There is a good chance you will not like todays post. I have dispensed with the usual witticisms and imagery, going for a blander, direct approach…
Hotel California
I want to pose to you a radical idea. It’s not a new and certainly not mine. It’s something that has been floating around for at least a few thousand years and has been restated as many times, by all manner of teachers and traditions. It goes like this:
Real ‘Knowledge’ comes from ‘Letting Go’ of what you ‘Know’
It’s counter intuitive for sure, but I have found that the best things in life are. Intuition can be a bitch. Well that is, until you get to grips with it.
There is an inherent danger here however, because it is the hardest of things to do, this “Letting Go”. We try to let go, and in the letting go we ensnare ourselves tighter. Like a good hunters trap, you don’t see it, it grabs you (by charm, rather than harm) and then, the harder you work at getting out, the tighter it grips you.
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
I have seen it happen to many people first hand, I was / am a classic victim. In terms of society, billions are unknowingly effected. It is a disease that effects the intelligent with far greater ferocity because quick brains make for stronger bindings.
It comes from our natural aversion to facing uncertainty and doubt and if your into Darwinian thinking… this natural mode is there to help you with ‘Survival’.
We fill ‘uncertainty’ with ‘knowledge’ and then believe in our own bullshit, leading to Radical Certainty.
Here is an example progression that is a reflection of my life. You, no doubt, will have a slightly different version:
Was born into a world. The body-mind greeted with utter confusion. Had to learn everything, from who is Mummy & Daddy to Language and beyond. Relied on their authority and with good reason.
Went go to school. The boot codes were enhanced, learnt to read, write and think at higher levels of abstraction.
Started to surpass everyone around me. Ability to think independently expanded. Had to source knowledge from books and later, videos etc… on the internet.
Gulped down a few thousand books and courses to figure out what it’s all about.
Lost faith in mysticism. All Gods were stupid. Replaced it with the God of Science and the Scientific Method. Put my faith in Reason & Dawkins et al.
Ego expanded faster than capability. Oh yeah!
However, the deeper I went, the more I realized that everything I built, was on quicksand.
Radical doubt set in, leading to mental illness.
Turned to Spirituality to find stable ground. New Gurus were found to guide me.
Ego expanded again but this time, it was a spiritual expansion. Beautiful, life defining spiritual experiences attained.
Realized that I have replaced one form of ‘knowledge’ with another.
If that was quicksand, this was a swamp.
Realized that none of us know anything.
There are no heroes.
There is no authority.
Well, it was a bit more complicated than that, with wonderful twists and turns but you get the gist…
The Rock & A Hard Place
First, you realize you have limited knowledge, then to avoid the discomfort you have generally two ways to go:
If you are very bright and foolhardy, you can fill that hole with learning. This is costly. Learning is expensive, plus you’re limited by aptitude. However, you gain a certain amount of independence and express greater entrepreneurship in life.
If you are not so bright or so brave, you rely on Authority to tell you what is true and how to behave. You have less independence but gain more stability within society. You can get a job anywhere, have more friends and fit-in with your surroundings.
What I realized is, that Option 1, my original preferred option, is mostly a fantasy.
What we are really doing is “learning” from authority, the authority of books, teachers & experience, and then posing it as our own, in a grand swoop of self-hypnosis.
We forget that at great peril. It is the more dangerous of options because it is perfect food for the Ego. The Self-Made Man Syndrome.
People who opt for Option 2. Well, they take the authority wholesale and then promptly forget it is ‘knowledge from authority’, behaving as if it is knowledge obtained first hand.
They also generally have no idea that most sources of knowledge invest more time and energy in maintaining or expanding their superiority than giving the recipient anything genuine. The original Faustian Bargain.
At any point in life you are stuck between this Rock and a Hard Place.
And, what’s worse?
There doesn’t seem to be another option (except drugs). So we vacillate between the two. Sometimes, it is the gravity of the Rock, which is attractive, at others, it is the stability of the Hard Place.
What is to be done?
This is is the bit you’re not going to like…
There is not much to be done. “Letting Go” means just that. Letting go of dreams, of guru’s, of sacred texts, of stimulants, of knowledge, etc… of all authorities, including the self.
You have to let go of ‘Self Love’ and ‘Saving the Planet’.
**Correction** you don’t ‘have to’ do anything. It kind of just needs to get done. There are no words for this, in any language.
I’m working on it. Though there is actually nothing to work on.
And that’s,
The Vikid Truth