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The Long Night of the Soul |
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Things are what they are. Things are where they are. You find out everything there is to know about them by examining them where they are. If you wish to find out about a wall you examine that wall. Everything about that wall is to be found right where that wall is. You don't have to go and talk to the builder who built it. That is an excellent way to find out about the builder, but a very poor way to find out about the wall he built. Talking to the builder in order to find out about the wall he built is known as the search for prior cause. Mankind fondly believes that the only way to find out about the mind is to select some effect it contains, then look further into the mind to find the cause of that effect. Then, having found what appears to be the cause, to consider it an effect, and to start searching for the cause of this effect even deeper in the mind. Etcetera. Thus, one backtracks in search of prime cause: a cause which is not an effect of an earlier cause. Having found this prime cause, the whole mind will vanish in a puff of green smoke, or something - or so the theory goes. Now there is some justification for this theory when you are dealing with material objects. One billiard ball canons into another on a table, and imparts a motion to it; the motion of the second ball is indeed caused by its impact with the first ball. But what imparted motion to the first ball? Why, the billiard player, of course! The being who is playing the game of billiards. Once you take him out of the equation, you will search endlessly for your prime cause. The search for the prime cause of the mind, then, without considering the living being who created and is maintaining that mind, is a futile search, for one is not looking for prime cause in a place where it is possible to find it. The first requisite for finding anything is to search for it in a place where it is possible for it to be. Everything you discover in the mind - indeed, its total content - is an effect. There are no causes in there, so you won’t find any. Thus, to postulate that one part of the mind is the cause of some other part is a lie, and in pursuit of this lie you will never discover the truth. The endless ransacking of the mind in search of prime cause is called "The Long Night of the Soul". Its a very long night: it goes on forever. After the elapse of a theoretical infinity of time, you would emerge from the same door as you went in - much, much sadder, and no wiser. Everything you wish to know about any effect in your mind lies in that particular effect and your relationship to it right now. To skid off sideways and reach deeper into your mind for the cause of this effect is to commit your-self to the Long Night of the Soul. Don't embark upon it, for it may well be the last anyone ever sees of you. An excerpt from.. The Resolution of Mind
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 January 2008 )
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