Reference: “All It Is” Chapters 3 & 4: “The 20 PTP Terms” and “2 Truths: How and Why?”
Saturday, December 31
Walton: Welcome back, David. I guess the first and most obvious question I have for you today is this: what did you think of those two short chapters, discussing the 20 basic PTP terms and the 2 Absolute Truths? Did they manage to serve the purpose of demonstrating the power, and, ultimately, the simplicity, of the PTP program?
David: I gotta admit that I was pretty surprised at how short they were. But you are still claiming they are the most important pieces or elements of this whole PTP thing. That seems to meet that pretty high bar, so far. If those claims are valid, that is! So my first question back at you, for the direction and purpose of today’s discussion, is this: how in the world did you managed to take the entire universe and shrink it down into something so small, and seemingly simple?
Walton: Do you, by any chance, remember one of the very first things you were wondering about just a little over a week ago? As a matter of fact, more specifically on that night of December 21, what was the question, the single question, the almost obsessive thought, that kept running through your head as you walked around town, right before you discovered me in this church sanctuary?
David: I would never claim to have a very developed sense of recall. I do remember that I was frustrated at everything that was going on in my world. And I was wondering why everything seemed, or had to be, so complicated in this world.
Walton: Let me be your temporary memory for a moment: your words were ”I give up, life is supposed to be simpler than this.” Does that sound about right?
David: Just about, and absolutely, right! I have long wrestled over complicated things that should be much simpler than we lowly earthlings have made them out to be. So your process of creating PTP had something to do with answering my question?
Walton: To answer your question about my question, let me refresh your under-developed recollection just a bit more: a few nights ago, when we started this current study, in an early chapter of the PTP book, we asked questions like “Why are we here?”, “What is life all about?”, and ”Is there more or less to life than what we are living right now?”. Do you recall those statements in the chapter called “The Purpose of PTP”?
David: Yes, I do. You started to talk about some simple collection of tools that I could use to figure out the why’s and wherefore’s of life. You referred to them as “self therapy tools.” And then you highlighted the fact that “everything is all about energy.” Energy, that is “all it is.” So how did you get from that key word “Energy” to the process of creating this program?
Walton: First, I have one more test of your memory skills: do you remember the basic essence of the quote from the introduction to this project? The quote from René Descartes? We discussed a few days ago how he conducted a similar kind of project, but he also used the reductionist method of examination in order to determine this: What are the simplest theorems that make up the study of science, or philosophy, or the nature of human existence? And the title of his book was “Meditations on First Philosophy”. So he took a lot of information from a lot of sources, and boiled them down, and compiled them, and basically tried to determine what was the simplest yet most complete elements that combined all of these important topics. Supposedly, his ultimate finding was the quote “… “
Walton & David, simultaneously and together: “I think, therefore I am.”
Walton: Correctamundo!!
David: And that’s the method you used as well?
Walton: Yes. From a very early age, I was fascinated, actually obsessed, with reading books and articles in the various areas of religions, philosophies, the different forms of psychology, metaphysics, the nature of the creative arts, and occasionally books in physics, mathematics, and the health sciences. Almost like a person carving away or pruning something to get rid of the extra parts. I was always creating outlines and lists of things as soon as I finished the written material. And the main thing that was most important to this eventual project was that I maintain a healthy skepticism throughout the whole time.
David: You mean you doubted most of the things that you read about?
Walton: Pretty much. If you take any two books on the same topic, and those two authors don’t truly agree with each other, you can’t claim that either one of them had knowledge of an absolute truth. An absolute truth is just that, absolute. For all human organisms. For that matter, for all organisms of any kind! On this planet or any other!
David: Like a rule is a rule, and can’t be broken, right?
Walton: If you replace the word “rule” with the word “truth”, then yes. There can’t be an “absolute” truth and a “partly” truth. Fortunately, thanks to a little process called the scientific method, there is a way to discern the most likely possibility of a truth by considering things that aren’t human, like particles and every form of matter. Even though there are tons of things made up of matter, when it comes down to the composition of matter, just like the composition of the basic elements, you’re going to end up with the simplest list of things, like protons, neutrons, electrons, and so forth.
David: And nowadays you can even break those down into smaller particles, can’t you!
Walton: Yes, those items are the “so forth”. But where does that “breaking down” end? One analogy that I used to use quite often, which I shared with you last Thursday, when asked where this program came from, was an idea of boiling down lots and lots of different rocks and minerals, and searching for the purest gold that would be left in the pot when everything else was burned away. The PTP terms were the only gold nuggets left in that burner after everything else had been eliminated. Only 20 terms, and two truths.
David: And they all revolve around Energy.
Walton: Notice that it is not just Energy alone. Energy directed by what?
David: You claim that energy is directed by Awareness. What is that?
Walton: A wonderfully simple question, my friend. Contemplating the relationship, or the dance, between Awareness and Energy is what the whole rest of this project is about! So I guess that means that you win some kind of prize!
David: A prize? Really? How exciting! What is it?
Walton: You get to warm up the leftover pizza from our meeting last Wednesday afternoon!
David: A pizza preparation prize? Really?
Walton: And I really do appreciate how hard you worked for the honor of putting together those “Pizza Pieces”. Please prepare our New Year’s Eve feast of a couple of pieces of Pepperoni, and the Parmesan powder, per favore, capocuoco .
David: Coming right up, signore! Here I go! Let the calculation and consumption of “Pi” begin! I’ll be right back after a few creative minutes of energy, and anchovy, transformation…
Walton: Okay. You’ve made it back from the front! Of the kitchen, that is. Thanks bunches. Let’s start with the big picture first. Because all of the other pictures have to start from the simplest of humble beginnings. What are the two, and only two, components that make up All It Is?
David: According to the great wise guy, Professor Walton Wonderful, there are only two things or concepts in the whole multi-verse. They are energy, which is The Stuff, and Awareness which is in control of The Stuff.
Walton: Not a bad start, humble little pie. Of course we will be adjusting or expanding some of this initial vocabulary as we get more specific into the full nature of what is really going on here. And, of course, we don’t need to try to dissect all of that right here and right now in our leftover pizza fest. We have several weeks of this extremely entertaining endeavor to experience! To “pizza” it all together, you might say.
David: Oh Dred Pirate Roberts! Weeks, you say? Argghh!
Walton: That is correct, matey! Shiver your timbers, and blow the days down! We have some serious sailing to do. Anyway, back to the two absolutes. We have Energy and we have Awareness. And what does the Good Book say is the connection between these two items?
David: Quoting from your divine manifesto, Awareness directs Energy into some kind of creative endeavor. And the human organism is one of those very distinct creative endeavors. Your colorful illustration on that page has a pile of garbage to the left of Stickman, and glorious golden threads emerging to the right. Right?
Walton: And the whole process of creating Stuff with Energy has what, or who, looking at it from above?
David: Well, Emerson’s magical and mystical Omniscient Eyeball itself, the Aum of Awareness. Aum, sweet Aum!
Walton: Well done, my good and faithful savant. And this following descriptor may come as a pretty disappointing shock to most of the human organisms on this particular planet, but every one of those Ego-based organisms are really no more than an information and energy processor. Not much more than a sticks-and-stones-and-silicon computer.
David: We are all just parts of a great computer? Bits and bytes on the motherboard of eternity? Chips off the old rock?
Walton: That is a clever, yet concise, way of saying it! I like that! Maybe I can use that in another essay. Data in and data out. An endless parade of energy units flowing into the organism and back out again. Data dookie!
David: It all sounds pretty boring, a bit depressing, and a big hunk of gross! Maybe I should pick another planet to inhabit?
Walton: Life is only boring if those are the limited energy units you choose to play with! We still have what some organisms might call “free choice,” but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. With what you have just mentioned, you have described, probably without realizing it, the primary purpose of all humanity: Energy & Information Processing. But don’t totally fret, just yet. There is a second part to that primary purpose, to be covered in a few more moments. But for now, we have also covered the second of the only two absolute truths that exist: Awareness directing Energy.
David: If that is all there is, what is going to take up two or three weeks to cover?
Walton: The fun part, of course! How the awareness works with the energy to create a life form and life experiences. Take a moment to glance down quickly at the list of the 20 terms. I will present to you an overview, and then maybe give you a chance to ask a few very simple questions about that overview. You ready to ride, cowboy?
David: YeeHaw, yes of course, on my sturdy horse!
Walton: Then let us see if your horse has any horse sense! Hopefully a lot more than its rider.
David: Ready, set, ride!
Walton: Starting with the Awareness System as an actual form of existence, this primordial essence or Aware form creates a physical organism called the Sensory System, also locally referred to as the Human Body. And that Sensory System goes through daily life creating a sub-system of Energy called a Belief System. I affectionately refer to the belief system as your BS. Like that?
David: Not so sure just yet. I may have to get more comfortable with being called a collection of BS. Dookie indeed!
Walton: The next collection from the Top 20 PTP terms is about how the Sensory System works, how it processes the incoming data in order to transfer it to outgoing data. The most technical part of this paradigm is how the human organism brain has four basic electronic components to it. These make up the full collection of components in the circuitry that runs the Sensory System. When we discuss these four primary information processing operations, you will see that they very closely mirror even the most basic understanding of the four categories of components on any electronic circuit board. Resistors, capacitors, inductors, and transistors.
David: Maybe I should go out and get a soldering kit, just in case something gets fried!
Walton: I can’t wait to see you try to rewire your neural network with a soldering gun and crazy glue! Here comes Dr. Frankenstein!
David: Let’s hope you share an easier way to do that rewiring process.
Walton: Exactly. That gets us to the next category of terms. All of our human energy interactions fall into one of three categories: Resistance, Assistance, and Allowance. Moving from one of these interactions into another is very important and how we maximize the efficiency of our personal lives. And discovering what our behavior options are is related to the next category of where all of our programming comes from. From childhood on, we are motivated primarily by attempts to Pursue Pleasure, and to Avoid Pain. And once in a while, we turn off those two motivators, and relax in a third state called Pure Perception of the world around us.
There are a lot of terms I just threw at you in this one paragraph. But those terms are all we need to totally understand human motivation and human interaction.
David: And once we understand all of that, what do we do with it next?
Walton: Funny you should ask! The final list of terms deals with how we learn to process energy in the most efficient and pleasurable way possible: this is called the three intentional living activities. Creative Construction, Communative Completion, and Cosmic Contemplation.
David: So once we learn all that, we become pure cosmic dust once again?
Walton: And who is to say that you are not already currently just a collection of cosmic dust?! From dust were ye made, to dust you shall return! Does that sound familiar?
David: Yes, a great cosmic loop of dust that swirls endlessly into the far horizons!
Walton: Man, that was colorful. Sounds like you’ve been reading your science fiction novels lately. Or at least catching up on your Star Trek episodes!
David: Science fiction or science fact? I guess I will be finding out the answer to that simple question over the next few simple weeks. Simply saying, see you tomorrow!
Walton: Si!, and es todo para ahora! Before you take off for the rest of the evening, I would like to wish you a wonderful Happy New Years Eve, which, you may have forgotten to notice, it is tonight! And may I add a Happy New Year’s year and life following this special evening.
May these next few days present you with that rare opportunity of closing out your previous world of ignorance, and ushering in a much greater and glorious world of personal awareness!
Once again, “PTP exists to wake up the sleepwalking, and to increase awareness in the newly awoken.” Meet me back at the sanctuary tomorrow morning, little grasshopper.
David: Hopping and bopping, and bye-bye to ya!
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