It may sound incredible but there is a strange difference between writing fiction, and what we believe to be real. In fiction the matter is relatively simple. You choose a character you like, surround him with more interesting characters, introduce a problem or two, but, and this is most important, you treat the novel as a journey. If you don't know where you are going, don't start. Once you know your destination, find the most interesting and exciting way to get there. Of one thing we are all certain. The action, the characters, the event are all within the Phenomenal Reality. Hence... fiction.
With non-fiction, the journey is even more important, but the characters are of no consequence. If you accept that reality is an illusion, problems appear in earnest. I'm reminded of Einstein's assertion:
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten
what one has learned in school."
If you don't forget, you'll just repeat what is already known. Should books that describe illusory reality, that describe elements of the Phenomenal Universe that Einstein defined as an illusion, be called fiction or non-fiction?
You decide.
For me, a vast array of "how to books," as well as scientific dissertations that offer us theories that are soon replaced by other theories, do not inspire me as non-fiction. For as long as they deal with fictitious, imaginary, illusory world I find it hard to define them as non-fiction. Perhaps a "temporary, transient non-fiction" would do them justice?
Only when we leave the Phenomenal world behind, we'll embark on a journey, which no one has traveled before. A journey that continues after we cross each new horizon.
That's non-fiction.
While in fiction you can reach the destination, in non-fiction you can do little more than take a few tentative steps towards your goal. And then, to make things worse, you discover that it all took place in the Eternal Now. That in fact, you haven't moved at all. That all you did was to advance your understanding by rejecting yet another erroneous supposition that you have learned in school.
So, you see. Einstein was right once again.
Agree?
And yet, the school was necessary. As is each and every step we take, even if we are treading water. The reason is that we are already everywhere. The Eternal Present demands it of us.
The Universe is only as great, as omnipresent, as magnificent as we imagine it to be. It is never what it was, or will be, only, and always only, what it is. Hence our true Self is not what you or I was, or might be, or even what you or I will be. It is always I AM.
And that is why non-fiction writing is so difficult. Mostly, because no matter how many times one repeats the premise stated above, no one will believe it.
Why?
Because ultimately every single one of us must make this journey on our own. Because each and every single one of us is a complete, yet ever-expanding, hopefully at an ever accelerating pace... Universe. Yes, phenomenal, elusive in fact illusory Universe.
Yet so very real to you, and to me.
Perhaps this is what David meant when he said "Ye are gods". After all, you cannot expand gods, or god would have been incomplete. And God, surely is already Omnipresent. Yet, to us, it is the journey that matters.
And so, dear Albert, we must not only forget what we have learned in school, but also what we may have learned yesterday. Or even this morning. A minute ago? Perhaps it is and was, all fiction. Perhaps we have not yet reached the evolutionary level capable or recognizing what is real. To repeat, it is the journey that matters. Be it real or imaginary. Perhaps within us hovers truth that we cannot as yet perceive?
So what might be the fundamental difference between fiction its predecessor?
In my view non-fiction is, or should be creative in the sense of introducing something new to the human equation. It ought to deal with the cause. Fiction would be the result. A little like cause and effect. Non-fiction is motivated by pure energy of consciousness and the resultant thought. Fiction elaborates on that which was already created. A little like the stuff which Einstein suggests that we ought to forget to make room for new creation.
One might suggest that non-fiction is delving into the unknown, why fiction solidifies the result. Perhaps we have a different slant on; "The Many who are called, and the Few that are chosen". The Few open new horizons. The Many develop and solidify them. The masses benefit from the efforts of both.
And now, let me make this quite clear.
When I started writing this blog, I had no idea how it would end. (I couldn't do this sort of thing with fiction). And why? Because my body is still sitting on this same (imaginary?) armchair, with my trusty (imaginary) computer on my (imaginary) lap. All three are real in my consciousness. And at the same time, my consciousness traveled from here to... traveled a few light-years towards infinity. Perhaps all writing is symbolic in nature.
It is a magnificent journey.
Try it.
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