Let's pretend.

Let's pretend...there is no end.

Let's pretend....there is no beginning...

Let's pretend, Let's pretend....

D 2 the O 2 the N 2 the K and back again.... can we pretend? :-)

Let’s pretend that you and I can be represented as simple character sets. (let’s really simplify things and say that these numerical sets are our genetic makeup—what makes us...us.).... let's pretend.

Let’s take a simple alphabetic character set: [DONK]

Now, let’s suppose that in this lifetime, I am nothing more than these letters (genetic makeup): DONK. And Let’s suppose that you are KNOD, a completely different arrangement of those same elements (your genetic makeup being unlike mine).

Now let’s suppose over countless, seemingly endless rebirths, I end up with enough permutations that my letters finally become KNOD, and yours become DONK in some future life.

DONK

DOKN

DNOK

DNKO

DKON

DKNO

ODKN

ODNK

ONKD

ONDK

OKND

OKDN

NDOK

NDKO

NODK

NOKD

NKDO

NKOD

KDNO

KDON

KOND

KODN

KNOD

KNDO

If U pretend, I can pretend,

U the beginning of me,

Me the end...of you.

We are what we are,

But we are beginning-less non-selfs.

We are what we are,

All of us and everyone else,

If U pretend, I can pretend,

If U begin,

I can begin,

We are what we are with no need for righteousness or sin.

The concept of rebirth necessitates that this will eventually happen. Now obviously, these permutations become infinitely more complicated and far reaching (We’re talking trillions upon trillions of rebirths before our DNA ends up being perfect matches of each other in some future life), but when we’re dealing with infinity one thing remains true: anything that is possible actually isn’t just possible…it happens. This means that I have been you and that you have been me not just once or twice but an infinite number of times. Infinity is so expansive, it’s impossible to get our minds wrapped around it.

Now being the spitting image of someone else genetically does not actually mean that you’re the same person. Indeed, identical twins are often different from each other in several aspects.

But even when you factor in life experiences, eventually if you sit long enough in the space of infinity, I will have lived the exact same life that you’ve lived and vice versa. Not just once, but an infinite number of times. Indeed I’ve typed this passage on a computer an infinite number of times, and you’ve read it an infinite number of times. In an infinite number of past lives, and a future one to follow, you have and will have typed this yourself essentially as me.

Does this mean that you are me and that I am you? Well, not exactly. You’re still reading this. If you were a numerical set, you’re still KNOD while I’m DONK in this current life. Even when I become KNOD and you DONK with identical inverse lives to this one, our selves are not the same. So this does not mean that we are all the same person or thing.

The earth is the earth,

Your birth is your birth,

And we are what we are amongst it all,

God gave birth to God on earth,

But god on earth must suffer rebirth.

And we are what he is amongst it all,

But what it does mean is that there is no separate self. No ego. No personality that can be grasped. In this life, you may feel compassion and love and spirituality. But trust me my friend. In some distant past life, both you and I have taken turns being Hitler. We’ve spent countless eons in hell. We’ve been hungry ghosts and slugs that crawl upon the earth, having been picked from the ground by birds or had salt poured upon us. When the Buddhist speak that all of the oceans of the world could not possibly contain your blood which has been spilt over past lives, this is not mere colorful poetry—they mean it.

There is no separate self. No part of your personality that you can possible point out to be truly unique. Your sense of style, your likes and dislikes, your pet peeves—all of these, I have experienced when my genetic makeup and life experiences and identity in a past life was essentially…yours. There is no separate self.

How anyone can come to this realization and not take compassion upon the homeless, the sick, the poor, and the spiritually adrift is beyond me. The Christians point out that Buddhist don’t feel the sense of urgency for forgiveness or attainment of Nirvana quite as deeply as they do. I argue that knowing that there is no separate self, and the fact that we’ve been wrapped up in this absurd state of samsara since beginningless time doesindeed fill us with a sense of urgency.

Let's pretend,

Let's pretend,

Let's pretend,

That we don't die, but of course we die,

That we don't die, but of course we die,

Again, and again, and again, and again, and again....

.

[Edited 4/11/11 4:48am]