Chapter THREE
The Contest
Before there was Time, They were. Or rather, It
was, become Them.
“I am going to do something,”
thought/said/communicated one, as speech was invented.
And at that moment, there was distinguished a Two.
“What do you mean?” said Two, and there was speech,
dialogue, intention and meaning.
“Make something.”
“What is ‘make’ and what is ‘something’?”
One replied, “Not me, not you, not any of us.”
And with that, the two became aware that they were
not one, nor two, but many.
And one of the many responded back:
“What do you mean ‘not us’?”
One replied, “You’ll see…
There!”
And in that word, there was a thing produced; a
thing of shape, a thing of space and time and not them.
And the others looked and said, “What is that?”
And One replied, “I made it. It is not us, but it
is all that is.”
Then another said, “I would like to make also,” and
produced an even larger thing that was not Them.
And then another produced another thing that was not
Them.
Quickly there ensued a number of makings or
creations, each larger and stretched out further than the previous.
What They were making, what They were aware of, had events, set
before and after. Time was part of several of the things being made
or created.
Soon the creations took on great complexity, as one
after another the makers engaged in creating these things that were
not Them, until it reached a point where They were consumed with the
creating.
And one of Them said, “What is all of this for?” and
a search for meaning came to be.
And one of the makers said, “It is now what we do.”
“But to what end?” said another.
“What for?” said still another, and a search for
purpose came to be.
And then came a voice of another, not a creator but
an observer, that communicated, “Why not let us examine all of these
carefully and see if we can determine them?”
And there ensued what They called a “contest” to see
which of these things being created had the highest appeal or
interest. With that They sought for greatest significance and what
would prove worthy of Them Who are not those things, thus creating
worth and esteem.
One after another, They created what was not Them.
Some had Time that lasted billions of what some of the created would
call ‘years’, some very few of those periods of awareness. Some of
the creations had beings with consciousness in them, some without.
And They who invented judgment thus became the Judges who looked for
what They thought were the most sublime of values and features, and
They awarded honors.
The universe or creation that we who read this are
in was among those ‘things’ and ‘makings’ or creations that were
submitted for examination. Their Time is not our Time – each
universe had duration – so They, who are beyond time and out of
time, examined them all at once. This universe that we are
experiencing, that we encounter one second after the other, making
minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries,
millennia, eons of Time, and that we are still in the midst of, was
judged in that contest held out of what we experience as Time.
And when Those Who were viewing the creations
happened across this one, the making or creation in which we exist,
They recoiled, shocked.
One asked the creator, “You have consciousness in
your universe?”
“Yes.”
“You have consciousness and awareness of pain and
suffering?” asked another.
“Yes.”
“And innocence and their suffering also?” asked
another.
“Yes.”
“And poverty and starvation?”
“Yes.”
“And Nature pitting animal against animal, man
against animal, and man against man?”
“Yes.”
“And ruthless ambition, jealously, even hate?”
“Yes.”
“And endless conflict, violence, and war?”
“Yes.”
These proceedings continued, and at their end it was
determined that this universe of our experience, due to all the
things that shocked the Judges, did not even get an honorable
mention. And those beings in this universe that have consciousness
and are going through each moment in Time one moment after another,
one hour after another, one day after another, one year after
another, one century and millennia after another, might become
aware, if the story is true, that for now and for the rest of Time,
they are in a universe that has lost, and they are all losers.