random burst of inspiration:

I opened Reddit and saw a post on r/Spongebob (yeah I’m fucking subscribed don’t judge me) asking about some random plot hole — it was like, “why is there a light switch that can turn off the lights for all of Bikini Bottom?” Obviously, the show has a million and a half random, itty-bitty plot holes. The show in general does not make any fucking sense, and I adore that about it.

The top comment was “Because.” Obviously, I giggled. People were like, “Ahhh that makes sense,” and “Understandable. Have a nice day.”

I found the whole thing to be very funny. Then my brain began over-complicating it and relating it to spirituality. However, I think there are some things of value there that I wanted to share here.

I began to have a train of thought that was in itself sort of ridiculous — something like, “Hey, there’s actually an immense amount of wisdom in Spongebob, in that the absurdity of the show points to the overarching absurdity of life itself.” It reminded me of that Rick and Morty copypasta, the one that goes like “You actually need an i m m e n s e l y high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. It is NOT for fools. If you don’t like the show, you are a certified dumbass.”

Regardless, I began to consider the fundamental absurdity and ridiculousness of all things, and how moot thinking can itself, at times, be.

Something I’ve been focusing on quite a bit, lately, is simplification. Overall simplicity. I think it came about through my contemplation of Taurus and the Earth element. The sign itself feels rather nonverbal by nature. It feels practical, only speaking when necessary. It feels concerned about what it can see, touch, feel, sense, et cetera, perhaps less oriented to consider the intangible, abstract, and ethereal. Grounded. Rooted. Generally… without drama.

And I have very much enjoyed the energy. It feels like a needed respite from the narratives my mind can spin. A necessary balancing force. As an individual who’s long sought so intensely to transcend the mundane, I feel like I have forgotten to connect with the Earth element and its simplicity. Just… grounded. Simple. Plain. And oh-so-strong in that rootedness. Fixed, powerful, reliable.

How does this relate to the absurdity of Spongebob? Consider the response to the poster questioning the lack of logic in the show: “Because.”

Life itself. Life itself. How many times have I run my head into a proverbial wall trying to make sense of all that is?

Consider the supercomputer’s answer to the central question, “What is the meaning of life?” in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

“42.“

Reality itself is not words. Reality is reflected in words, but reality is not words. We can capture some of reality through words, but the totality of reality exists beyond the verbal. This pertains to my discussion on archetype in previous posts. Archetypes/forms are containers for spirit, but the spirit usually contained in those aforementioned vessels is far greater than the box it’s presented in.

Words are the very same in this way. They can reflect part of the whole, but certainly not its entirety. Reality itself has primordial roots. Consider that the advent of language has billions of years of the history of the universe predating it. Reality itself, and its creation, is preverbal. Could this mean that perceiving “true reality,” whatever that may be, must involve us using faculties that exist beyond the scope of the intellect and its linguistic capabilities?

(Side note/edit: I’ve at times considered Mercury to be the serpent tempting Adam & Eve to eat of the fruit of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. The creation of opposites is a facility of language. This is why Mercury is dual in nature, for language categorizes, and thus divides, things, making them separate from one another. Mercury can both create and reconcile opposites. I consider the preverbal soup from which we originate to be the unconscious. The conscious mind is like a ship traversing the ocean of the unconscious, its depths infinitely greater than the ship could ever come to know and understand.)

There is a reason why monks believe thinking causes suffering. There is a reason why, to so many monks, the goal of meditation is in the cessation of the narratives of the intellect. The crystal-clear, meditative mind, to them, is thoughtless, a clear sky without the clouds of thought.

To the questioning of the absurdity of reality itself, the answer is simply

“Because.”

or

“42.”

There is a Buddhist parable I am reminded of, outlined in some of Joseph Campbell’s material. To summarize:

Essentially, the Buddha is out teaching his followers. One of his students asks him what the meaning of life is. The Buddha pauses. He looks around. He picks up a flower, displays it to all of his followers, and says nothing.

Only one of them understood, nodding.