Piet to Rod, Heloisa and Maria

Dear Heloisa, Maria, Rod,

Thanks, Rod, for a clear and succinct summary. I'm delighted to hear that you, too, have found these dialogues to be useful. As to your last question, how to use the road map, this morning, while sitting quietly, pondering the working hypothesis, I suddenly got an idea.

If all is complete, then causality cannot be truly fundamental. Cause and effect, this depending on that, such and such as allowed to happen in these and those circumstances and not in other ones -- all of that has no real place on a level where everything is seen as already complete.

While apparently here at work in this world, causality must be only apparent, and not ultimately real. And if that is so, it might be possible to see through the whole trickery.

Now what this means, concretely, is a more than a bit tricky. As long as we identify ourselves with having a human body and mind, in need of food and clothing and all the complexities of modern life, of course, we have to follow the rules of the game, with causality at its base. It would be foolish to do otherwise. Giving up a belief in causality while hanging on to other elements in our causality-based world view would be inconsistent and unwise, if not downright disastrous.

However, at least we can give ourselves the luxury to experiment with what would happen if we would gently set causality aside for a while, in the privacy of our own room, sitting on our cushion or chair, in an atmosphere free of disruptions or worries.

How about all of us trying that, for a bit? This time I'm not suggesting to do this for a whole day, for obvious reasons: while crossing the street, I strongly encourage you all to heed cars approaching you! But whenever you find some time, today, tomorrow, the coming few days, how about trying to deemphasize causality, and see where that leads us? I have a strong hunch that this may be one valid way into the journey indicated on Rod's road map.

Sitting quietly, perhaps following your breath for a bit in order to settle down, gently begin to watch your thoughts, feelings, all that happens in your mindscape. Notice with each stirring, each story line, each bit of memory or fantasy or planning, how causality is the driver. Without causality, the whole tapestry of hope and fear would unravel, the whole machinery of judgments would grind to a halt.

Could it possibly be that causality is nothing but a panic reaction?

That would be an intriguing translation in our terms of universal religious suggestions to surrender, to keep acting but to leave all results of one's actions to whatever higher power is invoked in any particular religion. Even though such suggestions often have led to fatalism, fascism and other forms of fundamentalism, the core idea may be just right, an invitation to drop causality.

Well, let's try!

Piet