Aidrian O’Connor 

  
Hey Steryl! 

Hard to believe this is it for the semester. I have to tell you what a joy it has been to work with you this semester. Every packet I anxiously awaited your responses, which you always commented on with wit, support, and penetrating questions. I am well aware of the fact that I do write as if I am from another planet, and I cannot thank you enough for taking the extraordinary time and effort that is required to decipher my language into applicable meaning. Once again - thank you. 

About this packet - I hope you find that it ties together what I have worked on this semester. I wish that I had more time and space to work on this summery, because I covered so many different topics in the last year, and inevitably a fair amount of material had to be left out completely. Quite a bit of it I tried to imply without having to give specific backup information, so as time save time, as well as the reader’s patience with the flow of the writing. 

The format is this - a short story. Mother Earth, herein called "Gaia," is concerned that her "primary life form" (humankind) is out of kilter with the greater universal scheme, and has sent out a distress signal to "Mission Control." Two alien beings, a mother and her son, are dispatched to observe humankind, and insure that all is proceeding according to plan. This is the son’s first observation mission, so the mother spend a lot of time explaining how the greater universe works, and how humankind relates to that plan at its current stage. They travel around and observe various situations, and comment on them. When the actual situations are being described, they are told from the human’s point of view, who are not aware that the aliens are observing them. Then it switches back to the aliens’ point of view, who comment on the situation they have seen. 

You will notice that the situations that the aliens observe are all pieces which I wrote before as part of my earlier packets. A few of them you haven’t read, because they were from last semester. These parts are single spaced and in italics. Hopefully you don’t think this is cheesy - it seemed to me that these pieces summed up my major points well, and I really only had to show how they all relate to one another. Thus the aliens’ commentary. 

I wish I had a month and a half to spend on this one packet, but alas- i do not. I had to make do with a couple of weeks, and as such, I feel like this isn’t quite complete. I could have included more stuff, more situations, and explained how they all related to each other more clearly, if only I had more time... 

I think that this packet does have the ability to stand on its own, even though I did have to leave so much out. I am definitely curious as to what you have to day on this matter. Is it sufficient? Is it clear enough? Are then enough situations to give examples of the different points which the aliens discuss? Is the aliens’ conversation lucid? Obviously I’m a little worked up about this packet. 

Anyway, that’s all for now. If you give me a nice enough review, I’ll send along the Celtic journal...... Just kidding. I will send one anyway. 

Take care, 

Aidrian 

The Gaia Project 

ONE 

  
"Son, my next assignment has come down the wire, and I have been given permission to bring you along with me. Do you feel that you are ready for your first assignment?" 

"I am not sure, Mother. What does the assignment entail?" 

"It seems that Mission Control has received a distress call from Gaia, a mostly nondescript planet in the Milky Way. She is concerned with the direction her primary life form is taking. She wants us to come in and observe for a while - make sure that everything is progressing as it should be." 

"But I thought that everything always progresses the way it should, Mother." 

"Of course it does, but we need to go and help Gaia remember that. If she doesn't know it, her primary life form certainly won't. Do you think that you are prepared for this or not?" 

"I am prepared." 

"Fine then, let us leave immediately..." 

"...Gaia, we have arrived. We are here strictly to observe, and report our observations to Mission Control. Everything which we perceive you will perceive directly as well. Do not fret - we are quite sure that everything will be just fine. Son, give me your initial impression of the primary life form." 

"The primary life form is a carbon based oxygen breather. It's a sort of semi-evolved mammal, a primate, I believe." 

"Very good. What of its level of advancement?" 

"It's extraordinarily primitive. I think it may still be considered a regular animal." 

"But look, Son, it has complex tools, culture, and emotion. Doesn't that put it above the animal level?" 

"I don't think so. It seems to be using its tools to harm itself and its Mother. It uses culture to divide instead of to unite. It doesn't understand its emotions in the slightest. I think it's probably an animal." 

"Well, my son, you've got three good points there, but if you ever want to obtain your officer's wings, you're going to have to be able to look a little bit deeper than that. If we were to judge this life form so quickly, we might make some very poor decisions on what we reported to Mission Control." 

"OK, let's take a closer look. Will they become aware of our presence, Mother?" 

"No, no. This life form is at the point that it only really believes what it perceives in the third dimension. At the most, a particularly advanced individual might encounter us and think that it had a spiritual experience." 

"What's a spiritual experience, Mother?" 

"That's when a being of limited understanding perceives something which is beyond its current level of understanding, and it is forced to open because its old way of knowing no longer applies." 

"Oh, I see. How do we judge these beings the right way, Mother? How do we take a closer look?" 

"We must come to understand how they perceive. There is nothing more to a being at this level than it's perception. It believes that what it perceives is all that exists, because it does not know any better." 

"Do you mean that it doesn't know Uroboros?" 

"That's right, Son. For the most part, this life form has no real understanding of Uroboros. It has no direct link to Uroboros." 

"But that's horrible! How could it live without understanding Uroboros? How could it take action without knowing which action to take?" 

"You see, child, for a short while after they have been born, life forms experience a period of being separate from Uroboros, effectively being outside of Uroboros." 

"I thought that nothing is outside of Uroboros. I mean, by its very definition, Uroboros is everything which exist. Isn’t it impossible for something to be external to Uroboros?" 

"Well, yes and no. When a life form is first born, its perception is at a level where it can only perceive by comparing and contrasting. In other words, it understands everything strictly through a filter of duality, and because of that it isn't aware of the fact that it is part of Uroboros." 

"Strictly through a filter of duality? It never feels like it is part of Uroboros... how horrible. No wonder it is trying to kill itself off." 

"Oh Son, it's not that. I mean, it doesn't really know what it's missing. I suppose that to some degree it has an idea, though - probably just a faint but continuous sensation that something is not quite right, that it can’t fully accept what is. An example of the fact that it does have some awareness of Uroboros is something within its culture which is known as mythology. For the most part the life form doesn't realize it, but mythology originally spawned from the latent memories of being with Uroboros from before its birth. You can see, however, that mythology isn't a very strong part of its culture now." 

"What does this "mythology" consist of? And also, if mythology is its only link to Uroboros, why wouldn't it hold on to it dearly?" 

"In the beginning, mythology mainly consisted of stories of creation. These are mostly made up of imagery which cuts below the level of ordinary conscious thinking and hints at the continuous creative processes which unfold at all levels of the universe. That relates directly to Uroboros, but because it works more on the subconscious levels of the mind, it is not always fully understood at the conscious level. Also, over time, as ego-based consciousness grew stronger, the focus of mythology shifted to hero myths, which mostly consist of stories about trials and conquests. The symbolism of a hero conquering monsters in the physical world, for the most part, is representative of the conscious mind conquering the great subconscious within it. What I mean is that these stories relate to the young ego's war against the subconscious mind. At that stage the ego was just beginning to grow out of what is now considered the subconscious mind, and the comparably weak ego was constantly under the threat of being consumed by the vast unconscious which it was growing out of. So the main body of mythology consists of either stories which relate the laws of universal creation, or stories based on relating the individual conscious wresting control from the subconscious which gave birth to it. To answer your second question, mythology isn't the life form's only link with Uroboros - there are others, although most of them grew out of mythology as the life form's understanding grew in complexity. The reason that mythology isn't so strong, at least partially, is because of the Universal Law of Alternation." 

"What is that, Mother?" 

"The Law of Alternation is part of dualistic perception, Son. It governs how a life form submerged in duality will grow. It takes the form of the Universal Harmonic Wave..." 

"You mean the Sound of Uroboros?" 

"Yes, boy - now don't interrupt. As I was saying, it takes the form of the Universal Harmonic Wave. It looks like this: 

(DIAGRAM HERE) 

"If unity is the middle line, and one duality is on each side of the line, then the life form's path will lead it from one side to the other, getting farther and farther away from unity until it reaches a peak point. Then it starts to swing to the extremes less and less until it finally comes back to unity and Uroboros." 

"But why does it have to go to all that trouble? I mean, couldn't it just be born part of Uroboros?" 

"Well, yes... I suppose it could. But this initial stage is important because it helps the life form to grow enough so that it can be a responsible part of Uroboros. It has to go to the two extremes and understand each of them completely so that it can understand the wisdom of Uroboros fully." 

"So all the misdirected energy of this life form isn't really misdirected at all? It's all just part of this "Law of Alternation" leading the life form away from unity, so that it can bring it back to unity later?" 

"That's right, Son. This life form is still in the first half of the process, called the adolescent half. You can tell that it is nearing it's peak point, though. If everything goes well, that's when it will start on the post-adolescent half. It will diverge less and less with each pass until it finally converges on unity completely. Then it will have established its link with Uroboros." 

"How can you tell that it is almost at its peak point, Mother?" 

"Well, just look at it. It has so much energy, but so little understanding of how to control that energy. It can create such wondrous things, but it doesn't understand the responsibility of its ability to create. It still dedicates its abilities to the War Against Self, and really that is the biggest indicator of all." 

"Is the War Against Self another part of the Path of Alternation?" 

"In effect, it is the Path of Alternation. You see, the most restrictive aspect of perceiving only duality is that almost every individual which is part of this life form views itself as split in two. It is aware that there is a world inside of it, made up of it's thoughts and emotions, and it is aware that there is a world outside it, which it perceives as the third dimension. Its actual consciousness forms as a layer in between these two worlds - it is a link between the infinite physical world around it and the infinite subconscious world within it. Because of its dualistic nature, however, it must perceive these two worlds as inherently separated, and as such it very rarely becomes aware of the fact that it is in fact an open conduit between the two realms - in effect a two-way fountainhead, bringing the material manifesting in one realm directly into the other. 

"But those two worlds are both part of Uroboros. They're linked together automatically." 

"Not in this case, dear. You have to remember that this life form does not understand that yet at all. It's own consciousness will not let it perceive anything but duality." 

"Why is that, Mother? You already told me about the necessity of the Path of Alternation, but how does this splitting of the self happen? This all seems so backwards to me, but I am fascinated by it, and want to understand these poor beings." 

"You must not pity them, Son. They are doing just what they should be doing, and in all probability they will come to understand their part of Uroboros someday." 

"Yes, of course Mother. But please, explain how the War Against Self unfolds." 

"You must see it for yourself to fully understand, my son. Open yourself to them, and look through your inner vision." 

"I see... I see an infinite ocean with a hollow sphere of ice submerged within it. Inside the sphere is another infinite ocean. The water inside and outside the sphere is melting the ice away, and the ice is fighting to try to maintain itself. It is struggling to keep itself from being dissolved back into water. It seems to think that it is something other than the ocean water which it is made of, just because it has solidified into ice. The ice sphere is trying to control the oceans around and within it, so that it can make its ice wall thicker, and not be dissolved back into the ocean. I don't understand. What does this mean, Mother?" 

"You see, the ice sphere is one individual being's consciousness at its current state of evolution, known as ego. The infinite ocean inside it is its own subconscious, and the infinite ocean around it is the physical world. The ego straddles these two worlds, linking them together as a conduit between what it sees as opposing realms. But it never gets to fulfill its role as conduit because it can feel both worlds trying to dissolve it away, and it becomes frightened that it will disintegrate if it stops fighting and looses control. It thinks that it is different than the two worlds because it can only see through the filter of duality, so it automatically takes a "me versus them" attitude. It thinks that it has to maintain constant control, and be continuously reinforcing itself, because it is so afraid that it will just dissolve away and cease to exist." 

"And it has no idea that ice is just made out of water, so even if it did dissolve it would just be back to being a part of the whole again?" 

"That's right. It has no idea. It really believes that it is something different because of the way it looks at things through a filter of duality." 

"I guess that explains why this life form is using all its creativity to create war, and using its own culture to divide itself - it thinks that it is at perpetual war with everything around and within it. It really is at war against itself. Where does it lead to, Mother. I mean, won't it just eventually destroy what is inside and around it by trying to control something that it could never hope to control?" 

"Well, that is certainly a possibility, Son. Chances are about fifty percent that it will utterly destroy itself. That is part of the way that evolution works - sometimes life forms live on and continue to evolve, and sometimes they die off completely, having served their function in another way. The other fifty percent says that it will realize that there is no war, anywhere - that there is nothing to fight against when all is Uroboros. But for that to happen, individual beings all over the planet will have to become aware of the ice sphere vision that you saw, whether it be through that metaphor or another. They will have to realize that there is nothing to fear, so that they can completely stop trying to control the world around and within them. If they can do that, then ego consciousness can start doing what it was built to do - bring together the infinite world trapped inside these beings with the infinite world which surrounds them. When that happens, the ultimate duality will be reconciled, and the Path of Alternation will be complete. 

I can see that there are the seeds of convergence deep within the life form now. It looks like this life form is indeed reaching the peak of divergence. Would you like to go in for a very close look, Son, and see if we can observe some of these seeds? I'm sure that it would help to ease Gaia's mind as well." 

"Oh, yes Mother. I would like that very much!" 

"Very well. But you must promise not to disturb anything on purpose. Understood?" 

"Yes, yes. I promise." 
  
  
TWO 

"Mother, what kind of room is this?" 

"This is a kitchen. It is where the beings prepare their food before they eat it. This particular building is a gathering place where many of them come to eat, and the ones in this room prepare the food for all of them. It doesn't look very busy at the moment, however. See anything interesting, Son?" 

"Well, yes. That one over there, sitting down. He is writing on a bit of something, writing very intently." 

"Yes, I'm glad that you noticed that. Go see what it says, boy." 

"Can I? I mean, alright." 

******************************************** 

Notes on Washing Dishes 

The dishes come to us, already dirty. There is no need to go in search of them. It is our job to clean them up, to return the dishes to the clean, natural state that they once possessed. There is nothing wrong with the dirt on the dishes - they're just dirty, and they need to be cleaned up. 

So we set about scrubbing the dishes clean. We take a good look at each dish, and identify where the dirt is. This isn't complicated at all. When we take a clear look at this dish, the dirt makes itself evident. The is no need to spend time deciding what type of dirt it is, or where it possibly came from. We just identify the dirt, and set about cleaning it up. This is where things can get a little tricky. 

Sometimes we haven't taken a really good look at this particular dish, and we end up trying to clean it up the same way we have cleaned a dish similar to this one in the past. Or this dish reminds us of another one that was a real pain to clean up. So we just try not to look at it too much for fear of the mess it will remind us of. Occasionally, we get a little too much into the fact that we're cleaning, and this clouds our vision. We end up treating the dish aggressively, and we scratch or break the dish completely. Because of this possibility we must always keep in mind just how fragile dishes are. 

All three of the above misunderstandings end up with the same result - a dish that hasn't been restored to its original clean and pure state. If we haven't cleaned the dishes correctly, then we are not being dishwashers; we are faking it, playing around as if our job is just a game. 

So, assuming nothing has hindered the cleaning process, we put the shiny dishes back on the shelf, where they wait to be used again. There is no need to think about them now. We don't have to think, "Look at these dishes I've cleaned so well." We have just done our job, what we were supposed to do. Shortly after returning the dishes to the shelf, they get used once again, and come back to us dirty once more. This time, though, they are dirty in a different way. We clean them again, and the cycle continues. 

It is so easy to think, "I'm not a dishwasher. I'm better than that." But the reality is, we all use dishes, and thus we are all dishwashers. We would like to leave the dishes for someone else to clean for us - it's such a messy and unpleasant task. But if we don't dive right in there and get dirty, get dish hands, then we are trying to escape from our responsibility both to the dishes and to ourselves. If no one were to take the responsibility to clean the dishes, we would all get very sick. In fact, that explains why we as a culture are sick - we all like to use the dishes when they are nice and shiny, but when it comes to dealing with the mess we have made of the dishes, everyone looks the other way. 

******************************************** 

"Mother, this one isn't at war against itself!" 

"Oh, yes it is, dear. It is just starting to realize the fact, that's all. If things go well, they'll all be doing that soon." 

"But it obviously is starting to understand that there is a non-aggressive way to approach any given situation. And it also is developing an attitude of greater responsibility - responsibility to everything, instead of just subjective responsibility." 

"It definitely is beginning to understand those things, little one - beginning to. Until it manages to fully internalize those ideas that it has jotted down, the ideas are only ideas, and nothing more. It certainly is a start in the right direction, but ideas only affect one half of the total - the internal half. Once the ideas become fully internalized, then they become second nature. Once they become second nature, they begin to manifest in action. Then it could be said that they become first nature, and that is when the cycle is truly completed. Something in this being’s external world has prompted it to consciously become aware of these ideas, but unless it completes the cycle by manifesting the ideas as true action, then all is for nought." 

"I understand. It is a good thing that this particular being has come to this point, but this point is not sufficient to enact real change to help the overall life form complete the Path of Alternation." 

"Well.... yes. Coming to this point is definitely part of advancing through the Path of Alternation. But the life form is going to reunite with unity, no matter what. It’s just a question of whether it will preserve its individual consciousness by advancing enough to partake in the overall unity of Uroboros, or whether it will destroy itself by not advancing and be dissolved back into Uroboros as basic energy with no real remnants of the life form which it once was." 

"I see. So the life form will either advance and continue to exist as a separate and individual life form, or it will destroy itself and loose its individual energy to the overall field of energy which is Uroboros. That would be like the ice sphere completely melting away into the ocean which surrounds it, right?" 

"It would be like that, yes. Have you noticed how much busier it is in the kitchen now? We should probably be moving along... Actually, let's wait and watch for a bit. This could be very interesting. Son, fade back into that alcove over there, and pay attention." 

******************************************** 

"The Police Chief and his party just arrived," said one of the waitresses with a sneer as she collected her order and headed back out the door of the cramped kitchen. On the other side of the counter, sandwiched between the heavy wooden preparation table and the gaping maw of the 500 degree oven, Arjuna's face visibly reddened. Krishna noticed with a little smile, wiping the dish water off his hands and onto a nearby hanging dish towel. Just then the dishwasher cycle ended, and Krishna turned to unload the clean and steaming dishes from the teal plastic tray where they rested. Arjuna spoke: 

"Man, it really pisses me off, ya know... it pisses me off." Hot pans hissed as he dropped them into a large pot of soapy water, where they sat to cool before Krishna took them to the sink. The last pan went in with a splash, sending greasy brown water over the pot lip and onto the off-white linoleum floor. Krishna noticed out of the corner of his eye, raising his eyebrow. Arjuna didn't seem to notice. 

"What pisses you off?" the dishwasher asked, speaking over the combined din of the kitchen and the nearby dining room. The smirk on his face betrayed that he knew full well the answer. 

"The Police Chief is such an asshole. He and his cronies march around like they own this town - and the sick part is, for the most part they do! You know about how I got arrested - for writing on a building with a piece of chalk! I mean, c'mon. There are prostitutes and crack heads living up the street from us, and the pigs are spending their time harassing kids like us. And you heard about all the whack shit that went on down in Philly, when he was police chief there. I mean, the guy had a fire bomb dropped on a bunch of squatting homeless people, blamed it on them, and walked away scot free! The police are just out of control man... they're out of control." Arjuna worked quickly as he spoke, deftly throwing servings of food into gray metal pans, and then sliding the pans into the oven. A quick gout of flame shot up from a saute pan on the range, burning the liquid out of the vegetable and oil concoction resting in the shallow metal basin. 

"Ya, I suppose they are..." Krishna paused for a moment, now on the opposite side of the kitchen, stacking clean plates on the shelf where they would await further use. He quickly weaved across the little room, through loitering wait staff, and back into his alcove, grabbing dirty dishes from a gray bustray as he went. He turned to the sink and started to scrub once more. 

"Hey - I got a few minutes, you wanna take a butt break?" The stress was plainly evident in Arjuna's tone. 

"Sure, What the hell." Krishna dropped a few more dishes in the metal box of a dishwasher, added some soap, and shut the door. The dishwasher began to fill with water. 

Outside on the stoop at the side door of the restaurant, Arjuna and Krishna sat down. It was a balmy summer night, and the thick, heavy air carried the smell of the nearby port. 

"Can I bum one off ya?" asked Krishna. 

"Hell no!" came the reply, as Arjuna handed him a cigarette and a shiny black lighter. This kind of sarcasm was a familiar game for the two. Arjuna lit up his own cigarette with a sigh, and started to speak: 

"Here's the thing, man - That guy is in there, sitting around the table with a bunch of old white guys in their fancy suits, drinking fancy wine. He's made his living off of living off the system. We're taxpayers, man. We pay for him to sit in there and live high on the hog, while we sweat and toil and bust our asses and barely pay the rent. Guys like him are what mess everything up these days. They've got their little position of power, and their gonna juice it for everything it's worth. And meanwhile, the rest of us pay the price for their corruption. It's fucked up. He's just a man, like you or me, but he gets to live off of everybody else's work, and live comfortably at that. Why should I cook dinner for him? Why should you wash his dishes? He should be doing us a favor for once, right? I mean, really - why should I cook dinner for this guy when I know that it's just feeding everything that's fucked up in society? Doesn't that make me somehow responsible? Shouldn't I stand up and be like, "Hell no, I ain't feedin' you! We've all been feedin' you long enough!" I mean, if I was gonna take full responsibility for my actions, I wouldn't be feeding him tonight, would I?" 

Krishna took a long drag on his cigarette and thought for a moment before speaking. 

"I don't think we're responsible for that, Arjuna. You're angry over something that doesn't really need any anger. You and me are just here, man. We're just here doing what we're supposed to be doing. If you want to sit around and think about every person that you cook for, and decide whether or not you can take responsibility for preparing their food or not, you'll go nuts." 

"But is that some kind of excuse for just taking the easy way out? I mean, what we're talking about here is taking responsibility for your actions. I want to take responsibility, ya know? At some point somebody has to draw the line and be like, "The bullshit stops here." That's what I'm saying - the bullshit stops here. I'm not gonna cook for him tonight, and maybe he'll get the point when the waitress comes out and says, "Sorry, the cook refuses to cook for you." Then he'll have to stop and think about it for a minute, ya know? He'll have to think about what he does, and the way he lives his life." 

Krishna gave a light laugh and slapped his friend on the shoulder. "Look man, you gotta disengage yourself from it a bit. When you get all caught up in all that, when you put so much of your mind into that, you're just creating more shit than it's worth. The shit starts to pile up, and sooner or later, it bites you in the ass. You and me, we have roles to play, and that's really what it comes down to. You are the cook, and I am the dishwasher. He may be the corrupt politician, but that doesn't really matter. We all have our roles to play, and the best thing that we can do is just to play them. I mean, jesus - do you really think you can take full responsibility for all of your actions? Of course you can't. How many times have you done something that caused some kind of ill that you never intended? Sometimes we just can't help it. 

"If you tried to take full responsibility for the results of all of your actions, you'd go mad, and there is a perfectly good reason for that. The reason is this - it's not our place to try to decide what is right and what is wrong. I know that sounds crazy, man, but I think it sounds just as crazy to try to say that we, as people, as human beings, have any idea where life is taking us, that we have any sense of what is really right or wrong. What do we know? We don't know a damn thing. All that we really know is that we can take action. That's like one of the only things we can do. Everything, all the time with us is some kind of action. You can't avoid that. There's no way to wake up in the morning without doing something, even if it's to scratch your ass. If you wanna be ridiculous, we could say that scratching your ass really does damage to the poor innocent dust mites that live there. So just act, man, and don't worry about it. Act like the cook and cook the food." 

Arjuna looked dubious. "OK, I'm not saying I agree with you or anything, but let's just say that you're right - we don't know what is right and what is wrong. If that's true, than how the hell are we supposed to take action? I mean, there's more to it than just being the cook or the dishwasher. Don't we have to decide whether we're gonna cook for the corrupt politician or not? I mean, don't we have to decide which actions were gonna take and which ones we won't take? And if we don't know what's right and wrong, than who the hell does, anyway?" 

"Well, you see, that's just it - we don't have to decide. We can, as humans, take action without attaching "right" or "wrong" to it. We can just wash the dishes, and see what happens. We don't have to decide whether we want to wash this dish or not - if the dish comes in front of us, and we are dishwashers, then we wash the dish. It's the same thing with cooking. When the order comes in, you look at the ticket, and you cook the food. You don't have to think about where the food is going to, or if you like this type of food or not. In fact, you don't really have to think at all when you're making the food. You can just sort of sit back and watch yourself make the food - not get too attached to what you think about it, and see what happens. I mean, when we're mad rushed in there, on a Saturday night or something, do you sit there and think about the repercussions of everything you do it that kitchen? Of course not, if for no other reason than the fact that there's just no time. There's a job to do, and it's got to be done, and you're the only one who can do it. You're there, and the job needs to be done. So you do it - you don't particularly think about it, you just do what has to be done, right? And you do it well, too. Right?" 

"Well, ya. I mean, I know what you're talking about with the rush thing, but what does that have to do with the rest of life? It's not cool to just not think about right and wrong ever." 

"What I'm talking about goes for any kind of action, not just in the kitchen. The reason that it is OK not to worry about whether or not what your doing is right is because there is something that does know that it is right. You can call it God, or you can call it Fate, or you can call it Nature, or Brahmin, or Buddha, or Ala, or Jehovah, or whatever you want. You don't even have to get religious about it - the fact is, something is happening all around us that involves us completely, and it's called life. It's constantly unfolding, and we are constantly reacting to it. We can't help but react to it. Some people try to tell themselves that they can control it, that they know what is right for their life and what is wrong for their life, but they're wrong and they're gonna get fucked because of the fact. The big mistake that they're making is in thinking that it's their life, like they had some kind of choice in the fact that they're here, being what they are. The best thing that we can do is put all of our effort into the action that is required right here and now, and not worry about whether it's the right action or not. 

"What it really comes down to is that we can't act in hopes of making ourselves more comfortable, because that clouds the issue just as much as right and wrong do. Really, the "right and wrong" thing is just a way to keep ourselves comfortable - it's the exact same thing. If we can just stop trying to foresee where things are going to, and thinking that we have some kind of ultimate control over the whole thing, then we enter into a whole different state of mind, and it's that state of mind that's really the most important thing. It's like, we get beyond all the petty parts of being human, and we start to see what it really means to be human. Reaching that point, that state of mind, is the most important thing that we can ever do." 

Arjuna took a short drag on his cigarette, and spoke, "Wait a minute - I don't really know what you mean. What state of mind of mind are you talking about? I mean, what's so important about it? And why is the "right and wrong" thing the same as trying to make ourselves comfortable?" 

"The state of mind is like this - you stop needing external stuff to make you happy, and you become content just being what you are, and letting happen what happens. When you stop having this huge personal agenda, it doesn't really matter anymore if you encounter something that might be good or might be bad, what might make you more comfortable or what might make you uncomfortable. When you're just fine with yourself as you are, what you used to think of as good things no longer really apply, because you just don't care about that kind of petty shit anymore. 

"To answer your other question, the whole "right or wrong" thing is really just an extension of the search for pleasure, because it helps us to feel more secure in our little mindsets. It makes us feel like we do know what's going on, when really we've never had a clear enough state of mind to really know what's going on. We use it as an excuse to push away things that might threaten our little world, saying, "No that's wrong," and we use it to try and pull things towards us that support our view of things, calling those things "right." It's not easy to get into the state of mind that's beyond all that, either, because your mind is so used to looking for the easy way out. You take an interest in everything because of what you can get out of it, and that starts this little chain reaction of emotions. 

"The chain reaction, in one way or another, always ends up with the same result, though, and that's suffering, in one form or another. People look at life as what they personally can get out of it, but in the end, they can't really get anything out of it, and that makes them frustrated to no end. The frustration, the suffering, is really the thing that keeps us from just seeing what's going on here, because it turns into a vicious cycle. Once you start to feel suffering, you start to scramble to make what you see as pain stop, and that just causes the whole thing to continue. While we're caught up in all that, we never have a single moment of clarity, and we can't take effective action because of our lack of clarity. 

"But there is a way to get beyond it, to escape from the cycle, and get back to real life. We just have to learn to recognize the messages in our heads that are based on securing pleasures and avoiding pain, and when they pop into our heads, we notice them, and then we let them go away. That's an important thing, too - we can't fight against them, and try to force them out of our heads, because that'll just make things worse. That's just trying to avoid pain in a more subtle way, which just aggravates the situation. We have to just kind of let them flow in, notice them, and then let them flow out again. That's probably one of the hardest parts about it, but man, it's worth it when you manage to do it. The sort of insight that comes out of not living in the cycle of hopes and fears is, to me, the whole point of living, because you can actually start to take part in what's happening in the real world, and not just what's happening in your head." 

Arjuna sat quietly for a minute, thinking. "OK, I think I see what you mean about not being all caught up in our heads. But I still don't get this idea of there being a better way to think about everything, because isn't that still just being caught up in our heads? And if it's that state of mind that is so important, than where does the importance of action fall? Earlier you said it's the action that counts, but now it sounds like it's this special state of mind that counts. Which one is it?" 

Krishna took another drag, and thought for a moment, and exhaled. "Well, it's kind of complex, I guess. There's no real way to act without having some internal process going on, ya know? At the same time, there's no way to just think about stuff and never take any action. I mean, we kind of exist in two places - on the inside, where our thoughts happen, and on the outside, where our actions happen. Taking action is really important - I mean, there's no real way to avoid it, is there? You can't escape from action, because it's gonna happen whether you want it to or not. But when you have all these fucked up internal processes going on, you can't see what the right action is, because you can't see what the real situation is. But when you have all these fucked up internal processes going on, you can’t see what the right action is, because you can’t see what the real situation is. So our problem isn’t so much with how important action is as compared to how important thinking is. Our problem’s that because one half is all screwy, the internal half, the other half can’t help but be screwy as well. The two halves are totally dependent on each other, so until we get the inside straightened out, there’s not much hope for the outside. So for us, it’s the inside problem that is more important right now, because we all have these weird internal processes already going on by the time we have enough brains to think about them. In fact, I think it probably requires that we get all caught up in ourselves, and what we want out of life, so that we can become intelligent enough to later get past all that. It’s all good, ya know. It’s all happening just like it’s supposed to, and that’s the thing to remember. Just taking that attitude, that what is happening is supposed to be, even when it seems really shitty, can help a lot, because it shows us how to just trust in the fact that everything is gonna be alright, no matter what. And I don’t mean an apathetic, "Oh whatever, everything’s fine." I mean really seeing that everything is fine, so let’s not worry about it too much, or hope for too much more, and just see what’s going on here. Then we can take the action that the situation calls for. 

"It’s a subtle thing, ya know. At the beginning it’s hard, because you have to constantly wonder whether it’s the situation calling for the action or it’s you trying to get something out of the situation. But in the end, it’s better not to worry about it too much, and just try to be as aware of everything as you can be. Do you see what I mean? I mean, there’s a lot to everything we’ve talked about, but do you get the idea?" 

"I think I do. I mean, I’m not too sure about a lot of it, but I think I see where you’re coming from, at least. I think that...." 

Just then, a waitress stuck her head out of the door of the restaurant, interrupting Arjuna in mid-sentence. "Hey guys - order in." 

Arjuna and Krishna looked at each other, both with smiles on their faces. "That’ll be the Police Chief’s order," said the dishwasher. 

"Ya, I suppose it will," came the cook’s reply. They both took one last drag of their cigarettes, threw them in a nearby coffee can left just for that purpose, and turned to enter the kitchen once more. 

******************************************** 

"You see, Mother - the dishwasher does understand - at least partially." 

"That's right, Son. It does partially understand. But it still has a long way to go before it is completely ready for Uroboros." 

"The cook was so concerned with what was right and wrong. I suppose it can’t help that though, not being able to understand that everything is unfolding just the way it should. It’s so sad, because this life form can’t just stop thinking about "right" and "wrong," as if those were absolutes, and that stops it from being able to just pay attention to what is happening, and really be a part of it." 

"That’s right, Son. You’re beginning to understand them better. But keep in mind that it isn’t really sad at all, because all of this "trouble" is leading the life form to where it needs to go. That is a very important part of understanding what exactly this life form is all about. Even the dishwasher mentioned it to the cook." 

"Yes. I seem to forget that often. These ones are so different from us, sometimes it is hard to remember that. I liked how the dishwasher spoke of being able to let go of the need to control situations, and how it spoke of understanding that the terms "right" and "wrong" are often just tools used by these beings to reinforce their current mindsets. This life form has no understanding of what the true right and wrong are all about, does it?" 

"No, it doesn’t seem to have any clear idea at all. The ones who feel that they really know the answer to that are often the ones who know the least about it. They may come to understand that, though, if they manage to get past the continuous war that they wage." 

"Mother, it seems to me that the knowledge which the dishwasher has could easily be turned into an extension of the war. It seemed to be somewhat aware of the fact, too. I mean, it would be very easy for one of these beings to approach that knowledge and the mind set that it entails with an attitude of aggression, which would foul everything up. Right?" 

"You are absolutely right, boy. Because these ones are so used to trying to conquer everything, trying to claim territory to call their own, it would be very easy for them to grab onto these ideas and simply add them on to their repertoire of weaponry with which to approach themselves and their environments. It really is a very fine line that this life form walks at this stage of the game. But enough of that for now. Let's move along now, and see what else we can find." 
  
  
THREE 

"What type of place is this, Mother?" 

"This is land which has been set aside for a very ancient culture, which is now almost gone. This particular culture still has roots in the time when the life form as a whole hadn't diverged very much from unity." 

"What is it that they do?" 

"It is a ritual, Son. They are marking this point on the path of their lives as an end and a beginning." 

"What do you mean, Mother. How can they create an end and a beginning in their own lives when they are within the Path of Alternation?" 

"Because their roots reach so far into the past, they have retained the wisdom of that time. It has cost most of them their lives, because they have lived through times when there was no place for their wisdom, and they were slaughtered because of it. But now their wisdom is planting new seeds. You can see that there are ones here not from the tribe, and it is they that will carry the seed on." 

"I can tell that their movements are supposed to mean something, but I can't tell what. What are the actions supposed to mean, Mother?" 

"They are practicing dying. Before they were in this little hut, they were blindfolded, and led here by a path they did not know. The little hut is like a womb, floating in the middle of an unknown world." 

"Why do some of them hurt the others?" 

"They are marking this event as special. The pain puts the initiates into a different state of mind without causing them permanent damage, and brings more energy to the ritual as a whole. There - see how they all lay down now. They are effectively dead to their old selves. Now they are ready to be reborn. They are given new names, and taught a new, more subtle way of viewing the world, and they are tattooed to show that they are indeed a new being with a new body. From now on they will be treated differently in their tribe, and they will treat themselves differently as well." 

"But Mother, what is the point of this ritual? What will they do with their new beings?" 

"Well, Dear, they will just live their lives. It's a matter of them understanding that nothing is permanent, that even their own selves change and die within their lifetimes. These beings understand Gaia's way very well, and She has taught them that it is important to acknowledge the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth within all things, including one's own life. They imitate Her in hopes of being part of Her plan, and thus become part of the plan of Uroboros." 

"This is another seed which will lead this life form back to Uroboros, isn't it? These beings seem to understand just as the dishwasher did, although their understanding works through different forms. These ones do not seem so taken with ideas, but are more based in action. It seems like it is more important to them to take the action, and then gain the understanding from having partaken in it. But in either case it is leading them towards greater understanding of unity, correct?" 

"This is indeed another seed, my son. It matters little whether one of these beings chooses to start working with the energy which manifests in the internal realm or the external realm, as long as they end up bringing it through to both realms completely. For the dishwasher, the internal realm was having the highest initial impact, and it was learning to bring that internal energy into the external realm through action. For those who are partaking in this ritual, the actions are being taken without the accent on the internal thought process, because it is believed that the thought processes will come with time. But as I said, it doesn’t matter which realm one beings with, as long as they end up bringing the energy into its fullest form in both realms. 

"The basic reasoning behind this is simple - some seeds wither and rot long before they ever take root. If one were to retain manifesting energy strictly within the internal realm, it would be comparable to leaving a seed floating in the ocean with no earth to sink its roots into. If one were to contain manifesting energy in the external realm of action without a corresponding internal process, that would be like leaving a seed in dry soil and never adding life giving water. Do you see why both realms are so important?" 

"I do now. Is it correct to say that because all is Uroboros and both realms are in fact one, the energy is actually manifesting in both places, but this life form often does not consciously make the connection because it is too occupied with its continual war of aggression?" 

"That’s right, my son. You are definitely beginning to understand more of how these creatures work. Let us move on now, and see if we can observe other situation which might educate us more on where this life form is at on the Path of Alternation." 

  
FOUR 

"Why does this one sit alone here, arranging things as it does?" 

"This is a place of work, boy. This individual is being paid to do this, and it can use the money it is given to obtain those things which it requires to stay alive, like food, clothing, and shelter. This particular culture has a high standard of living, so it will also use the money it is paid for entertaining itself - doing things it enjoys and buying things which will make it feel good." 

"There is a peculiar glow about this one, isn't there? Like some of the others that we have seen." 

"Indeed there is. Open your own mind to its mind, and hear its thoughts. Be discreet, however, or you will cause ripples and it will lose its line of thinking." 

****************************************** 

The man sat midway down a long hallway, his tiny desk pushed against the wall. Along the wall behind him ran one continuous row of yellow-grey filing cabinets, more filing cabinets than he wanted to think of. There was no particular sound besides that of his working, and, of course, that of his breathing. The late afternoon sun streamed in through the slitted blinds which covered the lone window at the far end of the hall, the warming light apparently the only saving grace in this austere environment. Occasionally he would lift his head from the work before him, gaze for a moment into the too bright light, sigh a deep breath, and then turn back to his task. 

The company kept a seemingly endless number of files - stacks upon stacks of paper sheets, crammed into metal boxes like the cabinets behind him, which lined every available wall space throughout the office. The majority of the paper sheets, covered with what was apparently considered to be invaluable information, were never even looked at anymore, but the company insisted that they must be kept, "Just in case..." Just in case what wasn't too clear, but it really wasn't the man's job to make such decisions. He was paid only enough to do what he was told without verbalizing that voice which repeated, "This is senseless" over and over again behind his eyes. Finally though, the office had run out of space for new filing cabinets, and the company had been forced to decide which priceless files were less priceless than the others in order that new files full of more priceless information could be put in their place. So it was to the man that this task of removing the less valued files befell. He was given a list of numbers, and told to remove and dispose of all the files labeled to match the numbers on the list. 

Because he could not stand so much waste, the man decided that it was his responsibility to pick through each file, and ensure that all of the white paper ended up in a recycling bin, that all the paper clips were recirculated into the office supply cabinet, as with the floppy disks, yellow file holders, green hanging file folders, plastic GBC binders, three ring binders, and on and on and on. While working on the files, it was almost impossible for the man not to think of other nations in the world, where people couldn't afford to pay veritable fortunes of wealth for information like the office he worked in sold at such a high price. He couldn't help but think of how he felt poor making $60 a day, but most people in the world still made less than $2. And he also couldn't fight off the thoughts of the natural resources the Earth offered her children, rapidly being wasted away by firms like the one that he worked for, and all for such a convoluted, and to all appearances unnecessary, end. 

"But this is the world I live in," he would remind himself with a shrug, before despondency set in. The way that he looked at it, at this point the karmic ball of humankind was rolling, and he was nothing but a speck of dust on it's surface. In that position, no matter how he strained himself, there was nothing he could do to stop the boulder from rolling off the quickly approaching cliff. Still, he couldn't hope but try, and it was at his own insistence that he pick through the files to recycle what could be recycled. Only two days ago, one of the company's high executives happened by as he sat at his task, and told him not to waste precious time with such a thing, but just to throw it all it the trash heap. He simply and quietly refused, and the executive, to the man's surprise, silently went on his way. 

Now, to some degree at least, he was paying the price for his good intentions. Behind him and before him stood countless hours of flipping through endless file after file, practically one page at a time. He had secured several different boxes, which he placed in an organized fashion in close proximity to his little desk, so that he could toss the various types of materials into them easily. Closest were those two boxes which filled the most quickly of all - the recycling bin for white paper, and the trash bin. Yes, despite his attempts, the trash bin was still filled quickly with items which he could find no second use for. Other bins sat beyond those two - the hanging file bin, the yellow file bin, and beyond that, just within reach of a short toss, the great miscellaneous bin, which would have to be picked through and organized at some later time. 

So his day dragged on, sheet of paper by sheet of paper, the same movements enacted over and over with such redundancy that they could only become reflexive, automatic. His eyes would identify a paper clip, and his hands would whip it off the paper and chuck it toward the great miscellaneous bin in one smooth motion, while in the same instant his eyes would already be searching for the next item to identify and categorize. His fingers learned to quickly ascertain the presence of an unrecyclable cardstock divider hidden deep in a three inch stack of paper, which would necessarily be snatched out and placed in the trash while the rest went in the recycling bin. It was obvious how easy it would be to just tune out, let his mind drift while his hands did the work, and fantasize about anything but the dusty smell of old dry paper. 

That is one thing, though, that the man didn't want to do. He yearned on the one hand to be anywhere but here at this uninteresting, if noble, task. But on the other hand he felt that it was his absolute duty to try to really be here in the long shadows of the hall with the dusty old files and the sound of his breathing. He didn't really know if others around the office felt the same way, but he knew that for him, at least for now, there could be no other way. He felt like this situation that he was in, what could be called a dull everyday situation, was indeed dull and everyday. But it was also the only situation that he had, and because of that, he felt that it deserved enough respect for him at least to do his best to pay attention to it. He was quite sure that others would laugh at him for taking such an attitude towards such a supposedly brainless task, but he figured that was okay too. 

Certainly, sometimes paying close attention to such a task, or any task, was easier said than done. It seemed to the man that it was the nature of the human mind to wander away from the real world to a fantasy realm built of thoughts, and he was constantly needing to remind himself to be present. As time wore on, though, he found it easier and easier to just be generally mindful of whatever was at hand, and sometimes he wondered if he would ever stop having to pull his mind back to the real world. But part of him knew that dealing with his mind wandering off was the whole point to the exercise, and having to go through the process kept him present in a subtly different way. 

So as he sat, sorting through the stacks, his mind would sometimes wander, and he found that it kept wandering to the same place over and over again. The subject it seemed to enjoy so much today was one which he had wondered about many times before, and sometimes he even felt like he had experienced the idea in his actual life. 

"The idea is really pretty simple - if one pays close attention all the time to one's life and the events that are occurring around one, then one begins to take each specific event that occurs as a sort of indicator as to what action one should take," he thought to himself. Just then, he was distracted from his thoughts by a little labeling sticker, which had lost its glue over the years, and fell off of the file which was in his hands. It was white, with a little yellow stripe on it. This was a new item, something he had not yet categorized before. 

"Do I recycle it, or throw it out?" he wondered. It was so small, and had weird brown glue residue on it, as well as a yellow stripe. That was three points against it going in the recycle bin, which was supposed to contain only regular white paper. He shrugged and tossed it towards the trash can. Being small and almost without weight, it fluttered around a bit in mid-air, and ended up falling to the left of the trash can rim, and right into the recycle bin. The man noticed out of the corner of his eye, raised his eyebrow a bit, and his hands went back to their task. His mind went back to thinking about the idea. 

He liked to compare the attitude he was thinking about to being in a movie. "You are one of the actors," he thought, "and you don't know any of your lines. But, the plot director is very intelligent, super-intelligent in fact, and he has directed everyone and everything else in the film to give you little hints, so that you can pick up what your correct place is." 

Another one of the little filing labels fell off of an old file, and quickly, without thinking about it, he scooped it up and moved to send it into the trash can. As he let go of the bit of paper, however, it didn't let go of him. It seemed as if static electricity had suddenly caused it to cling to his fingers. He stopped in his thinking, smiled a little smile, and dropped the label into the recycling bin where it lay near its predecessor. He reached for another file and another thought. 

"As you go along, the film unfolds around you and you unfold with the film. Now, obviously, if you don't pay very close attention to everyone and everything in the film, you're going to miss your cues, and not know what your rightful place is. Then, chances are you're going to foul the whole film up altogether. That's when the film starts to get very messy, because the plot director starts using more and more sever means to try to register your attention..." and on and on he thought. 

He was really into some good thinking now it seemed, and was almost excited about where his mind was leading itself. Meanwhile, yet another little label had fallen off a file onto the brown desk, where his eyes identified it without him thinking about it, and his hand scooped it up. As the reflex action of his arm moved the piece of paper in the direction of the trash can, his arm suddenly collided with the raised edge of the desk, stopping it short. His attention snapped back with the sudden jarring of his arm, and the first thing he noticed after the short jolt of pain was the piece of white file label sitting in his open hand. He laughed out loud this time, and dropped it into the recycling bin. 

"And it's all based on the ability to just pay close attention," he thought with a smile, and decided that it was time to take a break from thinking for a little while. 

The last fading rays of the winter sun cut the dusty air in the long hall, and the only sound was that of the man's working, and, of course, that of his breathing. 

****************************************** 

"Taper out of its mind gently, Son, or you will shock its system. It has adjusted to your presence and if you drop out suddenly it will create a vacuum... 

...Are you done?" 

"Yes Mother, I am no longer in its thoughts." 

"Well, what do you think?" 

"It was fascinating, and somewhat sad. I know what you are going to say - "We must not feel sorry for them." But I don’t feel sorry for this one. I feel sad with it. On the one hand, it is so clever and wise. But on the other hand, it obviously feels like an alien in its own world. It can’t understand why it must do what it does, and yet it pushes on and does it all the same. It is somber, and at the same time it is so dedicated and resolute. It was very intense to be a part of that for the short period that I was." 

"Yes, my dear. They are very extreme in the scope of emotions that they experience, and when they begin to perceive the unity behind things, they can experience some very extreme opposites within the same moment. Do you feel that this one has a seed within it?" 

"Oh yes - it certainly does. It’s understanding is geared toward what we spoke of before - understanding that both realms are manifesting the same energies simultaneously. In the time that I shared its mindspace it made a connection between what it was thinking about and what was happening in the physical world at the same time. It saw that there was a message in the situation that it was in, and it managed to relate that message with the thoughts it was manifesting. That is very close to understanding Uroboros, isn’t it?" 

"It is very close, yes. However, if this being were able to remain in that mindset at all times, it would be much closer. For now it experiences this mindset as what could be called "moments of clarity," which come and go. Chances are, if it sticks with it, and does not back off because of fear, it will experience these moments of clarity more and more often." 

"It thought of something which it called the "Plot Director" - some being which understood everything and was trying to convey to it what its proper role was all the time. It’s talking about Uroboros, isn’t it?" 

"I think it is, Son, but I don’t think that it has any idea of just how vast the "Plot Director" really is. I’m quite certain that its mind isn’t ready for the full knowledge of that yet." 

"It seemed as if the individual saw three things within moments of one another - that there was an action which the situation was calling for, that it could find out what that action was by paying attention, and finally that thoughts can end up completely interfering with the process of watching the situation. Those three things almost sum up everything which impedes this life form at this level." 

"It almost does sum it up - but not completely. As I say, the individuals that we have viewed are all turning to face the sun, but all of them have yet to walk into it, if you know what I mean. They are laying the groundwork, but still have a huge task ahead of them. It will be interesting to see whether these that carry the seed are fated to sway the direction of the life form as a whole towards advancement or not. But, my son, we must move on. Our time is growing short, and there is more to see." 
  
  
FIVE 

"Mother, who is the being sitting at the bottom of the tree, with the others clustered about it so attentively?" 

"That one has been chosen to be a teacher, Son, much as I have been selected to be your teacher. It is also passing very ancient knowledge on to the others, who are desperate to learn and understand. Here they learn through listening, and from observing the way the teacher conducts itself, whereas in the ritual the ones wishing to understand learned from the partaking in the actions themselves. Let's listen for a while, shall we?" 

"Yes. I would like that. The teacher seems so serene. I want to hear if it possesses the same seed that the others we have seen possess." 

******************************************** 

"For discussion's sake, let's say that we have been given a lump of clay to work with. Possessing human minds, chances are that we're not particularly content with just a boring old lump of clay, so we set out to improve the clay - sort of give it more depth and beauty by molding and forming it. We could do pretty much anything with the clay at this point, give it any form in the world. But let's say that we do what most human creators seem to do, and we form the clay into something resembling our own image. 

Now we have this little human shaped clay figurine. It doesn't have any real details yet - it's just two legs, two arms, a torso, and a head. So the possibilities are still seemingly endless. But we want to explore those possibilities, really give our creation a life of it's own, so we start to make some decisions. We decide what sex our little figure will be, and we give it little clay genitals to match. We decide whether the doll is Black or White or Asian or whatever, and we change it's features in accordance with our decision. Also, our figure needs some sense of age, so we form it to be young or old, or middle aged - whatever we decide. Finally, we give our creation a name, a name that would fit in nicely with all the characteristics we have given it so far. Now, with all these things clearly defined, our doll is really starting to get some depth, some character. 

But there are so many more possibilities, and we want to explore them all. Our doll will need clothes, and the clothes we give it can really say something about the doll's personality. I mean, let's face it - the doll doesn't have to worry too much about having clothes just to keep it warm, so the clothes become a real expression of what we feel is inside the clay figure, what his or her place in the world is. We give the creation a hairstyle that goes with its clothes. To round out the doll even more, we pick out a type of music for the doll to listen to that goes with the doll's clothes, hairstyle, age, gender, and race. 

In our minds, the doll is really starting to shape up now, but our fun is really just beginning. That's because we can now start to surround the doll with others, with friends and family and, perhaps most interesting of all, enemies. Now we get to decide how our little doll interacts with all these other dolls - whether our clay figure is pleasant or cruel, giving or selfish, gay or straight, married or single, and on, and on, and on. We might even go so far as to decide what general philosophy our little doll believes in, and which god he or she puts faith into. Once this possibility is opened up, it could be explored forever and ever, with every new situation that the doll encounters becoming a new way to define who and what exactly the doll is. 

After this whole process has unfolded, we have a little figure with so much depth, so much personality, that it is almost possible to believe that the figurine has a life of it's own, that it really exists as its own sentient being. And isn't it wonderful what we have done with what was once just a boring old lump of clay? 

Well, in some respects it is wonderful, but in another very real way, it isn't wonderful at all. 

The process I have been describing here is, of course, nothing other than our own process of trying to define who and what we are. We start off with something very simple, earthy and good. Like clay, in the beginning we don't have any real idea of what we are at all - we just are. And also like a lump of clay, at this early stage we can be anything, anything at all. We can be anything that a situation needs us to be. But our human minds like to understand things, to take things apart and label and compartmentalize things. Certainly, our selves are no exception to this rule, and indeed, what could be more challenging to take apart and understand than one's own self? So we start with simple things, like "I am a boy, and therefore I act this way...." or "I am black, and therefore I act this way..." Gradually we work our way up in complexity, and we start to say, "Because I am all these things, I will wear these clothes, and that will express all these things that I am," or, "I will listen to this music and it will express all these things that I am," or whatever. Whatever it is that we call ourselves, or whatever it is that we identify ourselves as, that is a product of our need to label and compartmentalize ourselves. 

Now, this self-identification is not the actual problem - chances are we are going to do it no matter what. To return to our clay figure example, the problem comes when we think that we are our labels before we are the basic earthy clay that is behind all of them. We forget that we are just clay, because it's so hard to see through all the names we have piled on top of the clay. And, perhaps most importantly, every time we label the clay, or our selves, as any one particular thing, we are limiting what the clay can do and be. When we believe first that we are white, male, young, hip, straight, single, or whatever, we can't just be earthy, moldable clay in a situation - we have to be something that falls in line with all those other labels that we've already given ourselves. That interferes directly with us just being what we are, right now, because we are just too busy trying to be what we think we are. It's really quite simple. 

Now, here's where things start to get interesting. As I said, we put all these labels on the clay figurine, and we forget about the clay underneath - we forget to feel the cool, earthy quality of the clay that we are. This means, of course, that we are the figurine itself. When we can stop thinking of the figurine as this separate, external object, then we can experience the fact that we are in actuality the figure that we have been molding all along. Now this is particularly hard to understand, if you're trying to think about it as an abstract idea. But thinking about it is not the point at all. 

You can experience the feeling that you are not only the modeler of the clay, but at the same time you are also the clay which is being modeled. This feeling is experienced by many sculptors, as well as other artists, who "loose themselves" in their work. For a short while, they become so caught up in the act of creating that they become the medium they are working with. There is no longer a personality molding the clay, there is only the clay being molded. Thus the sculptor becomes the clay. At the same time as this is occurring, the sculptor is not only the sculptor and the clay, but he or she has become the act of molding the clay as well. 

Now, if we are trying to understand this idea of being three things at once, we are still taking simple, earthy clay, and trying to understand it through the labels our minds can apply to it. But our abstract labels and descriptions cannot teach us anything about what it is to feel the cool simplicity of good old earthy clay between our fingers and under our fingernails. That is very real, and that is the whole point. 

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"Well, what do you think, boy?" 

"I think it does have the same knowledge of Uroboros that the others have. It just expresses it in a different way than the others do. It spoke of the doll, which I believe was supposed to represent the ego part of its consciousness, as just one part, and it seems like this life form would rarely be aware of the fact that its ego is just one aspect of its total consciousness." 

"That’s right. Because the ego at this stage of the life form’s development has almost completely dominated all the other aspects of the individual consciousness, the individual for the most part is completely unaware that its consciousness can exist at other levels. But the teacher was obviously aware of some of those other levels. It spoke of experiencing being the ego, the action, and the objective reality all at the same time through its use of the sculptor metaphor. That experience is, of course, greater in scope than simply remaining within ego, and it involves linking the internal consciousness with action and object in the external world. That is the final reunification of opposites we have been speaking of since our arrival here." 

"Yes. It seemed as if the teacher also had a grasp of how the ego limits the rest of consciousness by labeling and compartmentalizing every aspect of itself. It seemed to have quite an extensive knowledge of how the ego keeps control by using everything which it perceives to further its own game. How do you suppose that this teacher came to know all these things, Mother?" 

"I imagine that the teacher simply took the time to really watch its own mind, probably with the attitude that ego was not the only aspect of its consciousness. The ego is good at lying to itself while it is in full control, but if one takes the standpoint that there is more to oneself than the ego alone, its total control is broken, and then it becomes fairly easy to watch ego play games with itself from an external standpoint. With time, patience, and dedication to constant observation, an individual can fairly easily learn to identify which parts of itself are a result of ego’s games and which parts are not. Once the games are clearly understood by the individual, it is only a matter of time before the games begin to burn themselves out, and that is when ego looses its controlling aspect. Once it looses the ability to dominate the consciousness, it can begin to fulfill the original purpose it was made for - acting as a conduit uniting the internal and external realms." 

"As you said, the ego as a conduit was what the teacher was speaking of when it used the "molding clay" metaphor - being what is inside and what is outside at the same time. Amazing. I would say that this teacher seems to be more advanced than the others that we have observed, because it is so complex in its understanding of how the life form's perception works." 

"Oh, I don't know that it is more advanced, my son. Just like us, they are evolving right alongside each other, riding the expanding wave of Uroboros. But you are right - it does understand the way the beings perceive very well. Like I said earlier, at this stage of the life form's evolution, perception is all that matters to it, so it is very important that the life form comes to terms with its perception before it can go on to greater things." 

"Will it, Mother? Will it go on to greater things? We have seen that there is indeed knowledge within this culture, ways of being and understanding, that can lead it to where it must go if it hopes to survive. Will enough individuals take the time to find the seed within themselves, find the way of understanding which works for them? Or will the War Against Self win out and destroy the world the beings live on and the world which is inside of them? I must know. Tell me, please." 

"You mustn't be so concerned, little one. There is no way to know. That knowledge is beyond even our comprehension. As Uroboros unfolds, it takes the path it must take, and that is all that can be said. It is only for us to follow along, play our part, and observe the chaotic beauty of it all. If these beings are to kill themselves off, then so be it. They will have served the purpose which was required of them, whatever that may be. And if they grow and evolve to another state, then so be it. That is all that can be said. Perhaps if this life form were aware of that, could accept that mentality, it could cease its perpetual war, cease its eternal fight for self-preservation, and begin to take part in the universal dance which is existence within Uroboros. In this case, at least to some degree, the life form's total is the sum of its parts, and that means that it is going to take many, many individual beings finding the seed within themselves to effect the direction of the life form as a whole. If the seeds that we have seen ourselves sprout and grow, they will spread more seeds, and their effect will multiply exponentially. But, as I said earlier, there is no way for us to know what the outcome will be. 

"Our work here is complete, my son. Gaia, having seen what we have seen, I hope that you are convinced that all is as it should be. We will report in full to Mission Control, and they will address you directly. Blessings upon you, and may you walk in step with Uroboros, the Unity in All."