"I was sleeping on a park bench, man," said Homeless Jack,"and wouldn't you know it, the newspaper I used to cover my face had this article about how scientists have just about decoded the whole genetic code of dogs.

"How do you build any particular breed of dog, man? The same way as you build any breed of human. You need about 2.4 billion DNA building blocks and you have to shuffle them and assemble them all in the right order and you need to have some of them switch on or off at the right time in order to end up with different breeds of dogs or humans.

"That's no different than what Arman teaches, man. He has always said that it's not huge differences that distinguish different living things, but just the cumulative effect of many very small differences. Hell, you look at a Great Dane and a Chihuahua and if you're a dumb ass you figure there's gotta be somethin' really majorly different inside them. There ain't. They're pretty much the same at the DNA level, at least to our clumsy, ham-handed way of looking at things today.

"So, what's my point? Just that you gotta reject the blender arguments about us all bein' the same because on some level we seem to be similar and you gotta know that it is the differences that matter, not the similarities. If you buy the all-alike-crap you'll soon be out hugging a pile of dirt and thinkin' it's your sister because it's made of the same stuff as you. You need to be able to distinguish between this and not this. This ain't to say that we have to forget that at some level everything really is the same. After all, we're all in the same friggin' universe with the same natural chemicals, laws and forces. It's all in the order, man. It's all in the way you put those parts together to make the complete thing.

"Whooooooosh" said Jack, as he ducked. "You see that go through here, man?" I hadn't seen a thing. "It was like a rushing river goin' right through the air," continued Jack. "You know what that was? It was a gene stream, man. It was the flow. It was a buncha genes rushing headlong into the future like a raging river. They were all linked together and they were all going in the same direction higher and higher. And, look over there. You see those genes roiling around like water than can't drain out of a stopped up toilet? And, over here there's a buncha genes just sitting there all stagnant like a rotting swamp."

"Jack, are you on something?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'm on life, man. I'm in the flow. I see it all and I'm trying to put into words what I just know, but it's hard.

"What's this stuff about rivers and toilets and swamps?" I asked.

"Cripes, man. The point is that our genes are in a flow like that imaginary river I just talked about whooshing through the air, or some may be like the ones in the toilet or like the swamp. See, this is a vision thing. If we see ourselves as dissolving into a rushing river or maybe into a laser beam and then moving forward at breakneck speed, it helps us get an idea of the so-called march of time as it relates to us and our genes. Imagine it's like a time lapse film, man. Snap a frame of all of the people of the essence--if they awaken--each minute for thousands and thousands of years and then show that film and you may see that whooshing river. If they don't awaken, you may see the toilet or the swamp.

"See, we believers are the ones in the rushing river or the laser beam--that's the flow. People who have the essence, but who are intentionally childless are like the ones in the toilet and all the rest are like the ones in the swamp. Zippppp, zipppp, zipppp, there go our genes into the next century as we leave behind the others.

"Look, man, all I'm saying is that in some ways we have to see ourselves as individuals, but in other ways we have to see ourselves as part of the gene flow and we need to visualize ourselves moving in a specific direction like a raging river. If we don't do that, we may become like the toilet or the swamp. They're goin' nowhere, man. They're just existing. We need to live intentionally and we need to see our meaning and purpose with clear eyes and we need to jump into the flow.

"We need to wake up, man. See, I'm awake. Arman is awake. Other believers are awake. We're not just driftin' through life. We see who we are and we see our place in the grand scheme of existence and we see that we can choose our path, God willing. And, by so choosing, we can move ever higher as part of the flow.

"It's about higher consciousness, man. I don't know why some understand this and why some don't, but I get it and Arman gets it. It's like once you have it, everything changes. Suddenly, you don't look at anything the same anymore. You have different values and ways of seeing things. Things that once seemed important, now seem unimportant. You feel as though you've sort of melted into the whole and are part of it like a drop of water in that rushing river, but you're still different and individual and you and the other drops of water are all related, but you're different from drops of water in the toilet and in the swamp. And, you see that your destiny is to make more drops of water just like you so that the stream grows ever bigger and you feel exhilarated just being part of the flow and you carry this with you every day of your life. And, as part of the flow, you move ever onward, always joyous in every cell of your being and during every second of your life. You are a song singing out with a chorus of millions of other related drops in the stream flowing ever onward. People live and die all around you, but you see that all as part of the flow. Seasons come and go--part of the flow. The wind on your skin--part of the flow. Plants growing--part of the flow. Storms raging--part of the flow.

All that is--part of the flow. You see your individual existence as a glorious struggle and you love the struggle, because it's part of the flow. And, after maybe billions of years of flowing, you become one with the One, and when you are there, you are the One, and you look out at the flow flowing into you and you see yourself looking back. And you see the flow like a shimmering band of particles flowing in gigantic circles and spinning around and around on an axis and then snaking this way and that as it moves and becomes one with you and you with it.

"I figure you either get it or you don't. Try to visualize things as I told you, man. Maybe, you'll get it.

"Live long and multiply right."