret life and offer a single true answer.  Does one need the 'ultimate truth' to get up in the morning? Or is it better to be delighted each day upon the sighting of a sudden goose in a field or a lone red anemone growing in a desert dune?

i like my truths non-ultimate