The Truth

In order to find your way through all of that, you need to develop a relationship with something that's profound, and you can have that capacity. And what could be more profound than the truth? And what would you rather have on your side? Αnd to do more than your best. Βecause your best isn't enough. Βecause your best isn't as good as you could be. You have to push yourself past that. And that's, as far as I can tell, where you find what you need in life, you find the meaning that sustains you in life, and you find the patterns of action that redeem the world.

Nietzsche said that you could tell much about a man's character by how much truth he could tolerate, which is very interesting. You know, there's an idea in the great Western tradition that the truth is the way in the path of life and that no one comes to the father except through the truth. And I believe that to be the case because I don't think that you can manifest who you are without the truth. And so I think it's literally and metaphorically truth that the pathway to who you could be if you were completely who you were is through the truth.

And the truth does set you free.

But the problem is that it destroys everything that isn't worthy in you as it sets you free. And that's that's a process of burning. And it's painful because you cling to what you shouldn't be, partly out of pride and partly out of ignorance and partly out of laziness. And so then you encounter something true, and you all know this. You all know this perfectly well because when was the last time that you learned something important that wasn't a blow of some sort?

And it's often you look back at your life and you think, Oh, God, I really learned something there. I wouldn't want to do that again. But it really changed my life. I mean, sometimes it can really destroy you and encounter with the truth and you never really recover. But now and then something comes along and straightens you out, and a lot of you has to go.

A lot of you has to burn away, you know. And I suppose in some sense, the idea is that everything about you that isn't worthy is to be put into the flames. And that's that's another reason to be not so casual about claiming what you believe because it isn't something that you undertake without do caution. You know, I learned, when I was a kid about 25 or so, a little older than a kid, that almost everything that I said was one form of lie or another. And I wasn't any worse, I would say than the people that I was associating with or any better. And the lies were manifold, you know, they were attempts to win arguments for the sake of winning the argument that might be one attempts to indicate my intellectual process when there were competitions of that sort, maybe just the sheer pleasure of engaging in an intellectual argument and winning my inability to distinguish between ideas that I had read and and incorporated because I had read but hadn't realized that I hadn't yet earned the right to use all of that.

And, you know, I had this experience that lasted a long time. Well, I would say it's really never gone away. That and I think this was the awakening of my conscience. Essentially, this voice, for lack of a better word, made itself manifest inside me. And it said every time I said something that wasn't true, and that's usually what it said, that's not true.

You don't believe that? Or there was a sensation that was associated with it. I don't think this is that uncommon. You know, I asked my psychology classes for many years in a row if they had an experience, this experience that they had a voice in their head, Let's say it's a metaphor or a feeling that communicated to them when they were about to do something wrong. And it was universally the case that people agreed with one of those statements or another.

And the other thing I would ask is, well, do you always listen to it? And, of course, the answer to that was definitely no. Well, you know, I learned that so much of what I was doing was false, and I think I learned this. There's a reason that this came to me so clearly. I was trying to understand why people did terrible things, and I was really concentrating on the terrible, terrible things that people do.

And I was interested in Auschwitz, for example, and not as a political phenomenon, but as a psychological phenomenon. I was curious about how you could be in Auschwitz guard. And I wasn't really curious about how you could be one, because, well, you could be one, of course. I was more curious about how I could be one being such a good person as I thought I was. But I also knew that people, many people did many terrible things during the 20th century, and the idea that I was somehow better than them, or that I should assume a priori, that I was better than them, and that I wouldn't have made the same choice as or worse had I been in the same situation, was a very, very, very dangerous supposition, and that we really needed to understand why it happened, and that perhaps we could go deep enough in that understanding, which is, I think, what happens when you go deep and understanding so that you could stop it, because if you understand the problem, maybe you can solve it.

You know, and at least in part, I came to believe that the problem was, as Solzhenitsyn said, that the problem is, is that the line between good and evil runs down every human heart. And I was reading Jung at the same time, and he believed that the human soul was a tree whose roots grew all the way to hell. And believed also that in the full investigation of the shadow, which was the dark side of the human psyche, was that it was bottomless, essentially, that it was like an experience of hell.

And that also struck me as true.

And that the way to stop those sorts of things from happening was to stop yourself from being the sort of person who would do it, who would even start to do it, because the other thing you learn when you learn about atrocities, that ... for me, it was a matter of understanding that the way to stop such things from happening, the way to remember properly, is to understand that you could do it, that you could do those terrible things because the people who did them were like you.

And that the way out of that is to stop being like that. And the way you stop being like that is by stop..., by ceasing to tell yourself lies that you don't believe in and that, you know you shouldn't act out. And that made a huge difference in my life. For better, for worse. It was very uncanny experience, I would say, because it's very dis confabulating to experience yourself as fragmented enough, so that much of what you do and say is actually false. It's a lot of work to clean that up a lot, but the consequences are, in principle, worthwhile. And so that was part of what drove me towards clinical psychology, saying away from political science and law and from politics in general, because I started to believe that. And I think this is the great Western idea.
The proper route forward for the redemption of the individual and for mankind as a whole is as a consequence of the redemption of each individual. And I truly believe that. And I believe that that occurs as a consequence of adherence to the truth and courage in the face of being. That's rule one, right? Stand up straight with your shoulders back is to take on the onslaught and to enter the contentious ring and to do your be[st]..., to do and to do more than your best, because your best isn't enough, because your best isn't as good as you could be.

You have to push yourself past that. And that's as far as I can tell, where you find what you need in life, you find the meaning that sustains you in life, and you find the patterns of action that redeem the world both at the same time.

Life is a very difficult business, you know?
It's fatal and it's full of suffering and it's full of betrayal and malevolence. There's nothing about it that's trivial. It's all profound. And in order to find your way through all of that, that capacity for hellish
experience, let's say, you need to develop a relationship with something that's profound.

And you can, you have that capacity, and what could be more profound than the truth?
And what would you rather have on your side?
And you might day, well, that's obvious.

And of course, everyone should do that.

And then you need to know why you don't, and the answer is, well, the burns are still healing.

It's like, well, you know, there's no shortage of deadwood to burn off, and there's no shortage of pain, when the deadwood burns off.

And that's what makes people afraid of the truth, and so what's the decision that you make?

You decide to believe, you know?

It's a risk, an existential risk.

It's an act of faith.

You believe that the truth can set you free.

You believe that people have an intrinsic divinity about their soul.

You decide that you're going to live in that manner and that you're going to let everything about yourself that isn't worthy of that goal die, and that might be almost everything that you are.

And that's a terrible thing to contemplate.

The only thing that's worse, I would say, is the alternative, because the alternative is the sorts of hells that we managed to produce around us and that we produced with particular expertise during the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.

And it would be a good thing if we decided, collectively and individually, not to go back there, again.


Thank you!

(Jordan Peterson)

The Night

...

There is in God, some say,

A deep but dazzling darkness, as men here

Say it is late and dusky, because they

       See not all clear.

    O for that night! where I in Him

    Might live invisible and dim!

Henry  Vaughan

Ευδαιμονία

Τίποτα δεν ολοκληρώνεται τυχαία. Ό,τι υπάρχει στη φύση υπακούει στους νόμους της φύσης και ακολουθεί τους φυσικούς κύκλους. Η υγεία κατά τον φυσικό νόμο απαιτεί απόλυτη συμμόρφωση στον φυσικό νόμο. Το κύριο πρόβλημα στον άνθρωπο είναι πως είναι πνευματικό ον. Ο άνθρωπος μετέχει της πνευματικότητας είτε έχει ενσυναίσθηση είτε όχι.  Από την υγεία έως την χαρά, την ευθυμία και την ελπίδα τα επίπεδα ποιότητας της ζωής του είναι προϊόντα επιτυχίας. Τίποτα  ποιοτικό δεν είναι τυχαίο. Καμία ασθένεια δεν είναι τυχαία και καμιά δυσανεξία. Μπορούμε κάλλιστα να εξισώσουμε την ποιότητα ζωής του ανθρώπου με την Αρετή και την Αρετή οφείλουμε να την εξισώσουμε με ποιότητα ζωής. Ούτε αυτό το συνειδητοποιεί ο κοινός άνθρωπος. Ο κοινός άνθρωπος είτε είναι ένα θηλαστικό είτε είναι ένα πνευματικό ον σ'  λήθαργο. 

Το ανώτατο αγαθό στον άνθρωπο είναι η ευδαιμονία ή κοινώς ευτυχία. Όμως αυτό δεν είναι τυχαίο ούτε αυθαίρετο, ούτε κατοχυρωμένο κτήμα κανενός. Αλλά η διαρκής ανταπόκριση του βίου που άγει μέσα σ'  ένα σύστημα νόμων.

Η σταδιακή υπέρβαση της άγνοιας που τον διακατέχει αρχικά και της θηλαστικής του παθογένειας λέγεται απελευθέρωση• η δε ιδανική μορφή της τελικής του κατάστασης λέγεται ελευθερία. 

Η Ελευθερία δεν είναι κτήμα κανενός, ούτε καν κατάκτηση. Είναι κατάσταση του "είναι" του. 

Λοιπόν,

θέλει Αρετή και Τόλμη η Ελευθερία.

Δεν υπάρχουν όμως τόλμη,  αρετή κι ελευθερία ξεχωριστά.

Το καθένα απλά συμβολίζει μια πτυχή από την πορεία ευδαιμονίας. Τίποτα δεν ολοκληρώνεται τυχαία. Ό,τι είναι τυχαίο δεν ολοκληρώνεται. 

Αυτά που συζητάμε, εάν ξέρουμε τι λέμε, είναι η φιλοσοφία της ζωής. Αυτό είναι το ένα τρίτο. Το δεύτερο τρίτο είναι η αγωγή ή καθημερινή προπόνηση κατά της επιγνώσεις της φιλοσοφίας. Και το τρίτο τρίτο είναι ο βαθμός αρετής.

πως να ζήσεις τη ζωή σου

Στον «Φάουστ» ο Γκαίτε κομματιάζει αξιώματα, δόγματα και προκαταλήψεις και δηλώνει αφοπλιστικά: Τη στιγμή που θα εμπιστευτείς τον εαυτό σου θα ξέρεις πώς να ζήσεις. 

Υπάρχει ένα εκκρεμές που ορίζει την εξέλιξη του ανθρώπου από αθώο και φυσικό φαινόμενο, όπως τα ζωάκια της φύσης, σε ενσυνείδητο δημιουργό. Στην αρχή όμως η καλλιέργεια του αυτή απαιτεί μια τομή,  που του στερεί τη φυσικότητα, την αθωότητα αλλά και τον αυθορμητισμό, την αναστολή της ενοχής. 

Στο τέλος της καλλιέργειας του όπως  καλείται να ολοκληρώσει τον δραματικό αυτό κύκλο αναβάθμισης με την ανάπτυξη της εμπιστοσύνης. 

Κάτι θα πρέπει να εμπιστευτεί επιτέλους για να βρει την ειρήνη του. Αυτό όμως τελικά συντελείται με ένα άλμα. Ένα άλμα Πίστης. Και θα σταματήσουν οι διωγμοί.

Μούσες ή Σειρήνες

Οι Μούσες αντιπροσωπεύουν

το πνεύμα της προσπάθειας,

η οποία προυποθέτει 

την άσκηση της αυτοβελτίωσης.

Απ' αυτή την εσωτερική πορεία

μπορεί να σχηματιστεί 

ένα νόημα για τη ζωή: 

ότι ο άνθρωπος γεννήθηκε 

για να μεταμορφώνεται

και να μετασχηματίζει 

ό,τι τον περιβάλλει.

Αντίθετα,

το πνεύμα των Σειρήνων

καλεί σε ηδονική επανάπαυση:

λέει ότι ο άνθρωπος

γεννήθηκε για να διατηρεί

τον εαυτό του ως έχει 

και ότι η υπέρτατη ηδονή είναι 

τα πάντα γύρω του 

να τον υπηρετούν

και να τον κολακεύουν.

Αυτή ήταν και είναι

η θανάσιμη γοητεία των Σειρήνων.

Όποιος τις ζυγώνει μένει στάσιμος

και στο τέλος πεθαίνει 

μέσα στην εγωπαθή του αδράνεια.

Η κυρίαρχη τάση είναι

να απορροφώνται οι άνθρωποι

από μικροαπολαύσεις,

ώστε να ξεχνούν

την προοπτική του κυρίως έργου

που μπορούν να επιτελέσουν,

του έργου που θα τους έδινε

τη μεγαλύτερη απόλαυση:

να αποδείξουν ότι ένα μέρος

της ύπαρξής τους είναι άφθαρτο,

εάν το θελήσουν να είναι άφθαρτο.

Οι Μούσες 

δίνουν αυτή την υπόσχεση,

την είχαν δώσει και στους 

αρχαίους χρόνους αφού, 

σύμφωνα με το μύθο, 

επικράτησαν των Σειρήνων. 

Σήμερα οι όροι 

της αναμέτρησης είναι άλλοι, 

ευνοούν τις Σειρήνες επειδή 

το Στιγμιαίο τείνει 

να επισκιάσει το Αιώνιο.

Δεν υπάρχει χειρότερο 

- για ένα άτομο και για ένα λαό - 

από το να ζει σύμφωνα με το 

''μέρα μπαίνει, μέρα βγαίνει''.

Βασίλης Καραποστόλης

Παρά πολύ εύστοχη ή επιλογή των δύο ακραίων αρχετύπων και πολύ εύστοχο ποσό ξεκάθαρα διαφορετικό είναι το αποτέλεσμα. Είτε για ένα άτομο, είτε για ένα λαό. Μην ξεχνάμε ο λαός, όπως και ο κόσμος, είναι η συλλογική έκφραση του ανθρώπου. Το συλλογικό όμως και το ατομικό βρίσκονται σε μια διαρκή διαλεκτική σχέση. Το συλλογικό αρχικά εντυπώνεται στο ατομικό, το περιορίζει και το καθορίζει, από ένα αθώο,  αφελές, αυθόρμητο και εν δυνάμει ενσυνείδητο θηλαστικό να γίνει συνετό μέλος μιας ομάδας με κοινωνικό χαρακτήρα. Που υπακούει σε νόμους και ασπάζεται δεδομένες αξίες και υιοθετεί ως αρχές τα ήθη και έθιμα της ομάδας της οποίας την ταυτότητα φέρει. 

Είναι όμως σε θέση ο άνθρωπος, συνήθως δυστυχώς μόνο εφόσον αποτύχει κατά κάποιο τρόπο η ζωή του κατά αυτό το τρόπο, εκτός και εάν έχει την απίθανη τύχη να συναντήσει ανθρώπους που βγήκαν έξω και πέρα από τα όρια της ομάδας στην οποία έτυχε να γεννηθούν και να μεγαλώσουν, να βγει από τα περιοριστικά όρια ταύτισης με την ομάδα που μεγάλωσε και να μάθει να μαθαίνει. 

Για να μάθει κανείς να μαθαίνει πρέπει να μάθει να αλλάζει αυτά που πιστεύει και αυτά που κάνει. 

Μια δύναμη που εμψυχώνει τον άνθρωπο στη πορεία αλλαγής είναι η έμπνευση. Η έμπνευση συσχετίζονταν στην ελληνική αρχαιότητα με οντότητες που αρχετυπικά αποκαλούνται οι μούσες. Η έμπνευση όμως, που όποιος την έχει γνωρίζει ή γνωρίζει ξέρει πόσο γλυκιά είναι, σε ωθεί σε κάποια μορφή δράσης προς υλοποίηση των υποσχέσεων που δίνουν οι μούσες• εάν κάνεις αυτό και αυτό και αυτό, θα γίνει αυτό και συ θα νιώθεις την χαρά και την ικανοποίηση της δημιουργίας. 

Για την δράση όμως ο άνθρωπος έρχεται σε τριβή με ένα κατεστημένο που φυσιολογικά δεν θέλει πρωτοβουλίες αλλά μόνο καθήκον και εκτέλεση. Γιαυτό η έμπνευση συσχετίζεται με τον αγώνα και ο αγώνας συσχετίζεται πάντα με την ελευθερία. Διότι για να προχωρήσουμε, από κάποιες προσκολήσεις, από κάποιες προκαταλήψεις, από κάποιες εξαρτήσεις θα πρέπει να απεγκλωβιστούμε. Αυτό είναι και αγώνας αλλά και ελευθερία. 

Και μιας και φτάσαμε τόσο κοντά ας δούμε ένα ακόμα βασικό αρχέτυπο που κυβερνάει τον άνθρωπο και συσχετίζεται με το κομβικό σημείο, Μούσες ή Σειρήνες;

Αυτό είναι ο Θάνατος. Ο Θάνατος που τον έναν τον γεμίζει τρόμο και τον οδηγεί στη φυγή στις εφήμερες ηδονές και τον άλλο που τον άγγιξε πραγματικά του ξελαμπικάρει τον νου και τον οδηγεί σε μια γεμάτη ζωή. 

Οπότε συνοψίζοντας ένα στη ζωή πάντα το δίλημμα:

Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος;

...

your past was a lesson, not a life sentence

A prisoner is not free because of strong limitations. Why? Because he or she committed one or more crimes. So this is the effect of one's own actions when they go around like ripples and create wrong. There is a difference in sentence to be stupid and do wrong or to be wrong and do wrong or be right in the wrong environment...

In case of our own past and our own life own can be only stupid or wrong because life, it's physical, psychological and spiritual laws are to be considered as true, impartial and stable. So when you feel sentenced to suffering then you have been not too stupid but aware, which concludes one case: you have been wrong and you haven't learned the many lessons life teaches but ignored the interactiveness. Modern science, art, philosophy, mysticism and religion converge that life is a complete and total web of layers, grades, levels and depths. In life nothing goes asymptomatic. The symptoms are interwoven with the lessons we could have learned in order to sustain health, feel joy and create a successful happy life. Not to mention to be free from guilt and remorse.

In order to learn one needs to be aware of lessons, one needs to practice change of thoughts, beliefs, thinking, mentality, behaviour and consequently one's character. Who is ready to change in all possible depth?

"We’re in a freefall into future. We don’t know where we’re going. Things are changing so fast, and always when you’re going through a long tunnel, anxiety comes along. And all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act. It’s a very interesting shift of perspective and that’s all it is… joyful participation in the sorrows and everything changes."

🙏

pandoxia pandemica

 People believe in "truths" instead of realising what is as the truth. They chose to use their magic stick to one another and bewitch each other without knowing what they are doing. So much they are charmed by drama.
The conclusion is that at a certain point they lost touch with reality and started believing they can do whatever they wish, without precautions, without skin in the game.
The building is high but not solid. It is one fable put on the other over generations of dogma and cult for ages. We don't walk any more over Earth. We live solely on the tower of our fictions.
We live the drama that we created. We live in the monster that we created putting the pieces of the little "true lies" that we invented...
But this is not the end of the story. A new chapter just turns the page of our logbook.

(to be continued)