Your Life Is a Lie

Let me ask you a question: What is your life?

It would seem that such a nebulous question necessitates a nebulous answer. In truth, however, this question does not require much thought.

The question can be answered quite simply:

Your life is all the thoughts, actions, and experiences you encounter.

Am I wrong? Does this sentence not capture the essence of your existence? It does: In any given day, you think certain things, do certain things, and experience/feel certain things.

This description is accurate. But it is also wrong. It is “wrong” because this life you live is a lie.

Every thought, action, and experience is not simply a thought, action, and experience.

In your life, nothing just is. Everything is filtered. Every thought, action, and experience is filtered. Filtered by way of your expectations. Filtered by way of your theories. Filtered by way of your opinions. Filtered by way of your philosophy. Filtered by way of your likes and dislikes.

Filtered by way of this self you have engineered.

Is there… anything wrong with this? No. There is no ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’ There is only cause and effect.

Having dreams, expectations, preferences, philosophies, etc. are assumed as the most basic elements of human life. One might go as far to say that, without them, one cannot be human.

But what has been the consequence of living with this “self?” Of having all these, supposedly innate, human characteristics? What has been the impact of this in your own life?

Turmoil.

I do not say anything in the hopes of garnering agreement or disagreement. However, I think you’ll find it difficult to disagree with my following statement: You have problems in your life. You always have, and you always will.

But I’ll let you in on a secret:

None of your problems are yours. They are problems that solely belong to one entity: The “self.”

The opinions. The expectations. The philosophies. The preferences. The self.

All problems belong to the self, because problems may only arise in the existence of a self.

Think about it.

Nothing in your life just is. Nothing just happens. Everything is filtered.

The sting of a romantic rejection doesn’t pain you. The lack of recognition you receive from others doesn’t pain you. It pains the self. It pains the entity that approached the situation carrying a bundle of expectations. Carrying a bundle of desires. Carrying hope for a certain outcome.

What would happen if all those bundles were removed? What would happen in the complete absence of hope and desire for certain outcomes in your life?

Things would just happen. You would live life just as it is. In the moment, and in all the beauty the moment provides.

Life becomes a playground.

To the average ear, what I am saying sounds nonsensical — bordering on insane and not human. Because this “self” is all you have known your whole life. You have bred and carried it with wherever you have gone. It is all you know.

What I am saying will trouble the average ear.

Suppose you have been driving — or, more accurately, struggling to drive — a car your entire life. You’ve been driving for as long as you can remember — it’s all you know. You’re not quite sure how you spawned into this car, why you’re driving, or where you’re going.

All you know is that you are driving, and struggling to do so. You glance at the mileage count and note you’ve also been driving for a while now.

What I am saying sounds wrong because I am saying the driver does not need to drive. The driver does not need to exist.

“But, but, won’t the car simply stop moving? I can’t accept that!”

This is precisely why my words will do nothing for you. This is precisely why you’ll keep driving, and keep struggling through your life.

I’ll leave you with this: Once the driver vanishes, the car doesn’t simply stop moving. The car transforms. You transform.

The car starts flying in the playground.