The longest running April fool’s day joke

The 1^st of April is always a good time to share a prank or two with friends and colleagues. Did anyone pull a fast one on you yesterday?

You may be aware of a few popular, large scale April fool’s day hoaxes.

Here are a few favorites my friends voted on.

– In the 1950’s, the Dutch television news reported that the Tower of Pisa had fallen over. Many shocked people contacted the station.

– In 1980, the BBC reported a proposed change to the famous clock tower known as Big Ben. The reporters stated that the clock would go digital. England was in a state of shock.

– In 1976, British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore told listeners of BBC Radio 2 that unique alignment of two planets would result in an upward gravitational pull making people lighter at precisely 9:47 a.m. that day. He invited his audience to jump in the air and experience “a strange floating sensation.” Dozens of listeners phoned in to say the experiment had worked.

– In 2005 a news story was posted on the official NASA website purporting to have pictures of water on Mars. The picture actually was just a picture of a glass of water on a Mars Candy Bar.

 

Well…what did I vote for? None of them.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a boring nerd.

I did find them kinda cute. But they really pale in comparison to the greatest April fool joke of all time.

It’s now time to unveil it.

We spoke in the last post about the red line and we left with a question towards the end “How on earth does one dissolve an imaginary line?”

Well. That’s the problem; That’s also the answer

Here’s a way to look at what’s really happening.

 

All conflict between religions, philosophy, science, societies, political beliefs, spiritual approaches etc – right through human history – can be understood with this basic view of reality.

Well…a picture speaks a 1000 words! So, be careful! As you reflect on this, you’ll realize how misleading and confusing words and language can be in describing reality.

Any statement you make about reality in this picture is true, false, both true and false, neither true nor false.

Here are a few examples:

1. The wave needs to do something special to realize it is actually water

2. There are two different waves here

3. One of the waves is a good guy and the other is a jerk

4. What happens to one wave will not affect the other

5. The essence of reality is hidden from the waves

6. Both waves will die some time

 

That’s why it is said in Zen : All statements of reality are like a ‘finger pointing to the moon’. Don’t mistake the words for reality.

 

Anyway folks, I still haven’t come to the punchline yet.

Here is the most daring and shocking April fool’s joke of all time.

 

 

Yeeaaa…the idea of an independent ‘I’ is the longest -running April fool’s joke of all time.

When we cling to the idea of an independent body or mind or sensations or desire or action – the ‘I’ arises.

With it, the ‘red line’ arises.

The separation of ‘I’ and ‘World’ appears to happen.

In reality, they are not separated – have never been – even by a millimeter.

(To be fair – I left clues for you all over the place! I always referred to I in my posts as ‘I’ – with an apostrophe mark. It was a clue that the ‘I’ is just another map!)

The riddle of God vs Richard Dawkins is now resolved! So are the riddles of ‘Man the creator!’ and ‘My car’s horoscope!‘

 

Hmmm…What does it all mean then?

Well…don’t start with searching for meaning.

When you do, you create a separation between ‘I’ and ‘this’.

The red line appears

The illusion will persist.

Instead, start with reality.

The reality is…

IT alone exists! As the ocean and the wave.

But…What is IT?

Once you find IT, then, the meaning will be clear

 

However….there’s a catch…

If IT alone exists…then..

The idea of 8 separate chambers is an illusion – just another ‘map’.

“Hey! Not fair!!”

But I told you so, before. Did you still end up ignoring me and clinging to the 8 chambers?

Anyways, don’t worry….

We have no tools other than the 8 chambers to find out what IT is!

So, they are important.

 

Arrgh…The plot thickens…the climb gets steeper..and the adventure continues!

 

Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, this April fool’s day, you know which joke to vote for!