This Is A Story Like No Other Story Ever To Have Been Written Before
Posted by lune on November 3, 2009
Nice story.
I, this cosmic Nothingness, this supremely talented story-maker (without even realizing it), has succeeded in crafting a tale about a character left out on the edge of consciousness who manages to find her own way home again, perhaps.
I have at least succeeded in creating a story about a character, a human who was born, lives, will die and then may be born-again, (depending on whether I decide to give it a sad or happy ending) an interesting story for someone who seems to be interested in it. And what I am so fond of in this tale, like any other good tale, is that the plot always continues to evolve. This doesn’t detract from the intensity of the experience in any way of course, it just means that any experience being experienced inevitably passes on through to make room for something else. There’s no way it cannot.
I wrote a story about the impermanence of human emotion – yes, it is indeed about the story of ‘me’. Only thing is that for a while, I forgot about being an Author and got completely lost in the tale. All because I wrote the story with lots of riveting sub-narratives, every one managing to draw me in, it was fascinating to experience. Who would have thought Life could get this emotional? There is a chapter about childhood, about education, about innocence lost, about despair, about spirituality, about parenthood, about marriage, about home-making, about seeking, about failure, about illness and about dying and all these chapters are found between two other chapters conveniently labelled: ‘Birth’ and ‘Death’.
And as with all good stories, this story has a twist, a sting in the tail of the tale and it goes something like this:
At a specific point within the plot, I realize that I am the principal character in a story and when the story ends, as I have been told it will, I understand this character will cease to exist. The chapters immediately after this realization consist mainly of the attempts made by the character to negate this realization by chasing after spiritual experience, material wealth, success, infamy, apathy, excess, austerity, hellishness, godliness or a combination of any and all of these. During this time, the character attempts to bury itself deeper inside its story, as if there is something in this sub-plot that holds the truth about the grande finale, as if re-writing the Book of Life may give one last chance to craft an epilogue before it is too late.
Lost I certainly was.
But then, thank goodness, I cleverly weave into the narrative a tale of enlightenment – I remember who I Am!
Yep, I guess that could really be seen as a Great Ending. What a story! The character finally wakes up in a dream of herself and realizes that she is just a character in The Story Like No Other Story Ever To Have Been Written Before. But it all seemed so desperately important! And all those trials and tribulations were nothing but whimsies written to entertain the Author!
So the character gets enlightened, yeah, the story is finished – it’s not about the character anymore, it is now about the Author, who has nothing personally to do with getting enlightened per se, but seems to have everything to do with whatever remains when enlightenment has done the thing it does. That means there is no more story, no more book.
But then, something profound happens, much more profound than the stuff in the last chapters.
The character realizes that she cannot actually just stop experiencing Life as a character, even though she understands now it is all a story and she remembers who the Author is most of the time. The story continues exactly as before, (with the happy ending automatically written in by default) only now it has turned into an Autobiography of sorts and the writing has become really cumbersome. More often than not, poetry and obscure language must be used because it is very hard to for the Author to write about itself through a ghost-writer in anything other than Paradox. The editing gets tedious, the I and the Self get confused, time is misrepresented – in short, there are many blank spaces that will never be filled in. However, the Author likes it like that and the ghost keeps writing.
To anyone who was interested and has managed to read as thus far, it may still look just like the story of a ‘me’. And that is because it cannot be anything else but the story of me. What cannot be expressed cannot be expressed. It is exactly as it is until it isn’t anymore; just like this. It makes no difference whether the story of the character continues (or not), how much the character believes in the Author (or not), how enlightened The character is (or not), how much the character suffers, loves, laughs or cries (or not), the fact is that The Story Like No Other Story Ever To Have Been Written Before is just a story of an Author who is in essence without a story and is in fact, not only just That-Which-Is-Arising but is also That-Which-Is-Not-Arising; That-Without-A-Second and That-Which-Is; the very ONE that no story, no poetry, no character, no language, no symbol, no metaphor, no parable, no syntax could ever begin to tell of.
Without a me in the story, the plot would go something like this:
Once Upon a Time there was Nothing that became something in order to discover it was Nothing, The End.
No matter! Being a someone here right now, pretending to be a supremely talented story-maker, still turning up at the page trying to explain it All, makes for a great story indeed.
Julian said
Great story. You really are an excellant writer (in my humble opinion).But the ending spoils it a bit for me.Maybe it is too subtle for me to understand. That there seems to be no other possibility other than this merry go round, this roller coaster of an existence- no other possibility than a ‘me’ constantly getting in the way.What about those who say we are none of these things that appear -we are the clear blue sky, the absalute clarity of consciousness. Those who say that we need to drop the identifications with the small self and live from greater consciousness if the world is not to be lost. Are all the ideas truly what you believe, and not advaita talk, because sometimes the things you say seem like an add-on-something not truly arising within you, but from the media within which you are writing?
lune said
Thanks for commenting Julian,
It IS subtle, but there is nothing for you to understand! You know, I spent three days working on this post, it was very, very, very, hard. I am happy with it now but I chased around and around and around for so long, rewriting it completely about four times. There really could have only been one ending, this one.
This post taught ‘me’ a lot. It taught me that when we are inside the story, there really isn’t much we can do to get beyond that story, because whatever it is that we do is still part of the story. There is Something that we are Not – of course! But it cannot be written about because even to write something like: ‘we have the consciousness that we are something other than the story’ is still part of the story.
There is nothing left to do but to get on with the story! It is a great Paradox of course, but then so is Life.
I had initially written an ending something like: ‘We are the clear blue sky, the absolute clarity of consciousness’, yes we ARE! But even that is a translation, an interpretation. We Are all these things, yes, I AM EVERYTHING, yet as soon as it is written about, I cease to be any of these things, The non-dual has to become dual, and the duality of it is, after all, just words written down on a screen of light pointing to the idea of an idea.
There is a me, we cannot get rid of ourselves, but the me doesn’t have to get in the way all the time. Do those who say we need to drop ‘the identification’ speak from a place of truth? What is the truth? This is It – just as it is, we do not need to drop anything. We need not do ANYTHING.
Are all these ideas truly what I believe? No, I do not believe anything I write because it is all a story, it comes through the translation of an idea onto the page. It can be nothing BUT the medium of the written word arising in the moment, in this case a long, long moment. Nothing appearing here is the truth.
I wanted to illustrate the fact that this is all just a story, can never be anything else than that, no way it can appear on the page unless it is a translation of What-IS, so then, all that appears here is Not-What-IS, but at the same time, it is real, it lives, it speaks to people, it rings true.
We get lost in it, don’t we? Yet, in essence there is absolutely nothing that can be said about it.
But Life is about getting lost, why be frightened of forgetting who We Are?
What difference does it make to anything?
Julian said
Some would say simply, ‘just be still and know’, or let the body decide;let wisdom arise rather than search for it. (maybe automatic writing is what is needed- haha!)
Your heart and soul is in everything you say and I thank you for that. Be happyx
lune said
Rage! rage! against the dying of the night
x x x smiles x x x
Julian said
Nothing dying here.
What a broad smile. Difficult to resist.x
Suzanne said
Julian is in washing-machine-mind mode. I can get that still. Thankfully it seems to go away! The world cannot be “lost”. It unfolds, or seems to, as it always “has”.
Lune, your take on all this is spectacular, poetic prose, and lovely lovely lovely to read.
lune said
OH! I love it that at the very same moment ‘I’ am writing ‘Life is about getting lost’ ‘you’ are writing ‘the world cannot be lost.’
Is this not bliss of the most exquisite kind?
x
Julian said
That is a lovely expression. Certainly different things arise at different times and get expressed. They are certainly not consistant. But something is, for which I am eternally thankful.
Lovex
msayers said
You: Once Upon a Time there was Nothing that became something in order to discover it was Nothing, The End.
Me: Once upon a time there was Me who didn’t know what “Me” was, and went on an incredibly assinine journey in order to find out what is meant by “Nothing that became something in order to discover it was Nothing.” The beginning.
Oy! Hey, this was/is a wonderful post. Great story! Did you make it up? :)
Toodles,
Mike
lune said
your story and mine sound incredibly similar, MIke ;)
msayers said
It’s supposed to be, isn’t it?
Suzanne said
Oh God, I love that…”incredibly asinine journey”. For real!
msayers said
Oh, now wait a daggum minute… OK, nevermind, it’s deserved. Pizza!
peaceinfreedom said
fab fab words Lune. All your entries are the best ones. They are nearly edible..Edible words eh.. No doubt but a poet has always a better chance of talking about that which apparently cannot be spoken about…and that is no more evidenced than here is this blog. loads of praise and u don’t even get to feel good about eh..thats funny :-)
lune said
E D I B L E !
pizza? Did someone say sushi?……..never mind ;)
Oh Peace, peace! I am allowing just a teensy weensy bit of feeling-goodness to settle somewhere near here, thanks!!!!! OK, OK, its settling of its own accord, nothing to do with a ME allowing it to do anything, I know, don’t stop ya wantin’ it though does it?
another b i g – s m i l e x x x
Julian said
Why shouldn’t you enjoy it? Even if it is a dream, why not fall into happiness? One of the great things about beginning life in a Christian faith, many years ago, is that I learned to believe that happiness is what the Almighty wanted for me. I have never quite lost that belief.
Love Julianxx
lune said
Oh I DO enjoy it!!
This is just how people who PRETEND they are enlightened speak, it’s all a load of CRAP really. But it is funny, nevertheless.
Happiness means many things to many people and sometimes that can be a very dangerous thing indeed.
julian said
Why dangerous?
lune said
Oh, it is just that sometimes, one’s idea of happiness can clash with another’s. Especially when religion is concerned.
peaceinfreedom said
nope it doesn’t. still chasing my tail. I look forward to your next entry.
lune said
You have a perfect and most excellent tail, it is well worth chasing, don’t you think?
Just imagine if you never had the urge to chase?
Where would you be then?
Without a tail, I guess. ;)
peaceinfreedom said
ha :-). Nicely put
Svante Odmark said
Yes, it’s ALL story! And yet not at all. It’s a damned mystery, had there only been someONE here to damn IT… :)
Here’s “my” story: I love it!
(Including the apparent madness inherent in the fact that nirvana cannot in reality be told apart from samsara… Gotta love it!)
:-D
Suzanne said
Nirvana/samsara…FANTASTIC. How about nirvsara? Samvana?
Svante Odmark said
Samvana sounds just great! Let’s start the Samvana Institute. :)
lostinmist said
No endings: DMT the Spirit Molecule, book; quantum entanglement. Perhaps you is real in spite of everything-being-one. Paradox: The Schroedinger’s Cat Trilogy; Book, Fiction. Uhm, I forget,,, Object goes boink.