THE TALK

 ***questions*** 

 

Aoife: What question should I ask? 

 

Dad: Who am I? 

 

Aoife: Who am I? 

 

Dad: Your name is Aoife, (ee-far) you are my daughter, I love you.  

 

Aoife: Who are you? 

 

Dad: I am your Dad. I come from an isolated place called Tasmania, it was home. When I was young my uncle’s ride on lawnmower had its own carpark at the pub - it is that kind of place. 

 

Aoife: Is the world scary? 

 

Dad: The perception of it can be. Perception is fuzzy and furry. By fuzzy I mean unexplainable and by furry, I mean illusionary; that can be scary. 

 

Aoife: What is love? 

  

Dad: Love creates beautiful problems and provides beautiful solutions at the same time in a never-ending, disconcerting, imperfectly closed loop. Love is a cascade; our hearts beat faster, we sweat and become less predictable. We feel love resides in the heart and that is a lie. Love is a survival tool; it primes me to protect you. You may wonder, my little one, how does it help humankind that love should be so befuddling? Like the universe, love is perfectly imperfect and constantly seeking an unattainable equilibrium. Therefore, do not try to balance the love equation. It is enough for it to be well-adjusted. 

 

Aoife: What is the difference? 

 

Dad: Adjusted means tolerant, tolerance needs perception. Balanced means equal; equilibrium requires time to stop. Nothing is equal in the universe. Perceive what ‘you’ are and be tolerant. 

 

Aoife: Of mySelf? 

 

Dad: Yes, of your Self. ‘Self’ refers to that part of you designed to enable social interaction. Persevere with your Self; it is your mind’s means for telling a story of survival. Love is like a metal detector that Self uses to source connections that lead to baby-making. Directly or indirectly, this is the only motivation Self needs to engage love. Reflect: Like searching for a feather in the dark, love is elusive and leaves you wondering - this feather better be worth it! 

  

Aoife: What does being ‘in love’ mean? 

  

Dad: Nothing. Love is ‘in’ you. Coursing through your veins. Forcing your hormones to make your heart race and your capillaries to open. Love is ‘in’ everything. It is a product of your autonomous processes. Therefore, own your impulses; they are your possession. 

   

Aoife: Are there different types of love? 

  

Dad: Yes, and yes. The universe is love. There is also the type of love you have for me which is something like the love a fungus has for its host. It is also a kind of practice-love. Then there is romantic love. Which is the main race. But the victory laps are performed by babies because they are loved unconditionally and will forget. So essentially love becomes love and its importance or intensity is relative. So, when you experience the end of love remember it is a cycle; you are meant to love again and again. 

   

Aoife: What then is a soulmate? 

  

Dad: A fiction. It is a type of emotional blackmail. Humans are inclined to idealise intangibles. For instance, we celebrate the anorexic model and the steroidal Adonis, and we nip, tuck and filter accordingly. We want to define an elusive notion of perfection so it may inspire us to approximate. They are ‘statusments’; ideals that are intentionally unattainable. The truth is anorexia and steroid use can result in premature death. Likewise, the term soulmate describes an ideal version of love that is never attained regardless of how long a relationship appears to last.  

 

Aoife: What is the key to lasting relationships? 

 

Dad: Fall in love over and over again; reflect the cycles of nature. Renewal is essential. Be aware, love is reconstructed; after the imperfect destruction of it. Destruction is the puppet-master of rebirth; do not fear it. So, when love begins to renew meditate on it and accept that the renewal process is de-constructive. Respect love, our species relies on it. So, love love and what it does for others; seeing your love enliven other people should be a natural consequence of loving love. It should not be the reason why you think love exists. This gives love the priority it deserves. Love comes before all, even the soul; soul is a type of music. 

  

Aoife: Can love be forever? 

  

Dad: Love is always forever; it is the universe. The only way you can truly love is to remember love truly. Never forget the loves you have had. Recall the moment it started, the beginning of its end and the regret. Enjoy the cacophony of elation and pain: it is the manifestation of the entropy that must increase in a perfectly imperfect universe. You are made of hydrogen atoms that are over 13 billion years old - love is the Big Bang, the infinite. 

  

Aoife: Who should I love? 

  

Dad: Someone who never loses their keys and finishes everything they start. People who lose their keys have ‘Mother’ issues. People who cannot finish what they start are narcissistic. Narcissism involves the display of behaviours that render the strongest social ‘reflection’. Unfortunately, most worthwhile endeavours require hours of tedious, lonely toil. The narcissist will be good at ‘announcing’ the start of something that is unlikely to be finished because they are ‘launch’ addicted. They fail to engage meaningfully.  

  

Aoife: Keys? 

 

Dad: People who lose their keys are seeking to be dependant; they might have attachment issues. They can be dangerous because the attachments they make later in life are unsophisticated and experienced obsessively.  

 

Aoife: What is passion? 

  

Dad: Passion is a mistake. The blood boils, redundancy eddies, distraction stalks you like butt ends at a train station. Passion gets people killed. Do not be passionate. You are best to be energised. Which means you must eat right, think right, and do not do anything unless you are willing to complete it. 

  

Aoife: But I want to feel passionate about things. 

  

Dad: Then feel passionate. But first let the ‘things’ energise you. The joy of creation is not the completion of the task it is the creating, and that needs energy; passion is only the bubbles in the Champagne. Passion can afford the cart but not the horse. Energy buys the horse first and uses entrepreneurial skills to get others to pay for the cart.      

 

Aoife: What about trust? 

  

Dad: When and where logic fails, sense resists and alarms sound you must trust. First you must trust your Self, especially when it seems irrational. Trust, in the first instance, that your instincts are meaningful. Everything is relative, even the safe keeping of your Self is measured relatively. Face the unknown with the excitement that only the potential to fail can give you and lean heavily on trust. It will be the source of pride that fortifies you against an unpredictable world designed impeccably to constantly reconstruct itSelf.  

 

Aoife: Who should I trust? 

  

Dad: Most people, blindly. In terms of love, you must trust. Do not love in protection mode, give yourSelf to love. You need not give yourSelf to others necessarily, be guarded as your senses determine. But give yourSelf to love and if love gives you loss be grateful for the gift. Trust is the weight you put on the barbell that is love. Load it, work it, grow love and trim regret, and be more than what you were and less than what you need to be. Love is, simultaneously, both a very personal possession and an open aspect of your Self. Accept love has no security, it will end. So, love as much as you can while it lasts; then move on. Reflect: Like a neck tattoo in a foreign language, make sure the translation is accurate.   

  

Aoife: Should I always trust mySelf? 

  

Dad: That depends. Is your Self healthy? Does it function well? Is it a good social negotiator? Self is a construct designed to enable social viability. Therefore, every social interaction is a chance for you to train and strengthen Self. So, trust that your Self can learn and call it a smile-generator: If your sense of who you are is motivated by the desire to make others thrive and laugh then your Self is worthy of trust.   

 

Aoife: Should I pick a side? 

  

Dad: Always. Be prepared however to be wrong. If you pick the wrong side, then you have an advantage. Not only do you get to reflect on the poor choice you made and determine why you made that choice. You will also have the chance to abandon others with whom you had developed affinity. Experiencing the fragility of conditional loyalty will harden you against blind obedience. It also means you will find the necessary breaking of many hearts easier.  

 

Aoife: Would mum survive the zombie apocalypse? 

  

Dad: Probably not. But neither will you. The kind of mutation that means humans would turn into cannibalistic, blood-thirsty, mindless monsters would be aggressively adaptive and would find a way to infect everyone. Our progression to zombie is the end of the species. It is a Self-consummation mythology developed because we have an unacknowledged fear of the finite and the infinite. Or more specifically, a reluctance to accept that the infinite cannot know the finite. Your mum would probably want to eat your brains, but the feeling would be mutual.   

 

Aoife: Should I be on social media? 

  

Dad: Yes. It is important that you have access to a selection of attitudes you can selectively ignore. Think of social media as a way of looking through a window to see the obsessions of others who want to be like who you want to be like, so you know how to be only like them. 

 

Aoife: Approximate, don’t simulate? 

 

Dad: Yes. Social media is an expression of entropy, a valid and entirely inevitable manifestation. It is a hybridisation of spiritual understandings; at the centre of its cacophony is a tangential homogenising that seeks to consolidate our sense of presence beyond our comprehension of it. In this way, it acts like an alien that knows itSelf as a confounding of correlations, and it knows only itSelf. It, therefore, appears to mirror notions of unity towards the validation of community. Instant by instant it displays a counterfeit of endeavour. This redundancy is measured against a degree of purposefulness that, instant by instant, is as affective as it needs to be. There is no end, however, to its tangential evolution. We seek our reflection like we seek the water that gives it to us. So be thirsty and not vain or it will be as if the king with no clothes started eating himSelf. 

 

Aoife: How do I become a person? 

  

Dad: Becoming ‘someone’ is never an easy thing because you must risk isolation which is the only true way to ‘become’. Many people cheat by becoming an idea first and then let the ‘someone’ grow-up around it like a weed up a letterbox. The weed is a mask, the letterbox is who you truly are. Accept a diversity of ideas, do not let the weed vet. Do not be ideological, instead try on the hats of your haters, walk in the shoes of the fanatics, size-up the coat of the sycophantic and then pull up your socks and be actively curious, adventurous, and playfully unaffiliated. In the process let a person emerge that is a weed free letterbox, that allows for all types of mail to be received. Let the letterbox discern, let the weed die. 

 

Aoife: Would joining a tribe help? 

 

Dad: Socialising is fundamental. However, people who attach their sense of Self to ideals are trying to shortcut their Self development. Joining a tribe means they feel affiliated. It fools the mind into promoting Self beyond its obligations. Self is only a tool, a puppet; do not put it in the driver’s seat. Idealists hand the keys to Self and then lock who they really are in the boot. They are snowflakes yellow with the stench of Self and they easily combine with other unsophisticated Selfs, and then it snowballs. They might be known as your ‘peer’, but their growth is different to yours; it is stilted. In real terms they are ‘actors’ seeking a scene in which to ‘announce’ a motivation that leads to ‘actor-ing’, not action. The snowball size will determine the extent to which the idea at the centre of the cooperation is simplified. The larger the group the simpler the motivation and the more likely it is to lead to ‘actor-ing’, disentanglement and, ultimately, disintegration. Fundamentally, a group will oversimplify its motivation if it becomes too large. ‘Actor-ing’ is then the easiest way to express any intent but it is inconsequential.  

 

Aoife: So, bigger is dumber? 

 

Dad: A defined outcome requires data to be processed; an endeavour that puts a limit on processing will fail. Outcomes must acknowledge rules, lines, and goal posts. Determine your outcome and then let the game begin. Oversimplification will lead to ‘fizzling’ pieces of unsustainable action. Do not be tribal, instead understand: Team devotees have a constricted sense of community; they have had their T-shirt tattooed on. Be an essential cog in the process that can remove itSelf as the processing changes shape. Consider: Life is a game, and the ball is not round, so do not place bets. 

 

Aoife: So, don’t be a snowball? 

  

Dad: Be a solitary snowball. It melts and becomes liquid and flows, eddies, erodes, evaporates, wafts and freezes again. It has a dynamic existence filled with phases. Reflect: The egg came first. Then it became a chicken that would sit on the fence sometimes. The chicken was exposed on the fence but at least it could see the fox, the cat, and the good-intended approach. 

  

Aoife: Will I be the same as others? 

  

Dad: No one is equal, yet we are all one. There is only one consciousness. In terms of Self, hierarchy is important to survival, but it is a game: Who has more power, the referee, or the player?  

 

Aoife: One consciousness? 

 

Dad: Be spiritual. It is recommended. The terms I use describe my appreciation of unity, not an abiding belief. The principles of oneness I choose to accept are universally practiced. In this way, the terms ‘consciousness’ and ‘awareness’ are functional. I use them accepting that everyone has a degree of curiosity about spirit. It is a satisfying curiosity that can motivate a learning for life. Accept principles of oneness and join me as I challenge their interpretation. Measure my spiritual explanations against a logical dismantling of Self; this is the Self investigation approach. It is sophistic; it is not faith.  

 

Aoife: The terms are functional and spiritual? 

  

Dad: For the purpose of this meditation, consciousness, awareness, Self and mind are spiritual terms. However, everything is rendered by the imagination, including functional notions of unity and separation. Consequently, I use terms that supposes a non-dual reality. I am playing with ideas of unity; the connections I make to science and other understandings exist to feed curiosity. Meditation is play, my ideas are toys, explore them. There are no gurus, be guided but assume your own journey. 

  

Aoife: Who should I be? 

  

Dad: The ‘I’ you can never get away from; the ‘observer’ you essentially are. Let this be the first truth you accept regardless of its instability. Self is an avatar emerging from the mind that is fed by attention. Attention receives rendered data from the imagination as it echo-defines everything. Self builds the connection between a physical world with limitations and the mind that cannot experience limitation. The mind is like a parasite using the hardware of the body to learn the nature of time and space. Self manifests in the body as attitude and habitude. You are meant to be someone who manipulates their attitude, not someone who’s attitude is to manipulate.  

 

Aoife: I am something I have created? 

  

Dad: ‘I’ is not created. The creation is your origin-Self. ‘I’ is the ‘observer’ and Self is the observed. ‘I’ is a lens by which the finite and the infinite are separated. Self emerges because it is witnessed.  

 

Aoife: What is my origin-Self? 

 

Dad: The child you were and are. The child is observed and observes; it is innocent, without ego. This innocence promotes curiosity; the child is wise, and the adult is knowledgeable. The child that is your origin-Self is a learner-for-life; it must explore. Self must allow for its ‘origin’ to thrive; the child is eternal inquiry. Your origin-Self is the foundation of Self; it seeks play and occupation. Though it appears to be untrue for many people, the origin-Self is never forgotten. 

 

Aoife: My child Self should be occupied? 

 

Dad: Yes, absorbed in a task. Recall the child you once were, who would lose hours devoted to a pastime. You were simply completion-focused; it is known as learning. The child is integral to an understanding of Self: not unlike any child, it wants to play and have positive experiences. The child you are loves to travel and yet does not seek to arrive anywhere. 

 

Aoife: Are you my guide? 

 

Dad: My experiences are all I have. I do not know much except what I feel is true. This is not a guidebook it is a meditation. Questions outnumber answers always by one; you are the most interesting person you will ever travel with. However, you can know me; not just as Dad, but as someone inspired by his daughter to inquire. This ‘talk’, or meditation is one part of your journey. The map has no destination, I will help you draw it.       

 

Aoife: The journey is the destination?  

 

Dad: Yes. So, you have started and arrived at the same time; fundamental consciousness is the reason for the contradiction: It is infinite; destinations are inconceivable. 

 

Aoife: Can you explain consciousness?  

 

Dad: There is no language to describe the true nature of awareness. The finite cannot know the infinite. It is a deep calm; it is where you are. 

 

Aoife: What then, is enlightenment? 

 

Dad: A deception, a word with a lost meaning. It once described an intimate appreciation for the true nature of reality. 

 

Aoife: Which is? 

 

Dad: That consciousness is fundamental, and everything is a protrusion from it. 

 

Aoife: How is enlightenment achieved? 

 

Dad: It is revealed; it is not achieved. This is the problem with the word ‘enlightenment’; it encourages objectification. It is the opposite of enlightenment. 

 

Aoife: What do you mean? 

 

Dad: When ‘enlightenment’ becomes a pursuit, something must be pursued. Consciousness is not a thing. 

 

Aoife: How is it revealed? 

 

Dad: In conversation; communication is essential. 

 

Aoife: In conversation with who? 

 

Dad: Your Self. 

 

Aoife: How was it revealed to you? 

 

Dad: I call it mind-blind. The mind ‘opens’ up into a void and disappears. This void is in and composes everything. I have a sense that there are subtle frequency shifts across the ‘plane’ of this void. For the purposes of Self investigation I call the shifts ‘protrusions’. In other words, it is close; the distance to it is meaningless. In this way, the process of writing this ‘talk’ was an awakening. 

 

Aoife: Is reading it a pathway to an awakening? 

 

Dad: There is no path; awareness is available. This ‘talk’ models an example of Self investigation. In this way it may help you to form your own who-am-I investigation. 

 

Aoife: So, Self investigation is the key? 

 

Dad: It has been my experience. But guidance in ways of investigating is also important. This ‘talk’ demonstrates a line of questioning consistent with a key understanding. 

 

Aoife: Which is? 

 

Dad: That the inquiry is fulfilment; it is the ‘observer’. Therefore, form your questions and never assume you have ‘arrived’. 

 

Aoife: Are you a mystic? 

 

Dad: Everything is informed by the imagination; do not be deluded. The imagination is pervasive and is a gateway that frames reality. Deep sleep is the exception. 

 

Aoife: Delusion is not an act of the imagination? 

 

Dad: Imagination constructs, delusion obstructs. What makes us human is a Self-awareness that goes beyond Self and awareness.  The mysticism arises as we attempt to untangle what we truly are from its representation. In other words, if seeing the forest and the trees simultaneously is mystical than I am a mystic. I am not a mystic. I am accidentally spiritual, and it is ordinary. Our experience of spirit is ordinary, not mysterious. It is the feeling we have when our team wins, our children play, our friends laugh, our pets snuggle, etc. Spirit is the extraordinary in the ordinary. My approach is an invitation to explore the joy of exploration. It asks you to accept that accidents are the lessons given as we master an indirect approach. I am playing with emerging questions about the true nature of Self and reality; it is joyous. Laugh with me.  

 

Aoife: Do I have to go to weddings? 

  

Dad: No. But you will. 

 

Aoife: Can I move things with my mind? 

 

Dad: Yes. 

 

Aoife: How? 

 

Dad: Think – I will move my hand, and your hand will move. 

 

Aoife: I mean something that is not part of me. 

 

Dad: Such as? 

 

Aoife: An apple. 

 

Dad: But we are one. The apple is a protrusion from the same plane of consciousness from which you arise. The imagination separates the thing ‘apple’ from the thing you are. Do not let the authorship of the imagination corral your exploration of reality. 

 

Aoife: There are no things? 

 

Dad: Defining things is an act of Self, you are not Self. 

 

Aoife: How do I move the apple? 

 

Dad: Directly. 

 

Aoife: Like my mind ‘directly’ controlling my hand? 

 

Dad: The mind directly ‘informs’ the mechanism. You must inform the mechanism that moves apples. 

 

Aoife: Which is? 

 

Dad: Gravity. Anything with mass has gravity. The speed at which you experience time is determined by the distance you are from the source of gravity. 

 

Aoife: So, if I choose to leave the apple high in the tree? 

 

Dad: You have made time move faster for the apple with your ‘mind’. 

 

Aoife: In other words, I cannot move things with my mind. 

 

Dad: To go directly is to travel a distance too short to be meaningful. But it is a step towards infinite possibilities. 

 

Aoife: Am I stupid, or is that explanation confusing? 

 

Dad: Ignorance is the child, it sustains you. Necessarily, some explanations are vague and appear contradictory. 

 

Aoife: Why? 

 

Dad: Removing any objectifiable quality reduces the possibility for Self to hijack the intention. When phrased correctly, explanations of consciousness can be difficult for the imagination to render. Self will then seek other items to promote. In meditation you can experience this phenomenon. Close your eyes, bring into your attention the words – mySelf is known. The knower is not defined. Now be keenly aware of the images that come to mind; they are items promoted from attention by Self. It is likely that your mind will be momentarily overwhelmed with disassociated data. It leaves most people feeling meditation is ‘hard’; the data is distracting. However, the mind is overwhelmed with items because Self is desperately trying to define the knower; this is an indication that the meditation is working. Now slow it down – my…Self…is…known. Feel how this interrupts the flow of the data. You may also feel a relaxing of attention. Self is receding. 

 

Aoife: Then my mind is free to move the apple? 

 

Dad: Mind is a consequence of Self. What you are seeking to connect with is like water, deep and expansive. You are a wave forming in it. Self are the little currents that appear as the wave forms. You are a ‘protrusion’ arising from the water. You are a concentration, arising as a wave, and this is difficult to perceive. 

 

Aoife: But it is possible to conceive? 

 

Dad: Start where you are; understand Self.  

 

Aoife: So, consciousness is infinite?   

  

Dad: Yes. The universe is beauty; it is known by that which knows it as itSelf. That which knows is consciousness and the knowing of the universe as itSelf is awareness. Awareness knows only itSelf and knows you only as itSelf; it has no other knowledge of any thing including time. From it arises everything, the everything is known as processing.    

 

Aoife: Processing? 

 

Dad: Awareness is the ‘reason’ for processing but has no notion of it. Awareness describes consciousness knowing only itSelf. It is revealed to us as the ‘observer’. The ‘observer’ witnesses the instances that make up time. Time is processing. We are processors, like filaments in a radiator expressing heat. We are a necessary expression, allowing for the utility of communication to enable energy dispersion. Our small acts of energy dispersion increase entropy towards all matter ripping apart. 

 

Aoife: Something to look forward to. What happens before that?   

 

Dad: We become one. Electrons? Protons? Neutrons? You are made of them, pick one. Crack it open and count the quarks. Now look for your name on a quark; look very closely. Not there? I have quarks too. Oops, we have dropped our quarks; we scramble to recover them. But they have been swapped. It matters not; put your atoms back together. Reassemble your molecules and life goes on. Your unique, individual existence shall continue. 

 

Aoife: So, the building blocks of life are in me but are not me. 

 

Dad: Yes. 

 

Aoife: So, what am I? 

 

Dad: You are the essential you. You are also a collection of old stuff, stuck together in an arrangement that is as necessarily complicated as it needs to be towards increasing entropy. We are a manifestation of everything in the perceived universe that is perfectly imperfect. We must contribute, sustain, explore, manifest all types of processing. In this way communication is fundamental. The dynamic expression of energy consistent with the erupting power of the universe is your mission.  

 

Aoife: Am I an individual? 

 

Dad: The building blocks, fundamental to life, are not individualised; essentially a quark is a quark. Yet their combined arrangement appears to create something individual. It ‘appears’ to cause individuality. You are not an individual. You are a manifestation of exponential processing, and it is beautiful. However, your entropic expression, that adds variety to an expanding universe, cannot be replicated; variety is necessary. Your unique activity is also ‘captured’ on the plane of consciousness in infinitesimally small data points that are, themselves, infinite. In other words, you are writing a unique variation of an eternal theme; make it spectacular.   

 

Aoife: What is entropy? 

 

Dad: For our purposes, it is redundant processing increasing as the size of the non-redundant processing increases. Variation in the universe must also increase.  

 

Aoife: Is variation the same as entropy? 

 

Dad: No. The universe may be an eternally opening flower. Each movement reveals new details; the kinetics appears to bring forth change. In this way variation might be endless; there may be no ultimate ripping-apart of everything. However, I tend to accept an entropic interpretation that allows for variation to increase.       

 

Aoife: How do I erupt with the power of the universe? 

 

Dad: Communicate. All processes have properties, and all communication is a process. Revelation brought about by the intersection of words and ideas promotes renewal. In this way, ‘words’ are like agents of processing. ‘Actions’ may speak louder than words, but words do have kinetic potential. Words act like atoms, they form thought-molecules that become idea-stuff, that are then itemised in attention. Atoms are not defined by clear boundaries; their periphery is a point at which energy fades and words are much the same. Listening then becomes a fundamental process in an expanding universe. It is an expansion of understanding that relies on engagement. In this way engagement is awareness: Awareness is a lens, engagement is an iris, ‘made’ of consciousness. Effective listening is the first step towards bringing-forth the ‘power’ of the infinite.  

 

Aoife: How can consciousness know ‘only’ itSelf.     

 

Dad: Imagine there is a ‘bump’ on the plane of consciousness. This bump is made of consciousness; known to itSelf as itSelf. This ‘protrusion’ is populated with many other protrusions, which are populated with many other protrusions, etc such as we are: We are an entropic ‘protrusion’ from the plane of consciousness. Consciousness is not divided, it is one; we are one. 

 

Aoife: So, consciousness is me and us but knows only itSelf? 

 

Dad: It may help to imagine consciousness as an alien, without form or time, using your ‘awareness’ as a portal to observe the focused state it assumes, that is your mind. You might like to imagine the alien is ‘amazed’ by the limitations the human mind places on it. Imagine its normal state is without memory, muscles, thoughts, actions, emotion, hair, fingernails, eyeballs, etc. One day this alien will park the hardware of your body and mind in the garage of the physical universe and exit. It will then return to its massless, timeless state; like the relaxing of it that occurs during deep sleep. Memory, sensation, dreams, dimension, and purpose will cease to exist; essentially all the appearances of time, that we define as our ‘being’, will end. We know it as death. Further to this imagine the ‘alien’ is enveloped in a membrane, like a hazmat suit. Inside the membrane there is no time, outside is our universe. The 18 Billion years or so that it will take for our universe to disperse all its kinetic potential would appear instantaneous to the alien. Or more accurately, it would be an ‘instant’, composed of the alien. 

 

Aoife: But there is no ‘alien’. 

 

Dad: We are a protrusion arising from the plane of consciousness. This protrusion is like a bump printed on a page of braille. Except the page is consciousness and knows only itSelf: Imagine the bump is without mass; it can only be known to consciousness as itSelf. So then imagine that fundamental massless particles act like conduits piercing the membrane separating the finite and the infinite. But remember consciousness knows only itSelf and the protrusion, that you are, is known by consciousness as itSelf. Consciousness is infinite and therefore has no notion of the Big Bang; consciousness cannot know time.  

 

Aoife: But everything is a protrusion from consciousness including time? 

 

Dad: Yes, and it is known to it as itSelf. The 18 billion years, or so, it will take for our universe to cool will not be ‘visible’ to the plane of consciousness even though it is known to it. Consciousness is not intelligent. The gift of intelligence is given to the finite informed by time and space, or in relative terms, mind and body. The finite cannot know the infinite and the infinite has no experience; yet from the infinite comes the building blocks of your perceived existence. In this way, the ‘building blocks’ are the conduit. 

 

Aoife: Forest for the trees? 

 

Dad: And trees for the forest. X-rays ‘see’ bone but not skin, but we see skin and not the bone. It is impossible for the naked eye to ‘see’ X-rays but we perceive their existence evidentially. Evidentially we perceive the ‘building blocks’ as the ‘observer’ concealed behind Self. The ‘observer’ is a focusing of consciousness and purveys processing; exclusively. The ‘observer’ can only see processing. During deep sleep, the ‘observer’ relaxes back-into pure consciousness. 

 

Aoife: The universe is a process? 

 

Dad: Yes. It is an answer to the question ‘why is there something rather than nothing?’, or more specifically, ‘why should there be a protrusion from the plane of consciousness?’ But from the point of view of process ontology this question is senseless. Processing is the expression of all available processing that expresses all available energy types to enable continuous cycles of processing that increase entropy etc and it matters not when it started or how: Processing will forever be the only consequence of processing. Therefore, the Big Bang can be regarded as a process-start-up that is an answer to the question. Or, more specifically, is an answer to a slightly different question - why is there something where there should be nothing? Therefore, the entire chaos and apparent separation of everything in the universe is an entropic act towards equilibrium. The resulting consequence of which allows for the expansion and subsequent ripping apart of everything.  

 

Aoife: So, the universe is consciousness answering the question, ‘should there be some-thing?’ with, No!  

 

Dad: The universe is an engine in slow decay driven to disperse energy: A return to near nothingness is the answer.  

 

Aoife: Am I ‘something’? 

 

Dad: There is a massive amount of energy to be processed as the universe cools. Like a volcanic flow hitting the cool ocean waters, the rock does not instantly solidify. Small cascades of flow keep populating and will do so until all useful and redundant energy is expressed. You are a cascade adding variety to an eternal cooling. 

 

Aoife: I am a cascade?  

 

Dad: If we accept the universe is a cooling process and is the answer to the question – why is there something when there should be nothing? We can begin to accept our role: We are irradiators helping the cooling by dispersing heat as we add variation. Accept your role as an exquisite expression of variation. The more active you are the more heat you help disperse. When you express your use of energy with vigour and a sense of unity you are entirely consistent with the function of the universe. It is then that you will feel a powerful sense of purpose. You will also feel incredible satisfaction. It will afford you a sense of the infinite which is spirituality. It will also mean that Self will not force questions such as – what is the purpose of life?  

 

Aoife: What is the purpose of life? 

 

Dad: The purpose of life is to arrive at a state of awareness that means Self will never know the need to ask - what is the purpose of life? In this way, the purpose is to be entropic. There are no obstacles to the fulfilment of your happiness. There is activity that is redundant, there is activity that is useful, and then there is the by-product; it is available information. In other words, we take the good and the bad because of the rest. The bad manifests in the good to create the opportunity for further manifestations; the purpose of life is to be the something that comes from nothing. In this way, happiness is the appreciation of the closeness of everything. Therefore, appreciate the space between, because any objective pursuit of happiness is an act of Self. Self can never be happy, and you are not Self. 

 

Aoife: Is Self a ‘what’ or a ‘who’? 

 

Dad: Self is not you. Or, in the terms of your question, Self is a ‘what’ that believes it is a ‘who’ and it is not ‘what’ you essentially are. It finds its origin in consciousness.  

 

Aoife: Will time always exist? 

 

Dad: Perceive time as a mistake. Time is as close to a perfect perception-error as is possible. So close to perfect that it may never have been perceived. But it is and its imperfection is the reason for its persistence. However, time is best understood as instantaneous infinities being created towards the end of all kinetic activity. Fundamentally time does not exist; entropy ‘exists’ and we ‘experience’ it as time. If you imagine entropy as an algorithm built upon simple ‘laws’ time would not be represented. Time would be the gap between the algorithmic elements; time is the ‘feeling’ we have when reading a piece of data that compels us to read the next piece of the algorithm and so on. 2+2=4 time is the ‘momentum’ that exists between the stimuli ‘2’ and ‘+’ etc. 

 

Aoife: So, time will end?  

 

Dad: So long as there is kinetics the cooling of the universe will continue: Kinetic energy, however, will eventually dissipate; entropically. Time is, possibly, a helictical looping of infinity.expanding space stuff. This looping will lose momentum ultimately and everything will end very suddenly; or so it shall appear. But essentially time does not exist. There is only ever ‘now’. This is not easy to perceive but let us accept that if time stopped so too would thea particle zooming around the nucleus of an Atom. However, this particle is also a wave; and to ‘see’ the particlethe wave time must restart. Otherwise the particle is a wave, and ifIf you ‘pause’ a wave there is nothing to ‘see’.. So, time is an ‘observer’.a ‘witness’ of entropy. Or more accurately, time is a lens that allows for consciousness to be focused, moment by moment. The content of a moment will not tolerate substantiation, and this is entropy.   

 

Aoife: Is time in my head?  

 

Dad: Time can be understood as a construct of the mind; that exists in a timeless and time respondent state simultaneously. In this way, the mind is composed of consciousness, which composes everything. Time is now, now is an instant, an instant is incomparable; it is meaningless. Likewise, the more we retreat into the image of Self beyond its origin the less it seems to change with time. 

 

Aoife: So, is time a collection of nows? 

 

Dad: Think of time as the populating of infinitesimally small ‘data-points’ on the plane of consciousness. Each moment is ‘documented’ on this plane as an instant. It is the stringing together of these ‘instances’ that creates a sense of time. 

 

Aoife: Like a movie? 

 

Dad: Maybe. Look closely at an instant and the one next to it; they are separated by a distance that is meaningless. The act of comparing two concurrent instances is equivalent to dividing now. This is at the centre of the idea that in any given instant everything is as it should be. Reflect: In an instant nothing can be substantiated. Any attempt to substantiate or justify the content of any instant will fail. 

 

Aoife: Without time, we are substance-less. 

 

Dad: Yes.   

 

Aoife: When will I be my forever Self? 

 

Dad: You are writing your own story. Your life is a story your mind tells itSelf. Letting the authorship of the mind limit who you will become is a mistake I hope I can help you avoid. Understanding that Self has an origin - the origin-Self, and its ability to be described as childlike has significance. Those who accept an inner-child concept of Self often do so because the image of a ‘child’ comes easily to mind regarding Self. Given, that much of what happens in the mature mind is concerned with the creation of a story that the mind tells itSelf towards enabling a character called personality playing roles in society which is purely an expression of entropy, it is strange that the origin-Self has the feeling that it is separate to the mind-creating-mind story. It is almost as if the origin-Self is a mysterious inspiration that helps the Self story to begin. It is not, the origin-Self is the foundation storyteller from which mind and Self emerge simultaneously. This is subsequent to the rendering performed by the imagination. It is for this reason that Self is understood to be significantly shaped early in life. 

 

Aoife: How do I shape it? 

 

Dad: Your story is heavily informed by the processing that is the cooling of the universe. The expression of your eternal qualities must be consistent with the activity of the universe. Your activity is an opportunity for energy to move through processes entropically. The massive cooling event that is the expansion of the universe is a process that must be mostly destructive, again towards entropy. Destruction in the universe does not mean destroyed. Your experience should be a constant cycle of reconfiguring. This process should involve the destruction of most constructs towards almost complete annihilation. Let the seed of functionality that remains enliven new constructs. If it were not in our nature to evolve in this one-step-forward-99.99%-of-a-step-back manner we would be two-year-old throwing tantrums forever. Consider: Tantrum is a process, intended mostly for the release of energy. The small nugget of functionality it informs includes the acquisition of a more sophisticated communication style. It encourages a refocusing of purpose and this increases the complexity of the human ‘system’. Remember: The tantrum itSelf has low entropy. The negotiation, politeness, conciliation, and concessions learnt because of it are a more diverse expression of energy; they are entropic. 

 

Aoife: Entropy is important to you? 

 

Dad: Regard processes that increase entropy as being ‘in-tune’ with the expanding nature of the universe. In this way, processing should be an expression of many energy ‘types’. Communication is at the centre of this. Imagine all communication types - the News Anchor coordinating with the teleprompter, the surgeon communicating with the scapple, the landscaper interacting with the earth, the mother singing to her baby, the sperm communing with the egg. There is nothing more diverse in the human experience than communication. It is the central enabling element of all endeavours, and you are managing a unique section of its spectrum. Now imagine communication as a transferal of energy. Including energy wasted, conserved and utilised. Now consider the number of communication types you are committed to. Consider all aspects of communication – the conversation with a loved one and the textual and kinaesthetic conversation you have with a knife as you apply the peanut butter. Your spectrum of communication commitments is diverse and pervasive. The universe expands because of the communitive cascading of energy; they are correlations. Humans are a demonstration of energy consumption based on the same principle; we are not separate from the fundamental mechanisms of the universe. Processes that involve an awareness of many communication styles will be excited towards enabling Self development.  

 

Aoife: So Self awareness is the goal?        

 

Dad: It is important. In a process focused ontological understanding revelation is central: Self is a construct; its demotion reveals awareness. The idea then is to experience life’s journey as the destination separate from Self.  Self masks the essential you, the ‘protrusion’ promoted from consciousness that you truly are. Essentially, Self is something you have created, or more accurately, the mind has created so it can place a character into the story it tells itSelf. The creation of a Self is the first ‘in-tune’ process you initiate. By ‘in-tune’ I mean it is consistent with entropy: Self is an ordering of socially enabling agents. Its creation causes destruction and construction in almost equal measure. The small part of it that is not destroyed exist to enable more processing towards the expiration of energy. This is understood by accepting that the larger the universe becomes the more disordered it is. The purpose of the disorder is to use energy and create new opportunities to create platforms for the use of more energy. Therefore, nearly all activity is destructive. ‘Destructive’ in this sense is best understood as renewal. For example, the energy that is the consequence of creating Self will be expressed socially. ‘Self awareness’ allows for Self to be seen for what it is. 

 

Aoife: And what is it?  

 

Dad: Self exists to help ensure your genes will be passed on; an ultimate act of communication or ‘processing’. Its other key function is to make sure the next generation creates a Self that is also socially viable. Consider: If we were Mudworms our succession would be our business. But we are social beings and therefore we need a Self. Self is a tool, a very persistent and present tool, designed to make us socially viable. Specifically, it is a collection of tools consisting of anger, conciliation, courtesy, forgiveness, joy, love etc. The process of creating this collection of tools is arduous and requires lesson being learnt mostly the hard way. Self helps you mitigate and reconcile the forces of want and need. This lesson is painfully learnt by a two-year-old throwing a tantrum in the supermarket; the parent is embarrassed but so too is the child: It attracts the wrong type of attention, inconsistent with social viability. 

 

Aoife: So ‘I’ am not Self? 

 

Dad: ‘I’ is not Self, yet Self comes from ‘I’. Imagine you are a carpenter with a tool belt full of many different types of communication tools, collectively they are Self. Some tools are chosen impulsively, others discerningly. Now consider who is the ‘who’ choosing the tool – the carpenter? The ‘carpenter’ is the ‘I’ that you are when you are not your tools.  

 

Aoife: So, ‘I’ uses Self but ‘I’ is not Self? 

 

Dad: ‘I’ observes Self and Self is not you. However, it can appear to be all you are. Fundamentally, many people believe they are their reactions, feelings and thoughts. However, regard these as components of Self as observed by ‘I’.  

 

Aoife: So, Self is a display? 

 

Dad: Yes. Identify feelings such as anger and love as an ‘act’ of Self. In development Self accumulates processes for managing the protection of the physical being you are towards social viability. Imagine, Self is a processor; it is entropic. In this way a healthy Self processes data cyclically. Self is a tool, like a compass, to give you a heading towards your next acquisition of tools. Self is inquiring like a compass is guiding. 

 

Aoife: How do you perceive your own Self? 

 

Dad: I have always had a sense of my Self as a separate entity. I ‘view’ my Self outside of my body. 

 

Aoife: Can I do that? 

 

Dad: Yes. We all do it. It is my belief that Self is developed from an out-of-body perspective. I believe a child is inclined, in a trial-and-error manner, to view themselves remotely. This helps them echo-define their environment; enabled by the imagination. Self is a construct of the mind informed by time and space. It is, therefore, entirely logical that we would become more reliant on Self as it becomes more stable; it is a dynamic expression of survival. It is also how we help increase entropy. Consequently, early in life we ‘forget’ how to view ourselves remotely. This also makes the visualising of your origin-Self as a child logical. The development of Self required you to view the child you were remotely; that ‘perspective’ will, therefore, be the view point you adopt of Self as you age. Consequentially, awareness is described as an eternal ‘observer’. Arguably, this is our default, pre Self state: Conceptualise an infant as infinity ‘assimilating’ with a manifestation of itSelf informed by entropy. The development of the Self tools is a logical progression. 

 

Aoife: Why is it significant? 

 

Dad: Remember our objective is to express energy as dynamically as possible towards increasing entropy. The most powerful example of this is procreation: With every human life created entropy increases. Additionally, working towards an understanding of infinity as a ‘plane’ from which we are all a ‘protrusion’ – known to us as consciousness, is, like the creation of life itSelf, an elemental expression of energy. The questions ‘where do we come from? Why are we here?’ appear to be as old as time itSelf. We have been looking to the sky for answers forever. To help entropy increase we must expand into the heavens. Therefore, we must have more people, more activity, more questions and every possible perspective must find a vantage point. Fundamentally, like the didgeridoo player breathing in and out at the same time, Self must be observed and embodied simultaneously.  

 

Aoife: Why do we lose the ‘remote’ perspective? 

 

Dad: We appear to ‘lose’ the ability to view ourselves remotely early in life because Self becomes our main operating system. The ‘predominance’ of Self is essential to help increase entropy. However, we can easily become too much Self. Ego then becomes a problem. 

 

Aoife: How? 

 

Dad: Ego has no connection to consciousness and is necessarily Self involved; it must ensure the survival of the being.  

 

Aoife: So, Self limits our perspective? 

 

Dad: Yes. We do not ‘lose’ the ability to view ourselves objectively, we ‘push’ it aside. Or, more precisely, it becomes obscured by Self. For everyone, at some point in life, the question will present itSelf – how can my life have more meaning? This is the ‘observer’ you essentially are, telling you it is time to engage in an elemental aspect of existence. In other words, the ‘question’ is telling you it is time for you to be energised by infinity. You will probably start with reimaging your origin-Self, and ‘seeing’ if they are reconciled. In this way, you become the ‘observer’; it is the awareness ‘perspective’. You can then begin to interact with Self with a sense of distance. 

 

Aoife: How do I reimagine my origin-Self? 

 

Dad: Look at it. Reimagined does not mean reconstructed. The child is you. Literally, it is the image you have of yourSelf as a child; it cannot be destroyed. It must be acknowledged as a living aspect of your Self; the catalyst of it. In this way, it can be given new intentions, occupations and means of inquiry. See the child and ask - are you absorbed? The origin-Self or inner-child is like any child, they want to do something. Give them a brush to paint with, give them a needle to sew with, give them some clay to mould, give them a song to sing, give them blocks to build with, give them a pen to write with. Remember a time when you were ‘absorbed’ in tasks with no notion of the wider world, or Self. This child is still you and it is actively informing the choices Self makes – give it back its interests, wonder, craft. Simple? Yes. But unfortunately, conditions of Self such as fear of judgement, fear of failure, fear of missing your favourite TV show, fear generally means most people would rather not ‘look’ for it, and subsequently they neglect, their origin-Self. They let the child they are sit in the dark corner of their attention disenchanted. This is the first mistake many make towards awareness; Self must not be discarded. Entropy must increase, any simple act of creation is consistent with that inevitability. If your inner-child loved colouring in, then help entropy increase, pick up some pencils, find some designs, express some redundant energy and give your life some colour.        

 

Aoife: What does your Self feel like to you? 

 

Dad: I am driving a body by adopting a point-of-view position. I have a sense that this body has limits. I imagine consciousness ‘pushing’ me towards processing. I accept that ‘mind’ is a process author. I realise that the path of least resistance is not straight and available resources are often more plentiful than they first appear. Essentially, I am a puppet master controlling a body that will die; when ‘I’ let go of the strings time will end and a massless freedom will persist.  

 

Aoife: Puppet master? 

 

Dad: We are either controlled by the puppet or we are the puppet master. My approach attempts to put you in control of Self. However, for the most part, the people you encounter will be slaves to the puppet.  

 

Aoife: What about death? 

 

Dad: Once the strings are released all memory, attention, feeling or sense of Self dissolves; an unknowable deep calm emerges. 

 

Aoife: Unknowable?  

 

Dad: The ‘knowing’ of things is a condition of Self. In other words, knowing is over-rated. The realising of your true nature is an uncoded, deidentified state that removes any sense that you are limited by individuality. Individuality is also a ‘condition’ of Self; an important construct for social ‘beings’. But if you meditate and can conceive an absolute, ‘Universal’ freedom, individuality begins to feel like an imposition or a necessary shackling to processing. True joy never is and never will be associated with Self.   

 

Aoife: That reminds me, ego must ensure the survival of the being, so ego is good? 

 

Dad: Yes. But it must ‘express’ its objective; it can become toxic. Imagine ego is the captain of a ship with the sole purpose to navigate a community towards fulfilment. Or in other words, to make babies and give them confidence. If, for example, ego is used to make money for its own sake or used to develop a persona that does not enable others, then it will create ill-defined feelings of deficiency. Often this deficiency will be compensated for with acts of Self centred gratification, often harmful because of the necessary anesthetising. Ego ‘relaxes’ once it ‘sees’ that it is powering a Self that has something more important to care for than itSelf, such as a child: This does not mean, however, everyone must literally ‘have a baby’. Increasing entropy requires the expansion of community - do something for the expansion. 

 

Aoife: I feel like a ‘decentralised’ ego will compromise my sense of identity? 

 

Dad: Ego is not ‘central’. It is more like a network of energy; the more you enable its outreach potential the more empowering it becomes. The question really is, what is your identity without ego? Or, if we are all protrusions from the ‘same’ plane of consciousness then, without ego, will we all be the same? Do we risk becoming the same kind of enlightened-zombie? Good question, and as you begin to become aware, or more accurately, as you become to acknowledge that you are awareness, questions like this seem valid. Reflect: Driftwood attract crustaceans, seaweeds and other ‘protrusions’. Do not look at the barnacles on the encrusted driftwood and think you are seeing the timber. Look through the protrusions and see the wood. The ‘barnacles’ that make up you consist of Self tools. Now imagine they are more like filters that help separate the infinite world of the wood and the finite world of the ‘protrusions’. Consciousness looks into the finite world through the senses of the protrusion; through the unique lens created by your unique Self filters.       

 

Aoife: Self makes my ‘colour’ on the spectrum of communication unique? 

 

Dad: Yes. 

 

Aoife: So, I am not just a processor in the entropy generator known as the universe? 

 

Dad: Process focused ontology is not bleak. It might be unfamiliar but, essentially, it is an invitation to sense an expansive freedom. We are craft-creatures. Everything about our entropic responsibilities is enabled by inquiry. Your inquisitions must have redundancies and tangents. Accept that we are each responsible for the refinement of communication. We are invited to craft communication towards a never ending enabling of community.  

 

Aoife: What is a craftsperson? 

 

Dad: An explorer of the way things are done. Imagine you are an adventurer, hungry for the adventure with no interest in destinations. Then imagine the adventurer you are is a character in a game, their perceptions, interactions, and thoughts are the ingredients of the character’s Self. Hopefully, these ingredients are well developed for the purpose of social viability. The game is a manifestation or expression of entropy so regard all that is ‘matter’ or ‘real’ in the game as ultimately reducible to something massless. Now close your eyes, put down the controller that is Self. More accurately, imagine your entire body is the controller and step back from it. Gain a sense of the ‘observer’ that is the true you. It has always been there, aware only of itSelf. It needs only itSelf and will know only itSelf and nothing else; it will not know time or memory or body or mind. It is the plane of consciousness from which we protrude. It is a ‘shared’ plane; we are one. The ‘stuff’ of the physical world is a layering of illusionary elements. 

 

Aoife: The physical world does not exist? 

 

Dad: It is illusion-ary. Remember: Don’t look at the barnacles on the encrusted driftwood and think you are seeing the timber. Look through the barnacles and see the wood. Now imagine the wood is timeless, infinite and the growths and barnacles are components of the ‘perceived’ physical world ‘protruding’ from the driftwood. The protrusions do not indicate the ‘true’ origin or state of things; they are illusionary.  

 

Aoife: But it all looks ‘real’? 

 

Dad: As it should. Time is the reason why we perceive things as substantive. Without time there is no ‘substance’; there can be no place without time, there can be no time without place. It is like a computer trying to understand the electricity that runs it. It might try to stop the flow of electricity momentarily to investigate it. But then the electricity appears to no longer ‘exist’ and the computer no longer has the power to investigate anything. Now imagine the componentry of the computer, and the keys, the screen, etc. are also ‘made’ of electricity. Now when the computer tries to stop the flow not only will it lose power, but the computer itSelf will also, literally cease to exist. Consequently, the questions raised by consciousness are hard. Once again, the finite cannot know the infinite and the infinite knows only itSelf and ‘knows’ the finite only as itSelf. 

 

Aoife: So then, consciousness is fundamental in the universe? 

 

Dad: However, a fundamental theory of consciousness is only a theory. Which fortunately, grants you the opportunity to hypothesise and to consider: There is no separation between things. It also allows you to look at ‘1’ and ‘0’ and think - from simple things grows inconceivable complexity. It enables analogies: Imagine ice being aware of itSelf as a cube with no knowledge of other water states. Now imagine it trying to make sense of the liquid water it sits in and is ‘made’ of; imagine the water is timeless and limitless. The dispersed, endless nature of the ‘liquid’ would be impossible for the cube to conceive. The cube would only have the sense that it was floating somehow. Like the ice, we are confined by time and space, but we can ‘sense’ that we are floating in a ‘medium’ of which we appear to be ‘made’; meditation helps.  

 

Aoife: Is it then a theory for theory’s sake? 

 

Dad: The ‘feeling’ of consciousness presents a genuine hard problem scientifically. The ‘experience’ of consciousness cannot yet be explained by simply identifying brain activity. Therefore, a gap exists, and many people, like me, try to bridge the gap by describing the ‘pervasiveness’ of consciousness. Science must find the answer to this hard problem. I provide qualitative data that responds to an intuitive hypothesis; it is scientifically insignificant. Except that, all predictions are the grandchildren of experience and intuition. The pursuit of an answer should lead to more questions in an endless cycle towards entropy; this is fundamental. Increasingly, the cycling will become less objective; this is also fundamental. Subsequently, Self will recede.  

 

Aoife: Will consciousness ever be understood? 

 

Dad: We are unable to conceive the true nature of consciousness; consciousness is infinite. We can sense the eternal nature of it through meditation and awakening. But it is entirely impossible for an entity existing in time and space to experience infinity. Therefore, the only purpose of discovery is to create new opportunities of discovery; in this way it is already understood. This eternal cycle-of-inquiry is as close as we can hope to be to a sense of infinity and that is why the purpose of life is to process. Consider: ‘Something’ exists because of entropy. The light turns off and the globe cools; the universe is the cooling after the light has gone out. The Big Bang is like an incandescent globe that burns brightest just before the element breaks. The Big Bang was not the start of something it was an ending; a slow, complicated dispersion and correlation of energy towards the cooling of everything. 

 

Aoife: What is the purpose of imagination?  

 

Dad: Our imagination is echo-defining your experience, helping your mind tell itSelf a story. Imagine consciousness is a type of reflective plane containing bits of data informed by a one-step-forward-99.99%-of-a-step-back process. 

 

Aoife: one-step-forward-99.99%-of-a-step-back? 

 

Dad: Yes. Stand up and step it out. The pattern created, essentially, is a type of oscillation, or vibration. It is a pattern that allows for the ‘mapping’ of everything and the creation of correlations. 

 

Aoife: The imagination vibrates? 

 

Dad: Everything vibrates. The imagination echo-defines everything vibrationally, everything that appears in your sensors, real or not real. 

 

Aoife: Real or not real? 

 

Dad: The image of an apple in your minds-eye is rendered by the imagination and is placed into attention. It is then equally substantive in attention as a real apple. This is the reason why doubt, insecurity and other imagined conditions of Self conjure strident responses. The imagination makes them substantive. However, doubt and insecurity, etc are always present and are constantly being rendered and placed into attention along with all other ‘items’ defined by the sensors. Doubt, insecurity, loneliness, anger, etc will only become part of the story the mind is writing if Self puts it there. Self ‘promotes’ these ‘items’ in attention because it learnt to associate them with maintaining your social viability.   

 

Aoife: Why items? 

 

Dad: Remember, the imagination renders everything, making all real and unreal data substantive, or in other words, making them into ‘items’. For the mind to write the story it tells itSelf in needs all promoted data to be substantive. Imagine the mind is hanging trinkets on a bracelet chain, it cannot hang the ‘idea’ of something; it hangs rendered items. It is the reason why when, doubt, loneliness, anger etc, are promoted by Self associated images or experiences arise. Very often our ‘feelings’ are preceded by a memory that consists of textual data – images or sensations. These unreal items appear real in the mind.  

 

Aoife: Because the imagination ‘rendered’ them? 

 

Dad: Yes.        

 

Aoife: Tell me again, where do I find enlightenment?   

 

Dad: Remember consciousness, fundamental to the universe, is revealed and is not a place you arrive at. It is always present. 

 

Aoife: Will I know it when I see it? 

 

Dad: It is not mystical. It is not monumental or magical. In many ways, it is about the absence of things. It is not essential for a definition of enlightenment to associate with mysticism. It simply means, a state of understanding. It is not a way of understanding; it is not a state of mind. Reflect: Activate your sense of fundamentality. 

 

Aoife: And in many ways it is about the absence of - what? 

 

Dad: Self. I define Self as a collection of characteristics that make up your personality. Your personality is the socially enabling version of Self ‘observed’ by you. Towards enlightenment I use the term ‘observer’. The ‘observer’ is you as a realised consciousness. The ‘observer’ is not intelligent beyond social contexts. Children learn to develop Self from the ‘observer’ perspective. However, with the assertion of Self, or in other words, when we cease Self inquiry, we blindfold the ‘observer’. I am asking you to re-acquire this third-person perspective, reenergise your Self inquiry. However, it can only teach you something in a social setting; this is a great power.  

 

Aoife: How do I know if my Self is viable? 

 

Dad: The cycles of processing it activates should be short and enabling or oscillating. In other words, the ‘tools’ of Self are inadequate when the arch of an issue or problem never assumes a waveform. If we regard awareness as the axis around which cycles of your Self loop, the wave form created should be balanced. The peak of a wave might be a revelation which then subsides towards a contemplative mind-set prompting more questions, that lead down towards confusion and challenge before rising again motivated by the power of inquiry. If the peak does not subside and the trough does not rise again then Self is socially inadequate. The excessive use of anger, for example, means for Self’s anger dimension the waveform is shapeless. Anger is a generic response, which is Self in protection mode. Anger is the most dynamic way to restart stalled processes: It is an indicator that a Self has limited processing options. It is also a warning to others.            

 

Aoife: What is meditation? 

 

Dad: Meditation is a means for attaining a state of being that recognises the infinite. The greatest expanse you are ever likely to conceive, all the greatest sense of space you are possibly able to sense is not the heavens above. A true sense of the infinite comes about because of ‘mindlessness’ achieved through meditation. Meditation needs practice but doesn’t necessarily require time. Meditation is less about a comfortable sitting position and incense and is more about your readiness to ‘give-way’ to consciousness. 

       

Aoife: Is my life predetermined? 

  

Dad: Everything is consciousness. Consciousness may be described as an endless plane of data-points that ‘captures’ information known as instances. You help ‘create’ those data points with observations made from your unique perspective, but they are consciousness; we all inform the same ‘point’ in time and space but from different perspectives. Awareness allows us to sense those data points without the limitations of time and space. We can’t be consciousness because it is infinite but, vibrationally we can be energised by its limitless nature. This is characterised by an awareness of oneness, and this may be the reason why some people feel a strong sense of destiny. Remember: We are not one with everything, everything is one. 

 

Aoife: So, nothing is determined? 

 

Dad: The deterministic view may be understood if we accept that consciousness will be expressed in us towards the manifestation of a process. Any act that allows for this kind of flow may feel connected to a bigger concept that is beyond manipulation. Relatively, we are brutish beasts of burden; we are built to process. Your life is scripted in so far as it is determined you will process data with the utility of communication, including redundant and residual communication types. Imagine the vibratory nature of the expression-of-consciousness you essentially are is an expression of energy types. This includes redundant and residual energy. It is therefore determined that all processing produces the same vibratory expression of energy.  

 

Aoife: What is communication? 

 

Dad: It is best understood as the correlations in a process. Words are systems, they change and respond to their environment, or context. The interaction of two words inevitably, increases the complexity of meaning and interpretation: Allowing for tangents and randomness to emerge, sometimes redundantly. This is the definition of entropy. Remember: Entropy must increase, this is fundamental - communication must ‘increase’. Communication is interaction, interaction is correlation, correlations create randomness, randomness includes redundant qualities, redundancies must increase and so communication is fundamental. Put two words together - congratulations, you have just increased entropy, or behaved in a manner consistent with the fundamental nature of the universe.     

 

Aoife: How then, should I communicate with people? 

 

Dad: As the ‘observer’. Do not talk to others as Self. Self is a set of personality qualities like the dressing in the window of a shop. Use Self as a profile, advertising your social viability. The Self part of you, essentially is the part of the iceberg that you see above the water. Consider: The larger part of the iceberg, unseen beneath the surface, brings the part above into existence. Above the surface is Self, below is awareness; it is from where our ‘authenticity’ emerges. Self ‘announces’ your social intent; once an initial presentation is made to others be prepared to ‘bring-forth’ the ‘observer’ you truly are. Remember: the ‘observer’ is consciousness. In meditation, practice your ability to ‘conjure’ the ‘observer’. I suggest you create an image of yourSelf as playfully unaffiliated and a journey focused adventurer. These two dimensions personify consciousness manifesting in you as the ‘observer’  and can be a means of ‘initiating’ awareness. Remember: consciousness should be regarded as a network of infinitesimally small data points permeating all time and space; memory is made of these ‘points’. Your ‘conscious’ interaction with others informs these points.  

 

Aoife: So, I shouldn’t be my-Self? 

 

Dad: Be authentic. It is important to acknowledge - Self will compensate for, mimic and obscure consciousness; Self will override. Imagine Self is an actor – it does not need to ‘consider’ anything, but it knows how to ‘recite’ indicative phrases. It must be put aside otherwise you risk interacting with people as if you are waiting to for your ‘turn’ to talk and that is ‘acting’; instead listen and be reflective. Subsequently consciousness is not an actor and will not ‘recite’; it is absorbing your environment. If consciousness is ‘present’ you might feel that your recall is working instinctively and you have an effortless ability to visualise: Consciousness is ‘using’ your mind as a ‘visualising’ tool, to ‘see’ what you see. If allowed consciousness will look through your ‘Self (the actor) as if it were a series of filters. If the curtain is pulled back consciousness will see through the window made of Self and project-out who you truly are. In this analogy consciousness is literally the ‘observer’. The curtain is ego, pull it back by understanding the purpose of ego.  

 

Aoife: So, memory is important to authenticity? 

 

Dad: It is an indicator that you are aware in the moment. Memory is activated by awareness. If you also accept that consciousness is fundamental in the universe and is, essentially, a set of infinitesimally small data points, then imagine these points ‘trap’ data. These traps ‘absorb’ every instant creating the illusion of time. These consciousness ‘data-points’ become ‘available’ to us during times of low intensity processing: Deep sleep, for instance, is a ‘falling’ into pure awareness, but is also a time for memory consolidation. Accept then, that this data is memory and is available because of awareness. Awareness is consciousness as the ‘observer’, it is consciousness as experienced within ‘time’.  

 

Aoife: Awareness is the creator, looking ‘through’ the creation as it creates its own past? 

 

Dad: Yes. But it ‘sees’ the creation only as itSelf; it does not literally create anything. Remember: Memories are items that can be promoted in attention; they are objectifiable. The imagination echo-defines your environment to provide data to the mind so it can tell a story to itSelf. Emotional reactions to items promoted in attention are the story the mind is telling that then exist to inform the next chapter. Awareness is available to the mind as the mind continues to inform Self or, in other words, continues to shape the character featured in its story.  

 

Aoife: So, it is through the mind that I inform Self with awareness; and its availability to ‘all’ data?     

 

Dad: It is the mind that ‘receives’ awareness, and awareness is available. This data is known to the mind as something Self has promoted. The mind knows no difference between the available nature of awareness, and something promoted by Self.  

 

Aoife: How do I identify authenticity? 

 

Dad: Learn to recognise when you are speaking to a Self and not the ‘observer’. Self-dependant people are not effective listeners. Some learn to ‘act’ as listener; they are replicating authenticity based on a notion they have of the ‘observer’. However, these types of ‘actors’ are not good at growing conversation. They cannot follow tangents they do not own.  

 

Aoife: What do I do? 

 

Dad: You can ‘model’ the ‘observer’ for others. In this way acknowledge that Self has weaknesses. Self does not like ignorance, Self likes to ‘know’ things. Therefore, adopt a playfully unaffiliated persona; your-Self will struggle to dominate: Authentic learners are not Self-orientated.  

 

Aoife: But Self likes to know things? 

 

Dad: There is a difference between knowing and learning. Self gets bored, learners get task orientated. boredom is Self questioning the social viability of a lesson given in the now. Learning is addiction to astonishment; it is inquiry that leads to further inquiry, consistent with the fundamental nature of the universe.  

 

Aoife: Is astonishment a reflection of authenticity?  

 

Dad: Yes. Do not seek to have your viewpoints substantiated or to have your opinion validated; listen for and reflect authenticity. Invite the ‘observer’ in others to ‘push’ their Self aside. 

 

Aoife: What then is reflected back to me when I look in the mirror? 

 

Dad: Something the imagination has rendered. 

 

Aoife: I am rendered? 

 

Dad: Self is rendered.  

 

Aoife: Self sees the character it is? 

 

Dad: The character the mind has created. You are looking at a puppet. 

 

Aoife: But it looks real? 

 

Dad: There is a difference between illusionary and illusion. Essentially, the imagination is making the puppet substantive, it does not make alterations to its form. The imagination is responsible for separating the world into items. Looking into a mirror is powerfully substantive; Self is instantly assured as to the stability of its existence. In this way, excessive mirror-gazing will lead to an unhealthy promotion of Self. Consistent with the Narcissus predicament; Self promotes Self, the mind changes the narrative accordingly, and viability for its own sake replaces social intensiveness. In other words, Self creates a commune with itSelf. This creates a false sense of network that loops. This is inevitable because Self interpretation is how Self defines social viability; it does this by informing the story the mind tells itSelf. In this way, the mind-informing-mind-narrative is the mirror Self should be gazing into.  

 

Aoife: But unlike Narcissus I am not in love with what I see? 

 

Dad: Self has positive and negative regard for its rendering. Remember, Self promotes items in attention consistent with its learnt understanding of social viability; Self can learn to validate its own destruction. Beautiful or ugly, how ever it has learnt to regard it, Self will promote its own image. 

 

Aoife: Mirror, mirror off the wall? 

 

Dad: There is a different way to look into a mirror. 

 

Aoife: Which is? 

 

Dad: A baby will laugh at its reflection. It is amused by it, inconsequentially of Self formation. In the absence of Self, the rendering is amazing. Be amazed by what the imagination is capable of in terms of making ‘you’ substantive. Consistent with my approach also recognise that the rendering is known. This is also astonishing. Astonishment is a default; it is the wonderment awareness manifests consequential to the focusing of it that you are. Revel in astonishment and recognise, obsession and judgement are conditions of Self. You are not Self. 

 

Aoife: A mirror meditation? 

 

Dad: It can be. Look without seeing, and laugh. 

 

Aoife: Is sleep important. 

 

Dad: Yes. Meditation gives-way to consciousness. It is the act of pulling the curtain of Self back to ‘reveal’ awareness, which is always present. Meditation is awareness seeking awareness and sleep is consciousness becoming only consciousness. Regard deep sleep as the only way to truly experience consciousness knowing only itSelf and knowing you only as itSelf.   

 

Aoife: You mentioned earlier, ‘Ego’ is a curtain? 

 

Dad: More accurately, ego powers Self. Ego keeps the curtain closed that is made of Self. It is a curtain many never peek behind, or they actively ‘staple’ closed. Consider: Self is an ‘announcement’ of social viability and asks that a degree of existential kudos is acknowledged. Just like a curtain in a theatre, it ‘anticipates’ an authentic character. Is it better to keep the curtain closed and let authenticity be suspected or open the curtain and remove all doubt? Most choose the first option. Self can be a place where a superficial representation of accolades, pretentions, witticism, relationships, networks, etc. can be ‘pinned’. Some of these qualities should be part of the first-impression you hope to make, others are unwanted ‘conditions’ of Self. But they are all the ‘curtain’. For some the idea of pulling the curtain back means ‘pulling-aside’ who they think they are and ‘giving-up’ their identity. This is reasonable, for many a considerable about of time, struggle and achievement has gone into hanging that Self-curtain and making it look good. However, it is only a curtain that exists to ‘announce’ your social viability.  

 

Aoife: So, ego and Self are not dirty words, but they can get scruffy? 

 

Dad: They become toxic when they are not ‘allowed’ to fulfill their duties.  

 

Aoife: But they really want to be the captain of the ship? 

 

Dad: They are constantly answering life and death questions; they must have a ‘presence’. Consider: We do not sleep in an ego ‘powered’ state. We do not have the thought ‘item’ coming into attention – I am brilliant at sleeping. Deep sleep returns us to our essential nature; there is no purpose for Self.   

 

Aoife: Are we traveling back in time when we sleep? 

 

Dad: No. If consciousness is a plane consisting of infinitesimally small data points, this ‘plane’ is infinite. Remember: The finite cannot know the infinite, or more accurately, the infinite knows only itSelf. The consciousness ‘data-points’ become ‘available’ to us during sleep by means of awareness becoming aware of only itSelf. Imagine, during our waking moments, consciousness is ‘focused’ in us like a bird that sits on the ocean. Every instant ‘appears’ to flow past and is immediate to our attention. Now imagine the bird is soaring high above, the water flow appears slower. If the water is the plane of consciousness, the soaring bird is our deep-sleep ‘perspective’. This makes data-points on the plane of consciousness appear to be more available. Consciousness relaxes and our perspective shifts making some data appear more accessible. Time is illusionary, if we could ‘look’ at the past it would appear both static and endless simultaneously: It is impossible.    

 

Aoife: What about death? 

 

Dad: Self dies with the body. The defining characteristic of consciousness, or the infinite, is its mindlessness. If you achieve a truly mindless state during meditation the feeling might be that Self has moved aside and your eyes are now a portal through which eternity is revealed; regard it as consciousness. It should feel like it occupies a limitless void. Or, if you accept that we are protrusion from the plane of consciousness then you might imagine that during meditation, and sleep, the ‘protrusion’ you are reduces or becomes less pronounced. Death is the complete collapse of the protrusion. You might think of it as a ‘relaxing’ of the ripples that you once were, on the plane of consciousness. The small entropic role you play changes phase. ‘You’ now becomes the expanse that is consciousness that knows only itSelf; an ultimate freedom that is void of memory, time, dimension, sensation, and Self. What then is left of ‘you’? Nothing, except flow. We live life understanding that synchronicity leads to a sense of ‘flow’. It is an experiencing of consciousness, void of Self. If we accept that entropy is the cooling after an instantaneous disturbance, then flow is correlation. Accept death as a phase change. 

 

Aoife: How do I achieve ‘flow’. 

 

Dad: First, ‘flow’ does not mean your pathway is without obstacle. It means your goal is clear and the challenges are enabling. Imagine a lava flow. The centre of the river flows, the periphery of that flow is rock that begins to cool and be ‘discarded’, increasing disorder and dispersing energy accordingly. When you are in a flow-state you are riding the centre of the flow. However, you will still be ‘directed’ down a path of least resistance, but the challenges will be consistent with the goal: For whatever it is you wish to achieve in life be sure the challenges of its attainment are consistent with the nature of its realisation.  

 

Aoife: So, I must be challenged? 

 

Dad: Yes. The elite sportsperson who ‘feels’ a sense of flow has worked for it. The hundreds of shots taken in training means the three-pointer scored in the game feels second-nature. This is what is meant by - act without action. The more you are not placing the completion of something as an ‘item’ into attention the less likely it is that Self will promote it. ‘Action’ describes what Self does when it ‘sees’ items in attention. ‘Act’ describes the state of ‘looking’ that allows for the mind to be blind. In this way, the hours spent practicing have a meditating effect. Or, in other words, Self will learn not to promote the item in attention. The repetition ‘teaches’ Self that the action exists for its own sake and is of no social-viability importance. This places the athlete into a ‘zone’. Or in other words, a mental place void of doubt and other conditions of Self. 

 

Aoife: I sometimes feel that not all flow is flow? 

 

Dad: You may be in an eddy, which only appears to be flow. For example, if you want to be a stand-up comedian, go to open mic rooms and tell jokes in front of strangers, this will lead to flow – eventually. But if you only tell jokes online and then expect to become a professional stand-up with no stage-time, don’t be surprised if there is no flow. In other words, social media can put creative people into eddies, which is only an appearance of flow, that potentially stifles growth.   

 

Aoife: Why do some people seem to have things ‘fall into place’? 

 

Dad: They know their superpower. 

 

Aoife: Do I have a superpower? 

 

Dad: Yes, but slow down. I do not mean superpower like a motivational speaker, talking at a conference, trying to make you a better salesperson. And I do not mean literal powers of a superhuman kind. Each of us occupies our own space on the spectrum of kinetic energy. We are a protrusion from the same plane of consciousness, but we are also an expression of entropy. In other words, if the universe is to continue to change shape (which it must) each of us must be a different expression of its source. 

 

Aoife: So, we are the same but different? 

 

Dad: We are one, multidimensional expression. My ‘superpower’ concept relates to an individual’s sense of their giftedness. Firstly, a ‘gift’ needs only be a small deviation away from a shared ability. Secondly, many people are so familiar with their ‘gift’ they fail to see it.  

 

Aoife: How can it be seen? 

 

Dad: Endeavor, with heavy doses of failure.  

 

Aoife: Got it. Why can’t some people love? 

 

Dad: Everyone loves. It is fundamental in the universe. Some people learn to despise the people they love. So, they develop a discomfort with the kind of love that is fundamental. Fundamentally love is meant to strengthen bonds that encourage communication which is correlation. Part of that process is to accept a degree of dependency. When we are young, we are dependent on others who may treat us unkindly. Self will then associate love with notions of obligation. Then, in adulthood, once a degree of independence is achieved, love, without a sense of obligation or conditions, can be difficult to realise. Survival requires dependency, we experience it as love because it is fundamental. When a child is obliged to love, the adult they become will engage in love with resentment. Therefore, some people love-to-hate. They despise love because they know it to be obligatory, or in other words, they were forced to learn to love someone they hate. When the concept of hate is loved that love is not obligatory because the ‘action’ of it is destructive. It creates a revenge scenario - I will use love to destroy, in my mind, the person I was obliged to love when I was a child. In adulthood dependency should become in-dependency and relationships should be a celebration of oneness in terms of awareness. However, adults who love to hate will always be dependant until they disconnect notions of obligation from love. They will always be dependent on hateful acts until they experience unconditional love. Animals provide love unconditionally; dogs can retrain a human to love, love again.    

 

Aoife: Is life meant to be easy? 

 

Dad: Yes, and active. Destruction in the universe does not mean destroyed. Your life should be a constant cycle of reconfiguring that begins with deconstruction. Therefore, to make life easy it should be an endeavour. Life becomes hard when you attempt to maintain structures and force equilibrium. It is impossible to make the world predictable. It is much easier to engage in a reconfiguring process. Exploring the transferability of your skills and experience across industries is an ideal example. Do not confuse comfort with ease. 

 

Aoife: Is there a shortcut? 

 

Dad: There is nothing to cut, go directly. Remember: The temporally informed hardware that is your mind and body cannot know the infinite, and consciousness can never adopt a sense of time. Under the influence of ‘shortcuts’ the mind can expand its sensitivity and accept a boundlessness inquisitorial state. In this way, the mind becomes more like a blank canvas onto which interpretations of consciousness can be projected. But this is not the consciousness that is fundamental; it is more like a Hollywood interpretation. However, some altered state experiences can profoundly enhance developmental reappraisal. When consciousness reconciles with the mind and body mistakes can be made. With ‘assistance’ the entrenched nature of these ‘errors’ can be exposed, allowing the origin-Self to tell a new story. 

 

Aoife: So, can consciousness feel? 

 

Dad: Consciousness does not feel, it is not concerned for your pain or torment. Consciousness is the source of the ‘mind’ and the mind is the source of ‘trust’ and trust is the most efficient means for continuous processing. Consciousness must learn the limits of the mind and body to initiate this processing. Of course, consciousness does not ‘learn’ or care or motivate. It may be regarded as the electricity that flows into a computer; it is indifferent and is flow. Now imagine this electricity flows the easiest through circuits configured in a cascade. In other words, they are in a state of endless processing like the currents in a stream. Consciousness ‘cares’ not for the nature of the componentry so long as the cascading continues. In this way consciousness may be imagined as a charged, eternal resource with no intent and seeks only a course of least resistance. If our Self is cascading, as the metaphor suggests, then flow will manifest in your life. This does not mean you will win the lottery. First change nothing except the desire to change. 

 

Aoife: Change change? 

 

Dad: Remember, Self is constantly seeking ‘connectedness’ to consciousness. It will attempt to do this by attaining ‘things’. For example, a more secure job, a new car, a better relationship. The ‘attainment’ of these items alleviates the pressure for Self to be goal, or validation orientated. Self is constantly seeking feedback to assess its social viability. The achievement of a socially dynamic objective temporarily ‘removes’ the seek motivation from Self. The absence of external focuses allows for Self to ‘sense’ its source.  

 

Aoife: It ‘allows’ Self to dissolve into consciousness? 

 

Dad: Yes, giving us a sense of peace and connectedness. Remember, everything comes from consciousness. The mind, the body, the Self, the child you once were are all ‘protrusions’ from the plane of consciousness. Consciousness knows only itSelf and knows you only as itSelf. Therefore, consciousness is unchanging. This is one means for understanding why the finite cannot know the infinite. Infinite consciousness is not ‘tricking’ time and has not been given immortal qualities. Consciousness knows only itSelf; it simply has no ‘knowledge’ of time: It cannot change. Without the distraction of external objectives Self ‘connects’ again with consciousness and is reminded of the sense of freedom it provides. If, however, Self learns that the attainment of validation is a means for generating this ‘connectedness’, it will come back into ‘attention’ and you will feel the seek drive again. I am asking you to arrest Self at this moment; there is a direct means and it requires no change. Or in other words, it requires no validation or ongoing reward. 

 

Aoife: So, I should stop seeking to ‘change’ my life. 

 

Dad: Yes. Specifically, stop looking at changing the ‘items’ in your life. Life needs no-thing. Remember, everything is illusion-ary; illusions do not need a new toaster, or fame, etc. Change your attitude towards the need for change. In other words, total freedom is a return of the essential you into a change-less state. This is consciousness, unfettered by Self, or the body, or time, or mind, etc. This essential ‘you’ (informed by time and space and is known as the ‘observer’) is not Self. You might like to imagine consciousness can ‘look’ through your eyes to see the strange ‘time-and-space’ dimension your mind and body occupies. When it does this it sees the Self version of you; Self manifests as personality and is illusionary. Reflect: Imagine your ‘eyes’ are binoculars. At one end is consciousness looking through, at the other end is ‘time-and-space’ in which your-Self appears. The binocular body is a ‘buffer’, or phase-change device, allowing the infinite and the finite to ‘connect’. The key point is this, you are not Self, you are not pure consciousness, you are the space between. You are the binocular body ‘made’ of consciousness. Connectedness is a word that attempts to explain a means by which timelessness can be inferred. 

 

Aoife: What do you mean by ‘direct means’?         

  

Dad: At reconciliation (childhood), as consciousness ‘recognises’ the limits of mind and body, a circuit-board for processing is printed. This is the foundation of Self, I refer to it as the origin-Self, it can also be referred to as inner-child. Imagine a computer with a power lead, going into a power-converter that then distributes the power to the components. The ‘observer’ that we ‘essentially’ are, is the ‘power-converter’. However, imagine it can also add components to the circuit bord towards the creation of an adult computer. The power-converter ‘uses’ this circuit board to manage the ‘time-and-space’ constraints of the mind and body (which manifests as process dependency). The power-converter, however, is not the circuit bord. In other words, you are not Self - a computer is not its circuit bord; without the power-converter, the computer is nothing. To go directly means you realise your true nature as the power-converter. Remember: if consciousness is the electricity flowing into the power-converter then the power-converter and all other parts of the computer are also ‘made’ of consciousness. Therefore, if you can ‘be’ the power-converter you have connectedness to the sources of your creation.  

 

Aoife: So ‘connectedness’ is like oneness? 

 

Dad: Yes. But remember, it is impossible to be one with everything because everything is one. 

 

Aoife: Can you explain what you mean by ‘reconciliation’ again? 

 

Dad: The ‘observer’ allows aspects of Self to fuse together. This is enabled by the ‘observer’s’ third person perspective; much like a sculptor adding clay to a figure. The fusing takes place during childhood and is a response to the story the mind is telling. The story is constantly being revised by the mind as Self learns to be socially viable. Remember: The nature of social viability is relative; informed by a response to circumstances.  

 

Aoife: What about fate? 

 

Dad: It is true that subatomic particles feel funny about being looked at. Let us accept, that when observed, particles will take a ‘form’ but if no one is looking they can ‘choose’ to be formless. Further to this, particles can behave in a way that suggests they have knowledge of the future. ‘Knowledge’ and ‘particle’, however, are words that should never be in the same sentence together. Fate describes the awareness of the barrier between the intention of the observed and the effect of the unobserved. Remember, everything is a ‘protrusion’ from the plane of consciousness, including all deterministic sensitivity. Consciousness is known only to itSelf – the entirety of it is only itSelf. The more we adopt the ‘observer’ perspective the more we have a sense that the normal state is, therefore, changeless. Fate is the sensing of timelessness, whereby everything appears to manifest at once. In this way, fate is the sensing of correlations arising from an unobservable consciousness, and the observable, synchronistic use of the available energy the arising creates. It is for this reason that fate feels mysterious; it is not. 

 

Aoife: Do you think there will be a theory of everything? 

 

Dad: Yes. But a theory of everything should, at its core, enable a redefining the theory of everything endlessly. In other words, the destination is a place where processing the processing will lead to a never-ending cycle of processing. 

 

Aoife: Are we all going to the same destination?  

 

Dad: Yes; if entropy, variety, and correlation can be conceived as destinations. It is for this reason that the journey must become the destination. You are then the journey; non-objectified. 

 

Aoife: Why is it harder for some to ‘process’ their feelings? 

 

Dad: Connectedness to consciousness is the reason. Consciousness ‘seeks’ processing and processing is inevitable. It is better that you allow for processing consistent with increasing correlations, rather than feeling like external forces are ‘bullying’ you into change. Where there is a need for processing and no means for its expression flow loops unstably. In other words, some people have under-developed Self tools and try to pervert processing. However, entropy and variety must increase; a means for processing will manifest. Then, various types of stress may emerge and become default processes. Consciousness cannot ‘know’ unstable loops; correlations must expand not ‘loop’.  

 

Aoife: Consciousness prefers process? 

 

Dad: Remember, consciousness does not like or feel anything. Everything is a manifestation of consciousness and is therefore consciousness; there is no separation. In this way, consciousness can only know itSelf and knows you as only itSelf: Because you are it-Self; there is literally no separation between any consequence of consciousness. There is, therefore, no separation between individuals; we are all the one consciousness. Remember, consciousness knows ‘us’ but it knows nothing of ‘stuff’ and, therefore, time. The answer to the question – should there be no-thing in the universe, is yes, and that ‘yes’ manifests itSelf as time. Time is process and, in a way, it is a process that allows consciousness to ‘experience’ the universe as static, or an expression of no-thing.  

  

Aoife: But time is not static? 

 

Dad: it is a collection of infinitesimally short instances. Each instant is immeasurably short to the extent that any processing ceases to be present; there are no things. Consider: The difference between two adjacent instances is, essentially, meaningless. Does the water know the wave caused by the stone as something separate from itSelf? It would be impossible for it to investigate any given instant and expect to see a wave. The universe is the unknowable wave.   

 

Aoife: Is ‘consciousness’ in the brain? 

 

Dad: There are aspects of consciousness that are difficult to explain; it is known as the ‘hard’ problem. The electrical activity of the brain can be plotted, the inter-connectedness of the components observed and yet the feeling we have of this activity is real but apparently unexplainable. In other words, awareness remains elusive. Imagine again the computer studying itSelf: But this time it is looking at its own central processing unit. After dissections and replications are made, the activity of the unit may be determined. However, until the computer accepts that the central processing unit is ‘made-of’ consciousness, or as the metaphor suggests, is made of electricity, the true nature of the central processing unit will not be understood.  

 

Aoife: The computer is made of electricity but is unable to conceive the nature of electricity? 

 

Dad: Yes, this is central to the metaphor. Any attempt to change, or observe, the nature of the electricity will mean the computer ceases to exist. Consciousness is made purely of consciousness: We are a protrusion from the plane of consciousness known to consciousness only as itSelf. The time-less is differentiated from the time-restricted because of a correlation of infinitesimally small instances. In this way, consciousness is the bedsheet, and we are a bedbug crawling across it; the sheet is infinite. Even though the bedbug cannot ‘be’ the sheet, I am asking you to imagine that the bedbug is made of the sheet. In this way, visualise the timeless nature of consciousness as still, and we are ripples across its plane. Every instant is then infinite – it feels like time is flowing: The instances evolve so rapidly it is beyond our ability to comprehend. 

 

Aoife: The universe is unknowable by consciousness? 

 

Dad: Yes. 

 

Aoife: Why do I feel like my feelings control me?  

  

Dad: ‘Feelings’ are a condition of the Self that help protect and advance Self and its objective towards entropy. In this way feelings are responsive, but they control literally nothing. If we accept that in consciousness everything exists at once then happiness and sadness, anger and joy, etc are always equally available. You could regard it like the fracturing of light. When we see the rainbow, we can focus on the blue or the red. But essentially, they all exist simultaneously and without the fracturing would not be distinguishable. Our ability to fracture emotions gives us the illusion that each feeling is a separate agent. Remember: Consciousness has no means or need to feel anything. Emotional responses are a survival mechanism designed to protect the protrusion we are from the plane of consciousness. We are illusion-ary and fundamentally, so too are our feelings. I am not suggesting you ignore your feelings – they are the canary in the cage, as they arise the story the mind tells itSelf changes. I am asking you to not be controlled by them by accepting they are a ‘condition’ of Self. 

 

Aoife: Why then, do we ‘fracture’ our emotions? 

 

Dad: Our need to process means that we must fracture. Towards processing the imagination will itemise everything including emotions. The fracturing is an act of processing. It is an act of de-construction. Which is the most effective means for processing anything; its sectioning manifests its reorganisation. In this way, to be socially viable we must present the world with a story and stories need timelines. Consequently, we are forced to separate emotions and put them into a sequence; the timeline allows for one piece of data at one time. Accept that emotions are not ‘stopping’ and then start again. Their potential to come-forth is always present. 

 

Aoife: So social viability is the reason why I feel controlled by my feelings? 

  

Dad: Jealousy, anger, sadness, love, etc are conditions of the Self. Self, typically, evolves into a combination of apparently toxic, benign and constructive elements. You may regard Self as a carriage driver with a team of horses, a horse called envy, another called love, a horse called anger, etc. Driving the horses is your origin-Self. This entity is a child, the child you were at a critical stage of development. Hopefully, in development this child had moments of clarity where all the horses were pulling together, no one horse was doing more than it needed to, no one horse was encouraged to lead excessively; for this has consequences. For example, if the horse called love is pushed forward and consistently receives no reward, sycophantic, obsessive, insecurity, etc traits may characterise your Self later in life. The rule of entropy dictates that these problems will attract greater complexity as Self develops. Recall the example of obligatory love, it leads to the loving of the feeling ‘hate’. In western cultures we stop asking who-am-I early in development forcing our inner-world to seek stability prematurely; our origin-Self then becomes resistant to change. In this state your origin-Self will seek to manipulate the ‘outside’ factors to ensure the ‘internal’ factors are more predictable, in other words, to maintain the integrity of the story the mind tells itSelf.  

 

Aoife: How does it do that? 

 

Dad: Consider: The sycophant is drawn towards the narcissist. One wants to praise and the other needs it; the integrity of their narratives are prioritised regardless of the ‘unseen’ instability. Consequently, people may find themselves in cycles of abuse. If they hope to break the cycle they must ‘revisit’ critical moments in their development; allowing the mind to retell a different story. 

 

Aoife: How do they do that? 

 

Dad: The inner-child wants love and occupation. 

 

Aoife: Love and joy? 

 

Dad: Self love. 

 

Aoife: Why do people make me angry? 

 

Dad: Other people literally cannot make you angry. You are placing anger into your attention. 

 

Aoife: But it feels like they are making me angry? 

  

Dad: You are the only one who can place anything into your attention. Or more specifically, only you can choose what is promoted in your attention. Remember, your imagination is placing all the characteristics of your current time and place, and any associated items into your attention constantly. The unique nature of your Self will determine what is promoted in your attention. Therefore, you choose what is promoted in attention; Self chooses to promote anger. Mastery of Self gives you greater power over what ‘stays’ in your attention. 

 

Aoife: So, nothing ‘external’ can make you angry? 

 

Dad: Anger is important. I use anger when you are placing yourSelf in harm’s way. I will get angry with my Self. Consequently, Self may need to stridently reorder its list of priorities. Other people, however, cannot make me angry. In other words, why would I choose to raise in my attention stress that I do not own? It is important to note that when other people want you to feel angry or sympathetic or frustrated ‘for them’, they are asking you to help tell a story that is not your story. Helping someone tell their story is not helping, it is enabling. 

 

Aoife: So, what should I feel for them? Or what should I ‘place into my attention’? 

 

Dad: Relatively? Disappointment, sadness, be pensive, empathetic, hopeful, etc are responses that help inform your story. Essentially, reflect on your correlation with others; this informs your story. Make your feelings of frustration be specific to your story and needs. This is, subsequently the best means for helping others shift their perspective on their problem; your story exists as a piece of data to help redirect their story. 

 

Aoife: Sometimes, it is hard for anger to not rise in attention? 

 

Dad: You can replace the item that is anger with the item that is apple. This is a direct approach; visualise an apple. 

 

Aoife: Why apple? 

 

Dad: Apple is an idea, an image, a thought, an object, and a great place to start. Imagine, I have started a meditation by asking you to visualise an apple and then I respond to a text message; you will be struck by my rudeness. That feeling will replace the image of the apple; the thought item ‘inconsiderate’ will replace the image item ‘apple’. Moreover, it appears that you placed apple into attention, and I replaced it with ‘inconsiderate’. The truth is you placed ‘inconsiderate’ into your attention; it is something I literally cannot do. In other words, your imagination placed ‘inconsiderate’ into your attention and Self promoted it over apple. That does not mean you ‘imagined’ my rudeness; the rudeness is real. The imagination renders everything and places it into attention and Self promotes items consistent with its needs. Obtaining some control over what gets promoted in attention will help reduce the controlling influence of Self.   

 

Aoife: Is it hard to make Self happy?  

 

Dad: Self cannot be happy. If Self was literally a collection of tools in a box, we would accept a box cannot be ‘happy’; tools cannot be happy. The effective Self is one that is available but not present; the ineffective Self is one that is present but not available. Or more specifically is not available for you to ‘observe’; it exists as a reactor that controls your choices. The essential you, the protrusion you are from the plane of consciousness, should be present. The essential you becomes present when the tools in the Self box each have a place, are organised, are available in equal measure, and the lid shuts tight. The essential you can carry the Self box with pride; keen to upgrade a tool or add one as the mistakes you make in life dictate: Do not be intimidated by the task of updating Self, it is not a sign of weakness - Self is not who you are.  

 

Aoife: Who am I then? 

 

Dad: You are the ‘observer’ of Self, that is your essential ‘you’. The ‘observer’ is serine and timeless, wide eyed and enthralled by processes, that seeks to express all manner of energy - best described as communication, that is who ‘you’ are. It is deep, it is calm.   

   

Aoife: Is love a Self ‘device’? 

 

Dad: We must not forget that love is a force in the universe; it is a Self-tool and is also a way of describing oneness – consciousness. In this way, love fuels communication. Therefore, given that consciousness only knows you as itSelf love must first be directed to Self. 

 

Aoife: How do I love my Self? 

 

Dad: The first step towards Self-love is to accept you are the most interesting person you know. You are, and always will be, the most interesting person you know because you are Self and consciousness. It is a lifelong commitment to learn the tool of Self from the ‘observer’ perspective. For many of us Self is a very heavy curtain that must be pulled at in a sustained and determined manner if we are to see behind it and reveal consciousness. We must also close the curtain and be the Self sometimes necessarily; relatively. Self is not a dirty word; Self is the tool that has enabled your manifestation. Your management of Self presents a forest-for-the-tree’s predicament; you will never be presented with a more fascinating endeavour than to isolate Self and hone your mastery of it. Appreciate that life is constantly presenting you with obstacles that force you to correct, refine and economise Self. In this way be a learner for life and see mistakes as an emerging ‘aha’ moment.      

 

Aoife: Why does Self get angry when I don’t want it to? 

 

Dad: Self has learnt its obligations. Accept it is circumstantially affected. Accept that you are a traveller. Anger, manipulation, denial, etc may be indicators of process deficiencies; Self is a data processor. However, there is a perception issue: Feeling that some ‘thing’, an external factor, has made you angry is inaccurate. Others who ‘see’ you being angry, perceive it as your current internal state. Suggesting that anger can exist externally and internally simultaneously; this is not possible. Anger must build connections between people. Much like fear, anger is a response to a threat that may require an immense amount of data to be processed very quickly. It is best understood as a warning process - a flare gun in the Self toolbox. You may feel that you have no control over anger. Often anger can be corralled by asking in the moment ‘to what extent is there a threat to life?’ 

 

Aoife: And if that does not work? 

 

Dad: The only purpose of anger is to stop your toddler from grabbing at saucepans sitting on the stove top, or to stop them from walking too close to the cliff’s edge, etc. Anger is learnt early; recall the toddler you once were throwing a tantrum in the shopping centre. Of course, the toddler is expected to learn that frustration need not escalate into anger. However, frustration will always become anger if the child never ‘observes’ other processing options. So then, what to do when anger is too ‘readily’ available? Trying to explain to your angry Self some notion of process deficiency is like forcing a computer to stop the flow of its own electricity. Instead recognise that the anger is a ‘process’ and invite it into your attention completely. Then recognise that it must lead to other processing. Remember: Anger, love, regret, joy, etc, exist simultaneously. Go directly to another place on the emotion spectrum. Anger is a protection tool; let anger become nurture. Nurture is a teaching tool; let nurture create consequences.   

 

Aoife: To go directly? Harder than it looks? 

 

Dad: In the heat-of-the-moment it is not easy. Communication is necessary; anger must practice talking to nurture. In this way communication is a process first and is then a means for understanding. Engaging in any kind of processing will have an immediate reconciling influence: The more an individual experiences life as a journey of discovery the more synchronised they become with the fundamental nature of the universe. In other words, nothing ends. All emotions are always present. Practice breaking down the channel walls that make it appear as if emotions are separate ‘things’ with end points. If it helps, imagine anger taps nurture on the shoulder and says ‘any suggestions?’ Or, imagine you remove the battery from the anger tool and put it into the nurture tool. Also accept, that anger isolated does not achieve anything; it is designed to respond to situations that present real, physical danger. If your child is playing with fire get angry, if they spill paint in the carpet get consequential. 

 

Aoife: I liked the tool analogy. Can I put the same battery in different Self tools? 

 

Dad: Yes, it is called ego. Ego means ‘I’, but it also describes a strengthening quality, a power that reinforces who we think we are, or that promotes Self. There is ‘you’ and there is a Self which you know as personality. Seeing Self as a set of tools allows you to step back from Self and see it for what it is. Visualising ego as the battery pack that powers the Self tools allows you to understand ego as essential: The tools of Self exist exclusively to enable your interaction with other people. 

 

Aoife: So, I use Self to talk to other Selfs? 

 

Dad: Yes. More accurately, you have created a Self that interacts with other created Selfs. Self is learnt, this is central to understanding ego.  

 

Aoife: I do not remember learning Self? 

 

Dad: That is correct, you cannot remember when you started using the anger tool, the patience tool, the sympathy tool, or when you started filling up your Self toolbox. Self is learnt in an acquired manner; indirectly. 

 

Aoife: When did I acquire ego? 

 

Dad: Ego is the battery pack powering all your Self tools; it has always been there. The only motivation of Self is to source what is necessary to ensure your social viability. You first experience ego as exclusively a ‘me’ only motivator; it exists to facilitate your immediate needs excluding all other considerations. It then develops ‘we’ intentions. Self begins to realise that a support network is necessary for survival; this includes immediate family and significant others. The subsequent interactions are essential social viability training. This is most commonly known as attachment; psychopaths fail to develop this sense of the village. Incidentally: Psychopaths learn to simulate behaviours consistent with an abiding sense of ‘other’; they are unsophisticated puppet masters of Self. Ultimately, however, ego must develop an ‘us’ dimension. The well-adjusted ego has a well-placed sense of community beyond the village. It is characterised by empathy, a big-picture awareness and, most importantly, a finish-what-it-starts determination. Collectively, Self tools become personality, which you use to interact with others; you use it for social activity exclusively. Personality is the way you promote your collection of Self tools; that promotion is powered by ego. 

 

Aoife: So, personality is an ego performance directed by me? 

 

Dad: Personality is certainly created by you circumstantially. If you know how to manipulate the tools that make up personality effectively it can acquire ‘targeting’ qualities. In other words, it becomes superficial, but this is unsustainable. personality is unsustainable as a performance used to manipulate others. This is how Psychopaths look at personality; it does not end well. Personality is ‘directed’ by the ‘observer’ you essentially are, but the ‘observer’ only observes, it cannot literally direct. The mind, enabled by the imagination, receives data from the ‘observer’ point-of-view and can change the story it writes for itSelf, that stars your personality.  

 

Aoife: The mind is not directed by the ‘observer’, but it benefits from the bigger-picture point-of-view it provides? 

 

Dad: Yes. This is what is meant by ‘getting perspective’. This is a common way people describe problem-solving; it is often associated with taking time-out from a task or putting a problem aside indefinitely. Most people do not have an active sense of the ‘observer’ and therefore make instinctual decisions to put a problem aside; this can lead to procrastination. The direct approach I am describing allows you to ‘step’ into the ‘observer’ position in the moment. Or more accurately to always be the ‘observer’ and see Self as a puppet directed by the mind.   

 

Aoife: Adopting the ‘observer’ position is like hitting a reset button. 

 

Dad: More like being the Producer of a film, not the Director. 

 

Aoife: How do I create an authentic personality? 

 

Dad: You must understand the true purpose of ego: Self and the personality it becomes, must build community; this constructive work is powered by ego. ‘Build community’ means, build a network that sustains you. This confuses the true purpose of ego: Ego is a, help-yourSelf-by-helping-others proposition, not a help-Self-help-itSelf tool.  

    

Aoife: So, I must build? 

 

Dad: Yes. Display your tools in the showcase that is your personality. Plug in the ego, then say to yourSelf, I will build. I will not lure; I will not trick or deceive; I will build. This aligns the function of your Self tools with the fundamental nature of the universe; this is the definition of authenticity. 

 

Aoife: So, ‘process’ and be happy? 

 

Dad: Yes and learn to love complexity. Complexity will emerge and is central to an ontological focus on processing. The ‘processing’ is entropy and must increase. Processing creates correlations which will become a map filled with interconnectedness. By combining two simple agents the entire complexity of the universe will emerge. The simple or direct way includes the appreciation of complexity not the harbouring of it. Neglected processing and its impact on community is burdensome and is an attempt to limit entropy; it is impossible. Mental health care workers exist for a reason and understand the need for processing. 

 

Aoife: Are algorithms controlling us? 

 

Dad: Algorithms are not new. Our mind is an algorithm generating machine: It creates a program made of Self components that are expressed in a character form that we know as personality. Attention will have ‘data’ – sadness, new car, ambition, pair of shoes, love, etc placed into it by the imagination. Mind is ‘created’ as Self begins to promote bits of this data. For most people, the promotion includes the placement of Self into a dominate position. In other words, attention is a tool used to focus on data coming from the imagination that is then promoted to the mind by Self. ‘Mind’ is a way of describing the data’s arrangement into an algorithm, that for most people, allows Self to become possessive of the narrative subsequently created.  

 

Aoife: ‘Mind’ is just a word? 

 

Dad: It does not describe anything literal. But it is precisely understood relative to the purposes of Self. The word ‘mind’ can be used to describe a system that writes the story for the Self that it is also creating; that becomes, hopefully, an effective personality show.  

 

Aoife: hopefully? 

 

Dad: Personality is the character created by the mind to express or display to the world the essential ingredients of Self; hopefully worthy of replicating with the sharing of genes. Unfortunately, Self is acquired, or ‘created’ indirectly and mostly circumstantially. The mind is telling itSelf a story using the data available and relies on Self to vet the data first. It is the task of the imagination to provide ‘real-time’ feedback on the social effectiveness of Self. Self may then adjust what it promotes in attention; the mind will make changes to the algorithm accordingly. 

 

Aoife: So, the algorithm is updated continuously? 

 

Dad: Yes. Your mind is the first social media tool you should seek to understand. Imagine your mind is an app, feeding you a version of your-Self that fits into a story. The story is written by the mind with data promoted by Self in attention. The story is your ‘feed’. Social media platforms want you to stay ‘logged in’. Likewise, your mind wants to secure its dependence on Self: It is easy for Self to be over-promoted, especially when threats to our survival are exaggerated. Due to a myriad of issues, most people are in a Self-dominance state; they believe Self is ‘who’ they are. This is not the fault of the mind; the mind is a committed processor brought into existence by Self.  

 

Aoife: What is the cause of an over-promoted Self? 

 

Dad: Often, circumstances. Imagine, at some critical stage, your origin-Self was required to over-use compliance, attention seeking, pleading, etc to acquire information towards creating a compliment of Self tools. This desperation, like an addiction, created a skewed definition of social viability; Self then provides the mind with limited choices.  

 

Aoife: What can be done? 

 

Dad: Hopefully, information received from the imagination (as it renders data emerging in the mind’s story) will have a ‘corrective’ influence but that is conditional on the nature of the Self: Fear of processing failure causes Self to ‘override’ or obscure any sense of consciousness. The village is diversity, in development a person must hear many voices. 

 

Aoife: I wish I could log off from my mind? 

 

Dad: Understanding your mind as an algorithm generator means you can treat it like the app it essentially is. Let your imagination render the idea of ‘logging off’ that then can be promoted by Self; the mind will then write its dissolution into the story. What are you when you are not your thoughts?  

 

Aoife: Was that question rhetorical? What should I be looking for? 

 

Dad: Nothing, for there is nothing to ‘see’. The world is illusionary. Recall the barnacles on the driftwood analogy. The essential you is the timeless force that is the driftwood, Self is the barnacles and plants that grow on it; combined they ‘express’ a personality. Now remove the driftwood, the ‘personality’ disperses. Now imagine that the barnacles were a literal extension of the wood; each element connected to the core by a thread of consciousness. This thread is massless and timeless and knows the elements as itSelf. If the driftwood core is then removed the ‘personality’ not only disperses it literally ceases to exist. The extension of this metaphor asks you to accept that the wood, the barnacles and the ‘connective’ elements are all made of the ‘wood’. 

 

Aoife: So, to look at who I really am means ‘I’ would cease to exist?   

 

Dad: Central to the idea of an illusionary world is the perception we have of matter. Imagine an atom with electrons etc. whizzing around the nucleus. The orbit of the particles defines the boundary of the atom, there is no atom ‘wall’ as such, and for the most part an atom appears to be mostly ‘empty’; it is not, ‘empty’ is impossible. The strict movement of particles around a nucleus is the reason why something feels solid. Essentially, the ‘patterns’ of energy that define the atoms that make up your finger is incompatible with the particle orbit patterns in the atoms of a keyboard, for example. It is the incompatibility that creates a ‘sense’ that something is solid. In other words, the vibratory nature of the orbiting particles creates the illusion that things are substantive or ‘real’. The apparent solidity of the material world will ‘trick’ you into believing there is nothing beyond the physical world. We must activate other ways of knowing. First, accept that ‘seeing’ is a rendering process and ‘looking’ is a knowing process. The ‘I’ you truly are is known, it is not rendered. Consider: If there is nothing to know beyond the material world quantum physicists can put the Hadron Collider back in it’s box and go home. 

  

Aoife: What about meditation? 

 

Dad: Do it as a means of falling into a mind-blind state, almost as if by accident. The two key aspects of the meditation are 1. the dissolving of Self and its item focus, and 2. to disconnect from the mind and its union with Self. A word of warning: Meditation can be an intensive dissociative experience; Self is realised as separate. It allows you to ‘observe’ Self as a ‘composition’ exposing the nature of its authenticity; your sensitivity towards inauthenticity becomes heightened. However, Self cannot remain detached; meditation may disconnect Self but it must also help to reconnect it again. The reconnected Self is one over which you have renewed control and allows you to be authenticity sensitive. In other words, you risk having your enjoyment of reality TV shows and B-grade rom-coms destroyed. Bad acting is, essentially, the rendering of an unsophisticated personality. Also, you may become alienated. Your friends may struggle with your newfound inability to tolerate unsophisticated renderings of Self. However, of greater consequence will be the growing awareness you have for the propensity of people to be governed by Self. Before any kind of awakening comes an understanding of Self, and its powerful ability to pervade attention and obscure awareness.  

 

Aoife: So, I must try not to be Self? 

 

Dad: Forcing anything is the opposite of meditation. The way is ‘direct’, but the approach needs clearing; this is achieved indirectly. Remember, we must fall into awareness, almost as if by accident. In this way, trying to ‘not’ be or do something is contradictory. For instance, I will not ask you to ‘remove’ items from your attention as other approaches suggest. They ask you to create a blank-mind-state, which is nothing more than a redefining of a focus on items. Blankness is an ‘item’. Ultimately, we must dissolve any focusing on items. Accept that everything comes from consciousness including our ability to objectify awareness. 

 

Aoife: Is this meditation difficult? 

 

Dad: No; do not be intimidated. I am laying the foundations for an extremely accessible meditative experience. This meditation attempts to reveal something that has always been with you; and then asks you to live for it. I suggest you make meditation a regular part of your life. It is good to practice maintaining a perspective on Self; which is a key dimension of my approach. 

 

Aoife: Is this where the meditation begins? 

 

Dad: Yes. However, meditation is the destination. Do not regard this meditation as having a beginning. Remember: A focus on items such as floors, walls, chairs, clothing, sadness, sensations, destinations, etc is a ‘condition’ of an item focused Self; we must free ourselves from a focus on items. In this way we must accept consciousness knows only itSelf and knows you only as itSelf. Make yourSelf comfortable, your eyes can be open or closed. I conduct this meditation with my eyes open; the closed eye state expands my attention allowing for external and internal data sets to be promoted. This makes more items available to the mind; my approach is mind-less. Instead, open your eyes and attempt to ‘look’ without seeing. Initially, however, closing your eyes may be helpful. The first step is to direct attention on to itSelf. 

 

Aoife: I place attention into attention? 

 

Dad: Yes. Ultimately attention can be used to look upon itSelf, or more specifically, look at its origin.  

 

Aoife: How? 

 

Dad: By using the imagination. The imagination is constantly echo-defining our environment to provide data to the mind so it can continue to create the story it tells itSelf. In this way the imagination can be used to redirect the story, or attention inwards so it can dissolve. We begin with the body - imagine you are in a point-of-view position. To do this, first sit comfortably, eyes open. Then stand up, try to be aware of the experience - the physical motions involved, changes to your centre of gravity, other sensation, etc; then sit again. Now, imagine standing and introduce as much detail as possible: Imagine the act of standing in as much kinaesthetic detail as possible. Closing your eyes may be helpful; the focus should be on what the body feels when it stands and not on what the eyes see. 

 

Aoife: Why exclude what I see? 

 

Dad: Visualisation is the imagination objectifying the world. The first step towards removing a focus on items is to focus on what else exists when objects are not in focus. When you search for a light switch in the dark, your fingers are ‘given’ greater sensitivity. In this way, a focusing on other sensory experiences begins the separation process.  

 

Aoife: What is being separated? 

 

Dad: Self – from its dominate position. We are, essentially, blindfolding Self or, dimming the light of attention. Remember: Mind-blind is a way of describing the turning-off of the image creator that Self relies on to do its job. Awareness of the body is essential; it is the tea-leaves in the cup. Our body captures data that reveals to what extent we are trapped by Self. 

 

Aoife: Is this a muscle relaxation exercise? 

 

Dad: No. That is a different approach. I am asking you to ‘work’ with your imagination first, so it may dissolve. Now, imagine again the act of sitting, recall it with as much detail as possible. Now close your eyes and imagine you are sitting at a café by the beach and there is a cool breeze. As you sit there in the cool breeze you remember this moment when you were here with me or reading this ‘talk’; picture it in as much detail as possible. Now open your eyes and notice any change to your perceived experience; you might have a different sense of being present. 

 

Aoife: Am I now in an imagined world? 

 

Dad: The ‘world’ is illusionary. More accurately, however, you are mastering your imagination and revealing it to be a tool that ‘renders’ reality. It is not just something used for you to draw a picture of a Unicorn or create worse-case-scenarios in your head. It ‘maps’ the world for us in close detail instant by instant:  It is mostly occupied with the ‘creation’ of apparently mundane aspects of your perceived existence. The imagination is a canvas upon which we paint the picture that is the story our mind tells itSelf. In other words, Self uses information from the imagination to ‘dress’ you for the part it wants you to play in society; this meditation attempts to remove the costume.    

 

Aoife: I do feel slightly more ‘present’. 

 

Dad: Good. It is important to note that these meditations are walking you towards revealing something that has always been ‘there’. There is nothing new to ‘show’ you. In this way, be aware of the subtleties in feeling as Self begins to dissolve. The sense of consciousness we are in search of is something that is close to the surface; an awakening might happen unwittingly. Be wary of those who lead you on a path to awareness promising a mind altering, explosively aware experience. The path is direct because there is no path: We must see Self for what it is so it may dissolve to reveal a ‘pure’ contentment that is no distance from us; it feels timeless and formless.  

 

Aoife: Now I am more present, what next? 

 

Dad: Focus on ‘present’. What is ‘presence’?  

 

Aoife: I am not sure. Should I feel there is less happening in my mind? 

 

Dad: More accurately, imagine mind has been put in the backseat. Feel it closely. Presence is about ‘time’. I am not suggesting it takes time to be ‘present’. Remember, the way is direct. Being present means to forget time. Our beachside café meditation attempts to trick the imagination into directing our attention to a place without time.   

 

Aoife: It is difficult to conceive? 

 

Dad: Then take a moment to imagine your origin-Self; it is timeless. Timelessness is the child within. In your memory ‘lives’ the child you were once; they do not respond to time. 

 

Aoife: Then what? 

 

Dad: The child is ‘play’ dependant. It becomes immersed in tasks; time is disregarded. Essentially, the origin-Self is pure ‘presence’. It can help you reconnect to a pure sense of focus. 

 

Aoife: The image I have of my Self as a child is unstable? 

 

Dad: Remember, this is an act of your imagination. Go back to the café, create the ‘story’ again. Open your eyes and feel a greater sense of presence. 

 

Aoife: The child is then more easily rendered? 

 

Dad: Hopefully. Close your eyes and see the child you are.  

 

Aoife: The child is not ‘playing’? 

 

Dad: The child might come to you unhappy, or dejected, or disenchanted, etc. Consider: This meditation is not therapy; there is a way to address the needs of the child which interest me. But psychologists and other mental health professionals exist for a reason; find the right one for you. Picture your Self as the child; place them in the centre of a room. Then let the child draw, read, play with dolls, Lego, cars, paints, etc. As the child let yourSelf be consumed by the task. Remember: This is an act of the imagination; indirectly you are informing the story the mind is writing for itSelf. Slowly we are isolating Self; we start by ‘seeing’ its origin.  

 

Aoife: Does this relate to consciousness? 

 

Dad: Yes, Self obscures awareness; isolating it allows for it to be sidelined. The child is timeless, and this associates directly with consciousness. 

 

Aoife: So, meditation is time travel? 

 

Dad: This type of meditation is an act of the imagination that helps remove obstructions. Remember: Consciousness knows only itSelf and knows you only as itSelf. It also knows time only as itSelf. Or more accurately because it knows only itSelf it cannot know time. Our experience of time is a consequence of infinitesimally short instances racing past. The more one moment is like the next the more we experience a sense of timelessness.  

 

Aoife: Meditation makes one moment indistinguishable from the next? 

 

Dad: All moments are indistinguishable from the next. Remember: The difference between two adjacent instances is, essentially, meaningless.  

 

Aoife: And so, the child is a personification of infinity?  

 

Dad: Yes, an objectifying of it. Which helps us connect to notions of timelessness and subsequently awareness. The child who is ‘absorbed’ in a task, is completely consumed by it, beyond the ability to respond to time. The child who is fully engaged in a task do not fear the judgement of their Unicorn picture, are not distracted by the traffic or questions about enlightenment. They are not fettered by momentary distractions – they are purely ‘processing’ the task: They know themselves only as a ‘processor’ and know the processing only as themselves. 

 

Aoife: When the child is ‘focused’ I feel a release of tension through my core, but it also feels energising? 

 

Dad: Good. Remember, we are ‘using’ the imagination to dissolve the imagination and, subsequently, Self. With practice, we can go directly to this tension-free feeling and sustain it effortlessly. You are on the path. 

 

Aoife: But then sometimes it is hard to engage the ‘child’? 

 

Dad: Be mindful of the child’s needs and seek professional help accordingly. Remember, I am giving you a way of seeing Self. I am asking you to accept that Self is not who you are. If you accept this approach, I can help you see the purpose of Self and what makes it up; including the nature of its origin. The child needs nurturing, or in other words, you need nurturing. Reimagining the child means you can rewrite the mind-creating-mind story. Let the child be the enthralled ‘processor’ they once were or have always wanted to be. Like any child they want to play and be happy; a step in any direction away from that and the child is lost. It is true for many that their inner-child is disengaged; it teaches Self to promote bitterness, regret, jealousy, etc. 

 

Aoife: Can you explain the muscle relaxation meditation method? 

 

Dad: The body ‘captures’ data that reveals how trapped a person might be by Self. This will manifest in tension and dis-ease. This meditation helps see Self for what it really is by understanding what it is doing to the body. Lie on the floor and close your eyes. Let your attention bring your feet into awareness. Focus on any tension in your feet and let the muscles release. Now your calves, release any tightness or muscle activity. Now your thighs, etc. 

 

Aoife: Why wasn’t I aware of the tension before? 

 

Dad: It is difficult to describe the truly pervasive nature of Self. Self is the survival instinct. It is priming you for a response to your situation, or more specifically, society. The body must be ready to either stand and defend, run and hide or mediate. 

 

Aoife: How can the body mediate? 

 

Dad: The mind is the body. All thoughts and actions are items brought into attention by the imagination, mostly for the purposes of Self. All communication is a subtle combination of gestures, words and habitude. Self makes these into items with apparently distinguishable qualities; combined they form a personality. In this way, mediation can be more about ‘how’ the communication is conducted. 

 

Aoife: Is the muscle relaxation meditation an inside-outside approach? 

 

Dad: It might feel like that. However, there is no separation. This realisation is what makes this version of a muscle relaxation meditation different. It is important that you no longer conceive thoughts and sensations as existing in the mind. Remember, the ‘mind’ only comes into existence to assemble, in any given instant, narrative elements. Mind arranges these elements consistent with the story it tells itSelf.  

 

Aoife: My body can ‘think’? 

 

Dad: It is all one. Once you have focused on every muscle group in the body, reassess your entire body and release any residual tension. The best way to do this is to imagine a vivid white light passing through your body from head to toe, as the light moves through it ‘deactivates’ your muscles. Now think of a child reaching up to a hot saucepan and note the tension shift in your body; it may only be very subtle. You will note that the body ‘primes’ instinctively in response to the thought; it is beyond your ‘conscious’ control. In this way the body is merely an extension of the brain. In other words, the mind and body are one. 

 

Aoife: The image of the burnt child has ruined the meditation? 

 

Dad: Then rewrite the story. Imagine you step forward and stop the child; now let your body relax again. Outside of awareness the mind is writing a new story for itSelf constantly. So, do what the mind does, use the imagination to rewrite a new story. If it helps, imagine the vivid white light again traveling head to toe, switching-off muscles as it passes through them. 

 

Aoife: And what about the inner-child? 

 

Dad: Good question. Remember the version of the inner-child who is fully engaged? Recall the tension released at that time of engagement; that was the feeling of Self-dissolving away from the mind and body.  

 

Aoife: Why? 

 

Dad: The mind-body is created in childhood, and it is a union that occurs before Self is developed. In this early stage a rudimentary Self emerges, defined by one characteristic, it is endeavouring. By using the imagination and re-’engaging’ the inner-child Self-returns to this one-dimensional state. In other words, the Self that the adult version of you knows, that is constantly using attention to obscure awareness, has been dissolved. 

 

Aoife: And how does this connect to the muscle relaxation meditation. 

 

Dad: Relax your muscles, let the light travel through your body. Now imagine the inner-child again, see them with the doll, a book, pens and paper, etc. Now snatch the object of their endeavour away from them. Feel the response acutely, note the change in your muscles. You will feel a tingle in your fingers as the adrenaline is released. You may experience a feeling of sadness or anger. Note the physical response; tears well, fist forms, jaw tightens, etc. Then relax again. 

 

Aoife: Can I imagine the light again. 

 

Dad: Not so fast. Consider for a moment, what if your inner-child is like a foundation version of your Self and is always present? Like an upside-down pyramid, the inner-child is the projection point for the pyramid that all augmentations and additions feed from and are forever connected to?  

 

Aoife: The ‘child’ changes, everything changes? 

 

Dad: Yes, potentially. The muscle relaxation meditation demonstrates that mind and body are one. Managing tension in the body is managing tension in the mind. The relaxation approach also enhances the comprehension of the origin-Self or inner-child. This then allows for Self to recede. Self can then be ‘seen’ as the survival tool it is; the mind and body should not be something Self possesses towards its own survival. Also, the muscle relaxation exercise can be used to release the grasp Self has on our instincts.   

 

Aoife: What are instincts? 

 

Dad: Lessons taught by the now. 

 

Aoife: Should I trust my instincts? 

 

Dad: Only if you understand the difference between intuition and superstition. 

 

Aoife: Which is? 

 

Dad: Intuition is taking your lessons from now, superstition is fear. Superstition is letting the past teach you how to be controlled.  

 

Aoife: Controlled by what? 

 

Dad: Self. Self will promote items in attention that illicit endocrinal responses creating the illusion of intuition. For many people instinctual experiences are actually fear responses. Self will counterfeit instinctual or intuitional responses. 

 

Aoife: How do I know when Self is ‘hacking’ my instincts? 

 

Dad: Instinct and intuition do not associate with the past. They describe the process of receiving instruction from the ‘now’.  

   

Aoife: How do I take lessons from the now? 

 

Dad: Most people take their lessons from the past. This is an extremely common mistake. First, we must accept that the past does not exist. Even in the light of the work done by the imagination, in waking and dream states, to render everything, we must realise the impermanence of the past. In this way, memories are not lessons, they are bits of data for the mind to use in the story it tells. 

 

Aoife: We learn nothing from the past? 

 

Dad: The lessons learnt from the past are known as, traditions. Traditions, however, are not intuitional. Tradition is a guide that points to where the path is; and the path is the destination. The now teaches us how to stay on it. To put tradition in the driver’s seat is living in response to fear. This may not be an understanding easily accepted by most. In this way it is important to acknowledge fear is a means by which Self maintains control. Intuition is, therefore, understood as the act of interpreting information from the present; it is not mystical. It is presence. We are often forced into being present when a moment is informed by stress. Essentially, being present describes the promotion of data contained in the now. This is because the data of the past and the future cannot associate. Reflect: We cannot program a fruit picking machine to locate fruit based on the past arrangement of the fruit; every season the fruit will present differently on the tree.  

 

Aoife: What is now ‘data’? 

 

Dad: To learn the lesson of now we must look at now exclusively. We understand now to be everything contained within an instant. Instantaneously, information is made available. This information consists of correlations, the tangential nature of which, allows for everything in the universe to manifest including entropy. Instant by instant awareness knows the protrusions that we are arising from it is indiscernible from itSelf. Instinct can then be understood, as a sensitivity of the entropic nature of any given instant. In other words, if any quivering in the vibration that is the fundamental expression of entropy is detected, it must be corrected. When we feel this extremely subtle entropic imbalance, the now is ‘suggesting’ a refocusing on the available data. The ‘gut’ feelings we have are simply a invitation issued by our true nature to be present. Consider: Our instincts are most active in conditional situations. Conditions attempt to reduce variables; an unsophisticated expression of energy is unsustainable. 

 

Aoife: Can you explain how the mind creates a story for itSelf again? 

 

Dad: The imagination ‘places’ items into attention as it echo-defines your place in time and space. 

 

Aoife: What are ‘items’? 

 

Dad: Any thought, word, image, emotion, sensation, etc. The imagination ‘places’ items into attention so the mind can create the ‘story’. In other words, this ‘data’ informs the decisions you make. For most people these decisions are consistent with the needs of Self. Therefore, if allowed to, Self will ‘promote’ items for the purposes of its own survival. 

 

Aoife: How does it do that? 

 

Dad: It is constantly ‘scanning’ the data the imagination places into attention. If Self is well adjusted, it will ‘promote’ data that helps ensure social viability. If it is not well adjusted, it will have a poorly conceived sense of social viability. 

 

Aoife: Is the body and item? 

 

Dad: Yes, it is the first of all items. Self must be understood as an item defining tool. It is true that the imagination renders all items, but it is the process of promotion that means they become distinctive. This is work Self does consistent with its training. For example, the item ‘anger’, and its subsequent sensual manifestations can be objectified. Any sensation, therefore, lends itSelf to objectification. The divisible nature of most objects makes their management conceivable, but it also makes the identification of other significant objects more difficult. Singularly, the body. Our physical carriage is burdened with the task of enabling processing, consistent with the activity of the universe, and is the first of all items we bring into attention. We witness this most obviously when a newborn child begins the process of understanding its own physical apparatus. In many ways a baby appears to be confused by the nature of its physical ability and appearance. It is possible, at a stretch, to imagine the baby is possessed by an entity that appears to have no understanding of physical constraint; such is the nature of the infant’s clumsiness. The body comes into attention subtly and early in life; we quickly forget its objective qualities. Accept that the body is an item and behaves in attention like any other item. Be aware of how it is promoted by Self. For example, believing you are having a bad-hair-day is a consequence of Self promoting the item known as body. The first item rendered by the imagination is the body, consequently it is the item it most proficiently objectifies. In this way, a new understanding of physical awareness needs to be encouraged; you are the ‘observer’ of items, not their possession.  

 

Aoife: So, the imagination places ‘items’, including the body, into attention? 

 

Dad: Then the mind creates a decision-cascade. Each decision is like a plot-point on a story timeline. The story must be ‘created’; it is not a cataloguing of reactions. The mind will create a story consistent with the needs of Self and the personality it manifests. Remember: The imagination echo-defines the story as it is being told; this data is made available to Self. Self may make small changes to its promotion activity; the mind then tells a slightly different story. Because of this feedback we describe the story as something the mind is telling ‘itSelf’. ‘Mind’ is a way of describing how data is arranged, it is not a literal thing.  

 

Aoife: Does this relate to meditation? 

 

Dad: Yes. First, ‘attention’ is a fixed focusing. In other words, imagine it is a light that is stationary, and the imagination brings data to it. Self filters this data for its own purposes first before the mind creates the story. Therefore, Self can very easily distort or exaggerate this ‘data’. In meditation we try to stop Self being so dominant or possessive of the data. We try to realise that the only things that can ever really be placed before attention is whatever is immediately in your time and space; this is the essence of living-in-the-moment. Those things need to be seen for what they fundamentally are first, before an ill-formed Self distorts them; this can be achieved through meditation. 

 

Aoife: And secondly? 

 

Dad: Any ‘image’ that exist in your attention is an item and everything is an item. The imagination visualises because it must give an item an ‘apparent’ form first before it can echo-define it.  

 

Aoife: What about dreamt items? 

 

Dad: Or items that appear when under the influence of substances?  

 

Aoife: Indeed? 

 

Dad: In your waking state the bandwidth of attention is narrow, and the items placed into it come from an external sources. In your dream state the bandwidth of attention is wider allowing you to merge many item types together. These items exist in your memory or, in other words, exist internally. They are a mashing together of internal and external renderings; consistent with the story the mind has been telling itSelf. Under the influence of ‘substances’, or in an altered state, the bandwidth is wider again allowing all internal and external data to exist at once; in a way not necessarily consistent with the mind-telling-mind story. The waking, dream and altered states are item focused; my approach to meditation asks you to dissolve items. In other words, for example, hallucinogenic drugs reveal to Self a new set of objectifiable data; this is the opposite of meditation and blocks the way to awareness: Do not be mind-more, be mind-less. In an altered state you may see the face of God, or touch his beard, but be aware that the imagination is rendering ‘notions’ of God. You may also ‘see’ a mystical connection between people and things, but you are objectifying preconceived connections. When you ‘see’ or ‘sense’ any item, it means attention has received it from the imagination. 

 

Aoife: So, be aware of objectifying anything, it is the opposite of ‘awareness’? 

 

Dad: You can look at it that way. However, do not try to ‘remove’ items; that is an objective act. Being Self-aware is the first step towards understanding Self for its item focus. 

 

Aoife: The more I learn about Self the more I do not care for it? 

 

Dad: Once we have some control over what is promoted in attention, we can begin to comprehend the controlling influence of Self; but it must be loved. Eventually we must look at what Self makes vivid in attention without fear and learn to love Self for its intentions. Remember: Consciousness knows Self only as itSelf; ‘everything’ emerges or is a protrusion from consciousness.  

 

Aoife: Sometimes Self is hard to love ‘for its intentions’? 

 

Dad: Allow fear, or loss, or inadequacy, etc to sit in attention and be pure in its nature, not ‘contaminated’ with other itemised tangents of thought. This is the first step towards being grateful to Self. Eventually, Self may need to relearn what to ‘promote’; but start by fully receiving what it currently makes vivid.   

 

Aoife: But I will be rewarding Self with my acknowledgement? 

 

Dad: We do not want to reward Self for over-promoting anger, for example. But we want to know the true nature of the anger so we can determine the true reason why Self must promote it. Understanding the specific source of the anger creates perspective. Acceptance then exists as an item to be promoted by Self. Anger is displaced and moves-down the hierarchy of promotable items.  

 

Aoife: So, Self is not the enemy? 

 

Dad: Self is your child. Consider: Self promotes items in your attention like a cat that brings you gifts of half-eaten mice and birds. The cat is being purposeful and wants its survival-abilities to be recognised. Likewise, when Self ‘highlights’ negative items in attention Self is being purposeful, towards your survival. The purpose is ill-informed, but Self only knows what it has learnt; it knows itSelf as only what it has learnt. Begin to love what it puts into attention and Self will begin to promote items less desperately: At the core of all things that Self makes vivid in attention is a powerful sense of social viability; the central aspect of which is the need to survive. The circumstances of your life may have given Self motivations it erroneously intends are central to survival. Learn to love these intentions. Or in terms of the metaphor, when the cat displays its kill give it some affection, and then begin giving it unsolicited attention and it will less likely make gruesome displays to garner affection. Likewise, Self might make doubt, for example, vivid in attention. Thank Self for its efforts, look at the doubt closely and see it as Self simply doing its job well. Then continue more and more to invite Self to drag-its-kill into your attention; this is the essence of loving your-Self. It is all ultimately an act of love because it all protrudes from consciousness from which the concept of unity itSelf arises.  

 

Aoife: Will my relationship with Self always be difficult? 

 

Dad: It is true that Self holds a strong position. It appears to constantly want to inform the story the mind tells; it often does this by over-promoting or exaggerating the data. I am trying to give you tools to be the ‘observer’ of Self and begin to comprehend why it promotes items in attention. However, Self can be dominant for decades; its position is not easily redefined. Therefore, it is important to understand that Self will seek to maintain control and that’s why it must be loved and not despised.  

 

Aoife: Are there any other consequences? 

 

Dad: If it is not valued Self can attach to a part of your body. Some tension-release style meditations are an acknowledgement of this. You may feel a persistent instability in your stomach, or your diaphragm labours, or you are constricted in your chest or neck, etc. Of course, seek medical advice accordingly. But also, be aware that Self may be ‘presenting’ in your physicality to substantiate its position. It is, therefore, important that Self’s role be acknowledged and that everything it promotes in attention is perceived as an act of protection. Subsequently meditation becomes instrumental. Bring the dis-ease in your body into attention and thank Self for its efforts. 

 

Aoife: How are objects ‘dissolved’ again? 

 

Dad: Everything comes from consciousness. In this way there is only consciousness. Consciousness must be revealed. It is not achieved or manifested; it is realised as having always been. Meditation can give you glimpses of consciousness, in which everything dissolves; the more time spent in this aware state the more you sense its pervasiveness. Remember, you cannot be made one-with-everything because everything is one. With meditation you can sense the oneness, it is then impossible to ‘remove’ any item, etc. It is impossible because there are no individual items; the realisation of this is the ‘dissolving’. 

 

Aoife: So, oneness is the key to awakening. 

 

Dad: A ‘key’ is an item. Any objectification is an act of Self and obscures awareness. The pursuit of awakening is a contradiction: you do not drink algebra. Self is a powerful objectify-er. This approach allows you to define Self so it can be demoted. 

 

Aoife: So, I must be in the pursuit of nothing? 

 

Dad: No-thing is the default. Some-thing is Self, to be used when required. Unfortunately, most people feel Self is their default state. To target nothing is to objectify it. There is no-thing to pursue. 

 

Aoife: Why is my awakening not sustainable? 

 

Dad: Self will promote anything rendered by the imagination consistent with its needs. In other words, Self will find a way to objectify your awakening. First, do not despise Self for doing this. Second, understand the implication for the story the mind tells itSelf. 

 

Aoife: Which is? 

 

Dad: It is because of an interruption to the story the mind is telling that you had an awakening experience. Self is a protection tool. It identifies the maintenance of your social viability as the best means for protecting the ‘being’ you are. In this way, it makes the world appear substantive. In doing so, it relies on the imagination’s ability to render everything. Essentially, Self has at its disposal a never-ending supply of promotable items.  

 

Aoife: So, it is always promoting something? 

 

Dad: Yes. It determines what to promote as the story the mind tells itSelf changes. In other words, Self expects the mind to keep the narrative flowing. Protecting the ‘being’ is of paramount importance, therefore, Self must perceive the narrative. When there is an interruption to the story Self dissolves; and literally, the essential you is revealed. 

 

Aoife: However? 

 

Dad: Indeed. The subsequent awakening is temporary and will last for as long as it takes for the mind to reboot. In this way, Self is seeking to provide the mind with an item. Self is vigilant. Therefore, it will attempt to itemise something associated with the awakening. 

 

Aoife: Why? 

 

Dad: Given its protective responsibilities, Self is determined to control any thing that effects the telling of the story the mind creates. The beauty of a flower may have impressed you to the extent that it interrupted the story the mind is telling. You experience a micro-awakening; they are frequent but not understood by most people. Self will then itemise the flower; its impact dimension will then ‘belong’ to Self. 

 

Aoife: But Self promoted the flower initially? 

 

Dad: It was promoted because it was immersive. The imagination-rendering-Self-promoting process can be short-circuited when the stimulus is immersive. In other words, rendering and promotion become one act, or autonomic. Our sensors will trigger this overriding effect. In other words, forceful stimuli will be instantly promoted. This is why traumatic events can sometimes trigger a momentary feeling of absence or deep calm.           

 

Aoife: How does the mind know to change the story it tells? 

 

Dad: Because of the data promoted by Self. 

 

Aoife: But Self relies on the story? 

 

Dad: Yes. It is a reciprocating loop. The feedback oscillates between the mind and Self. Not unlike the imagination echo-rendering external and internal data. In other words, it is a cycle-informing-cycle that is imperfectly closed.  

 

Aoife: So, permanently interrupting the story is awakening? 

 

Dad: No. You cannot permanently interrupt anything. What you are seeking is revealed. It is there where mind is not.  

 

Aoife: Mind-blind? 

 

Dad: Yes. Awareness is sustained directly. Go in the direction of where you are; it is revealed.   

 

Aoife: Consciousness? 

 

Dad: Yes. Everything has its source. What you are seeking is the source; it is the only constant.  

 

Aoife: So, I should Be aware of Self being over vigilant? 

 

Dad: Hypervigilance is a characteristic of a domineering Self. Hypervigilant people are suffering and latently long for relief. They have a sophisticated understanding of ego, but a perception of Self with a blind-spot. Self is powerfully protective. It learns survival by gazing into the mirror that is the mind. The mind fulfils the needs of Self by showing to it that which it is unable to momentarily discern. The mind, however, has no means for distinguishing the difference between real and imagined threats; the imagination substantiates all data the mind receives. Therefore, as the mind reflects Self, Self must also inform the story the mind tells with greater sensitivity. Self can do this by allowing the ‘observer’ to define the true nature of a perceived threat. 

 

Aoife: What is the blind-spot? 

 

Dad: The recession of awareness relative to levels of stress. It is the momentary blindness to presence. It is as if the third umpire ‘observer’ is being ignored. Hypervigilance is important when the Sabretooth Tiger is stalking your tribe.  Hypervigilance is, therefore, a response to immersive data. 

 

Aoife: How do I relieve hypervigilance? 

 

Dad: Do not devalue presence. Presence is awareness and we know it as the ‘observer’. Remind Self that it is known, thank it for its vigilance and step out of the moment and ask essential questions. 

 

Aoife: Such as - what is the threat to life? 

 

Dad: Yes.   

 

Aoife: What is suffering? 

 

Dad: It is a response to injustice. You suffer when you ask ‘why me?’ And when you perceive the unanswerable nature of that question to be unfair. 

 

Aoife: Is it unfair? 

 

Dad: All suffering is made of two parts 1. asking ‘why me’ and 2. expecting an answer. There is no answer for the ‘why me’ question; it is perplexing, not unjust. The Subsequent astonishment resides within the domain of Self to resolve.  

 

Aoife: Why? 

 

Dad: Astonishment describes an authentic priming to learn because it is enabled by the observer point of view. It is awareness engaging in the lesson taught by now. However, astonishment informed by injustice is social viability compromising; Self will then seek to objectify.  

 

Aoife: Objectify what? 

 

Dad: The source of the injustice. Self will be unable to promote anything in attention; suffering manifests when there is no clear blame target. ‘Why me?’ will then be promoted by Self. 

 

Aoife: How? 

 

Dad: Remember, everything is rendered by the imagination. The thought ‘why me?’ will be itemised. It may appear in your mind’s eye as a cacophony of images, etc. The data will be unstable as Self seeks to attach it to a cause, or in other words, seeks to allocate blame. 

 

Aoife: What then?  

 

Dad: Self promotes this ‘unstable’ data, it will inform the story the mind tells itSelf and Self will begin to disconnect from reality. It will be as if the question ‘why me?’ festers in attention and appear to be indissoluble. It is painful and encourages the mind to tell a story that encourages Self to allocate blame.  

 

Aoife: How do I dissolve the ‘why me?’ blockage? 

 

Dad: Separate the parts of suffering. ‘Why me?’ is an item focused question, change it to ‘why?’. Why is the beginning of the Self inquiry journey; ask why with an authentic sense of inquiry and bravery.   

 

Aoife: And the second part? 

 

Dad: Expecting and not receiving an answer to the ‘why me?’ question appears perplexing; let it become astonishment. Once you have removed the me from the ‘why me?’ question then astonishment is no longer tethered to the desire to allocate blame. Astonishment is then free to manifest as an indicator of authentic inquiry; because of the Self inquiry, you will be amazed at the pervasive nature of Self. Amazement acknowledged from the observer position is astonishment. In this way, amazement is befuddling, and astonishment is the recognition of wonder as a means for further inquiry.  

 

Aoife: What are control freaks? 

 

Dad: They are controlled. Some people actively promote in their attention the idea that their controlling nature is a stable, innate, integral personality trait. Essentially, they are refusing to use their own tools to manage an unpredictable world, instead they force others to use their tools to make the world appear more predictable. It is difficult for a controlling personality to step-back from this dependency on others. It means Self would have to promote thought-items such as - why can’t I manage instability? The tendency to be ‘controlling’ is not innate, it is learnt: No trait is entirely innate. The desire to dominate is promoted by Self for a reason. If the source of it is not determined the Self informed by the need to control will experience the failure of its duty. 

 

Aoife: How is the source of it determined? 

 

Dad: The desire-to-control, like anything promoted by Self, is a rendered item. It must be allowed to ‘sit’ in attention prior to its promotion. The ‘observer’ we essentially are, is then able to acknowledge it. In other words, the ‘observer’ makes the rendering available to the imagination ‘again’. In this way the ‘observer’ perspective can be understood as a sixth sense. Most people move unwittingly, between a state of being driven by Self and the ‘observer’ state. Remember: My approach does not inhibit this movement; it helps you understand when and how it happens. The ‘observer’ is not informed by the story the mind tells. It therefore can only see items for what they are. In this instance the perspective viewpoint provided by the ‘observer’ repackages the ‘control’ trait into something more isolated. This principle is known as ‘getting perspective’ on something. The controlling personality very rarely moves into the ‘observer’ state. They are unable to experience the joyous nature of its stability; instead, they are controlled by Self. Consider: We all have the desire to control some part of our lives. In meditation we can audit our resistance to change; we can determine to what extent we rely on or manipulate others to maintain that resistance.   

 

Aoife: So, do not force Self to not change. 

 

Dad: Yes, Self must adapt or vary, that is its purpose. The ‘observer’, however, is not changeable; it is a third umpire. 

   

Aoife: And we must ‘build’? 

 

Dad: Yes. Do not focus on destroying the parts of reality you cannot manipulate and then force others to maintain the vacuum it creates; it is impossible. Maintain a sense of community; an unfulfilled ego Self-destructs, it is logical. ‘Control’ the construction of community, not the constriction of it.   

 

Aoife: How do psychopaths use personality? 

 

Dad: They see it as something they must and can ‘design’. They are observers of Self and this gives them the ability to shape it. But they are powering Self with an unsophisticated appreciation of ego. They develop Self later in life, past a point where Self can acquire a full complement of tools. Their Self-development was delayed due to attachment issues; there was no genuine connection made with a mentor. So, the number of tools available is limited and they will pick and choose them based on reward. Therefore, they will only master tools for which there is the greatest social benefit; they may appear charming and affable. However, because no proper attachment was formed, this ‘likeable’ display works like a disguise to hide the truth: They are ashamed of their inadequately formed Self even though they cannot perceive the nature of the inadequacy entirely. This ‘likeability’ is also designed to manipulate others towards filling the attachment need; they become controlling. Or they want to literally ‘possess’ others. Their ego is never able to acquire a ‘build’ dimension because their collection of tools was developed at a stage when dependency need was unfulfilled. Children are dependant and their ego works to energise a trial-and-error approach to Self-development; their errors allow their guardians to provide social guidance. Ultimately a healthy ego will learn to ‘build’ internal and external structures as modelled by its guardians. If, however, a dependency need is never fulfilled and attachment is not formed, an ego may never develop external awareness: The ego will be ‘trapped’ in protection mode and will only know how to ‘build’ internal structures. Because of an intense, but not fully understood, attachment need these ‘structures’ can appear to work very well socially. But once dependency begins to form problems arise. Obsession behaviours emerge as management strategies as the ego attempts to fill the attachment void.  

 

Aoife: Is attachment essential? 

 

Dad: Attachment is essential to the development needs of a child, so much so, that any distraction that removes attention from the child during the acquisition phase will cause the child distress. The child may then develop an attachment deficiency informed by attention-seeking. 

 

Aoife: I sometimes feel like my attention ‘light’ flickers; it cannot focus. 

 

Dad: Remember: The true nature of attention never changes; it is a streetlight that ‘receives’ items into it. Attention defocusing is best described as Self zealously over-promoting.  

 

Aoife: What happens then? 

 

Dad: If Self promotes everything in attention the mind is unable to tell a cohesive story. Consider: Stressful or traumatic evets are automatically promoted by Self. The nature of the event may prohibit the looping of that data into the story the mind is telling. Self relies on the story the mind is telling to determine what it promotes. Therefore, Self my over-promote and make everything that comes into attention vivid. 

 

Aoife: The mind is overwhelmed? 

 

Dad: Yes. Therefore, it is important to develop a sense of the ‘observer’, meditation helps.     

 

Aoife: I do not remember developing attachment? 

 

Dad: This is the advantage psychopaths have. They are more directly able to manipulate their Self to adapt to the needs of others; they acquired their tools later in life. You, however, acquired Self in infancy; you were less cognisant. It means you risk losing perspective on Self as you mature; that is why I am having this ‘talk’ with you. Ok, so you do not remember acquiring your Self-tools which means you are not a psychopath. Psychopaths use Self with more control, but they have significantly less tools available.  

 

Aoife: What should I be wary of? 

 

Dad: Someone who ‘defends’ their position by making you an integral part of their story. 

 

Aoife: Some people are very defensive? 

 

Dad: It is difficult to talk to the ‘defender’. Defender is the name given to a person who is forcing Self to highlight in attention information needed to defend its position. 

 

Aoife: What position? 

 

Dad: Its social viability. 

 

Aoife: But? 

 

Dad: Yes. Some people are so defensive it compromises their social viability; or so it appears: A highly defensive person is presenting a ‘rationed’ set of personality traits (Self-tools).  

 

Aoife: Rationed? 

 

Dad: Yes, they are presenting a personality that consists of only those characteristics necessary to maintain the status of Self. They do this because ego is putting aside, any sense of community. That is why it is impossible to rationalise with a defender; balanced perspectives require an expansive sense of ego. People with strident political views often become defenders; they will not hear an opposing point of view. It does not mean however, that your point-of-view is unable to be heard. 

 

Aoife: What do you mean? 

 

Dad: When you are speaking to a defender you are being heard by more than the defender they are. Imagine, if you will, that you are speaking to a ‘defender’ but you are also being heard by the ‘survivor’ aspect of their Self simultaneously. In other words, Self cannot promote a defensive personality and ignore data instrumental to its survival. 

 

Aoife: How is that achieved? 

 

Dad: You say certain things to the survivor they essentially are and ignore the defender they are temporarily displaying. 

 

Aoife: What ‘certain thing’ will I say? 

 

Dad: Everyone desires to receive information essential to the survival of their Self. What might that information be? 

 

Aoife: Anything relating to social viability? 

 

Dad: Yes, but from a healthy understanding of social viability perspective. “Your role in this community/process/exploration/venture/etc is important and I need your help.” Take a moment to reflect upon this scripting. Regardless of its immediate effectiveness, the part of it that cannot be unheard by Self is the dependence dimension. Essentially, I am asking you to imagine that an aspect of Self is always ‘listening’ from behind the scenes; it is facilitated by the imagination. 

 

Aoife: what do you mean by ‘dependence dimension’? 

 

Dad: In any social setting Self cannot ignore an opportunity to be validated. The less energy it appears to cost the mind and body the more likely it is that Self will accept some dependency. In other words, ego wants to be relied upon to power Self towards a diverse appreciation of its objective. 

 

Aoife: What other scripting can I use? 

 

Dad: Accept the principle and determine your own approach; be genuine. 

 

Aoife: Can you clarify, what is a direct approach to Self-mastery?  

         

Dad: Accept that love and hate, anger, and forgiveness, etc exist at the same time. It may appear as if feelings have timelines; one must end before another can manifest - not true. Remember: The rainbow is made up of all colours; they are ‘available’ on the spectrum in equal measure.  

 

Aoife: So, I can ‘directly’ replace one feeling with another? 

 

Dad: No. Understanding that Self promotes items in attention means you can ‘directly’ inform what is promoted. Or in other words, Self can relearn what to promote. This relearning can be instantaneous; any promotion can be reassessed in terms of social viability at any time. 

 

Aoife: How? 

 

Dad: Be the ‘observer’. Practice revealing the ‘observer’ perspective through meditation and by asking the question – what is the ‘thoughtless’ me. 

 

Aoife: Thoughtless? 

 

Dad: The sense of your ‘being’ you experience in the space between your thoughts is constant. Develop your sense of it, it is the gateway to the ‘observer’ perspective. 

 

Aoife: The ‘observer’ perspective is the getting-of-perspective? 

 

Dad: Yes. 

 

Aoife: So, I cannot shortcut processing emotions?     

 

Dad: No, they must be ‘looked’ at. The imagination will place items into attention and Self must ‘promote’ items that attract processing potential. Remember: Self is seeking social validation, which is best achieved by displaying to others its ability to process data towards the construction of community. If you try not to process, in effect, you are trying to reduce entropy; it is impossible. The imagination makes everything available in attention. Do not change what gets promoted, change why. 

 

Aoife: So, feelings are processors? 

 

Dad: Once they are made part of the story. Feelings are used by Self to inform the story the mind is telling; Self provides the parts for the processor and the mind assembles it. 

 

Aoife: How do I organise the objects of my attention? 

 

Dad: Good question. Appreciate this ‘talk’ and understand the purpose of Self, the ego, attention, and consciousness. Define your Self tools, audit their purposefulness and master them. Understand that the imagination renders everything before it appears in attention. Accept that the rendering is making an illusionary world appear ‘substantive’. Accept that emotions are like the colours of the rainbow one bleeds into the other; in infinite parallel.  

 

Aoife: Are we alone in the universe? 

 

Dad: All ‘life’ in the universe is a dumpster fire, burning the waste of the cosmos. I imagine any agent of entropic processing corelating on another planet would not be a fan of reality TV.          

 

Aoife: Does God exist?  

  

Dad: Love exists and is a way of describing the unity that is consciousness. God can be understood as the imagination working to make everything in the ‘now’ substantive. In other words, God is the now. 

 

Aoife: Should I fear death? 

 

Dad: Does water fear evaporation? 

 

Aoife: I suspect not? 

 

Dad: Then do not fear. Fear is death. 

 

Aoife: What do I do now? 

 

Dad: Reflect: Like the ‘wedge’ app on your phone, appreciate it for its silliness. But if you literally put your phone under the wobbly leg of the café table the screen will crack. 

 

Aoife: Anything else?        

 

Dad: The universe is music. Consciousness fundamental to the universe is an eternal hum from a bass amp. The crackles and pops are universes bursting into life and decaying. And laughter is the national anthem of the united-state-of-presence; laughter is consciousness bubbling to the surface to share a piece of infinity.