Two Paths tangled up in blue

("Blue Sky Thinking", that is)

Human beings are born to parents who have NO CLUE about heaven, hell, gods, devils, nirvana, paradise, enlightenment, awakening, consciousness or any other term that fits into this general FIRST PATH that humanity has been on since the birth of our species hundreds of thousands of years ago - or once a very small group somewhere, gathered by the campfire after downing a couple fat jack rabbits, started "musing" over what becomes of someone (like "me", like "you") after death (that strange state of being that leaves one still, silent, and rigid to the point of stinking up the place... "So, let's burn him, or toss him into the deep part of the cave, or off the cliff, or into the open jaws of that pack of wolves over there"). Quickly, they all realized they were just "blue sky thinking", though they had no such concept, nor would they for many centuries to come. That is, they knew they did NOT know what happens after death, and they did NOT like that very uncomfortable feeling in their groin, chest, and head. Animals don't seem to care, much... but humans... VERY MUCH!

A very few of them, having now "acquired" (thanks to mom, dad, siblings and peers) magical, or mystical thinking - which simply means they now had a language which could be shared using many discrete-sounding words, each with a simplistic meaning that could be "spoken" (from grunts, groans, whistles and clicks, to other "more refined" little mouth noises) naming and describing all kinds of objects in their midst, primarily, and a few rudimentary feelings and thoughts, and thus began the process, that survives even today (having changed very little), of MAKING UP STORIES about death (and everything else of course), and fitting the few facts they had into them, usually to "benefit" them in some way, or make them "feel better about it". But, it was all MADE UP. JUST STORIES. And they all, quite dutifully and semi-responsibly PASSED THEM ALONG TO OTHERS. These were NOT scientific thinkers, mind you, just simple observers with the mental and emotional capacities of children and teenagers, at best.

That evolutionary "marker" is the beginning and the end - the alpha and the omega - of where humanity has "progressed" in the last ten thousand years or so, when the language (the "ideas") used in the group, tribe, collective, could be adequately shared amongst themselves on a semi-regular basis - you know, between hunting, planting, foraging, fucking, repairing their huts or caves, and avoiding being killed, or eaten by some human, and/or non-human predator. Not having much "free time" back then, there was not much "philosophical sharing" going on. That is the First Path, and everyone starts out there, even today. "Talking out their asses" about that which they can have NO CLUE, in between the 99% of time they are engaged in simply staying alive another day. And for most of human history, that meant only 15-25 years if they were extremely lucky. Ain't no time for thinking about the "Big Ideas."

Even though humanity today - at least, in those few fairly "civilized" groups - has plenty of "free time" - they, in general, are still engaged in the same First Path started lo those many millennia ago (which means, staying alive another day - "Fuck tomorrow, or next year, or after death!") In the last few thousand years or so, perhaps a few humans here and there, actually "hit upon" the entrance to the Second Path, which is NOT ABOUT STORIES HANDED DOWN and passed along, but about FORGING A NEW PATH internally. That is, THERE IS NO SECOND PATH, except in the being of the explorer who discovers a crack in the system, which is called:

"The Natural World of All and Everything" 

Do you doubt there is a CRACK in the SYSTEM? Try the Second Path for a few months - not passing on your damn "stories" about what you did today, what you thought today, where you went today, where you imagine you are going tomorrow, or after you die, why the world is so fucked up or all right as it is, or the excitement you felt when you became Awakened, Enlightened, Saved, Realized, etc. Those are just stories that humans have been passing on to other brains, who have dutifully passed them on to other brains, who have done the same, ad infinitum for millennia. Forging a new path, internally, and exploring, discovering, gathering, summarizing, recording, incorporating, forgetting, and Increasing Being, Consciousness and Understanding... for your own purposes... NOT TO IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS.

By the way, the Second Path must occur within the First Path - side by side, intertwined, like strands of DNA. It either IS or IS NOT occurring at the same time as... say... opening a notepad, staring at a blank white page, and composing the, perhaps even only temporary coordinates of the journey now being undertaken, IN ORDER that you may indeed traverse that new, previously unknown tributary, in this part of the River of Life, to See and Experience what can now be Seen and Experienced. 

The All leads into the Everything and back into the One, 

to do it all again, and again, and again.

And, yes, all spoken and written works are stories... 

but then, there are stories and there are Stories. 

You are the only judge that matters.