Overview
After a monad forms (a monad is pure AWARENESS looped back on itself to allow the experience of novel experiences), an ‘initial wound’ is formed, as the unbound and unfettered chooses to be self-limited. At the most basic level, this is a ‘1 bit being’. By that I mean, there is just ‘1 bit of information difference’ between that nascent being and unbounded totality. This monad, like all it’s transfinite brothers, who vibrate in the mass ocean of POTENTIALITY, which feels like a warm, velvety darkness (with the potential for unbounded light), at the first don’t get too adventurous. They stay close to all the others, with the focus of their intent.
Now, eventually (silly to say eventually in a timeless, spaceless non-void void, but language has severe limits) monads branch out a bit, learning to play, by selectively turning off ‘information bits of their totality’, and thus becoming something new, something that seems more ‘solid’, as solidity is a feature of forming habits in conjunction with the turning off of particular information bits and maintaining that. This is the choosing of becoming something, not just everything. In this case, being ‘everything’ is much like being ‘nothing’. It’s like having an artist’s canvas, that has every last possible painting slopped onto it, all at once. Is it black? Is it white? Is it something? Or Nothing? It’s hard to say, just like the void-fullness which is POTENTIALITY.
Things get very interesting when monads become very playful with each other. You get this crazy ‘surrealistic mess’. It’s fun, but it’s discordant, even painful a lot of the time.
So the desire is to have fun, to ‘let loose’ to use all that ‘infinite cosmic power’, but to minimize the discomfort.
This is where you get an ontological gradient. Some directions are ‘good touch’ and some directions are ‘bad touch’. (touch is the most primal of senses to develop).
You start to get all this complexity.
Over time (time starts to form, once you take that first 1 bit differential from POTENTIALITY). You start to accumulate ‘consequences. These consequences are like your ‘online reputation’ with the rest of REALITY. These consequences are like the formation of C.G. Jung’s shadow self, on a ‘cosmic level’, where some things are passed into an unconscious state, due to denial (turning off of bits in your being). This cosmic shadow self is known by various names: ‘god’, ‘the phenomenon’, ‘the demiurge’ — by various names.
Another name for this detritus of surrealistic experience is called ‘consciousness’. Some yoga practitioners call this kundalini, or the products of shiva/shakti, also known as maya. Maya is also called illusion.
In Platonic Surrealism, we do no deride ‘maya’ , ‘illusion’ or what you wish to name it, we call it part of the movies.
In Platonic Surrealism, nothing has ontological priority. Meaning that neither mind, nor matter, nor ‘the real’ or the ‘unreal’ has any precedence.
AWARENESS is like a giant cosmic eggbeater, and consciousness is like the eggs, all smashed up and recombined ‘chaotically’.
In Platonic Surrealism we do not ‘worship consciousness’ nor ‘god’ nor any other tier 3 products of POTENTIALITY. (first, it’s POTENTIALITY, then it’s AWARENESS, then it’s the products of those initial interactions of POTENTIALITY and AWARENESS).
These tier 3 interactions, also called ‘consciousness’ are full of pain, among other things, and as a result, these ‘cosmic currents’ will seek to use one of three major modalities to feel better, to feel more alive, but more importantly for most of their lifecycle, they seek to hide in a warm, safe place, like in a uterus, as one example.
Now to ‘grow a uterus’ to hide in, you need to form a ‘space/time/universe’ or other similar place. They way you do this, is for one of the more experienced monads to either ‘explode’ or otherwise expand a whole bunch, and then to ‘go to sleep’, so that there is a clean ‘palette’, and eventually some basic forms, such as galaxies, stars and planets and then LIFE, to get a toe-hold in, that warm, safe place, like POTENTIALITY originally was.
Lovings monads that form a canvas (universe say) hide with perfection, or even ‘detonate themselves’, so that their preferences do not override the little ones (the nascent monads); to allow them to learn and grow.
Awful monads DO NOT hide, hardly at all. They try to micromanage everything, stepping all over the little ones. These are the hell words, that were created by monads named Yahweh and the like, or the demiurge, to speak metaphorically, using gnostic principles.
This also is a ‘lesson’. Really most or all monads do this terrible thing at least once, then spend trillions and trillions of years cleaning up their mess, as lovingly as possible.
Platonic Surrealism says, “any visible ‘god’ is an evil god”. It’s like with cells in our bodies. If we allow our cells to do their thing, they prosper. But if we try to micromanage our bodies cells, they get all messed up, and turn cancerous, to use one example.
Those are the basics of ontology, the study of being, and epistemology, the study of how we know what we know.
Let’s now look at the psychology of the monads and monad by-products (‘consciousness’).
Those major three strategies that we will briefly examine are: hide, seek, and help.
Let’s call those who hide hiders, those who seek seekers and those who help others to either hide OR seek, helpers.
Hiders
Nascent beings start by hiding, as being a defined pattern self-imposed on an unbounded nature is innately traumatic. There are various places, worlds, etc. of many different kinds, where baby beings may hide. We have already discussed the most common one, that being a uterus, and then in a physical body, after birth.
The bodies themselves have all this complexity baked in, and really can run themselves for the most part, just like reductionist modern science says.
The first thing I wish to ever-strongly make clear, there is NOTHING wrong with ‘hiding’. It’s not a negative thing. Not a weak or evil thing, and there is NEVER EVER a time that ‘hiding’ is ‘wrong’.
It’s WONDERFUL to be a puppy, as one example. Or a tree. Or a fungus. Or a space-time continuum. This is called the principle of ontological equivalence.
Let me make this clear. Sometimes the ‘Buddha’ lives as a dog. Or a dog turd. Or a Jesus. Jesuses don’t just get nailed up on crosses, they are ontologically equivalent too. Don’t just listen to me; get out your red letter Bible. He said the same thing.
Is it EVER wrong to ‘hide’?
NO.
NEVER.
Whether you are an ‘enlightened being’ or a dog turd. You are ontologically equivalent. You are a product of POTENTIALITY and AWARENESS playing. Nobody is more or less ‘advanced’. There is no score being kept, except by ‘you’, but if you want to yell at yourself, and deride yourself, that’s YOUR business.
Some monads HAVE to hide, to escape from pain, until they learn about who they are, how they can get by in the ‘larger life’. Others have gotten really good at hiding, and it’s more play than hiding from pain.
In either case, that original wound is still there, at least minimally.
Seekers
Seekers are a different sort. They have usually been ‘at this’ for a really long time, and they are getting a bit bored, or alternatively, they have suffered so much pain, for so long, that they want to figure it all out, to cure themselves of all the pain, confusion and loneliness.
This is often related to the ‘traumatic secret’. That means, that it’s the people who are in the most pain, and who embraced it in a sense, to ‘wake up’ to their ‘face from before they were born’, in an effort to flee the ‘physical world’ (there’s no such thing, it’s a movie), which is often painful.
This is the whole motivation to become ‘enlightened’.
Now ‘enlightenment’ is in many ways a crock of shit, just another movie, and often full of ‘spiritual elitism’ and the consciousness rational mind’s ‘ego’.
But the core impulse, to lighten one’s ‘cognitive load’, to become more like pure awareness, and to shed all the accumulated pain, confusion and delusion. To become skilled as a ‘free-standing seeker’, who gains the ability to visit any world, any time/place/universe, and to have a good time, able to forget or remember at will.
Such a hypothetical ‘god-like traveler’ is ALL OF OUR POTENTIAL, and ALL OF US experience this movie at some point. But even then, even those ‘pure lands of Buddhism’ are still movies, play, and ‘maya’. Though of course nothing in Platonic Surrealism is ‘real’. Or conversely everything is ‘real’. But nothing has ‘ontological supremacy’ over anything else. Nothing.
The monads attracted to religion are generally there, like an abuse survive seeks the company of other abuse survivors or abusers; in any case, religion, nearly any of them, mangles people, thus causing ridiculous quantities of pain, and making it more likely that a monad will ‘wake up’ to it’s true nature, as a way to ‘flee samsara’ (the suffering of existence or Dukkha to use a Buddhist term)
This is a key point here. Religion does NOT lower pain; it only INCREASES PAIN.
This is the secret of religion. This cruel reality is only briefly mentioned here, and more fully developed in another essay.
Spiritual systems are often quite faulty as well, causing far more pain than they cure. There certainly are beneficial spiritual systems, some ancient ones like in the Vedanta series from Eastern Asia or potentially some more modern ones, but ‘buyer beware’.
I found no comfort in either religion or spirituality, not once in a long lifetime. I’ve been around the block a WHOLE LOT OF TIMES; I just can’t do bullshit anymore. I seem to be thoroughly convinced that I can contribute; so that’s what I’m doing. I have no idea if anyone other than myself might benefit, but I know that I did. That every answer to every question (of things that matter) were answered to my own satisfaction. I can’t speak for anyone else.
Born seekers are often on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, but not always. Some have different neurological differences, and yes, some are ‘just’ highly motivated regular people.
Helpers
Helpers are an interesting bunch. They may be the most balanced and lovely of all of us. Now sure, under the hood of a helper is also a hider or a seeker, to some degree, but what helpers do, is to help others, either with their hiding or their seeking. Or even to help others become helpers.
My first ‘spiritual teacher’ was a helper. He had apparently zero ‘spiritual awareness’ and was a cranky coot. But damn if he didn’t get up at 6 AM every morning and answer letters from people in need. He represented his ‘holy man’ for decades after that holy man had died, promoting this man’s works, even though the world had largely forgotten him.
Now some helpers may be completely stable, having been around the block so many times, that their only challenge is to help others. Now, don’t confuse a fully stabilized seeker with a helper. Helpers are often ‘spiritual duds. But don’t’ sell them short; without them to provide a framework, to open doors, and do a lot of heavy lifting, those seekers often have no chance whatsoever. In our world, helpers are generally NOT on the autistic spectrum or otherwise talented in ‘spiritual matters’
There are also helpers who haven’t necessarily been around the block very much, but they just love people and know how to have a good time, and how to help others have a good time. That’s a wonderful skill set to have, a wonderful way to be.
In Conclusion
All of us eventually play all three roles, and they are all of equal value. At the end of the day, nobody is a dud, and nobody is a genius, not from the standpoint of the big picture, though some people look pretty impressive for temporary periods of time. But everyone gets their time to shine; there’s no need to be jealous or restless to have a minor leading role in some movie or another.
Just enjoy yourself, no matter which role you are playing, and try not to be a dickhead, if you can help it. We are all your ‘blood kin’. A little love and kindness go a long way.
LET’S DO THIS TOGETHER.
Kevin Cann
10/3/2024