The First Step to Enlightenment

Learn how to confuse the fuck out of everyone.

-The Monochromatic Knight

 

What’s What, and on What It Might be Reasonable to Do about What’s What.

I

Nobody needs to go anywhere else. We are all, if we only knew it, already there.
If I only knew who in fact I am, I should cease to behave as what I think I am; and if I stopped behaving as what I think I am, I should know who I am.
What in fact I am, if only the Manichee I think I am would allow me to know it, is the reconciliation of yes and no lived out in total acceptance and the blessed experience of Not-Two.
In religion all words are dirty words. Anybody who gets eloquent about Buddha, or God, or Christ, ought to have his mouth washed out with carbolic soup.
Because his aspiration to perpetuate only the “yes” in every pair of opposites can never, in the nature of things, be realized, the insulated Manichee I think I am condemns himself to endlessly repeated frustration, endless repeated conflicts with other aspiring and frustrated Manichees.
Conflicts and frustrations- the theme of all history and almost all biography. “I show you sorrow,” said the Buddha realistically. But he also showed the endings of sorrow- self knowledge, total acceptance, the blessed experience of Not-Two.

II

Knowing who in fact we are results in Good Being, and Good Being results in the most appropriate kind of good doing. But good doing does not of itself result in Good Being. We can be virtuous without knowing who in fact we are. The beings who are merely good are not Good Beings they are just pillars of society.
Most pillars are their own Samsons. They hold up, but sooner or later they pull down. There has never been a society in which most good doing was the product of Good Being and therefore constantly appropriate. This does not mean that there will never be such a society or that we in Pala are fools for trying to call it into existence.

III

The Yogin and the Stoic- two righteous egos who achieve their very considerable results by pretending, systematically, to be somebody else. But it is not by pretending to be somebody else, even somebody supremely good and wise, that we can pass from insulated Manicheehood to Good Being.
Good Being is knowing who in fact we are; and in order to know who in fact we are, we must first know, moment by moment, who we think we are and what this bad habit of thought compels us to feel and do. A moment of clear and complete knowledge of what we think we are, but in fact are not, puts a stop, for the moment, to the Manichean Charade. If we renew, until they become a continuity, these moments of the knowledge, of what we are not, we may find ourselves, all of a sudden, knowing who in fact we are.
Concentration, abstract thinking, spiritual exercises- systematic exclusions in the realm of thought. Asceticism and hedonism- systematic exclusions in the realms of sensation, feeling and action. But Good Being is in the knowledge of who in fact one is in relation to all experiences. So be aware- aware in every context, at all times and whatever, creditable or discreditable, pleasant or unpleasant, you may be doing or suffering. This is only genuine yoga, the only spiritual exercise worth practicing.
The more a man knows about individual objects, the more he knows of God. Translating Spinoza’s language into ours, we can say: The more a man knows about himself in relation to every kind of experience, the greater his chance of suddenly, one fine morning, realizing who in fact he is- or rather Who (capital W) in Fact (capital F) “he” (between quotation marks Is (capital I).
St. John was right. In a blessedly speechless universe, the Word was not with God; it was God. As a something to be believed in. God is a projected symbol, a reified name. God = “God.”
Faith is something very different from belief. Belief is the systematic taking of unanalyzed words much too seriously. Paul’s words, Mohammed’s words, Marx’s words, Hitler’s words- people take them too seriously, and what happens? What happens is the senseless ambivalence of history, sadism versus duty, on (incomparably worse) sadism as duty; devotion counterbalanced by organized paranoia; sisters of charity selflessly tending the victims of their own church’s inquisitors and crusaders. Faith, on the contrary, can never be taken too seriously. For Faith is the empirically justified confidence in our capacity to know who in fact we are, to forget the belief-intoxicated Manichee in Good Being. Give us this day our daily Faith, but deliver us, dear God, from Belief.

From Aldous Huxley’s Island

 

Pt. 1: Descartes, reducing you to goo or “how am I not myself”.

If you’ve taken a philosophy class you’re probably familiar with Rene Descartes. In this post I will be using the foundation of one of his theories in a rather nontraditional format.

“Cogito Ergo Sum” translated from Latin – “I think, therefore I am”.

This is probably one of the most influential phrases in the history of philosophy. Descartes considered the ‘cogito’ to reveal an absolute truth. The statement came to him while he was expressing doubts about the certainty of all aspects of knowledge. Some examples of such a skeptical stance:

-Knowledge is based on experience (or the senses), which are sometimes unreliable, and so cannot provide an indubitable foundation for truth.
-The life we live, and the world we live in, may be nothing more than a dream, and so we may not be certain of it

Having reached what he considers to be the ultimate level of doubt- Descartes examines his beliefs to see if any have survived the doubt. When he calls into question the certainty of his own existence he realizes his belief in existence is secured, for how could one doubt unless one existed to experience the doubt? (I think, therefore I am)

He continues in his Meditation and presents us with a piece of wax. We can observe a candle to have one form, yet change shape when exposed to a high enough temperature. If someone were to walk into the room and notice the pool of liquid, they would have to rely on your word that it was once a candle. On the other hand, you saw the candle stick, observed it change form, and saw its new form.

What does this tell us?

First and foremost, mental concepts are necessary for us to deal with time and space. We need to use our mind to create a sense of linearity. The candle, the melting process, and the pool of wax. What is this absolutely dependent on? The idea of each, i.e. Memory!

(From this point onward I will mostly diverge from Descartes)

If your body, like wax, changes form as you grow older, than how do you know you’re the same person you were five years ago? Biologically and physically speaking, the vast majority of your current cells are not the ones you were born with. If you’re not physically the same, how do you know, while you read this post that you’re the same person you were when you were born?  You believe you are the same because you have particular memories from different stages of your life which create a sense of linearity! Your self-concept is merely a mental construct!

Now, how does your mental construct make you feel?  How often have you wanted to do something yet waited until it was too late? The decisions you make and the actions you perform are often deeply connected to your self-concept. You may say to yourself “I’m not that kind of guy” or “It’s not in my nature”. Also, an individual whose self-concept is full of insecurity and overrun with self-doubt will experience higher levels of stress. This correlates to various effects such as increased likelihood of physiological problems and psychological distress.

Now that I (with Descartes help) have reduced you to an identity-less goo, and perhaps you’ve come to realize aspects of yourself which you would like to change, I will proceed to provide you with insights into how you may choose to reconstruct yourself. Remember, your self-concept has grown with you for many years. Altering it may be a challenge and abandoning it altogether can be perilous. Our identities provide us with a safety blanket, a lookout post from which we can see the world. The farther out you venture the more twists and turns you’ll encounter. But not to fear, for what you need to overcome is yourself.

In the next series of posts I will present you with a number of observations by various intellectuals, psychologists, academics, and other such weirdoes. You will read about techniques used to ‘hack’ or modify your self-concept, and insights into how some groups use this knowledge to manipulate you as well as others.

 

Meaning of: Turn on, tune in, drop out

I must admit that I was under the wrong impression about the meaning behind the slogan coined by Timothy Leary. I do not advocate his approach to psychedelic drugs, because it was often reckless. Nonetheless, here is his explanation of ‘Turn on, Tune in, Drop out’.

Leary explained in his 1983 autobiography Flashbacks: “Turn on’ meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers that engage them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end. ‘Tune in’ meant interact harmoniously with the world around you – externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives. Drop out suggested an elective, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. ‘Drop Out’ meant self-reliance, a discovery of one’s singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean ‘Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity.”

 

Search for the Meaning of Life (also why Nymphos, Recycled Virgins, Alcoholics and Yogis do not agree on the Meaning of Life)

What made me write this article? Well, just an hour earlier I read a blog entry in which an author was comparing 4 different people – a sex addict, a God addict (Christian), an alcoholic and a yogi (3 hours of yoga a day). He came to the conclusion that since those 4 people were attaining a feeling of wholeness, happiness and togetherness through their pursuits; that it is wholeness, happiness and togetherness that we all need in order to be satisfied as human beings. It is an interesting notion.

I am aware that we very often do not feel whole, happy and together and that it is painful. We never really meet the goals that we set for ourselves, we never really measure up to what we perceive ourselves to be capable of. We attach ourselves, we judge ourselves, we always strive for more. That is the reality of a Western lifestyle and it becomes more and more obvious as a person grows up.

Now, there are numerous ways of temporarily breaking through this state – among them the numerous addictions that have been pointed out by the author of the blog entry.

Alcohol is a depressant – it takes away certain functions of our mind while being consumed – among those the feelings of emptiness, fear, paranoia. That is why it gives us the illusion of being whole and happy. After the intoxication ends the feeling returns even worse than it was felt before and it takes a couple of hours to get back to starting point from which the only road is to drink again. Been there, done that.

Sex is the easiest tool of losing yourself in an action. The same way that a professional sportsman enters a zone in which nothing else exists than the acitivity that he is doing, the person who is having sex can lose him/herself in the activity. Sex is the easiest way of attaining this temporary higher state of consciousness. It also calms you down after the point of orgasm – orgasms releases endorphins and raise serotonin levels. Once again though, sex will not give you a permanent state of wholeness, happiness and contentment.

Belief in God and yoga are different – rather than being tools to the temporary attainment of happiness and wholeness, through the continuous practice the practicioner attains them semi-permanently, for as long as he continuously practices and believes in his practice. He does not only feel whole while practising – rather his whole life becomes the practice and the feelings last.

So, there are temporary, semi-permanent and permanent ways of attaining wholeness. Those temporary methods are known to us all, semi-permanent ways too. Yet, many people feel it impossible to enter the semi-permanent states as they believe that belief in God is an uninformed jump in logic and a lie, while yoga is a strange pursuit for those who are too weak for the gym, or female. These people are partially right in that the belief in God is a jump in logic – there is no proof for the existence of God except for personal experience. Yet, they only need to be shown glimpses of higher states, whether through psychedelic drugs, meditation, prayer, yoga, spontaneous experiences, psychological turmoil, release of addictions, aesthetic beauty, near-death experiences or other ways, and they change their opinion. Why is that? I have been a witness of a lot of people questioning the non-existence of ‘something divine’ or at least ‘the inexplicable’ and it is often-times very beautiful to witness. And no, it is not self-delusion.

Ever wondered why the hippie or the yogi is happier than the investment banker? I guess that getting high on happiness works better than getting high on money, stress and adrenaline. Yet a combination of both brings more potential growth.

 

To return to the first question I asked – what is the meaning of life? Well, I don’t think that the meaning of life has anything to do with what I have been writing about so far. In order to feel happy, content and whole it is not enough to intoxicate yourself – almost all my friends have taken this path in order to alleviate the feelings of alienation, confusion and indecisiveness that all young adults feel, yet they are still unhappy and report feeling empty and depressed. Maybe it really is worth it to put some work into understanding yourself better and working out your issues.

 

But the meaning of life – I don’t worry myself with the global and transpersonal meaning of life. I am happy to quote my friend with whom I had the pleasure of spending New Years with. He said: ‘You have to love – everyone, everywhere.’ I laughed at the time (as he was lying on the floor unable to say anything else and repeating his message of love every 20 seconds – for 2 hours) but to be absolutely honest, loving yourself and everyone else is not a bad meaning of life. As to the personal meaning of life – well, you are the only one who can give yourself a meaning to life – what you do, and what you set out to do is the meaning of life that you have (un)consciously given yourself. Be careful what you wish for.

 

If you have to do something in order to achieve happiness then it is not happiness that you are achieving. Happines is in the here and now.

In other words: If you have a goal set as a prerequisite for the attainment of happiness, ie. ‘I will be happy when I’m rich’, or ‘I’ll be happy when I make some friends’, then the attainment of that goal will not bring you happiness. It will not last – but find out for yourself. The trick is to be happy with what you are and have, right now, right here.