Perception is reality.
What follows is an excerpt from Carlos Castaneda’s “The Other Side Of Infinity”. I submit it as a meditation on the very essence of what we call our reality.
Syntax
A man staring at his equations said that the universe has a beginning. “There had been an explosion” he said. “A bang of bangs.” and the universe was born. “And it is expanding.” he said. He had even calculated the length of its life. “Ten billion revolutions of the earth around the sun.” The entire globe cheered. They found his calculations to be science. None thought that by proposing that the universe began the man had merely mirrored the syntax of his mother tongue. A syntax which demands beginnings like earth, and developments like maturation, and ends like death… as statements of facts. “The universe began, and it’s getting old.” the man assured us. “And it will die like all things die.” Like he himself died after confirming mathematically the syntax of his mother tongue.
The Other Syntax
Did the universe really begin? Is the theory of the big bang true?
These are not questions. Though they sound like they are. Is the syntax that requires beginnings, developments, and ends as statements of facts the only syntax that exists? That’s the real question.
There are other syntaxes. There is one, for example, which demands that varieties of intensity be taken as facts. In that syntax nothing begins and nothing ends. Thus, birth is not a clear clean cut event, but a specific type of intensity. And so is maturation. And so is death. A man of that syntax, looking over his equations, finds that he has calculated enough varieties of intensity to say with authority that the universe never began, and will never end. But that it has gone, and is going now, and will go thru endless fluctuations of intensity.
That man could very well conclude that the universe itself is the chariot of intensity. And that one can board it to journey thru changes without end. He will conclude all that and much more. Perhaps without ever realizing that he is merely confirming the syntax of his mother tongue.
More Wisdom
Here are a few other excerpts for your edification.
“Promise me that you won’t die until you die.”
“Time is independent of our wishes.”
“Be happy and do. Do. Do. That is the trick!”
“Loneliness is inadmissible in a warrior.”
“Warriors can count on one being on which they can focus all their love and all their care… this marvelous earth. The mother. The matrix. The epicenter of everything we are and everything we do.”
“Be impeccable. Take care of your world. Honor it. Guard it with your life.”
“Forget the self and you will fear nothing in whatever level of awareness you find yourself to be.”