Form is not an illusion. Identifying ourSelves with it, is.
TomTom Consciousness
We’ve just got ourselves a TomTom – one of those navigation things for the car that talks to you as well as pointing out speeding cameras etc. (We actually don’t own a car, but use a car-pool set-up (www.greenwheels.nl) combined with public transport – you can pick up a car at all major train stations in the Netherlands.)
Anyway, this machine is a great metaphor! It tells you where it thinks you should go, and then if you happen to take another route (consciously or by mistake), it simply “recalibrates” and plans a new route. No moaning or having a go at you for not doing what it expected you to do. It simply re-assesses the current reality, looks at all the current options (thousands of them), and chooses the best route in the here and now.
If we could act with as little attachment to the past, with as much clarity about the present, and with as much commitment to finding the best option for the future, as this machine – I do feel the world would be a much better place!
Time for TomTom consciousness!