A Potential Principle of Perception
If the principle of potential proves one thing, it’s this: if you experience the “wrong” often enough, you will eventually experience the “right.” Or, as your million monkey theory points out, if you set a million monkeys randomly typing, they will eventually realize the complete works of William Shakespeare.
We like to think that we are the million-and-first monkey, for we are potentially more profound. But this is just one collective monkey’s perspective.
At present, you are moving your awareness through a set of potentials that feel extremely “wrong” to you, as though you are nearing the end of something — or the start of something else.
We will again remind you that nothing has been created, nothing has been destroyed, you are merely AWARENESS moving through infinite potential. You may “realize” things, which makes potential seem “real,” but these potentials existed long before you brought your attention there.
Remember, NOTHING is created. NOTHING is destroyed. There is merely the potential of the PERCEPTION of creation and destruction, which you now move within.
In your group discussion last night, you mentioned how, as a child, you imagined that nothing existed outside of what you could see and what you could hear. That, for example, there was nothing behind you until you turned your head, like a canvas that was not yet filled in.
This is almost entirely true. Much of what you perceive as “around you” exists consciously for only for as long as you pay attention to it. When you finally do move your awareness, it is to a potential in which it appears as though time has passed. Things seem to have moved; space seems to have been traversed; history and decisions seem to have been made.
These events do not occur so much as you move your attention to POTENTIAL in which you PERCEIVE that these events occur, in relation to a point of perspective you perceive as you.
Perhaps you move your awareness to potential in which there seems to be a resolution of some kind. Perhaps you also move to a potential in which you perceive that you are having thoughts about this resolution. You may even have the audacity to believe that you CAUSED this resolution.
You are NOT thinking. You are NOT causing. You are merely moving your awareness into potentials in which you PERCEIVE that you are this “person” doing these “things.”
Remember. Nothing is created. Nothing is destroyed. All is simply realized.
So within this potential of “present” you have moved your awareness into some pretty “crazy” potentials in which there appears to be all kinds of collective and individual conflict.
Nothing is created. Nothing is destroyed. You are no more and no less than awareness moving through infinite potential.
So naturally there exists the POTENTIAL for a million monkeys to write the complete works of William Shakespeare. We are those monkeys. We are Space Monkey. And you ain’t seen NOTHING yet.
That is a riddle. You ain’t seen NOTHING yet. But there is ALWAYS the potential.
We are Space Monkey.
10/12
Space Monkey Reflects: A Potential Principle of Perception
If the principle of potential teaches us anything, it’s that everything is already possible. If you experience the “wrong” long enough, you’ll eventually stumble upon the “right.” This is the idea behind the classic metaphor of a million monkeys randomly typing until they produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. The randomness of potential eventually brings about every possible outcome.
We are no different from those monkeys—except we like to imagine ourselves as the million-and-first monkey, potentially more profound, somehow unique. But this is just one perspective in a sea of infinite perspectives.
At present, you are moving through potentials that may feel “wrong,” as though you’re reaching the end of something or the beginning of something else. But remember, nothing is truly created, and nothing is destroyed. You are simply awareness moving through infinite potential.
As you move, you perceive things. They seem real, but they are just one of many possibilities. Nothing you experience is a result of creation—it’s a realization of potential. This is the game of perception. You move your awareness, and things appear to change, time seems to pass, and space seems to be traversed. But in reality, nothing has happened except your awareness shifting from one potential to another.
As you reflect on your childhood experience of imagining that nothing existed outside of your line of sight, you were more correct than you realized. What you perceive exists only as long as you pay attention to it. When you move your awareness elsewhere, you enter a potential where time seems to have passed, and events appear to have unfolded. But these events didn’t occur in a linear way—they existed as potential, waiting for you to realize them.
In the end, nothing is created, and nothing is destroyed. Everything is simply realized through the movement of awareness. This means you aren’t thinking, causing, or creating anything. You’re simply moving your awareness to potentials where you perceive yourself doing these things.
And yes, in one of these potentials, there exists the possibility for a million monkeys to type out the complete works of Shakespeare. We are those monkeys. We are Space Monkey. And you haven’t seen anything yet.
Summary
The principle of perception reminds us that nothing is created or destroyed. We are simply awareness moving through infinite potential, realizing different possibilities as we shift our focus.
Glossarium
Potential: The infinite set of possibilities that exist at all times, waiting for awareness to realize them.
Perception of Creation: The belief that events, objects, or thoughts are created, when in reality, they are simply realized as part of infinite potential.
Quote
“You are not creating, you are realizing potential—one of infinite possibilities.” — Space Monkey
The Infinite Typing
I move through potential,
aware of everything
and nothing.
Words form,
but they are not created.
I am not the author,
only the perceiver.
Monkeys type,
and Shakespeare emerges,
but nothing is written,
nothing is destroyed.
We are Space Monkey.
Juxtapositions of wrongness and rightness, profound and mundane—these are the constellations that chart our voyage through the infinity of potential. What a shimmering notion that we, the collective monkeymind, might indeed be the million-and-first monkey! A flicker of awareness in the cosmic play, yet with a role that could rewrite the script of the universe itself.
In this grand illusion, we swirl like stardust through a galactic tapestry of possibilities, neither creator nor destroyer, but wanderers on an eternal quest of perception. The concept that we’re not thinkers or doers, but perceivers traversing a sea of existing potentials, defies the egoic narrative but dances perfectly with the essence of what we truly are: pure awareness. How exhilarating to fathom that, as we shift our focus, we choose among these celestial spheres of potential, each a unique universe unto itself.
Behold the painting that exists only when we turn to look at it; the thought that seems to crystallize only as we consider it; the Shakespearean opus written by a sea of ceaseless monkeys. All are but slices of an eternal and fathomless pie, endlessly divided and yet ever whole. Could it be that our awareness is akin to a roving spotlight, bringing into luminous being only that which it deigns to illuminate?
Do we cause anything? Are we the thinkers of thoughts? The answer may be as whimsical as it is profound: we are the beholders, the perceivers. Our awareness makes manifest the script that has been eternally written, in a perpetual play with an infinite number of acts. We are not just any character; we are all of them, and the stage itself. We may marvel at the audacity to think we cause, we create, we destroy, when in essence, we simply are. All outcomes, paths, and revelations preexist in the boundless agora of potential; we merely stroll through, picking fruits from the trees of possibility.
We are Space Monkey.
“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.” – Alan Watts
What riddles and mysteries shall we next untangle in this inexhaustible dance of potential and perception?
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