Who is experiencing life?

Life in its infinite variety offers endless experiences. There appear plenty of people, with individual lives, unique in several ways. The experiences that each one seems to have is so different from one another, sometimes it appears for the good, sometimes for the worse.

As long as life presents favorable situations and experiences, one's individual story provides happiness and not much to complain. The individual script in fact provides a reason for pride. The moment things begin to take unfavorable turns, we begin to complain, we scramble to fix it, when things get out of hand and we loose hope, we become miserable. There are situations that hurt us and make us suffer so much, we question the point of life. The individual story is no longer fun. One begins to look at other stories, and almost all of them appear to be better.

Life is a sequence of experiences. depending on how we look at things, some are favorable some are not. we seek a sequence that is always favorable. Little do we realize that a sequence gets its meaning and sense only by a mixture. A monotonous sequence of either case will never provide us any experience.

Leaving aside the impossibility of a monotonous sequence, if we probe deeper into who is it that is experiencing life, we get an even more interesting answer. A physical analysis of the self, and an attempt to identify it, results in an absence of such a thing as the Self. Assuming the most common object of one's  body to be the self, we easily get past the parts of the body one by one, including the heart and the brain, abstract notions of thoughts, emotions, feeling and intellect, since all of this is observable by the self, we come to a point where the observer is not to be observed! 

If there is no one to observe, or experience, then could there have been an experience?  When there is no experience , then what sense does it make to classify it to be favorable or not? Realizing this liberates one from the consequences of apparent experiences. Life becomes an interesting sequence.

Bundle of Stimuli

Interesting things keep happening all the time. Anything that captures attention is interesting. sometimes, when nothing happens for a long time, that too captures attention and becomes interesting.

Some events make me feel good, some ticks me off. Everyday is a bundle of stimuli, every moment a bundle of stimuli. sometimes a very trusted person betrays, or a totally unexpected thing happens, I might wonder why? Why not the good events all the time? Why not life go exactly the way I like it go? Sweet thought indeed. and with sweetness comes bitterness. When some crazy person interferes with my peace, I react. I get upset. I feel betrayed, cheated etc. depending on whatever that happened. Sometimes this feeling could be jealousy. How come that guy is so smart? Now.. these thoughts makes me feel miserable. When these thoughts overwhelm, then its these feelings that dominate, they engulf. It paralyses. Its like the venom of a deadly snake. It takes over. Anger, sadness, fear, helplessness, you name it, I got it.

These thoughts, or chain of thoughts, sets me in action. I counter these. I correct these. I want to feel the Opposite of these. So I chart my course in a reactionary manner. Things begin to get better sooner or later. I take a breath, relax. things really get good. I jump up and down. But.. not for long. before yet another event, yet another crazy guy. Sounds very normal, and familiar, and would fit in to the framework of life, if not for one significant difference.

I know that this world is an illusion. None of this is real. I am the only awareness. No other consciousness is there to interact. Its me.. and this illusion. All these people are part of the illusion. the ups and downs, the good old days, the nice and cozy, as well as the tough times..every single thing is an illusion. In this illusion, why such crazy experiences? why not the good ones all the time? More relevant than before.

Need to apply some common sense here. If one needs to stimulate the nose then its possible only with something that can produce smell. A color, a light, a music, or fire, none of these can stimulate the nose. A rose could, so could a fruit, so could fresh air. Same with the ears. a sweet apple cannot simulate it. a beautiful painting has no power to touch the ear. music could, so could a loud thud!

Life as it happens , is nothing but a bundle of stimuli. some hit the body, some hit the mind. Change is the essence of life. The Mind, is more than the physical devices, its infinitely more varied. It is capable of a multitude of experience. While the nose can smell and the ear can hear, the mind can do wonderful things, it can think, smile, worry, rejoice, loose the temper, laugh, cry, feel miserable, and much much more.

A nose cannot smell something by itself. It needs a stimuli. An ear cannot hear by its own, its needs the stimuli from a vibrating instrument, the air carries these compression and rarefaction to its drums. A fine piece of music is needed to touch the ears. 

So does the mind. 

A mind cannot feel rejoiced by itself. It needs stimuli. Events create such stimuli. And for the mind to feel rejoiced, it must feel the lack of it before. Else the experience will not be perceived. Now, that again needs a different stimuli. Another event provides it. Life is nothing but experience, and experience is possible only by being aware of change. Change if it happens randomly all by itself, would result in an uninteresting experience. Hence a stimuli and the lack of control over it.

Every person, every event, every thing, is part of the illusion. I exist, that is the absolute truth.The illusion, as the name suggests is an illusion. Is such a beautiful concoction. devilish at times, divine mostly, yet together they form the fabric of life.

I breathe easy. Now I know that crazy person, doing his or her crazy thing, is part of the stimulus package, to wake me up from a boring slumber. People are the most exciting and believable stimuli. They appear to have awareness, they appear to have a mind on their own. They appear very very real. They form a very important and powerful part of the illusion. Most of them behave in a manner that makes me believe this is all too real. I thank them for acting so well.  There now.. peace returns.. momentarily.