Twilight Zones

 I recall watching a TV program when I was growing up called "The Twilight Zone". The premise behind this program is that people who otherwise live "normal" existences are suddenly thrown for a loop--they find themselves caught in inexplicable dilemmas that cannot be explained, either by themselves or the authorities in their world. It's as though the "laws" of space and time (and society as a whole) were twisted or warped, and the person is caught in a wormhole where those familiar rules no longer apply.
   What pushes this show to a paranoia is that it puts the viewer in the position of one who knows and feels that something is wrong, yet somehow lacks the shared language with others to voice what is different. Like characters in Kafka novels, there is a sense of something being off, but no way to set it right, because there are no rules of engagement with others that bind people to shared solutions. In thriller movies like King Kong or even slasher films, there is at least a notion of a shared enemy that everyone agrees to escape from or fight. In Twilight Zone, no such common cause can be identified, and the main characters often feel isolated, thinking they are the only ones who share their previously familiar values.
  Sometimes, I feel like the view of samsara is very much more like "Twilight Zone" than anything else. We often find ourselves caught in situations that can only be understood if we go into past lives that we have long since forgotten. Even then, there is no beginning cause whatsoever, and whatever I do to frame the solution of a problem is itself influenced by my conditioning. In this situation, I might find that the prevailing explanations don't fit my ideas or understanding, and the choice is either to acquiesce with socially accepted discourses on what's true or not true, or I might say that the current explanations don't suit or address the conditioned arising. Many people are told to choose the former, because it's easier to accept whatever ideologies are given to us and try our hardest to stay within their confines. It's only when a person's suffering is excrutiating or especially bothersome that they will think to push the boundaries into the latter. This is where all explanations start to lose their meaning, and one starts to see their problems as entry points to deeper existential riddles.