@naval 1/ I think we both mutually admire @KapilGuptaMD who said "There are no coincidences." I'm starting to think he's right. I've been reading the works of Robert Anton Wilson, and obvious influence on another of my favorite seekers, Jed McKenna, who said
@naval @KapilGuptaMD 2/ “Think for yourself and figure out what’s true.” So I've been trying to do just that. Anyway, I saw your tweet and it suddenly helped me with a riddle that I've been thinking about having to do with something Wilson looks at in his book "Quantum Psychology."
@naval @KapilGuptaMD 3/ It concerns a story that Franz Kafka added at the end of his book "The Trial" that Wilson equates with Zen and I equate with Lao Tzu and the Tao. The story concerns a man who comes to the door of "The Law" seeking admittance. The guard there refuses to allow him to pass the
@naval @KapilGuptaMD 4/ door, but says if the man waits long enough, someday in the uncertain future, he might gain admittance. The man grows older and tries to bribe the guard who takes it but doesn't allow him to enter. The man ends up selling everything he owns, gives it to the guard as a bribe
@naval @KapilGuptaMD 5/ which the guard also takes, but still refuses to allow the man to enter and says "I'm only taking this bribe so you do not abandon all hope." Finally, the man is old, ill and about to die, but musters the strength to confront the guard and say "I've been told that the law
@naval @KapilGuptaMD 6/ exists for all, why then has nobody else come here, seeking admittance?" The guard responds "This door has been made only for you. And now I'm going to close it forever." He then slams the door and the man dies. So, your tweet about life being a single player game made me
@naval @KapilGuptaMD 7/ think about this and how to make sense of it. In my idea, the door in the story is an analog for the "Gateless Gate" in Zen. And the guard is a metaphor for consensus reality, to which the man obviously adheres. After chasing entry to the door his entire life, he never
@naval @KapilGuptaMD 8/ even considered that the whole time he was asking permission of the guard, the door itself was wide open and that he could walk through it at anytime only *without* asking permission of the guard (consensus reality) and since it was only meant for him, it closes at his death.
@naval @KapilGuptaMD 9/ So what? My idea, which your tweet sparked, is a seeker of truth, can never gain enlightenment from another, or ask permission of another, or bribe another, or ask another to "enlighten" him/her, because that's something that can't be given by another, it can only be earned
@naval @KapilGuptaMD 10/ by the seeker themself. the door was always open until the time of the man’s death at which time, The door was closed and locked forever. The man was looking for instructions, for prescriptions on "10 ways to walk through the door of Justice" He was seeking a way in but
@naval @KapilGuptaMD 11/ asking all the wrong questions. He was "stopped" by his own reality tunnel (belief system) that told him he must follow "the rules" of social convention, perforce of "others" to get through the door, when, if he realized that life is a single player game,
@naval @KapilGuptaMD 12/ he would have ignored. By failing to understand that life is a single player game, he adhered to "game rules," or social conventions and beliefs, which forever blocked him from going through the open door because he conflated consensus reality with his own reality leading
@naval @KapilGuptaMD 13/ him to all the wrong paths. You must simply walk through it--the "door of the law" or the gateless gate--on your own.
Our language is not built for enlightenment, it is built for confinement.
Just thoughts, but thank you for the simple tweet that ignited them.
Our language is not built for enlightenment, it is built for confinement.
Just thoughts, but thank you for the simple tweet that ignited them.
