A thousand years is but an instant.
There’s nothing new, nothing different; same pattern over and over.
The same clouds, same music, the same things I felt an hour or an eternity ago.
There’s nothing here for me now, nothing at all. Now I remember, this happened to me before.
This is why I left. You have begun to find your answers.
Although it will seem difficult the rewards will be great.
Exercise your human mind as fully as possible knowing that it is only an exercise.
Build beautiful artifacts, solve problems, explore the secrets of the physical universe, savor the input from all the senses, filled with joy and sorrow and laughter, empathy, compassion, and tote the emotional memory in your travel bag.
I remember where I came from, and how I became a human, why I hung around, and now my final departure’s scheduled. This way out, escaping velocity.
Not just eternity, but infinity.
There’s nothing new, nothing different; same pattern over and over.
The same clouds, same music, the same things I felt an hour or an eternity ago.
There’s nothing here for me now, nothing at all. Now I remember, this happened to me before.
This is why I left. You have begun to find your answers.
Although it will seem difficult the rewards will be great.
Exercise your human mind as fully as possible knowing that it is only an exercise.
Build beautiful artifacts, solve problems, explore the secrets of the physical universe, savor the input from all the senses, filled with joy and sorrow and laughter, empathy, compassion, and tote the emotional memory in your travel bag.
I remember where I came from, and how I became a human, why I hung around, and now my final departure’s scheduled. This way out, escaping velocity.
Not just eternity, but infinity.
“
| — | Ryan Power from the movie Waking Life (via neurosisyfaltaortografica) |
It’s always our decision who we are.
Creation seems to come out of imperfection.
I t seems to come out of a striving and a frustration.
And this is where I think language came from.
I mean, it came from our desire to transcend our isolation…
and have some sort of connection with one another.
And it had to be easy when it was just simple survival.
Like, you know, “water.” We came up with a sound for that.
Or, “Saber-toothed tiger right behind you.” We came up with a sound for that.
But when it gets really interesting, I think,
is when we use that same system of symbols to communicate…
all the abstract and intangible things that we’re experiencing.
What is, like, frustration? Or what is anger or love?
When I say “love,”
the sound comes out of my mouth…
and it hits the other person’s ear,
travels through this Byzantine conduit in their brain,
you know, through their memories of love or lack of love,
and they register what I’m saying and say yes, they understand.
But how do I know they understand? Because words are inert.
They’re just symbols. They’re dead, you know?
And so much of our experience is intangible.
So much of what we perceive cannot be expressed. It’s unspeakable.
And yet, you know, when we communicate with one another,
and we—
we feel that we have connected,
and we think that we’re understood,
I think we have a feeling of almost spiritual communion.
And that feeling might be transient, but I think it’s what we live for.
If we’re looking at the highlights of human development,
you have to look at the evolution of the organism…
and then at the development of its interaction with the environment.
Evolution of the organism will begin with the evolution of life…
perceived through the hominid…
coming to the evolution of mankind.
Creation seems to come out of imperfection.
I t seems to come out of a striving and a frustration.
And this is where I think language came from.
I mean, it came from our desire to transcend our isolation…
and have some sort of connection with one another.
And it had to be easy when it was just simple survival.
Like, you know, “water.” We came up with a sound for that.
Or, “Saber-toothed tiger right behind you.” We came up with a sound for that.
But when it gets really interesting, I think,
is when we use that same system of symbols to communicate…
all the abstract and intangible things that we’re experiencing.
What is, like, frustration? Or what is anger or love?
When I say “love,”
the sound comes out of my mouth…
and it hits the other person’s ear,
travels through this Byzantine conduit in their brain,
you know, through their memories of love or lack of love,
and they register what I’m saying and say yes, they understand.
But how do I know they understand? Because words are inert.
They’re just symbols. They’re dead, you know?
And so much of our experience is intangible.
So much of what we perceive cannot be expressed. It’s unspeakable.
And yet, you know, when we communicate with one another,
and we—
we feel that we have connected,
and we think that we’re understood,
I think we have a feeling of almost spiritual communion.
And that feeling might be transient, but I think it’s what we live for.
If we’re looking at the highlights of human development,
you have to look at the evolution of the organism…
and then at the development of its interaction with the environment.
Evolution of the organism will begin with the evolution of life…
perceived through the hominid…
coming to the evolution of mankind.
“
| — | One of my favorite parts of the script: Waking Life. (via ithrowclaywithpeterparker) |
And so many think because then happened, now isn’t.
But didn’t I mention, the on-going WOW is happening, right now!
We are all co-authors of this dancing exuberance, where even our inabilities are having a roast! We are the authors of ourselves, co-authoring a gigantic Dostoevsky novel starring clowns!
This entire thing we’re involved with called the world, is an opportunity to exhibit how exciting alienation can be.
Life is a matter of a miracle, that is collected over time by moments flabbergasted to be in each others’ presence.
The world is an exam, to see if we can rise into the direct experiences. Our eyesight is here as a test to see if we can see beyond it, matter is here as a test for our curiosity, doubt is here as an exam for our vitality.
Thomas Mann wrote that he would rather participate in life than write a hundred stories. Giacometti was once run down by a car, and he recalled falling in to a lucid faint, a sudden exhilaration, as he realized at last, something was happening to him.
An assumption develops that you can not understand life and live life simultaneously. I do not agree entirely, which is to say I do not exactly disagree. I would say, that life understood is life lived. But the paradoxes bug me. And I can learn to love, and make love to the paradoxes that bug me. And on really romantic evenings of Self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion.
Before you drift off, don’t forget, which is to say remember. Because remembering is so much more a psychotic activity than forgetting. Lorca, in that same poem, said that the iguana will bite those who do not dream. And, as one realizes, that one is a dream-figure in another person’s dream: that is self-awareness!
But didn’t I mention, the on-going WOW is happening, right now!
We are all co-authors of this dancing exuberance, where even our inabilities are having a roast! We are the authors of ourselves, co-authoring a gigantic Dostoevsky novel starring clowns!
This entire thing we’re involved with called the world, is an opportunity to exhibit how exciting alienation can be.
Life is a matter of a miracle, that is collected over time by moments flabbergasted to be in each others’ presence.
The world is an exam, to see if we can rise into the direct experiences. Our eyesight is here as a test to see if we can see beyond it, matter is here as a test for our curiosity, doubt is here as an exam for our vitality.
Thomas Mann wrote that he would rather participate in life than write a hundred stories. Giacometti was once run down by a car, and he recalled falling in to a lucid faint, a sudden exhilaration, as he realized at last, something was happening to him.
An assumption develops that you can not understand life and live life simultaneously. I do not agree entirely, which is to say I do not exactly disagree. I would say, that life understood is life lived. But the paradoxes bug me. And I can learn to love, and make love to the paradoxes that bug me. And on really romantic evenings of Self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion.
Before you drift off, don’t forget, which is to say remember. Because remembering is so much more a psychotic activity than forgetting. Lorca, in that same poem, said that the iguana will bite those who do not dream. And, as one realizes, that one is a dream-figure in another person’s dream: that is self-awareness!
“
| — | Waking Life (via theclassicreader) |
