It was at first, a malignant machine, a lugubrious edifice that was the whole of reality. This was the third layer, beneath that of the human condition and the superficial, mundane exterior layer at the surface of the strata. This was a terrifying assemblage of cogs and wheels that lent our world its callous algorithms and disquieting superlatives. This was the screaming foundry, and we were unwittingly stoking its fiery heart with the kindling of our rotting civilization. The machine was constantly undergoing vicissitudes of evolution and accumulation; it grew like a cancer and yet jettisoned much of the slime that it consumed, always looking for more novelties of progress. I cowered, feebly hoping that the monstrosity would somehow shut down, or be irreversibly mutilated – or better yet, utterly annihilated. For although the precise schematics of the immense contrivance were far beyond comprehension, I slowly began to understand the deleterious purpose of the machine – total, absolute control.
I knew then that we had abandoned our freedom long ago, when this device was first constructed. We relinquished it willingly, perhaps believing that this existential capitulation would ultimately lead to enlightenment. Instead, we remain in a perpetual dark age, hopelessly lost in our gormless fabrications.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I let go… I fell for an eternity, falling in all directions at once, traversing dimensions and realities. And so, the elusive fourth stratum unveiled itself with exorbitant grandeur, and at once I was hurled into the deluge of infinity.
It was sublime, resplendent… it was madness, lucidity, ecstasy… it was the entirety of actuality reduced to a dazzling singularity of radiance and color, forever spiraling into itself, out of time and out of space. I was totally immersed in existence, I was naught but being and consciousness and immanence, pulsating like blood through the hallowed veins of the cosmos. All points were all other points, and all was all else. Distinctions of rationale, design, form, disparity were disregarded – all was pure, innate energy and supreme significance. It was the everlasting river of God, gloriously interwoven with existence. It was the only truth one could ever know for certain – everything as it was, is, and will be, for all things at all times and in all places.
I realized, only then - it was the reason to live.