The Ocean of Dust
By Anders SandbergExcerpts from The Ocean of Dust, a widely read book among Euthanatos. The book contains hundreds of short texts and aphorisms without any apparent order about almost everything. Versions exist in several languages, often with significant differences. Its author and original language is unknown.
Entropy
Entropy is fundamental. It is more fundamental than time and space. It is more fundamental than matter and energy. It is more fundamental than life and death. Entropy is that which drives all things, the force which turns the great wheel of existence.
Change
Entropy is the force of change. When something changes, it will increase the entropy. When entropy increases, something will change. Without entropy, the universe would be dead, unchanging and purposeless.
The Wheel
The Wheel turns. As one part rises, another part must sink. There can be no life without death. There can be no light without darkness. There can be no success without failure. The Wheel must have two sides to be a wheel.
Evolution
Some believe that evolution is the opposite of entropy. They are wrong. Evolution work by weeding out the weak, ineffective and the unlucky, giving space and food for others. Without entropy, evolution would grind to a halt.
Life
Some believe that life is the opposite of entropy. They are wrong. Life is entropy. Life needs entropy. Life cannot exist without entropy. Nourishment, water and air is used and become waste. It is by this steady flow of order into disorder that life can exist. Life is the ripples on the edge of the waterfall, as the water falls down into the abyss below.
Matter
Matter is the lowest stable form of existence. A living being will someday become inanimate matter. Matter may become a living being again but after a time it will become matter again. Everything of matter will one day return to matter. Everything will one day become matter.
Energy
Energy is change or potential change. But when something changes, entropy will increase. The energy will become a little bit more degraded. Otherwise it wouldn't be able to effect any ordered changes. Soon the energy will be dissipated, hopefully doing useful work. Only heat will remain — and the heat will dissipate.
Spirits
Some say the spirit world is without entropy. They lie. The world of spirits is a place of great changes. Change is entropy. Spirits are beings from outside of the world. They cannot exist without it, feeding off its entropy as we do.
Awakening
Every being is awakened once in its lifetime - at the moment of dying. It will see beyond the illusions of its existence and pass into a new existence. Unfortunately, almost all choose to forget that moment. It is our task to awaken those who are ready and make others ready.
Creation
Once force and form crystallized from the pure quintessence. From the purposeless forces and the malleable forms matter and energy were created. From the dead matter life arose. From the mindless life mind was created. This evolution was driven by entropy. Entropy let the quintessence become force and form. It will let them return to pure quintessence when their time has come.
Destruction
Entropy will in time destroy anything, how eternal it may seem. One day a stone will be dust. One day you will be dust. One day the Earth will be dust. "This is evil" many say. They do not understand why everything must disintegrate into lower forms. These forms will also disintegrate. Finally, everything will have disintegrated into its component parts. This will be part of new forms. Plants feed on the dust of stones. Worms feed on the dust of men. Who knows what might feed on the dust of worlds?
Time
Scientists say entropy always increases as time passes. This is wrong. Time passes because entropy increases. We prefer to see time as we do, because we are living beings, living on entropy. We may see time in other ways, in other directions, but this is not useful, for we are beings of entropy. We choose the direction of time we perceive as the direction Entropy increases the most.
Fear of Death
Death is the great change which all living beings must pass. Life must lead to death, as light creates shadow. Many fear death, try to ignore it, try to hide from it. It will always come. They fear it because they do not see what is behind it, do not see its purpose. They only see darkness where there is light. We must show those who are ready the way into the abyss. Those who are not ready must be helped to loose their futile grips on the edge. They only waste their precious time and energy left by struggling.
The Kia
The Kia is almost eternal. It will create a soul to inhabit. The soul will create a spirit to inhabit. The spirit will create a body to inhabit. The body, spirit and soul will die and dissolve again, but the Kia will pass on.
Reincarnation
The Kia and fragments of previous spirits, souls and bodies will pass through countless incarnations, accumulating experiences and losing them. Some experiences will be useful and will be remembered. Others will be useless and will be forgotten. Some lessons will be hard and may take hundreds or more incarnations to learn. Many beings forget what they have learned in an instant and start over again.
Balance
Entropy is a force of balance. When something is unbalanced, it will change. It may change in many ways but eventually it will become stable. If there is balance, entropy will sooner or later overturn it. There must be a balance of balance.
Randomness
There is no law of randomness, only the play of the small forces. These forces are what remain of the forces, beings and things that entropy has claimed or will claim. A die is thrown; the scratches on its surface, the turbulence in the air and the trembling of the caster will play their game to decide which side will come up, as entropy drain the energy of the die and it stops rolling.
Rigidity
Some people try to make themselves or their work eternal. They are all fools, and will fail. Entropy will claim everything in the end. But the forces of rigidity will disturb the flow of entropy, destroying the balance between destruction and creation. They will never give up their place voluntarily, crushing and hindering everything that may topple their pyramids. The balance must be restored.
Stability
Stability is an illusion. Nothing will persist forever, as entropy slowly nudges it towards destruction. Some phenomena persist long enough for people to say: "This is stable and will remain long after I am gone." Fools! Mayflies say: "This straw of grass is eternal and will remain long after I am gone!"
Illusions
Every being surrounds itself with comfortable illusions. Without illusions the unawakened cannot live. Break down some of their illusions and they will die, go mad or awaken. Even if they die they will have lost nothing, as their Kia will go on and create a new soul, spirit and body. If they die in the right way and at the proper moment, they will remember some of the truth.
Duality
Two opposites are always caused by a third, more fundamental phenomenon. Light and darkness is but two sides of the same coin and exist only as two extremes of illumination. Life and death are the top and bottom of the great wheel. Everything has its opposite and stems from something more fundamental. This thing stems from yet another thing, and so on. Entropy divides everything into opposites. That is the act which creates the universe.
Existence
The dance between Existence and Entropy creates the universe. Entropy will divide existence into smaller things and these into yet smaller thing. It will force them to change, creating time. Without Existence, nothing would exist. Without Entropy only pure Existence would exist, nothing more.
The Good Death
The greatest gift that can be bestowed upon any living being. If it dies in the right way when it is ready, its Kia will be set free, with a part of the beings soul and spirit. In this way it will perhaps remember some of its lessons this life the next. But do not give the Good Death to the unworthy, lest they remember an existence best left forgotten.
Undeath
Some beings leave the wheel of life and death, sacrificing everything to exist forever. The body which rises from the grave is the same that was put therein. The spirit which rises from the grave is the same that was put therein. But the soul and Kia are not the same. The undead have unknowingly lost their souls and Kias, which will continue to incarnate as before. Instead they have gained a shard of something else's soul. They still remember their life before death and believe they are the same person as before. They are perfect impersonators of themselves. This is indeed a most grim joke.
The Awakened
The Awakened have broken down some of the lesser illusions and proudly proclaim their enlightenment. Many do not wish to search further, to risk breaking their new illusions. The greatest illusion of all is that one has freed oneself from all illusions. This is also an illusion.
Magick
Those who have seen through the illusions need not follow them. This the uninitiated will call magick. Remember that magick might be useful but it is not the truth.
Madness
Be careful when judging the deranged. They might see further than you in their confusion.
Afterlife
Many humans delude themselves with the idea of an afterlife. When they die, their dissolving spirit will hallucinate the heaven or hell they expected. They will be punished for imagined sins. They will be rewarded for imagined virtues. They will dissolve inside their own illusions.
Perfection
Everything strives for perfection. But when perfection is achieved, it will not last. Perfection will sooner or later crumble, only to be replaced by something else. The quest for perfection begins anew.
Will
The earthly lusts and desires of your body are not your true will. The mercurial ideas and feelings of your spirit are not your true will. The deep needs and unknown movements of your soul are not your true will. Your true will is part of the Kia, which is indivisible. Your true will cannot be broken. Your true will cannot be found.
Mages
The mages have seen the Truth. All of them. All mages have seen their Truth through the illusions and believe they have seen the One Truth. They believe all other mages have only seen a reflection or an illusion. All mages believe themselves to be chosen ones, seekers of the One Truth. We know better. We know the Truth.