The 18 Story-Puzzles
Sources and inspirations
In the final topic at the end of Reality And Being, Discussion [22], there are three categories into which the 18 stories in are sorted:
The key puzzle, Where Is Here, is a recurring theme in the book.
Six other puzzles illustrate or refer to intuition of reality and being.
Eleven puzzles offer guidance on the art of solving difficult problems.
These are described well enough in Discussion [22]. It is at the very end of the book because I did not want the reader to use this to pre-judge the stories they encounter.
Therefore, Spoiler Alert: it is better to read the book before reading what follows.
The book is written in a very different tone from what follows. This material passively explains some things; the book actively directs your attention toward something.
Read online or download from The Internet Archive: archive.org/details/BurntEliot
Origins of the Stories
The story-puzzles can be sorted into three different categories that refer to sources or inspirations for the material. You might also consider reading About the Author on the final page of the book. These categories have less to do with the purpose of the stories and more to do with how the stories originated.
1. Things that people experience.
Seeing a Tree [5] Ordinary things.
The Robin [15] The idea of life.
Ocean of Light [16] The idea of ending.
Memory of Being Born [18] The idea of beginning.
The Mystery of the Ordinary [20] Degrees of belief.
2. Based upon other sources and adapted (altered) to fit.
Ancient Chinese Puzzle [2] The first of the five tales is paraphrased from the early Taoist philosopher, Chuang Tzu. The other four were added to emphasize a sense of reality through the fog of dreams, errors, and illusions. The butterfly dream is classical Taoism.
Being Dreams Forgetting [3] There are three primary sources for this:
The first is Anselm’s Ontological Argument. Modern academics say they can refute Anselm by pointing out that Existence is not a quality; they say we can imagine that this being must possess existence, but it is still only imagination; it does not prove that being exists. But, Anselm’s Argument is not an argument or proof in any modern sense of that word. It says, “Look at your own sense of being!” It is like a painting, a figurative arrow pointing at what is absolutely real, something that should be obvious to anyone who notices it.
The second is George Berkeley, who suggested that this world and all that is in it is only an idea in God’s mind. In Being Dreams Forgetting, the world is only a dream in the mind of Anselm’s being.
The third source is Leibniz; see Ontological Monadology [13], below.
The Flowering of a Wonderful Law [6] This is from the Mahayana Buddhist Sutra, The Lotus of the Wonderful Law, one of the most popular Buddhist texts in the world. This book pretty much defines what the word, “Mahayana,” means: “Great Vehicle.” This vehicle, this Law, carries (saves, awakens, enlightens) all beings.
The Seer and the Seen [8] It is not certain where this story originated. It occurs in The Brahma Sutra, a classic of Hinduism. But it is an old story that might come from pre-Sumerian tradition. Underneath it all, it is a simple idea.
The Magician’s Trick [10] This is a recurrent theme in The Long Sutra on Perfect Wisdom, also known as The Sutra on Perfect Wisdom in 100,000 lines. In some ways it is similar to The Seer and the Seen [8].
The Five Paths [11] This is a core idea of Tibetan Buddhism that describes five stages of spiritual advancement. You can easily find something similar online by searching for “Path of no more learning” rather than “The five paths.” You might look for it in Geshe Lhundup Sopa and Jeffrey Hopkins’ book, Cutting Through Appearances.
Ontological Monadology [13] Leibniz’ explanation of Monads is actually a simple scheme. This puzzle describes eight elements for the basic framework, the first six of which are paraphrased from Monadology. By adding Number and Ignorance to the framework, the infinity of beings, or monads, can be reduced to one. This idea of Ontological Monadology is the third source in the story, Being Dreams Forgetting [3], above. It is how this being dreams of infinitely many individual lives all at the same time, a problem Berkeley had trouble with.
Self-Sacrifice [17] Some Eastern commentators say it can be found in the Brahma Sutra, but I have not been able to find it there. In any case, this idea about Vishnu’s sacrifice is in the Vedic literature in several different forms. In modern Hinduism, Vishnu is one of the three primary gods of Hinduism, but in the Vedas he was only a minor figure. The add-on in the questions, about the “fire of desire,” is from Theravada Buddhism.
The Rain [19] This was inspired by The Parable of the Rain from the Lotus Sutra.
Intuition of Reality [21] This is a new, partial translation of The Heart Sutra, or the Sutra on Perfect Wisdom in 200 Words. In this case, some of the more common words were translated according to their archaic forms, while the more technical words were translated according to ideas from Stcherbatsky’s book, The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana, where he equates Nirvana with absolute relativity.
3. Inspired by a variety of sources.
Where Is Here [1, 4, 7, 14, passim] This is based upon an unusual method of self-help that was being taught to professional therapists for use with people who suffered from effects of Traumatic Stress, but it clearly has a wider application.
We Always Do the Best We Can [9] An original narrative based on personal observations of the world, and upon Being Dreams Forgetting [3]. Also related: In the questions for The Magician’s Trick [10]: “Who helps whom?” and In the questions for Ontological Monadology [13]: “How many beings are there, really?”
Questions Children Ask [12] The questions and answers might look simplistic, but all faith-based practices struggle with similar questions. Children really do ask questions like these and get answers somewhere in between the two extremes suggested in the story. The point of this is to notice, when reading it the 2nd time, whether you feel any different reading without adding your own recognition, selection, or anticipation. This is an introduction to experiencing a felt difference between Knowing-What and Knowing-That, where The Robin [15] is a more thorough but more difficult exercise in noticing this contrast.
B.E.
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