Written by Darin Stevenson April 17, 2020

∞ We are scripted to think we know 'what' things and beings are (their correct identity) — or 'do' (function). overall. We have ideas, concepts and words about these matters. Yet the aspect of you that 'thinks' and 'knows'... It's like the type of ONE of the hairs on one of you fingers... compared to that from which (and for which) it emerges.

The mind that we know with, our conscious mind, is like a tiny feather floating on the ocean.

The ocean is the subconscious mind.

Now, this feather has structure, beauty, it travels, it even has little creatures living on it, some of them are strange, too. But compare it to the ocean. Realize that the ocean, with all its strangeness and ancient creatures and relationships — this is more like you and your mind, your intelligence. It is infinitely deep, strange beyond imagining, filled with unthinkable beauty, novelty and activity, and it is »alive in ways the feather is incapable of conceiving of.

The nature and being of this ocean constantly informs the structure of the feather, from underneath, but the feather is largely or completely unaware of this. Were it to get even a hint of its true nature, it would be in shock, and probably in terror. An untrained feather cannot see or understand the ocean in any 'reasonable' way. It is almost totally ignorant of it, and yet, it believes its own models and ideas. It thinks that it knows not only the world, nature, and human culture... it thinks it knows itself, too.

This feather is like a hair that the ocean sends up into the world. We think like the feather. We think we know what and who things are, how they work, and so on, but we do not. If we were to get even a glimpse whilst awake, it would be so overwhelming that we would probably »think we had gone insane or »had seen God.

The ocean is the living body of learning-sening-awareness. The feather is just a tiny aspect that is tool-like and useful, but minor in terms of actual intelligence and awareness. It is a kind of knowledge-shadow of the ocean's activities and how they 'interface with' or relate to human culture (which, to the ocean, is absurd).

But that is not the end of the matter. Because the ocean is like the feather to another aspect of you. That aspect is the origin of consciousness. And it is to the ocean as the universe of all time and space is to the world. So, be careful about taking the feather as the self, truth, or even awareness.

The feather is a prosthesis, so to speak, that the ocean made and reports. You get a taste of the ocean during experiences of actual insight, or dreaming. You get a taste of the origins of consciousness itself, during encounters with death and extremely significant phenomenon which are rare in most people's lives. Usually, when they have these experiences, they use the feather to try to find our 'what' these experiences were, 'are', or mean.

This is like trying to marry your shoelace.

Our actual situation as regards mind and awareness is fearsomely shocking. Most people will never gain any sense of these matters, and will live and die in and as the feather. Those who become more of the ocean will appear to have superhuman powers or insight. If these people tell weird stories about this or make churches, they are misusing the experience and warping the feather.

Those who touch mind itself and remain open... there are no words for and are unthinkably rare.

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Do not mistake the features or activities of the feather or its models for reality, identity, or the ocean. And, if you care to, with care, sobriety and discipline, you can begin to actually explore the ocean... with the feather. But you must have discipline, sobriety of mind, and, if you are to succeed, a fine purpose or set of them. You must also have an incisive skepticism about the projections that the feather makes. Read more works from Darin Stevenson

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