Life is a show, I heard this as a child. I didn't understand what this thought implied. I was similarly confused when I read Shakespeare. He once said and I quote, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts."
I dwelled on it a long while. If life is a show and the world is a stage and I am a player playing many parts, need I feel under pressure to do a good job? Is there a judge? Is there a prize? And if all of us are players then who watches? Are we watching and playing at the same time? And if this is just a show, is there any act that is good or bad. Should a horrible scene be avoided and a love scene desired? Should I feel bad if I am just a cameo role, should I covet the lead role all my life? What is the goal of this entire exercise? Sure, a show is just to be enjoyed but who is enjoying and is this something I willingly signed up for?
Then one day on acid, I saw life. And I mean I really saw life. Everything in HD, some bits in time-lapse and some others in slow motion. But the true revelation happened when I sat in front of the mirror. My reflection appeared like an old technicolor motion picture. Like someone was manually rolling the film.
I found it so fascinating I became extremely still. All of a sudden I realized I was not in my body. I was watching my body and its reflection. Like a witness. I was actually an audience to this scene.
I finally understood what Shakespeare was talking about. The world is a stage, I am a player, this indeed is a show. But to really know this I had to become extremely still. Unnaturally still. Completely thoughtless. An observer, a witness, and no more. It is liberating to find this out.
There is no pressure because evolution is like improv. Different combinations and permutations of thought, emotion, actions create brand new scenes. There is no judge nor a prize, there is no good nor is there bad. It is all just an experience for the sake of evolution. There is no particular direction nor is there a goal. It is a grand experiment.
And why? Well, why not? If we keenly notice how interconnected all things in the universe are we cannot refute that the universe is one grand being. A living mechanism. With limitless capabilities. Like a supercomputer. That can self-program in countless ways. Why wouldn't this computer generate all kinds of things?
People ask 'why life' and reach a dead end. This dead-end is what we call depression. But when we ask, Why not? We find many answers. Many reasons. It is then fairly easy to observe. To become a witness. To step out of ourselves and enjoy the show.