Spending these lonesome evenings with nothing to do
But to live in dreams that I make up all by myself
Dreaming that you’re beside me, I picture the prettiest stories
Only to wake up all by myself
What is the good of me by myself?
Why was I born? Why am I living?
What do I get? What am I giving?
Why do I want a thing I daren’t hope for?
What can I hope for? I wish I knew
Why do I try to draw you near me?
Why do I cry? You never hear me
I’m a poor fool but what can I do?
Why was I born? To love you
The question “Why was I born?” arises within thought, and thought itself emerges from the complex evolutionary development of the brain.
Biologically the brain evolved as an organ of survival, capable of perceiving, processing, and acting upon its environment. Thinking is a natural extension of this process with seemingly extraordinary capacity to model reality, plan, and adapt.
Thought also creates the sense of “I” as a separate entity, and it is this “I” that seeks meaning and purpose beyond the biological process.
To approach the question deeply, one might ask, is the “I” that asks this question merely a construct of thought, or is there something beyond this movement of thought, something fundamental that reveals purpose beyond the imagined and conceptual?
If the “I” that asks this question is merely a construct of thought, then can thought itself discover anything fundamental? Or is it inherently limited to its own conditioning and own movement?
You see, thought tends to project purpose as a means of sustaining its own continuity, imagining a reason for existence that serves its own structure. But is this projection actual, or is it yet another fragment of the same process that gave rise to the question? It is obviously illusory.
Is there value, then, in staying with this question not as a problem to solve or a conclusion to reach, but as a living inquiry?
If “I” is a construct of thought asking what I is, why is this fact not acknowledged by the thinking mechanism that constructed it?
Does the mechanism not know it is a mechanism creating the illusion of itself as a living being because it is always thinking, never stopping to acknowledge what it knows about itself?
How contradictory is the human being, setting himself up as the leader of love while branding the rest of his fellow men as dangerous.
Annon
Friends are far more dangerous than strangers
Anyone who objects to this approach must have a very strange brain indeed. Their objections will fall on deaf ears here; and any complaints can go straight to the administrator anyway.
Is it your own burning question? Then there is no thought involved in it. There is just the flame which contains both the direct question and the immediate answer, without delay, without postponement, without time, without the ‘I’ in any guise.
Then what is your place upon this earth? Have you worked it out yet? You have been given all the information, all the clues, all the help you want. What have you found that trumps love? Or are you yourself one of the dangerous fellows?
Love is a danger precisely because it has neither leaders nor followers. It is a danger to any mind that works that way, that is ambitious, jealous, envious, violent and greedy. It is a danger to any mind that is filled with the echoes of its own thoughts.
I am telling you why I was born. It is not up for argument, sir. I have worked it out and you have not. That’s all. Don’t make a big fuss about it; you would just be belittling yourself. Instead, work it out and find out without a shadow of a doubt why you are here. Only then can you judge another human being. And that other human being is you; it will always be you, whatever size or shape or colour.
Before we speculate about whether the mechanism “knows” itself, can we first observe as a fact that the “I” is a construct of thought? If this is not seen directly, then any further questioning arises from the same movement of thought. Thought questioning itself can only lead to more fragmentation, confusion, and illusion.
The thinking mechanism does not acknowledge itself as a construct because its movement is one of continuity, of maintaining itself through constant activity. It never stops to observe its own nature. That is what we mean by ’mechanism’. At its root, mechanism implies something constructed, organized, or engineered to operate in a particular way.
So the question is not whether the mechanism “knows”, but whether there can be a cessation of this movement, a stillness in which its true nature is revealed.
Yes, sir, we had this very same accusation made to us a week ago in a different setting by a different person: dishonest.
Do you want to go into it? Are you willing to look at your own motives for coming here and interacting with the rest of us? Are you also willing to drop these motives, once you have seen them for what they are? We can’t do this on our own - i.e. working out our own motives - because our motives are formed and manifest themselves in the heat of relationship. They are therefore hidden until we take the step to meet one another.
No, sir, do you want to go into it? It is not about me going ahead and you trailing behind complaining. Do you want to go into it totally? It means we set out together from the start, neither honestly nor dishonestly. It means love from the start; for if we haven’t got that we can’t go anywhere. If you are saying, ‘Please go ahead!’ because you are waiting for me to make a mistake then surely I shall make a thousand mistakes. After all, we only see what we want to find. Or, if it is because you are hoping that I will offer you some pearls of wisdom, it is the same thing and it will be a lot of fake pearls.
What’s your name, sir? Let’s establish right relationship from the beginning, not play about any more.
I was born here, and I’ll die here against my will
I know it looks like I’m movin’, but I’m standin’ still
Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb
I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from
No, I am asking you if you want to go into it. We are stepping into an unknown place. Therefore, one mustn’t be flippant about it. Let’s start very simply. May I ask you your name?
With all the images your thought has already created about me?