Ever wished people with new ideas would just shut up already and keep it to themselves? Or secretly desire that people with alternative political agendas other than bipartisanism would just climb back under their rock?
Or secretly hope that all those heathen books with their anti-my-holy-book thoughts in them would just burn already? Then this article is just for you.
Here are seven ways to remain rigidly close-minded in an ever-awakening, consciousness-shifting, progressively-evolving world.
1.) Never question your beliefs
Questioning beliefs is scary. So it’s best to avoid it altogether. Remain in a fixed state. Cling to your basket for dear life. It has all your eggs in it, after all. Use your faith like a shield. Don’t let anything in. Be invulnerable to knowledge.
If anything seems even remotely threatening to your faith –which you’ve precariously built into a wall from the outdated steppingstones of sycophants past and which looms precariously upon the quicksand of ill-reason and sentimental flotsam– simply ignore it, suppress it, or just allow cognitive dissonance to safely wash it away.
The warm, comforting security blanket of your belief will keep you nice and cozy against a scary, never-fixed, ever-changing world.
2.) Practice apathy, not empathy
Whatever you do, don’t put yourself in another person’s shoes. They probably stink worse than yours do anyway. Leave empathy to Jesus or Buddha or Muhammad.
They are more versed in compassion and turning the other cheek. Stick with apathy. Be as indifferent about others as possible. If you give them too much attention, they’ll just rock your all-too-comfortable boat.
Don’t rock your all-too-comfortable boat! You need it to remain afloat atop the stormy seas of the unknown that constantly threaten to drown you. Cling to your pietistic and/or irreverent ego. The ennui will pass, and the certainty of what you think you know will wash over you and keep you “level-headed.”
3.) Don’t think outside the box
The box is warm and safe. The box is the state. The box is the church. The box is nationalism and patriotism. The box is anything you’ve been preconditioned into believing is necessarily the case, even if it isn’t. Stay in it anyway. The box is your safe place, and you want so badly to remain safe, comfortable, and secure, right?
There’s no reason to make yourself uncomfortable. And you can always decorate the box. Though I would stay away from art, especially radical art. It would just corrupt your safe place. It would bring too much color to your colorless view of the universe. Black and white is just fine.
4.) Don’t be open to new ideas
If, however, you actually manage to climb outside the box, make sure you never read anything. Stick to that holy book handed down to you from your forefathers. You know, the one reeking of self-righteousness and parochial values deemed uncouth by the passage of time. Read it anyway.
Quote it often. If someone gets in your face about a new idea that might propel the human race forward, lean on it like a crutch and stop their blasphemous momentum. New ideas are sacrilegious at worst and dangerous at best. Better to just ignore them. Once again, cognitive dissonance can be your knight in shining armor and save the day.
5.) Be intolerant of people who are different
Stick to generalizations. Stick to believing that those “others” from Whereveristan are all just immoral savages who want to destroy everything you hold dear. Best to just bomb them and be done with it. They bomb us; we bomb them. An eye for an eye, right? Who cares if our bomb kills innocent people?
It’s their fault for growing up in a third-world country instead of making something of their lives. Chock it up to collateral damage and simply get right with God & country. Who cares if those innocent people’s family members get pissed off and join radical extremist groups that just want to watch the world burn. That’s in “God’s hands.”
6.) Take authority very seriously
Never question authority. Whether it’s the state’s authority or the church’s. These structures are sacred and built to keep you safe and secure in your creature comforts. The state’s hired thugs guard all your things, things, things, while safeguarding the illusory borderlines between us and them.
The untaxed church guards the sanctity of your ascent into life eternal while sugarcoating death and relieving you of existential angst. Don’t worry that this means you’ll have to live a fear-based life instead of a courage-based one.
And don’t worry that you’ll be paranoid for the rest of your life. Who cares if authority consists of fallible, mistake-ridden, imperfect naked apes just like you. They know what they’re doing.
7.) Stick to self-righteousness
Make sure to take yourself too seriously. Imagine everything revolves around you. Force people into respecting you, your nation, your political bent, and your religion. And if they don’t, use the ad hominem approach. Attack their character instead of their ideas. Or just appeal to authority. Point at your nation’s principles or your holy book, while making sure to ignore any principles or books they might be pointing out.
It’s so easy it’s stupid. Before you know it, you’ll have taken yourself so seriously that you can’t see anything else but the enormity of your all-encompassing, obese ego that fills up the box you’ve pigeonholed yourself into. Who cares if you’ll have to remain the butt-end of the cosmic joke. It’s all a joke anyway. God forbid you laugh.
The Chakras are spots throughout our body that influences our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. They hold certain messages for us, and enable us to connect to these messages.
We are at peace when our chakras are balanced and sending us the right messages. But this doesn’t always happen naturally; as we go through life, we encounter a variety of experiences, which will inevitably push us off balance sometimes.
Not to mention the messages we pick up from childhood and such. So throughout our spiritual journeys, we must always come back and check up on our chakras to make sure that everything is working together in harmony. These messages can help anyone find the tools they need to lead a healthy and balanced life.
Tapping into the power of positive affirmations is one of the most effective ways to balance our chakras. Our thoughts create our reality, and by regularly practising positive chakra balancing affirmations, we can achieve astonishing results in our lives.
Chances are when you read through these affirmations you will feel connected to some more than others; this means you probably have work to do in this area (or that it’s a place you did work on in the past, which means it wouldn’t hurt to reinforce the messages).
I chose to arrange this starting from the Crown Chakra and working down to the Root Chakra, as I benefit from working my way down in a way of gradually grounding myself.
But if you are a person that would benefit more in being less attached to the world, then it would be helpful to work from the Root up to the Crown.
Feel free to go from top to bottom and back up again. Make it your own healing ritual and you will be left feeling centered and more at peace with yourself.
The Crown Chakra (located at the top of your head), honors spiritual connectedness. Imagine that it is the place in your body that connects you to the world above (a.k.a. the abstract and metaphysical).
Sometimes, we may feel that this connection is broken, or shaky at the least, and therefore have a feeling of being too connected to the physical world and not enough spiritual inspiration.
To heal the Crown Chakra, read these affirmations while focusing on the spot at the top of your head. Imagine a white or purple colored light connecting you to that which is outside of yourself.
(Note: while doing these meditations it is always helpful to rest your hand, or place something, on the body part indicated. This will direct the energy of the affirmations directly to the spot and help you focus clearly on the area.)
“I am part of the divine.”
“I seek to understand, and learn from my life experiences.”
“I am connected and listen to the wisdom of the universe.”
“I am one with the universe. I cannot detach from it, as it cannot detach from me.”
“I cherish my spirit.”
“I am open to divine wisdom.”
“I live in the present moment.”
“My life moves with grace.”
The Brow Chakra (a.k.a the third eye, located in the center of your forehead), honors and governs our psychic and intuition abilities. When our brow chakra is wounded we may feel that we are disconnected from our inner wisdom, and it’s power to guide our life. An inability to see our own fears, and learn important lessons from others may also be present.
To heal the Brow Chakra, focus on these affirmations while imagining an indigo light in the center of your forehead. “I am in touch with my inner guidance.”
“I listen to my deepest wisdom.”
“I am wise, intuitive, and connected with my inner guide.”
“I nurture my spirit.”
“I trust my intuition.”
“I forgive the past and learn what was there for me to learn.”
“I am grateful for the goodness in my life.”
“I am open to inspiration and ideas.”
“I am the source of my truth.”
“My life moves effortlessly.”
The Throat Chakra governs communication, expression, and creativity. One who feels that they cannot, or do not, have the right to express their truth or opinions, may have a wounded throat chakra that is blocking them.
To heal the Throat Chakra, touch your throat and imagine it filling up with a blue light. After reading these affirmations, imagine your throat filling up with your truths, opinions, or any blocked expression you feel, and breathe it out until you can no longer feel a blockage.
Since the Throat Chakra is located in the vocal chords, try to use your voice as much as possible during this meditation, whether it’s reading the affirmations out loud or just humming a quick tune to get your vocal chords vibrating.
“I am open, clear, and honest, in my communication.”
“I have a right to speak my truth.”
“I communicate my feelings with ease.”
“I have a strong will that let’s me resolve my challenges.”
“I express myself through creativity, writing, or art.”
“I nourish my spirit through creativity.”
“I live an authentic life.”
“I have integrity.”
“I can share my experiences and wisdom.”
“I listen to my body and feelings to know what my truth is.”
The Heart Chakra (located in the center of the chest), honors the heart and emotions. When our heart chakra is off-balance we may experience “over-loving” to the extent of suffocation, jealousy, feelings of abandonment, anger, bitterness, or loneliness.
To heal the Heart Chakra, place palm or object over your chest (close to the heart), and imagine a healing green (or emerald) light glowing in your chest.
“I deeply, and completely, love and accept myself.”
“I am open to love.”
“I nurture my inner child.”
“I am wanted and loved.”
“I live in balance; in a state of grace and gratefulness.”
“I forgive myself.”
“I am connected with other human beings.”
“I am grateful for the challenges that help me transform and open up to love.”
“I am open to love and kindness.”
The Solar Plexus Chakra (located under the chest area, and above the navel), honors strength, identity, and life force. When imbalanced a person may have issues with personal power and self-esteem. The inner critic comes out in this imbalance, and fears of rejection, criticism, and judgment may be present.
To heal the Solar Plexus Chakra, imagine a yellow light filling up your insides between the chest and naval. Since this chakra deals with self-respect, sit (or if standing, stand) up straight and feel the power filling you up as you read these affirmations.
“I love and accept myself.”
“I am strong and courageous.”
“I am worthy of love, kindness, and respect.”
“I am proud of my achievements.”
“I honor my self.”
“I choose healthy relationships.”
“I direct my own life.”
“I am free to choose in any situation.”
“I seek opportunities for personal and spiritual growth.”
The Sacral Chakra (located below the navel by the reproductive organs), honors the body, sexuality, and pleasurable experiences. When our sacral chakra is off balance we are blocked in our sexuality, commitment, and the ability to enjoy experiences or take care of our body properly.
To heal the Sacral Chakra, place hand over your lower abdomen and fill it up with an orange light.
“I love and accept my body.”
“I have healthy boundaries.”
“I am open to experiencing the present moment through my senses.”
“I am passionate.” “I feel pleasure and abundance with every breath I take.”
“I nourish my body with healthy food and clean water.”
“I know how to take care of my needs.”
“I value and respect my body.”
“I allow myself to experience pleasure.”
“My sexuality is sacred.”
The Root Chakra (located at the base of your spine/tail bone), honors the earth and our basic survival and physical needs. When our root chakra is out of whack, we may feel very disconnected from the earth and our earthly needs. A feeling of being unsafe or floaty in the world may also be present.
To heal the Root Chakra, feel a red light filling up the root spot and imagine it radiating into the earth; grounding and connecting you to your surroundings.
“I feel deeply rooted.”
“I am connected to my body.”
“I feel safe and secure.”
“Just like a tree or a star, I have the right to be here.”
“I have what I need.”
“I am grounded, stable, and standing on my own two feet.”
“I nourish my body with healthy food, water, exercise, relaxation, and connection to nature.”
“I trust in the goodness of life.”
“I make choices that are healthy and good for me.”
“I trust myself.”
These meditations can be done at any time of the day. Find a time and place that feels best to you, and repeat it as many times as you’d like. It can only bring more healing, the more it’s done. If you believe in the power of healing, you will surely notice the immense changes that positive affirmations can have on your spirit. I hope these meditations help you center yourself and lead a healthier, more balanced life.
“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” ~ Franz Kafka
Listen! You have from this moment until the day you die to live the life you want to live; to do exactly what it is you love, whatever that is.
But some people don’t know themselves well enough to know what they love. Sometimes a spiritual journey is needed. Sometimes a leap of courage is just what the witch-doctor ordered.
Ask yourself: Am I okay with living a life without a spiritual journey? If the answer is yes, then by all means stop reading, bury yourself in a single, one-right-way doctrine, lean on it like a crutch, and just become religious. It’s the easier path (just remember: you can’t kickstart a dead horse).
If, however, the answer is no, then read on and imagine yourself as the creator of your own journey, and become authentically spiritual. It’s exceedingly more difficult, but definitely more rewarding. There will be giants whose shoulders you can stand on, like Jesus, Buddha and Nietzsche. There will even be crutches to lean on from time to time. Just remember, crutches have always had more utility in dust, lest we become lazy and move through life as a spiritual cripple.
Sometimes you’ll discover the voice box of God and be able to sound it like a bullhorn from your own throat chakra. Sometimes your voice will be meek and the words of others will be needed to compel you to sing. Sometimes, often, the spiritual path begins where the religious one ends.
Either way, the point of a spiritual journey is to discover yourself discovering yourself. Once you begin, it never really ends. But you have to begin in order to feel how the journey is the thing. But beginning a new journey can sometimes be daunting and scary, especially a spiritual one.
Our comfort zones can only stretch so far before we snap. So here are seven ways to marinate our comfort zones so they are more elastic and flexible for the arduous spiritual journey ahead.
1) Listen intently for the call to adventure
“What is it we are questing for? It is the fulfillment of that which is potential in each of us. Questing for it is not an ego trip; it is an adventure to bring into fulfillment your gift to the world, which is yourself. There is nothing you can do that’s more important than being fulfilled. You become a sign, you become a signal, transparent to transcendence; in this way you will find, live, become a realization of your own personal myth.” ~ Joseph Campbell
Call to adventure. Beginning initiation. Descent into soul. Transition into heroism. Call it what you will. It’s there, speaking a language that doesn’t use words. So if you want to hear it, you have to be open to hearing it. It can arrive in many ways. It can appear as unfortunate luck or unlucky fortune, or vice versa.
It can come from tripping over success or jumping over defeat. It can come from an earthquake or a thunderstorm or an entheogen. It can come from death, or birth, or both.
There’s no telling when or where it will happen, but when it happens you will know it. The universe lines up like it was designed for you. And it is!
So wherever you go, be the ears of that place. Listen with Over Ears, like as if you are a Cheshire cat perched on a cosmic tree branch listening to all things. Hone your listening skills through meditation in solitude. Sink back into the Source. Listen to silence.
2) Fearlessly embrace fear
“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.” ~ Rumi
A funny thing happens when you’re no longer afraid of fear. Your soul opens up. Your ego shrinks into a tool for your soul. Your heart overflows. And suddenly nothing can stop you, because you’re able to use your ego to leverage your soul into the world with proactive intent. You become a force to be reckoned with, the tip of the spear of the spiritual journey.
They say happiness is a choice. Well, it’s the same thing with courage. Courageous people don’t sit around waiting for courage to compel them, they choose to be courageous despite the fear which seeks to cripple them. So if you’re sincere about beginning a spiritual journey, choose courage.
Fear will roll off like water off a ducks back. And even if it doesn’t, your courage will find a way to transform it into even more courage. Proceed as if courage is inevitable and genius will arrive. As Henry Van Dyke said, “Genius is talent set on fire by courage.”
3) Read; read; read
“A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.” ~ George R.R. Martin
Keep your mind sharp enough to cut through any and all red tape. Spiritual journeys are not easy. They require an upheaval of the heart, a soul recalibration. One way to be prepared for the worst is to read –a lot. Sometimes it’s the wisdom discovered in a good book that launches a spiritual journey.
Reading puts the “Thoreau” in being thorough. Words compel us and liberate us. But they can just as easily silence us and imprison us. Which is why we need to read more than just one book. As Rudyard Kipling said, “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
But unlike any other drug, the more words the better, because the more ideas we derive from those words, the less likely we are to hang our hats on any single idea. The more likely we are to, as Aristotle said, “entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Diversity is the key with this particular drug of choice. It has launched more spiritual journeys than any other drug known to Man.
4) Travel; travel; travel
“If the philosopher holds aloof, it’s not for reputation’s sake. The fact is that it’s his body that’s in the state, here on a visit, while his thought, disdaining all such things as worthless, takes wings.” ~ Theaetetus
Much travel is needed before the ignorant man matures into a spiritually aware being. Traveling puts life into perspective. It all at once stretches cultural comfort zones, shatters preconceived mental paradigms, and flattens conditioned boxes. The body on the move puts the mind into motion which calibrates the soul to proactively adapt and overcome to any given moment.
Seeking other states, other lives, other ways of leveraging our soul, leads to a profound understanding of impermanence and change. We see, hear, smell, taste, and feel how things are constantly in motion, how there is no such thing as a fixed state. We interdependently crush out.
This leads to a spiritual transcendence of any given state of travel, where each sojourn is merely a link in the chain of the overall journey that compels us to keep moving, to not stagnate or become too comfortable. It is the mark of a well-traveled man to entertain a place without clinging to it.
5) Use pain as a steppingstone
“You might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.” ~ Bruce Lee
Use your wounds as a reason to heal. Pain, grief, spiritual angst, these can all be transformed into information that can guide us into a spiritual journey. Instead of wallowing in self-pity or bludgeoning ourselves with whiney, woe-is-me, tiny-ego placation; we can turn the tables on our tiny ego and use it as a tool to leverage some soulcraft into our understanding of the current existential dilemma.
What we discover on the other side of that dynamic is that our tiny-ego blossoms into a robust confidence that our soul can capitalize on by transforming boundaries into horizons, obstacles into reasons to apply newer, more imaginative strategies, and pain into steppingstones that have the potential to launch us into a heightened state of spiritual awareness. This is not to say that we should ignore the pain, or suppress it.
Not at all. In fact, in order to alchemize pain into self-actualization, one must first embrace it, honor it, and let it have its say. But after crying, after the sacred decompression, there’s no reason to wallow in tears. Better to use those tears as fuel for beginning a spiritual journey.
6) Surrender to adventure (in chunks)
“For aren’t you and I gods? Let all of life be an unfettered howl. Release life’s rapture. Everything is blooming. Everything is flying. Everything is screaming. Laughter. Running.” ~ Vladimir Nabokov
Surrender to adventure in small chunks. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Don’t get intimidated by how daunting it all is. Just remember, everything is connected, and the longer you wait between adventures, the less likely you are to gain any real spiritual traction.
You’ll just give yourself more of a reason to toss up walls of fear, or to take the blue pill instead of the red, or you’ll just browbeat yourself with inside-the-box, comfortable and secure reasoning that will keep you from ever pushing your comfort zone to see how far it can stretch before it snaps.
Better to stretch, feel the heat, maybe even get burned a little, then retract, heal the burn, and come out of the experience as a more robust individual with an even bigger comfort zone. Then repeat.
Eventually your comfort zone will be so flexible and so big that you can officially declare yourself on a spiritual journey. Practice surrendering to adventure as much as possible, and before you know it, you’ll be spending more time on adventurous seas than on comfortable shorelines
7) Cherish the moment; remember the journey is the thing
“Mysticism wonders not how the world is but that the world is.” ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein
Whether or not yours is a spiritual journey you’ve just begun or one that simply grew stale over time, it requires honest and loving engagement with the present moment. Who you are right now is fundamentally different than who you were when your journey began, or even who you were yesterday.
The journey that launched a billion journeys always begins right now with the you-of-now that is constantly changing from the you-of-yesterday into the you-of-tomorrow. As Barbara Deangelis said, “The journey between what you once were and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life really takes place.” So dance.
Remember to fall in love with the moment. Remember to be awestruck. Don’t forget to be fascinated by the magnanimous grandeur of it all. The journey is the thing, true, but it goes deeper than that –the moment is the thing too.
The here and now is the thing. The infinite present is the thing. All things that have ever, or will ever, mean anything, is contained in this instant that connects to all other instants.
So enjoy it. Revel in it. Be it. Become deep gratitude. Become loving appreciation. Being present to this moment, more than any non-present moment, has the potential to launch a spiritual journey. Indeed. You are the journey, not the destination. And it always begins right Now.
Often in relationships, we reach a point when we feel we do not understand our partners. Not only that, but we feel that no matter how hard we try to explain our “side of the story” they’re just not getting it.
Fights, disagreements, or just tough conversations may ensue, and this makes sense, as we all try to understand, and be understood by our loved ones. But do we have a constructive argument or just fights?
I’m grateful because my partner and I know how to talk about issues in a way that helps us deal with them, instead of just flinging our emotions at each other.
I’m an intense introvert, and she’s very extroverted. I crave separation and alone time, and she likes to feel that we stay connected throughout the day. I have trouble expressing myself, and she expresses herself constantly.
So how do we figure anything out when we are coming from two drastically different sides? We talk, we listen, we compromise, and we plan our higher selves together.
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” ~ Carl Jung
Here are some questions to ask yourself or your partner when you don’t seem to be having a constructive argument.
Are we talking about the same thing?
My partner and I know that we are both aiming for the same goal, and that is to become our highest selves. This would not work if one partner is aiming for their higher self and the other is looking out only for their own needs.
In order to have a constructive argument, you need two people sharing the same value. Even if the value is to make the relationship work. Then each partner is motivated to do their part.
On another level, are we arguing about the same thing? If I’ve come to talk about my need for space, and she’s come to talk about her need for connection, then we will end up trying to convince the other of our need instead of the relationships needs.
If so, make separate times to talk about each; that way you are fully focused on each one.
Should I compromise or hold my ground?
There are things about each person that they cannot, and should not, change; and then there are the things that we all must alter and compromise in order to reach our highest self.
So whenever we have an “argument” with our partner we must first ask ourselves, “Is the thing I’m being asked to change, something that’s a part of me, or is it a blockage to my higher self?” When you question yourself it helps turn it into a constructive argument.
I will always be an introvert. I need my alone time to recharge, think, and reconnect with myself. But, reaching out from the recesses of my alone time to let my partner know when I’ll be home is not compromising myself. It’s actually adding to my higher self, where I try to be aware of other people’s feelings and realities.
Sometimes, change and compromise is hard, and it may go against our nature. But which nature is it going against? Are you being asked to communicate more when your nature is to hold your feelings inside?
Are you being asked to listen more, when your nature is to be expressive? For each compromise, ask yourself, “Is this change bringing me closer to my true and higher self, or is it taking me away from myself?”
What am I being asked to do in reality?
Following what we said above, we must now decide something else. How can I move from conceptualization into reality? Make a plan to implement your ideas right away. Let’s say I’ve decided that I need to be more expressive with my partner.
So I plan that the next time I don’t know how to express something, I will write it down and share it with my partner. It’s easy to say you’ll do something, and another to implement a plan to get it done.
You can set a reminder on your phone to call your partner when they asked. If words are hard for you, leave notes for your partner that express your love. Be creative, and find something that will help you out in the beginning when it still feels unnatural to you.
Do I know how to be in the other’s shoes?
If you and your partner are drastically different, there will come times when you are adamantly fighting for something without hearing what your partner is trying to say. A good thing to practice is leaping into the other’s shoes.
If you find that you and your partner have fallen into specific roles: the giver and the receiver, the chaser and the runner, the mother and the child, the doer, the planner, the listener, the buyer, etc.
Whatever roles you find yourself filling, acknowledge them and switch roles for a day, or even a week. This will give you both a relief from filling your roles; making you realize that it’s okay to break the patterns, and give you the appreciation for your partner’s role as well.
Do I (or my partner) have any past issues that are holding us back?
We are all made up of our life as it’s been until now, and this can sometimes get in the way of our relationships.
Whether we’ve been hurt in the past, or carry fears from our childhood; everyone comes with some baggage. It’s very important to acknowledge the issues we carry, and lay them out for ourselves and our partners to deal with in a healthy manner.
Most of the time, our reactions have more to do with our past than the current situation. So it’s important to be able to admit that what was said or done has triggered a past trauma. It’s okay to say things along the lines of, “When you walk out while we’re talking, it triggers my fears of rejection and makes me feel…etc.”.
Note: This is not meant to accommodate fears and past traumas. Past traumas cannot be used as an excuse to treat each other harshly or unfairly. Knowing each other’s past and fears gives you the ability to make each other feel safe while you work on healing those issues.
At the end of the day, disagreements are normal in every relationship, but there are constructive arguments, and less constructive ways to have these conversations with your loved one.
Each discussion, if carried out in a mature and enlightened manner, should end with a feeling of accomplishment and understanding of the other. This is what constructive arguments are all about!
“You have to take seriously the notion that understanding the universe is your responsibility, because the only understanding of the universe that will be useful to you is your own understanding.” ~ Terence McKenna
What does it mean to be authentically existential? In this article I attempt to answer that question by comparing and contrasting the fear-based position of nihilism, theism and the fixed state, with that of the courage-based position of anti-nihilism, existentialism and the freed state. Let’s break it down.
Nihilism, theism, and the fixed state
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” ~ Shakespeare
These are fear-based ontological dispositions toward meaning. The main reason most people fall into these three categories is because most would rather dodge the responsibility of self-meaning, of discovering meaning for oneself. Mainly because people are lazy, but also because discovering self-meaning is just too damn scary.
If we allow ourselves to be the master of our fate, a spiritual warrior instead of a victim for example, then we have no one to blame but ourselves if things don’t turn out well.
We alone are responsible for the meaning we create, and that’s a very scary prospect for most people to handle. Let’s delve a little into each.
Nihilism
“The life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.” ~ David Hume
Nihilists are victims of fear because they fearfully reject their spirit and the expense of their humanity. They extremely renounce any meaning whatsoever. They embrace apathy and ennui while rejecting empathy and happiness because there is no meaning and everyone is nothing but an infinitesimal flash in the pan in an infinitely overwhelming and engulfing universe, so why even bother with meaning in the first place.
They are cynical and pessimistic to the extreme. They suffer from an irreverent-ego that paints the perception of reality into a lethargic, dispirited lack of concern for anything, while clinging to nothingness as if it were everything. As such, nihilism leads to spiritual stagnation.
Theism
“Time makes ancient good uncouth.” ~ James Russell Lowell
Theists are victims of fear because they fearfully reject their humanity for their spirit. They extremely defend their idea of meaning. They embrace blind faith and a self-righteous good that’s based upon parochial and outdated religious doctrines.
They suffer from a pietistic-ego that paints their perception of reality into a pigeonholed, dogmatic fundamentalism while clinging to antiquated beliefs that the passage of time has rendered uncouth.
They have placed all their eggs into a single basket, which they cling to for dear life. They vainly attempt to cram their notions of infinity into the finite paradigm of their belief at the expense of infinity (God) itself. As such, theism leads to spiritual stagnation.
Fixed States
“Life oscillates like a pendulum, back and forth between pain and boredom.” ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
What do theism and nihilism have in common? They are both based in fear, they both suffer from extremism, and they both vainly and naively attempt to cling to a fixed state. In short: they are afraid of change. They don’t want to have to answer to cause and effect, vicissitude, or impermanence.
They want things to be comfortable, to fit nicely into place, and to be securely permanent despite impermanence. They want their answers ––spoon-fed; crutch-leaned; pigeonholed–– to remain the answer, despite the Truth. As such, they lash out, they kick and they scream at anything that attempts to pull them away from their seeming need for things to remain the same.
Their tiny egos, whether pietistic or irreverent, are so afraid of the unknown that they cling to their fixed state with white knuckles and self-righteous vehemence. As such, the fixed state leads to spiritual stagnation.
Anti-nihilism, existentialism, and the freed state
“He who does not answer the questions has passed the test.” ~ Franz Kafka
This is the other side of the ontological coin. These are courage-based dispositions toward meaning. The reason most people do not fall into these three categories is because it takes courage, passionate and empathic self-love/Agape-love, fearless forgiveness, and high humor.
It takes spiritual grit and trial-&-error resolve to become personally responsible for creating self-meaning. One must be okay with being wrong, with being fallible, and with being an imperfect human being.
But in the next instant one must also at least attempt to do better, to become healthier, and to strive toward wisdom and enlightenment. Even if, and maybe even especially if, it’s all for naught. Let’s delve a little into each.
Anti-nihilism
“The Church says: the body is a sin. Science says: the body is a machine. Advertising says: The body is a business. The Body says: I am a fiesta.” ~ Eduardo Galeano
Anti-nihilists are courageous because they dare to turn the tables on nihilism. They embrace nihilism. But rather than dwell on it, rather than drown in the glass-is-half-empty ennui of it all, they decide to swim, and they keep swimming.
But they’re looking for waves, and before you know it they’re surfing. They courageously catch the Giant Wave of Meaninglessness and thereon declare meaning within their surfing. So what it’s all meaningless? So what it’s all an illusion?
So what it’s all a giant void of nothingness with us suffering at the center of a giant cosmic joke? It’s our meaninglessness within which to create my own meaning. It’s our illusion to play with. We are the ones laughing at the cosmic joke instead of merely being the butt-end of it. As such, the anti-nihilist becomes the spiritual personification of freedom.
Existentialism
“There can be no transformation in the world outside unless there is transformation from within. It is our responsibility to bring about a radical transformation within ourselves.” ~ Krishnamurti
Existentialists are courageous because they directly and proactively engage in creating meaning for themselves despite the inherent meaninglessness of the universe and in spite of the overall absurdity of existence.
They understand that absurdity doesn’t lie in an ontological condition, but in an existential contradiction: it is the primary paradox of human conception.
How to find meaning in a meaningless universe. How to find meaning when “meaning” only means something according to the creator of the meaning: us. So the existentialist is aware of being a pivot for meaning itself.
They embrace the fact that they alone must leverage meaning into their own lives, and then be responsible with the consequences of such leveraging. As such, existentialists become the spiritual personification of freedom.
The Freed State
“What labels me, negates me.” ~ Søren Kierkegaard
At the end of the day, even anti-nihilism and existentialism are merely labels. The freed state is authentic existentialism. The freed state sheds all labels, even as it occasionally dons them.
A person who has achieved a free state of existence comes and goes as she pleases. She dips in and dips out. She swims freely through all labels, titles, names, brands, prejudices, beliefs, thoughts, and dispositions.
She dons a mask, then she breaks it, and then she dons another. She slips into the cloak of nihilism and then slips out into the cloak of anti-nihilism, enjoying the sport of it.
She slides into the skin of theism, mocking it with high courage, and then slides into the skin of existentialism, laughing at it with high humor.
She stumbles in and glides out. She falls into rabbit holes and ascends into wormholes. She transforms Witchcraft into wit-craft. Why? Because she can! Because she is the Infinite Player, and it’s all a game that only she is responsible for.
It’s her sacred game to play, and nobody can stop her. It’s all her meaning to personify through expressive art and compassionate love. She existentially cries out, as Fernando Pessoa once said: “I am nothing. I’ll never be anything. I couldn’t want to be something. Apart from that, I have in me all the dreams in the world.”
I will always be an introvert. I need my alone time to recharge, think, and reconnect with myself. But, reaching out from the recesses of my alone time to let my partner know when I’ll be home is not compromising myself. It’s actually adding to my higher self, where I try to be aware of other people’s feelings and realities.
