20240709 - The Illusion Of Self

Hello dear 🌼 Imagine you are Super Mario. You live in the Mushroom Kingdom, you spend your days trying to rescuing princess Peach from Bowser and hang around with your tall and skinny brother. One day, Toad, your little mushroom friend, who’s taken an interest in the nature of reality comes to you and says, “Hey Mario, this is just a game and all of this is taken place on a TV screen.” Mario is like, “Mamma Mia, are tripping my friend?” (Or something like that my Italian slang is not that good) “No no, it’s true! Just look, isn’t it obvious?” “I don’t see no TV screen”, says Mario. Now, Toad is faces with a challenge here. How can he point at the TV-screen from inside the game? Remember they live inside the TV and doesn’t see the TV from the outside the way that we do. Wherever he points he points at the world which is in the game, inside the TV. There is no way for his pixel-hands to point anywhere else. We are in a similar situation when it comes to consciousness. The teacher can point all he wants but the fact remains that the pointing happens inside of consciousness and pointing directly at it is like trying to point at the TV screen from inside the Mushroom Kingdom. What can be described however is the nature of it and recognition might happen. Notice for example that the pictures that pop into your head when you read this story are just thoughts that show up on the TV-screen of your mind. All of the analysis around it are also just more thoughts. The language that shows up in your mind when you look at these dark scribbly lines is also just a thought. Thinking thinking thinking. Now wait for your next thought and see if you can see where it comes from and where it goes when it disappears.