Time-Lines: Identities, Narrators and Story-lines

Time, as a series of events, is the basis of all illusion. If it were not so, illusions would come and go without any lasting effects. One's serial storyline is the origin of both one's heaven and one's hell. Is it not?

 Yes. Absolutely. I see that.

 We create our own ongoing story line like a dramatist creates Act I, Scene II. The egocentric self is both the writer of this fiction, its narrator and the protagonist. The narrator is the one who is incessantly talking inside your head about yourself and your situation. We continually form our sense of reality, as ‘my’ reality, as though it was the only reality. And yet it is all fiction – so powerful is the mind.

 Are you saying that you do not need this 'narrator' as you call it? I cannot imagine that. That’s who I am.

 It’s not essential to what you really are. . . . . .You do not need a personal drama, especially, since it keeps you from ever realizing your true self-nature. And, yes, you are correct in implying that it cannot be imagined. Are you willing to go into this more deeply, and then ask your questions?

 Yes. By all means …. but I have no idea where you are going with this.

Recall how much of your day-to-day life involves creating and enhancing your story line and hence your evolving identity. Neither of which actually exist, except in your series of fictional dramas. One's personalized timeline establishes: how you interpret the past and how you fantasize about the future. Is your ongoing drama always in terms of what will enhance and secure your identity? . . . . There is, however, another dimension of being that has nothing to do with self-identity-seeking. It involves the practical world with its own set of apparently necessary time-lines; for instance, a time-line is needed to plan the completion of any job or project. The difference between the purely practical timeline and my personal story line is that the practical timeline vanishes when the project is completed; whereas, my own story line does not. It is created as a continuous time-line existing throughout one's life, until one breaks through it and sees it as a self-created illusion. As one Zen Master asked, 'Why are you carrying around this dead corpse?' I’ll give you my verse: 

I can see that my story is only a creation and also that without a narrator, as you put it, the self does not exist. If your story is anything like my own, it is often very anxious and painful. However, you cannot just wipe out the narrator. That would be wiping out myself. You can't do that. Can you?

No. You cannot wipe your self out. Who would be doing the wiping out?

I don't follow.

If you tried to wipe out yourself, who would be doing the wiping out? Wouldn't it be the same self-centered person that you now know to be false?

 Then, you are saying that it is impossible to go beyond this illusory self.

No! . . . Not at all. Just that to wipe out oneself is to create false, dual selves. . . Oneself, we can call the destroyer, trying to wipe out the other self which we understand as the illusory self. Then, we have a third self, the awakened self. None of these exist, except in your imagination.

            As a result, any deliberate process, like meditation, in which you try to achieve, directly, enlightenment, does nothing of the sort.

 Then, we are nowhere. Is there no solution? What can be done?

 Very good. You are quite correct. We are nowhere. There is no solution, at least, not the kind of solution that you are thinking of. . .And, furthermore, there is nothing to be done!

 That makes no sense at all!

 Yes, quite so. . .  Abandon your attempts to understand and design solutions and methods.

 But, if I do nothing, then, won't things stay as they are? I would still be stuck in conflicting illusions?

Not necessarily. You have two choices. You could just give up and return to your habitual illusions, or you can realize that you have already had a transforming insight. You

said that you understand that this narrator, the egocentric self, the creator of your precious story-line, is itself an illusion. Is that not so? The insight has not changed, has it?

 No definitely not. If anything, it has gotten stronger.

 Alright, then, when you move back into your ongoing story, observe. Where does it come from? Where does it go when it vanishes, even for just a moment? Ask yourself earnestly,

“What is This?” Stay with the question, especially, when nothing comes to mind up, and your all answers are exhausted. . .A breakthrough will happen on its own, in a time not of your choosing. The true nature of being arises, without any need to change what you think you are or want to be and without even attempting to go beyond your illusions and self-delusions.