The Path of Knowledge

(source)

There is merely a thin borderline between individuation as a conscious process and the disruption and dissolution of the personality — breakdown or even psychosis — which takes place when the unconscious gains the upper hand.

E.C. Whitmont, The Symbolic Quest

As I mentioned earlier, God’s will is terrifying. Radiating throughout Cosmos, as it were, birthing, shaping and upholding it, this universal direction of evolving events cannot be bargained with. The rules are set, God’s will will be done this or that way in any case. And so, a human has very little options than to pay extremely close attention how to align with the whole shebang.

It’s indubitable that this flow can be approached from many different angles, but the more misaligned the approach is the more disastrous the consequences of an act are. Therefore, in order to withstand God’s will, you have to learn.

That’s why, traditionally, an apprentice gradually expands their knowledge under the strict guidance of a teacher until the final realization. One step at a time, the skills are build up so that a more expansive view can be accessed and (relatively) safely integrated. That is also the main reason why these teachings were oftentimes kept secret — too much knowledge for an unprepared mind can be disastrous. Alas, nowadays, the whole cat is out of the bag for all to see… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, simply speaking, in order to develop behaviors that minimize damage as much as individually possible, one has to learn how to keep oneself always in line in the face of these uncompromising and impartial forces. One has to learn how to ride the bus and not be run over by it for the time being, despite that bus having the last say eventually.

With that said, there are many such manuals which teach exactly that. Take, for example, the second half of Lord’s prayer: be content with and grateful for what you have; forgive and hope for the best; accept past lessons so you don’t have to repeat them; be firmly set on disassociating with evil (of ignorance) in your life. Combined with Ten Words, it’s all you basically need to know God and live in alignment with his will.

It’s not the most transparent system though, because the details and applications are then conveyed in stories and parables as is customary in Judaism, which may be the very reason why Judaism and Christianity are lost and in a rut as people interpret those stories in so many different, oftentimes contradictory, ways.

Be as it may, my personal preferences lead me to the work of Michael Harner and Carlos Castaneda. The former helped me to cross-reference psychedelics and Castaneda through analogous experiences; the latter imparted to me a practical system of handling myself on a moment to moment basis. I guess it resonated with the way I was brought up. Lol.

Alas, the system, while transparent, is buried within a mostly superfluous story that is too personal to make an actual impact. Perhaps it was written that way to mimic Bible and other mythologies, even if subconsciously on part of its author, who knows. You have to reread and reread the books again and again in order to extract even a small nugget of useful information. So, I decided to make a brief summary (of a summary I found) for myself and all interested.

Without any further ado, to align with Cosmos and become free to ride its waves within the bounds of possibility as you see fit, you have to become a human of knowledge. That is to say:

• You have to have unbending intent, which means to have: frugality, that is to say strict, uncompromising priorities; soundness of judgment, or an ability to reference the already acquired knowledge as a guide; and lack of freedom to innovate — the system of imparting the knowledge can be applied to any knowledge and it is impossible to change as it always boils down to self-knowledge.
• You have to have clarity of mind, which means: to have freedom to seek a path, or choose from equally effective options to act according to your preferences; to have knowledge of the specific purpose, that means being aware of your reasons for acting; and being fluid, which is the ability to gather and use all resources you have at your disposal at any given time.
• You also have to approach learning as a matter of strenuous labor, which means you have to develop capacity: to put forth dramatic exertion — all acts must be performed as do-or-die, because they literally are; to achieve efficacy, in other words, to be able to choose the most suitable way to act because death is always in wait; and to meet challenge, as a test but also further learning, if those happen to be the circumstances.
• Now, to not go crazy and to remain emotionally stable in order to be able to efficiently apply all of the above: you have to have respect and consider everything with the same due importance; you have to have fear because your death is always a real, possible outcome; you have to be wide-awake, or fully aware and mindful of how your motivations and expectations diverge from the actual state of an event as it is, with all factors involved; and you have to be self-confident — once decided, you simply follow through without doubt, the response will tell you where adjustments are needed either way.
• In this way you develop control of your responses to stimuli and discipline to apply, under any circumstances, what you have already learned; you develop forbearance to wait patiently with a clear head and thus eventually recognize the proper timing to act. (I won’t touch upon will and petty tyrants, because will is outside the scope of this piece and petty tyrants are pretty self-explanatory for anyone familiar with the topic.)
• You also have to keep in mind that learning is an unceasing process, which is to say that: you always have to renew the quest of becoming a human of knowledge — every new step in learning repeats the battle with fear, clarity, power, and old age, even though, and depending on your experiences, some enemies may be already so insignificant as to be virtually vanquished; you always have to remember your impermanence and that the old age will eventually win; and, to offset the exhausting futility of impermanence, you have to follow a path with heart — well, what other path would make sense given the overall circumstances of the human lot anyway.

So, just a final summary and reminder: to be able to withstand God’s will and stay sane when looking into the abyss, you will have to learn some such system of self-mastery. Otherwise you cannot hope to see clearly, let alone to know yourself (aka crossing to third attention). You know, people you would perhaps call genuine sages are never truly crazy in their head. They may appear that way when they choose so, but they know exactly what they are doing and why. Even if they don’t (know how it all pans out).

And that is a huge difference.