Are you a dog? If so, you're probably not at the computer reading this right now. But if you're not a dog, then why are you chasing your tail? Capturing this elusive tail has no benefits. More importantly, what do you plan on doing with it once you catch it? There's nothing you can do with it, other than let it go. Just some questions to ponder.
But enough about chasing tails. Let's talk about hunting unicorns. Is your everyday existence so tiresome, so boring, so meaningless that you feel compelled to hunt unicorns? If this is you, keep reading. Although if this is you, you will probably hate the words that follow and do everything in your mental power to dispel my arguments. You may convince yourself that I'm insane. Or stupid. If you've decided not to read any further, then let me at least leave you with a parting gift:
"Catch me if you can - heehee!"
First things first. There will always be a gap between the real and the ideal. This means that even if you had a real unicorn, it would never be the ideal unicorn you had in mind. And this is not merely about expectations. It's not that simple. In fact, your unicorn could meet each and every expectation you had - it could even exceed your wildest expectations - but this will not close the gap. Why? Because you cannot make a dream a reality; you cannot make the ideal real. That, my friend, is an oxymoron (pardon my language).
You see, the joy experienced by the unicorn pre-possession is completely different, and in fact unrelated, to the joy of unicorn possession (assuming you found one and assuming he wants to come home with you).
This may all seem self-evident to you. But on the other hand it may sound like complete jibber-jabber. So let's put it another way. You cannot simultaneously be the actor and the viewer. If you're starring in a film, you can't be watching that same film at the same time. You can watch the recording, but then the "you" you are watching is no longer you but an image of you. Not to mention that the "you" on the screen exists in another time and is therefore not really you. This may seem to have nothing in common with the previous paragraph, but it does.
Imagine you're driving through the country when you spot a quaint farmhouse off in the distance, surrounded by golden canola fields and baby blue skies. You sigh, take a deep breath, and think to yourself how lovely it would be to live there. But wait: your projection of the future is being distorted by present conditions. This means that if it's a beautiful sunny day (external conditions) you're more likely to view farm life as positive. This is further compounded if you're in a good mood (internal conditions), say, for example, because you're on your way home from a fun day at the beach. Make no mistake: these things are coloring your perception. Considerably.
Our projections of the future are distorted. Depending on your conditioning, you will either tend towards projecting negative outcomes (resulting in anxiety) or overly positive outcomes (resulting in repeated disappointments). See? You can't lose! In the same vein, we distort the past with our memories. And I'm not just talking about selective memory, such as that people will generally recall primarily good things about the dead. Or about their youth. Regardless of how shitty it was or how annoying those people were when they were still alive. No, it's more complex than that. Or more simple. Depending on how you look at it.
Does this mean we're delusional? Absolutely. Reality does not (cannot) exist in the past or the future, whereas ideals can only exist in the past or the future. Right here right now is just not exciting/pertinent enough for us. But when the future becomes the present, as it inevitably will, it too will become mundane. Unicorns only exist in the past and future. There are no unicorns right here right now. And don't even bother trying to smuggle one into the present. The present has some heavy-duty border control. In fact, even if you somehow managed to get one across the border, it would implode instantaneously. Here's a fun song about this phenomenon (imploding unicorns not included):
Projection
You cannot experience your life objectively. The very idea of experiencing something objectively is an oxymoron (there's that dirty word again). I can't describe it any better than that. The only way this might be possible would be to have an ongoing out-of-body experience. But even in this scenario, although you'd simultaneously be the viewer and the viewed, you wouldn't be experiencing the viewed subjectively. It would simply be an empty object you were viewing, albeit one that had all your physical features. In this sense, it wouldn't be that much different from viewing yourself on film or in a mirror. So again, you cannot become a projection. Sorry to burst your unicornucopia dreams.
Adding to the problem is that when we view something we desire to have or become, we project certain qualities onto the object viewed. For example, we assume that a beautiful woman feels beautiful. Or that a man with a lot of money in the bank feels financially secure. But we couldn't be more wrong. These are qualities that we are assigning to those people/situations, not the inherent qualities of those things themselves. In fact, the only things we can logically assume about any person, for example, is that they breath air and feel pain (among other things). But that doesn't stop our minds from weaving intricate webs of lies. Tempting lies. No wonder we often want what we don't have - there's an unspoken promise of fulfillment which is literally nothing more than a mental projection (much like a mirage in the desert). It's an axiom that you will never have what you don't have. Once you have it, you no longer "don't have" it. Make sense?
"The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today."
And now for something entirely different. Or not.Projection
You cannot experience your life objectively. The very idea of experiencing something objectively is an oxymoron (there's that dirty word again). I can't describe it any better than that. The only way this might be possible would be to have an ongoing out-of-body experience. But even in this scenario, although you'd simultaneously be the viewer and the viewed, you wouldn't be experiencing the viewed subjectively. It would simply be an empty object you were viewing, albeit one that had all your physical features. In this sense, it wouldn't be that much different from viewing yourself on film or in a mirror. So again, you cannot become a projection. Sorry to burst your unicornucopia dreams.
Adding to the problem is that when we view something we desire to have or become, we project certain qualities onto the object viewed. For example, we assume that a beautiful woman feels beautiful. Or that a man with a lot of money in the bank feels financially secure. But we couldn't be more wrong. These are qualities that we are assigning to those people/situations, not the inherent qualities of those things themselves. In fact, the only things we can logically assume about any person, for example, is that they breath air and feel pain (among other things). But that doesn't stop our minds from weaving intricate webs of lies. Tempting lies. No wonder we often want what we don't have - there's an unspoken promise of fulfillment which is literally nothing more than a mental projection (much like a mirage in the desert). It's an axiom that you will never have what you don't have. Once you have it, you no longer "don't have" it. Make sense?
It's like we're stranded in a desert running from mirage to mirage instead of just digging a well where we are. Because that would require some back-breaking work. And we don't like that. In fact, most of us abhor that kind of work so much that we're willing to die of dehydration instead. But who cares, so long as we can go on believing the mirages - those precious mirages! Seriously, it would benefit us to not believe our own BS so much. Except for one problem: we love BS. And not just our own either.
Sometimes tail-chasing has some harmful side-effects. Consider that when you feed a craving you're only making that craving bigger. It's like feeding a fat kid and then despairing at his getting fatter. Or like feeding a Mogwai after midnight and then being shocked when you wake up to a houseful of Gremlins, despite ominous warnings from the Chinese shop owner. Of course, if we're never here and now, we never really see the results of our actions. We're already off to the next thing. Or to a solution to a problem that never would have existed in the first place had we been paying attention. And the tail-chasing continues...
Sometimes tail-chasing has some harmful side-effects. Consider that when you feed a craving you're only making that craving bigger. It's like feeding a fat kid and then despairing at his getting fatter. Or like feeding a Mogwai after midnight and then being shocked when you wake up to a houseful of Gremlins, despite ominous warnings from the Chinese shop owner. Of course, if we're never here and now, we never really see the results of our actions. We're already off to the next thing. Or to a solution to a problem that never would have existed in the first place had we been paying attention. And the tail-chasing continues...
Going Places
It's exciting going places. Society tells us we must be going somewhere, we must have a goal, a dream. And if you don't meet this criteria, you're a lazy bum. A psychologist might even diagnose you with depression. But society doesn't just have a direct influence; it indirectly affects our own perceptions of what life is. So, for example, most people "go" not only because society deems it necessary but, perhaps more importantly, because they themselves are bored out of their skulls sitting still. If you don't participate in the trap of becoming, you will be labeled apathetic, pessimistic, or just good old-fashioned crazy. In addition, if you don't "go" you will hate yourself. But that's just more conditioning.
What is sane and normal is determined by the majority. If your thoughts and ideas are thunk by less than the majority, you are in effect a crazy person. Society has agreed that it is "normal" to chase dreams, that it's normal to become something or want to become something, that it's normal to use our own minds against us for profit (a.k.a. advertising) and that it's perfectly normal to chase your own tail and to do so for the entire duration of your life. In fact, it's quite normal to make that tail the Holy Grail (I just love it when I rhyme by accident!)
It's exciting going places. Society tells us we must be going somewhere, we must have a goal, a dream. And if you don't meet this criteria, you're a lazy bum. A psychologist might even diagnose you with depression. But society doesn't just have a direct influence; it indirectly affects our own perceptions of what life is. So, for example, most people "go" not only because society deems it necessary but, perhaps more importantly, because they themselves are bored out of their skulls sitting still. If you don't participate in the trap of becoming, you will be labeled apathetic, pessimistic, or just good old-fashioned crazy. In addition, if you don't "go" you will hate yourself. But that's just more conditioning.
What is sane and normal is determined by the majority. If your thoughts and ideas are thunk by less than the majority, you are in effect a crazy person. Society has agreed that it is "normal" to chase dreams, that it's normal to become something or want to become something, that it's normal to use our own minds against us for profit (a.k.a. advertising) and that it's perfectly normal to chase your own tail and to do so for the entire duration of your life. In fact, it's quite normal to make that tail the Holy Grail (I just love it when I rhyme by accident!)
For someone who isn't chasing his own tail, the tail-chaser seems utterly absurd. Buy hey, maybe even the dog is fully aware of what it's doing, fully aware of its conditioning, but is merely participating in the tail-chasing game because - what the hell - it's a fine way to pass an afternoon. It's as worthy as any other endeavor, including sitting on the couch or curing cancer. What's the difference really? Yes, this probably sounds like apathy to most of you. So let me just defend myself by saying "whatever."
When I say you will never achieve your dreams, it's not because I'm some kind of pessimist. You can in fact achieve the contents of your dreams, but in that case it ceases to be a dream, doesn't it? It's now become part of your everyday mundane existence. And what's our answer to this apparent dilemma? Why, we dream even greater dreams, of course! What else is there?
It's perpetual insanity if you ask me. If you want to chase unicorns, go right ahead. Maybe you need to do that in order to feel your life has meaning. But consider that maybe there is no meaning to anything. At least nothing beyond what we choose to give meaning to. Of course, the idea of choice itself can be debated because much of our "meanings" are directly (and indirectly) manipulated by advertising, television, news and other media (not to mention parenting, schooling and countless other factors). But once you observe and penetrate the conditioning, you do have a choice. You can either act in accordance with your conditioning, or you can choose to act differently. How liberating!
Purposelessness
Hunting unicorns can only result in failure. Obviously. But your mind cannot allow itself to do something purposeless (i.e. hunt something that doesn't exist), and therefore it will hallucinate unicorns for you to catch. Of course, based on this premise, you could catch ten unicorns a day. After all, they're merely constructs of your imagination. But again, your mind is craftier than this. It will only hallucinate as many unicorns as necessary to fulfill the optimum level of satisfaction/achievement while still maintaining a sufficient level of anxiety/lack. So you will always hallucinate more unicorns than the ones you capture (the capturing itself being a hallucination, of course), thus ensuring the chase continues ad infinitum. Are you going to let your mind get away with this?
Hunting unicorns can only result in failure. Obviously. But your mind cannot allow itself to do something purposeless (i.e. hunt something that doesn't exist), and therefore it will hallucinate unicorns for you to catch. Of course, based on this premise, you could catch ten unicorns a day. After all, they're merely constructs of your imagination. But again, your mind is craftier than this. It will only hallucinate as many unicorns as necessary to fulfill the optimum level of satisfaction/achievement while still maintaining a sufficient level of anxiety/lack. So you will always hallucinate more unicorns than the ones you capture (the capturing itself being a hallucination, of course), thus ensuring the chase continues ad infinitum. Are you going to let your mind get away with this?
Let's return to this idea of "your mind will not allow you to do something purposeless." The fact is that everything we do is purposeless. But our minds attach meaning to things because otherwise they would implode. I guess. I'm not exactly sure why our minds do this; I'm not a scientist. Of course, doing something precisely because it is purposeless is the same thing. Acting on something because it is purposeless gives that act purpose, even though in this case that purpose is purposelessness. So, why do anything?
Well, the only sane reason to do anything is for the simple sake of doing it. Nothing more. If you act based on a desire to achieve or gain anything - whether that's happiness, security, prestige, and so on (basic material needs excluded) - you are doomed to fail. Because the entire process is founded on delusion. It's akin to hunting unicorns. Now, if you're hunting unicorns not to capture a unicorn but for the simple fact that it seems like a fun game to play, even though you know full well that the unicorns themselves are delusions, then go right ahead. It sounds like a good time after all. But the key is not to forget it's just a game. Of course, if you spend your whole life playing a game, how do you know it's really a game and not reality? Well, what is reality? Maybe reality is a game.
Finally an excuse to use this Dramatic Cat video!
Great philosophers have been philosophizing the idea of "reality" for centuries. If you ask me, reality is what's left after you chip away delusion. Kind of like a sculptor chipping away at a hunk of marble. And if history has taught us anything, inside every hunk of marble is a naked man.
We don't need to add more shit to our lives; we need to get rid of it. What you do with "reality" once you've chipped away all or part of the delusion - well, that's up to you. And that's the freedom. You can choose to imagine unicorns. But you will never be able to believe in unicorns again. And here a problem arises. Because we like our actions to have purpose. And if we're just imagining all this bullshit, then that means everything is empty and meaningless, doesn't it? Yes and no. Yes, everything is empty and meaningless. No, that is not horrible news and we don't have to jump out the nearest window. In fact, it's the ultimate freedom!
Well, now that we're nearing the end, you're probably wondering what the purpose of this post was. Or maybe you're not wondering that at all. I'm not a mind reader. Truth be told, I'm not sure it has a purpose. I just wanted something to write about. Why? Because I like to write. If you think that's too simple of an answer, I feel sorry for you. It's more than enough for me. Is it because I'm a simpleton? Maybe. But one thing's for sure: I'm a satisfied customer. You can attach to that whatever meaning you deem necessary or appropriate. In conclusion, here's a picture of a pineapple:
We don't need to add more shit to our lives; we need to get rid of it. What you do with "reality" once you've chipped away all or part of the delusion - well, that's up to you. And that's the freedom. You can choose to imagine unicorns. But you will never be able to believe in unicorns again. And here a problem arises. Because we like our actions to have purpose. And if we're just imagining all this bullshit, then that means everything is empty and meaningless, doesn't it? Yes and no. Yes, everything is empty and meaningless. No, that is not horrible news and we don't have to jump out the nearest window. In fact, it's the ultimate freedom!
Well, now that we're nearing the end, you're probably wondering what the purpose of this post was. Or maybe you're not wondering that at all. I'm not a mind reader. Truth be told, I'm not sure it has a purpose. I just wanted something to write about. Why? Because I like to write. If you think that's too simple of an answer, I feel sorry for you. It's more than enough for me. Is it because I'm a simpleton? Maybe. But one thing's for sure: I'm a satisfied customer. You can attach to that whatever meaning you deem necessary or appropriate. In conclusion, here's a picture of a pineapple:
Whatever could it mean?
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