Вадим Зеланд
Tufti the Priestess. Live Stroll Through a Movie
The illusion of action
Again and again, over and over, my sweeties. Repetition – your pain, my gain! Let’s recap what you need to do.
• Wake up, activate the plait, hold the feeling, compose reality.
• Whether it works or not depends on whether you accept or negate what is happening.
• It is only possible if it fits into the mould of your world-view.
You are relatively primitive beings. Nothing can happen to you that does not fit with how you perceive the world and yourself within it. All sorts of incredible things happen in your dreams, but simply because you reduce your standards of critical assessment. In waking, it’s the opposite. Everything has to be rigorously reconciled with the mould. So your ability to move the frame depends on whether you can concede the possibility with certainty, or whether you remain in doubt of its viability.
Performing simple ‘miracles’ will be easy for you. You will be able to create anything that corresponds with your everyday, routine experience. Your experience is what consolidates the mould. More complex movements of the frame require new content to be spliced in. I will repeat the same thing many times, over and over, again and again until you understand. And if you don’t understand, I will order you all to chop off your head. I can do without idiots!
Alright, don’t cry, my feeble ones, listen on. Once, previously, I said, the script carries you along a film roll that you did not choose. Broadly speaking, the film roll is your lifeline, and the script is your fate. You don’t choose your fate and not only that, you don’t even try and change it, although you could.
You are foolish to console yourselves with the hope that fate, although preordained, is still in your hands. In fact, it’s a lot worse than that. You are being led by a harsh script. It only appears to you that you take action as you see fit. It sounds plausible, but it’s still an illusion. Not only what you see, but the things you do can be illusory. You won’t be able to see through this kind of illusion though because you are constantly in it.
Do you remember we talked about the dream mannequins? Mannequins inhabit the pictures of your dreams, like the heroes of a motion picture, once shot onto a roll of film. You watch a dream and the mannequins move. You watch a film and the heroes come to life. As soon as the film or dream is over, all the characters freeze until the next viewing or, otherwise, forever.
Do you think that the characters in a motion picture or a computer game are aware that they are in a film, and that you are watching them? No. Are the dream mannequins aware that you are seeing them in a dream? Again, no. And now I am asking you: do you know who you are?
You can’t ask the characters in the film. You could ask the mannequins, but there is not much point. You are different from the former and the latter in that you can at least dimly grasp the meaning of the question. And also, in that you are able to be self-aware. But when are you self-aware? Only in the moment that you ask yourself this question. The rest of the time, where are you? Who are you?
You are the characters in a film roll, in the life that is happening to you. You don’t live your life – your life happens to you. Neither the dream mannequin, nor the hero of the motion picture are capable of distinguishing the illusion of their actions or, more precisely, the illusion of action occurring. So why would you think that you would be capable of doing so?
No, you are, of course, capable, my clever ones, and yet you don’t. All the time that you aren’t asking yourself the question, where are you and who are you, you are just exactly as lacking in rational understanding as the characters of a film or dream. Your attention is constantly immersed in one of the screens, and your intention, in the current frame. So your motives and actions are not in fact yours, do you see?
What happens, literally, is the following. At a certain point in time, you start to want something, and you struggle to do whatever it is. You think that these are your own motives and actions, whereas, in fact, they are spelled out in the script. You might think that you had the idea for something, but in actual fact, this is just the story twist for your role. You are consumed by current reality to such an extent that you stop being aware of what you are doing and fail to see through the illusion.
You have your own mannequins in the films stored in the Eternity archive. When you watch one of these films in a dream, your consciousness finds a mannequin, which comes to life and starts moving. As long as you are having the dream, you are living in the body of a dream mannequin as one of multiple different variants. Take a look in a mirror some time in a dream. You won’t recognise yourself.
In the film roll, along which your life is running, it is exactly the same. Your consciousness enters the next version of the dummy, which comes to life and becomes you in the current frame. But here’s the question: how are you different to the dream mannequins if in waking life, you live as if you were in a dream?
And generally speaking, what makes you any better than a snail? Repulsive, slimy snails, which respond equally as primitively to all external stimuli. They tuck away their horns and hide in a little house… Your fate is as predetermined as you are predictable.
Even the little that you have learned so far, my dears, is incomprehensible to you because it does not fit the mould of your worldview. And as long as it remains inaccessible to you, you will be free in dreams and bound in your fate. But when, finally, you see the light and ditch the illusion, you will be able to stroll through reality, like a living being inside a film. And you will be able to pick a new reality, like choosing a reel from the archive.
And now an interlude! I am exiting my film and setting off for a book. I’ll see you there. Bye for now, snails![1]
How to escape a trap
Pleasure before business, my little buffoons. Who said the opposite? Your pain is my gain, or even my amusement, so!
• There is illusion of image, and there is illusion of action.
• Motion is not what you do but rather, what is happening.
• You are not living your life – life is happening to you.
• You are directed by a strict script, and for this reason —
• You are free to daydream but bound in your choice of fate.
What other insulting things can I say to you? I’ll remind you of the main point of the previous lesson. You might think that you are your own master and that you act consciously. In actual fact, you are only aware of yourself in the moment that you ask yourself this question. The remainder of the time, your awareness sleeps and surrenders to the outer script.
The ability to show self-awareness for a single moment won’t free you from the script. You are characters inside a film and this is simultaneously an illusion and a trap. Regardless of how much you might think of yourself, – that is where you are, and the trap has its hold on you.
What is stopping you from escaping? Mainly, three things:
1.Ignorance of the fact that you are a character.
2.A reflexive psyche – “snail horns”.
3.The mould, limited by notions of the possible and the impossible.
Look livelier-livelier, happier-happier, amphibians! Everything can be put right. You already have the first thing you need to escape. This is very important, because anyone who is ignorant of the illusion, remains in it forever. Nobody has told you about the illusion of action, and you never had an inkling because such a thing, in your opinion, ‘is impossible’.
Now you know. But this is not enough. Let’s say you’re a snail, and you have learned about the illusion. Would you then stop being a snail? If you cry, “Oh, what a misfortune, I don’t want to be a snail!”, will anything change?
No. You cannot just come to life in a motion picture and start doing whatever you want without following the script. Here a slightly different approach is needed. There are still two hurdles that must be overcome: habits and views. In actual fact, you don’t possess these things, they possess you. But that’s ok, we’ll drag you out of the coma yet.
You are made snails by the habit of waiting and hoping for something to happen rather than composing your own reality. Will it come off or not? Will it work out or not? This is a passive position. From this position, all you are capable of doing is giving reality a prod and pulling back your horns at the slightest little thing.
In order to stop being wet and snotty and become beautiful and happy, you need to shift into active gear. Not wait and hope, but compose your reality. Your mould is an obstacle, as it tells you that it is impossible to compose your own reality. This is your little house, but I’ll drag you out of it, nasty and slippery though you are!
New habits and views are developed just exactly as the old ones took root – through multiple repetitions. Only from now on, instead of staring at reality and following it, you will actively control the movement of the frame. Can you guess which frame?
Not the one in which you find yourself in the present moment but the one that is coming up. As you already know, you can’t change the reality of the current frame because it has already come into being. You can only specify the nature of the reality that is yet to come. So your attention should be focused several frames ahead.
Just like when you tracked your attention, now, you will need to track the forthcoming frame. For this, there are three triggers:
Expectation – something is going to happen; you are waiting, hoping for something.
Intention – you intend to set off somewhere or do something.
Problem – something happened that needs resolving.
Whenever you expect something, don’t wait or hope – compose reality. Whenever you intend to do something, don’t rush to get on with it. First, compose reality. Whenever a problem arises, again, don’t wait, don’t hope, don’t fuss; compose your reality.
Frame illumination method.
1.Catch yourself at one of the triggers.
2.Wake up: I can see myself and I can see reality.
3.Activate the plait, hold the feeling, compose reality.
4.Drop the feeling off the plait.
5.If the event is very important to you, repeat the illumination several times.
Try to remember and constantly think about the forthcoming frame. It won’t work for you every time. At first, you will keep forgetting. Old habits aren’t that easy to unstick. You have to see it out, and replace it with a new one. Don’t be lazy, be smart, get on with it or else I’ll see you out. You’re good for nothing. Nobody loves you except me.
Reprogramming
Don’t get all steamed up, don’t get steamed up, my dears – mug up! Let’s repeat what we’ve covered so far.
• The snail horns and house keep you trapped in the current frame.
• To free yourself from the trap, you must shift into active gear —
• Don’t wait and hope, compose reality. Requirements:
• Constantly practice managing the upcoming frame. Method:
• Expectation, intention, problem – immediate activation and frame illumination.
Compose events in which the outcome is unknown but also compose things that are likely to come true. For example, you are going somewhere and intend to go through a door. You know that this event will happen anyway. Nevertheless, illuminate this frame. Imagine in your thoughts, in words, and even better, visually, opening the door and walking through it.
Don’t be lazy, don’t be lazy! Do you think that you can hide in your house and no one will see you? I’ll get you either way. Why do we need endless repetition? In order to rewire the snail mould. You won’t believe that reality will succumb to your will until you see it for yourself, moreover, repeatedly.
Controlling frame movement in small-scale events is the most effective training method, as a result of which you will…
–Learn to wake up and control your attention.
–Develop your plait, visualisation skills, and intention.
–Switch into active gear, and eventually acquire the ability to free yourself from the dominant script and compose your own reality.
What happens after you activate yourself? You become the only character in your entire environment, who is not subject to the external script. And, failing that, as soon as you lose yourself and become immersed in the motion picture, you instantly identify with it, becoming its integral part, moreover, a dependent, imitative part – a mannequin.
But once again, you drag your attention away from the current frame and illuminate the upcoming frame. In this moment, you come alive in the motion picture and start moving freely, at your own discretion. Now you still occupy the same mannequin but in a totally different capacity. Imagine a mannequin in a shop stepping down from the display window and going about its business. This is roughly what happens to you.
You are still in the motion picture as before, but at the same time, you are taken out of the sequencing as if your individual frame could move freely along the film roll. Let’s just say, now your ‘frame frequency’ is different from the frequency of the reality frames, which enables you to free yourself up from the confi nes of the dominant script.
Have you ever seen in a movie or on TV, what a spinning wheel or propeller looks like? It appears to spin instantly or turn in the opposite direction, because the spinning blade frequency and interval are quite different to the frame interval. Similarly, your attention and plait manipulations place you in a different frequency and interval to reality. In this sense, you can move freely about the film.
The yet-to-be-realised future drags you from the sequence of the present when you take hold of that future and try to affect it. The impending reality, though written in the Eternity archive, is always multi-variant and has not been totally defi ned or composed by anyone – nobody owns it yet. When someone turns up, who will compose a variant of it, then that future surrenders to their instruction. And if that someone is you, it becomes yours.
Do you want reality to be yours? So, take it, and compose it as you wish. This is a fundamentally new approach to your reactions, behaviour, and existence. The difference is that your attention will no longer get stuck in the current frame but strive ahead instead. Observance is replaced by advance, and passive waiting by agency. You no longer string along with reality as if on a leash, but direct it, driving it forward.
But before your desired reality can become the physical reality of your daily life, you, my head-choppers, must get yourself a reprogramming. I can’t do this for you. You may not get it perfect, straight away. You will only be able to create what agrees with your everyday, routine experience. Until you finally believe that you are capable of composing reality, it will slip away from you unyielding.
The only way of recasting the mould is the same way it was created in the first place – through daily, mundane practice. Track the impending frame, track yourself, compose reality. If you do as I tell you, reality will do as you tell it.
It is best to carry out regular, multiple repetitions until it be-comes a habit, otherwise you won’t learn anything. And if you don’t learn, I will remove your houses and turn you into even more horrible creatures – slugs. I am Tufti, your Owner, and I do with you what I wish.