On Wisdom

That's right, and I agree with your use of that proverb in that specific CONTEXT. But remove context and you have nothing.

What is known and functions within a society as conventional 'wisdom' are just seductive, marketable snappy phrases that describe 'the way the world works'.

Like 'ignorance is bliss'. It means nothing without a context and an ideal circumstance to which it is best suited.

Is ignorance always bliss? Does not knowing something always feel blissful? Clearly not. The phrase 'Ignorance is bliss' is worthless unless it is married with a context which elicits new beneficial knowledge in that particular moment.

True wisdom cannot be put into words, because when you put something into words you automatically date it. You freeze it by taking a snapshot of it in time, and so it begins to age.

Wisdom in the sense that I understand it, which is not how most people understand it - is eternal. It is a knowing which eludes those who search for it. It is knowledge of the self's essence and being staying attuned to that essence.

The term 'wisdom' as it is used within society is just another confusing label that generates misunderstandings. I don't need the word 'wisdom', because there are no words that can help me grasp what it means to me.

We all have different conceptions and understandings of what words like wisdom mean, so we should dispense with labels as far as possible, and only enlist them when it is absolutely necessary, particularly for the more abstract concepts I reckon. Because labels become meaningless especially if the concept it is attached to is hard to define, and so we end up causing unnecessary conflicts because of the multitude of interpretations possible.

What matters, what counts, is being able to fully grasp with our consciousness, what the thing in itself actually IS. 

The labels we attach to things hold different meanings for each of us, and so fighting over labels is one of the most foolish things we as humans are constantly doing. 

I AM

If I AM

Then

How do I BE?

I AM NOT

And so

I DO NOT

and 

I WILL NOT

as I AM

IS

And can never

BE

IS NOT

Our True Nature Is About To Return

When people are confined for long periods of time, and their desire to resume the normality they know and are accustomed to is still denied them, their internal urge to 'do what they normally do' gradually builds up inside, becoming noticeable on their surface the longer confinement continues.

 

Because the outlets they had to channel themselves into are no longer available, and if they don't have adequate replacements or substitutes for what they need in the meantime, the desire to transgress the boundaries keeping them in, keeping them safe, starts to increase. 

So the warlike man may make enemies of those within his vicinity not because he sees them as an enemy or a threat, but because his nature requires an enemy to fight in order to feel like it is acting in accordance with itself. And if there is no one around to fight then the warlike man will attack himself.

We Yearn For The Real

There are so many things all happening at once that its difficult to select one particular thread that can bind them all together.

But over the last few days especially, a certain feature has become more prescient for me. The increasing use of conferencing apps and software for friends to remotely connect in order to bridge the sense of there being a divide and an effort to keep at bay the spectre of loneliness.

But I see the emerging trend towards the use of technologies that require increasing levels of our belief invested into it in order to render the experience as real as possible, a bit of a double-edged sword. I

Belief is such a fascinating currency. And civilisation needs to run on the shit. At the same time belief is just a belief. It's nothing really.

And so at this particular moment in time, facing a predicament which is a concentrated and necessary version of the thing which the system was eliciting anyway - namely social alienation. This is quite dangerous territory I think.

What happens when the yearning to be connected with other can be satisfied no longer? When people's desire for the real thing cannot be fully quenched by imbibing synthetic or artificial replacements?

Life doesn't cease being Faustian at any point, but more so during a global pandemic. There will always be a price to pay, at some point in the future, for whatever you have just gained even though may seem as though you are only accumulating good beneficial shit.

And the thing is, it's not all bad. I quite like and approve of many of the things that are getting clarified right now. The coronavirus is a clarifying event. THIS is the event which helps us see clearly, in 2020.

COVID-19 is making is painfully clear that pandemics do not care much for marketing rhetoric. They are nonplussed about your rapidly diminishing hopes of election success.You cannot gaslight a contagious disease even if you feel like you speak its language.

So clarification of what is, is the take home for me from all this. The reassertion of science and facts (not alternative ones). A reassertion of the value of love, of compassion, of truth, of cooperation and the sharing of burdens which in turn boosts performance and efficiency and expertise naturally. With a bit of luck, it will all become clear to us.

The significance of God being called the I AM

I feel I have gained a greater understanding of the significance of God being referred to as the I AM, or simply, I AM. It is because we humans are the I AM NOT. If God's actions are the I DO then we are the I DO NOT or as I say, I DON'T. It is all about divine destiny. The perfect sequence of events which flows as it should.

The effortless narrative which is the thing that does the doing. Humans ruin themselves by becoming excited when they catch a glimpse of God, behold the true nature things, and feel compelled to bring about the wondrous vision they saw themselves when they should have remained humble, and simply accepted the unfolding of their fate. No one needs to try because it has already been written. It has already been done.

The world cannot become any less simple than it is because everything within it cannot be disonnected to the initial cause that brought it into being and remains that which still already is and has been. 

So all that is needed, is for you to grasp the initial simplicity of where everything began, because every manifestation that takes place thereafter that place can be understood as being natural. In the same way we speak about the cradle of civilisation - Africa. Understand Africa and you understand humanity.

And there, brought into existence as a natural consequence of achieving enlightenment, is the trap that all organised religions have fallen into -because you lose what enlightenment you just gained by grasping it and using it to build your own house, your own institution, which is nothing more than an idolatrous shrine to enable you to sustain your worship of the truth that was once yours, but now persists only as a memory of what it is which you seek in vain for a path back towards.

The truth about truth is it can never be shared. It must be made by the self for the self. Its material extracted from the knowledge of the world, woven into fabric with which we shape our own container to hold all that is valuable to us and speaks to us alone. 

"THIS is the truth of things!", I heard myself think when I found myself compelled to dismount from my bike at once outside the Bridge Inn pub and hurriedly sat upon one of its benches in the courtyard. 

Yes, it was the truth of things! It was the trap that all humans eternally fall into and are perpetually seduced by. Their obsession with "bringing the good news" to others. Their arrogance in assuming that the truth that they now possess trumps all others and so must supersede and be reaffirmed as the sole truth. The only truth.

And this is the definition of evil.

Perception Vs Reality

Thinking about those with less than me during the Coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic

It's really easy for me to say "Stay at home you inconsiderate little pillocks!". 

I have a garden, my Mum enjoys making tasty food for us, and before he passed away my Dad had managed to pay back the mortgage he bought our house with in full, a feat which seems staggering to me right now.

But I'm thinking about how some of my friends live. Those who have never really shared close relationships with their parents or guardians and perhaps prefer to just get in touch once every 2-3 months to exchange some meaningless platitudes in order to be reassured that they are still alive.

Many of my mates are living in various concrete cities, devoid of nature's presence, scattered around the UK and abroad with only themselves to rely on and trust. 

The thought of having to stay holed up in a shared house in THE HAROLDS in Hyde Park, Leeds with housemates who mean nothing to me, knowing my XBOX 360 is still in storage somewhere, and all my real physical books I stupidly foisted on POVERTY AID to free up space in my box room... My food reserves dwindling because I thought everyone around me was just overreacting and very soon they would start chilling the hell out and calm would quickly be restored.....

I'd hate to be someone in that situation whose sense of claustrophobia or cabin fever might soon become inflamed in the next few days if they run out of things to give them a boost.

Two things I'd recommend (which you may already be doing - I don't want to assume too much here), is bringing your bedtime forward a lot. I've been getting up at 6am each morning and riding/walking to the local woods and inhaling tree farts. It's amazing that a tree's fart is what I call fresh air!! 😄 

On second thoughts it's probably tree burps that I'm inhaling. I'll look into this...

Two massive beech trees could be standing next to each other on a path that I'm walking and be silently communicating with each other totally unbeknownst to me.

"Sid....Sid.....Sidney!!!"

"What??? What is it? What do you want?"

"Here comes that boy again. The one who's always taking revealing photographs of us. Damn pervert!!!"

"It's what humans do you stupid oaf!"

"You're wrong Sidney. It's a violation of our privacy is what it is!"

"I'm going back to sleep...."

*Ben gradually approaches with camera in hand snapping away*

"Right you little pest, I've been storing up a right stinker for you here. Inhale this you meaty little cretin!"

*tree exudes huge burst of oxygen of the purest quality*

Me: "My God! The air which surrounds this fine looking beech is the freshest I've ever had the pleasure of inhaling!"

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So getting up at sunrise to inhale tree farts deep into your lungs at full capacity is the first thing I'd recommend. 10 of your deepest slowest breaths which feel like you are drawing in the universe and then you keep it there when you are totally filled with air. Put a cap on it when you can't inhale any more and then carry on sucking in air like you suck up cream soda through a straw to fill in the remaining space in your lungs and bring them to your actual full lung capacity. Then hold it....HOLD IT!!!!!!.....

And then exhale................

AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!.............

Do 10 of them in a your local wood or forest when you wake up and I promise you, very soon......Instant ZEN Monk Mode! More inner calm. Increased lung capacity. Increased brain power due to increased oxygen levels in the blood. Improved circulation. Great mental focus and concentration. The whole nine yards mate! The full flaming monty!

The second thing I was going to recommend I'll recommend some another time because this post has gone on long enough already and I want some breakfast.