The horse I rode had pedigree. Its mother was a Glinishmoor Plainstrider and its father was a demon. This particular demon was summoned during the third full moon of the year by way of a phial of virgin's blood (willingly donated), a fortunate lightening strike, 3 apples from the 400 year old "grandfather" tree growing in the king's courtyard, and an incantation spoken in a language known only by 3 people in the entire kingdom. The demon's proclivity for bestiality and its species indifferent gametes should have already been inferred.
So why is the junior apprentice riding such a steed, carrying, in a small burlap sack, one of the most valuable artifacts in all the kingdom? Because everyone else was dead.
Chapter 1: Escape
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
Evolution
Whole batches of proto-humans must have been lost. Those for whom self-awareness was the ultimate curse instead of the ultimate gift. Those early earth dwellers gazing up into the night sky, undimmed by light pollution saw only emptiness, only the potential to fall and not the potential to be caught. It was the lucky ones who survived, the ones who simultaneously discovered the truth and accepted the lie. The lie is that something persists after death, that this planet will spin forever. The lie is that your progeny will inherit the stars.
If there is a god, that god is certainly a buddhist. He is teaching us the lesson of impermanence. He has written his philosophy into the very laws that churn the matter and energy of the universe. If god were a christian, there would be an end to this and a beginning to something else. Rivers of blood and multi-headed dragons aside, we could envision a universe in which this existence were a staging ground for something even bigger. If god were a hindu, then the expanding universe would eventually decelerate, and collapse in on itself...perhaps even time would reverse as the great twisted string of reality wound back down. Once crunched, the universe would begin again in another cosmic explosion (expansion). Universe without end, cycling in and out, a great, cosmological lung. But, no, we have this. A universe that was booked on a one way ticket. The universe will expand into nothing. Heat death, they call it. The death of all energy, all matter. At first, I didn't understand, I thought, well....maybe all the planets are gone, but we can build a space station that can float in the middle of nowhere and that would be o.k. But it's not that simple. The universe won't allow that. As the universe expands, the entropic forces will increase until everything is torn apart to its constituent atoms. Nothing will survive. Our space station, no matter how sturdily built, will be unceremoniously vaporized, like a fish that lives on the ocean floor being pulled too suddenly to the surface.
So why is god a buddhist? Because this is it. This is everything. There is no past, there is no future, there is only now. Those that wait for something better will find only oblivion. So what do we do with a one way ticket? We enjoy the journey. Why? Because this is it, motherfuckers. This great, beautiful, terrifying, magnificent, horrible universe is the only one that will ever exist. It's our playground and our graveyard. When you die, you will go into the ground. You will return your borrowed atoms to the earth. The earth will be vaporized, "our" galaxy will collide with other galaxies, everything will violently die, then slowly drift apart.
And so I choose to live. I choose to enjoy this world and help those around me to enjoy it as well. When viewed at just the right angle, this makes everything else seem trivial. Our fellow travellers are confused. They have been seduced by people who are frightened. They have been told a lie and that lie is keeping them from enjoying their journey.
If there is a god, that god is certainly a buddhist. He is teaching us the lesson of impermanence. He has written his philosophy into the very laws that churn the matter and energy of the universe. If god were a christian, there would be an end to this and a beginning to something else. Rivers of blood and multi-headed dragons aside, we could envision a universe in which this existence were a staging ground for something even bigger. If god were a hindu, then the expanding universe would eventually decelerate, and collapse in on itself...perhaps even time would reverse as the great twisted string of reality wound back down. Once crunched, the universe would begin again in another cosmic explosion (expansion). Universe without end, cycling in and out, a great, cosmological lung. But, no, we have this. A universe that was booked on a one way ticket. The universe will expand into nothing. Heat death, they call it. The death of all energy, all matter. At first, I didn't understand, I thought, well....maybe all the planets are gone, but we can build a space station that can float in the middle of nowhere and that would be o.k. But it's not that simple. The universe won't allow that. As the universe expands, the entropic forces will increase until everything is torn apart to its constituent atoms. Nothing will survive. Our space station, no matter how sturdily built, will be unceremoniously vaporized, like a fish that lives on the ocean floor being pulled too suddenly to the surface.
So why is god a buddhist? Because this is it. This is everything. There is no past, there is no future, there is only now. Those that wait for something better will find only oblivion. So what do we do with a one way ticket? We enjoy the journey. Why? Because this is it, motherfuckers. This great, beautiful, terrifying, magnificent, horrible universe is the only one that will ever exist. It's our playground and our graveyard. When you die, you will go into the ground. You will return your borrowed atoms to the earth. The earth will be vaporized, "our" galaxy will collide with other galaxies, everything will violently die, then slowly drift apart.
And so I choose to live. I choose to enjoy this world and help those around me to enjoy it as well. When viewed at just the right angle, this makes everything else seem trivial. Our fellow travellers are confused. They have been seduced by people who are frightened. They have been told a lie and that lie is keeping them from enjoying their journey.
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