Topic: Folly and Controlled Folly

[Endless~Knot]

"My acts are sincere but they are only the acts of an actor because everything I do is controlled folly. Everything I do in regard to myself and my fellow men is folly, because nothing matters.
     
Certain things in your life matter to you because they're important; your acts are certainly important to you, but for me, not a single thing is important any longer, neither my acts nor the acts of any of my fellow men. I go on living though, because I have my will . Because I have tempered my will throughout my life until it's neat and wholesome and now it doesn't matter to me that nothing matters. My will controls the folly of my life.
     
Once a man learns to see he finds himself alone in the world with nothing but folly. Your acts, as well as the acts of your fellow men in general, appear to be important to you because you have learned to think they are important.
     
We learn to think about everything, and then we train our eyes to look as we think about the things we look at. We look at ourselves already thinking that we are important. And therefore we've got to feel important! But then when a man learns to see , he realizes that he can no longer think about the things he looks at, and if he cannot think about what he looks at everything becomes unimportant. Everything is equal and therefore unimportant.
     
We need to look with our eyes to laugh. When our eyes see , everything is so equal that nothing is funny. My laughter, as well as everything I do is real but it also is controlled folly because it is useless; it changes nothing and yet I still do it.
     
One must always choose the path with heart in order to be at one's best, perhaps so one can always laugh.
     
You don't understand me now because of your habit of thinking as you look and thinking as you think. By "thinking" I mean the constant idea that we have of everything in the world. Seeing dispels that habit and until you learn to see you will not really understand what I mean.
     
 Our lot as men is to learn. I have learned to see and I tell you that nothing really matters. A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting. A man of knowledge chooses a path with heart and follows it; and then he looks and rejoices and laughs; and then he sees and knows. He knows that his life will be over altogether too soon; he knows that he, as well as everybody else, is not going anywhere; he knows, because he sees , that nothing is more important than anything else. In other words, a man of knowledge has no honor, no dignity, no family, no name, no country, but only life to be lived, and under these circumstances his only tie to his fellow men is his controlled folly. Thus a man of knowledge endeavors, and sweats, and puffs, and if one looks at him he is just like any ordinary man, except that the folly of his life is under control. Nothing being more important than anything else, a man of knowledge chooses any act, and acts it out as if it matters to him. His controlled folly makes him say that what he does matters and makes him act as if it did, and yet he knows that it doesn't; so when he fulfills his acts he retreats in peace, and whether his acts were good or bad, or worked or didn't, is in no way part of his concern.
     
You think about your acts, therefore you have to believe your acts are as important as you think they are, when in reality nothing of what one does is important. Nothing! But then if nothing really matters, as you ask me, how can I go on living? It would be simple to die; that's what you say and believe, because you're thinking about life, just as you're thinking now what seeing would be like. You want me to describe it to you so you can begin to think about it, the way you do with everything else. In the case of seeing , however, thinking is not the issue at all, so I cannot tell you what it is like to see . Now you want me to describe the reasons for my controlled folly and I can only tell you that controlled folly is very much like seeing ; it is something you cannot think about.
     
Our lot as men is to learn and, as I've said, one goes to knowledge as one goes to war; with fear, with respect, aware that one is going to war, and with absolute confidence in oneself. Put your trust in yourself. There's no emptiness in the life of a man of knowledge, everything is filled to the brim and everything is equal. For me there is no victory, or defeat, or emptiness. Everything is filled to the brim and everything is equal and my struggle is worth my while.
     
In order to become a man of knowledge one must be a warrior. One must strive without giving up, without a complaint, without flinching, until one sees , only to realize then that nothing matters. You're too concerned with liking people or with being liked yourself. A man of knowledge likes, that's all. He likes whatever or whoever he wants, but he uses his controlled folly to be unconcerned about it.
     
My controlled folly applies only to myself and to the acts I perform while in the company of my fellow men.
     
     
You must talk to the plants you're going to pick before you pick them. In order to see the plants you must talk to them personally, you must get to know them individually; then the plants can tell you anything you care to know about them.
     
You fail to understand that I am not joking. When a sorcerer attempts to see , he attempts to gain power.
     
You think everything in the world is simple to understand because everything you do is a routine that is simple to understand.
     
     
You have to have an unbending intent in order to become a man of knowledge."

~A Separate Reality
     

[Endless~Knot]

I remember once a good friend once told me all is folly. The interesting is she said it at the right, exact moment. When she did it, I laid down my weapons, and fought one of my last battles. I realized she was right. It sunk in.

All is folly.

How could the whole thing be folly though. Think about it. We are dealing with people who project their personas at us, all day long. We also project our own personas at them. So we do not quite see them, as they are, until we begin the art of seeing.

The art of seeing is not necessarily an answer to folly, but it helps to control it. The art of seeing things as they are, not how we wish them to be, and not how society seems them to be.

In my post on the life of pi and the carnivorous island, I wrote about how religion is a big reason why we are in trouble. This too, is folly. To follow a path, without the ability to see, is to lead one to their doom.

We do our best to control the madness of folly by seeing things as they are. One is to see all things are connected, but the madness of man is they believe they are individuals, and can live independent in a society, untouched by other people.

This too is impossible because we are all connected. It is like I hold a violin, and I strum a string. It vibrates and the other strings vibrate. When I touch you, we are connected.

"But then when a man learns to see , he realizes that he can no longer think about the things he looks at, and if he cannot think about what he looks at everything becomes unimportant. Everything is equal and therefore unimportant."

No longer is one thing important, and another thing unimportant. All things basically are the same. Life and Death are interconnected and the same thing. All people are the same, deep down at the core. There is no difference.

I know you are thinking, a man in prison versuses some saint in the church. How can they not be different? Once you strip down their personas, their egos, their experiences and bullshit, they are all the same. The element we have in common is we are human.

I wrote about the Life of Pi. One of the lessons is when push comes to shove, and we have to survive, we will go way out there in order to do so. We may eat a person, we may eat meat when we are vegan. We may drink our pee or eat bugs. When it comes time to survive, we do what we have to do.

We may steal to eat. We may break in someone's house and raid their fridge. One thing is we can judge people who do this. But I want you to think about it, really deep down. if you were starving, or you had a starving baby, what would you do?

We realize then at the level of surival, we are all the same. No different than each other. We would do what it takes to survive. Oh sure theyre might be a saint or two who might say, "ok ill starve I cannot do this" but rationally, the majority of people will do what they have to do to survive.

its all folly.

"You think about your acts, therefore you have to believe your acts are as important as you think they are, when in reality nothing of what one does is important. Nothing! But then if nothing really matters, as you ask me, how can I go on living? It would be simple to die; that's what you say and believe, because you're thinking about life, just as you're thinking now what seeing would be like. You want me to describe it to you so you can begin to think about it, the way you do with everything else. In the case of seeing , however, thinking is not the issue at all, so I cannot tell you what it is like to see . Now you want me to describe the reasons for my controlled folly and I can only tell you that controlled folly is very much like seeing ; it is something you cannot think about."

What I do in the here and now means nothing. I am connected to so many, but I can only make a small ripple in the lives of others. I can write and share a little bit here maybe. Then I will die one day and be forgotten.

This is folly. What you think is important, and what others think is important, is probably, not so important.

I know what you are thinking is, 'why go on and do anything then?' Did you hear the man say controlled folly?

We control it. We realize we are all connected, and our acts are not as important as we think they are. So we choose our acts wisely, versus just act without thinking. We use our minds and think before we act, before we speak, so that we can make an impact, but in the right places.

"In order to become a man of knowledge one must be a warrior. One must strive without giving up, without a complaint, without flinching, until one sees , only to realize then that nothing matters. You're too concerned with liking people or with being liked yourself. A man of knowledge likes, that's all. He likes whatever or whoever he wants, but he uses his controlled folly to be unconcerned about it."

A man of knowledge is not all that concerned with the happenings of the world, yet he loves his fellow man. But he sees them as they are, and learns to coexist, in a room full of masks, always searching, seeing, and probing into the mysteries of life.