October 18th, 2012 - Thursday - The Hermit

October 18th, 2012 - Thursday - The Hermit - Good morning! I did some reading last night, and in an effort to better 'understand' I wrote a bit of an essay one what I wrote and posted it on Facebook.  I'm going to include that below because as it turns out, (surprise surprise), the Hermit card connects very much with what I wrote.  The Hermit card you know, if you have been reading this blog long enough, tells you to begin a ruthless quest, a search, a digging... within.  Facing your shadows. See that three headed dog? Those are the demon dogs of hell. And they are of course YOU.   Not just inside you, they ARE you.  Most cards of the day are treated like eyelashes, light, fluffy, here one day gone the next, hardly noticed.  But the HERMIT is saying:  Take me seriously.  Take my shadow seriously.  Take digging SERIOUSLY.  Go within and dig deep.  Cut away the flab ruthlessly.  How?  This essay should help:

Reading and contemplating the effort it takes to understand anything. The current election is a great teacher as you can see people ass talking left and right. But ass talking isn't reserved for others. I do it all the time. There are so few things I'm actually deeply informed about. There are actually very few things I've mustered all my focus and my intent on understanding. Put aside ego, habits, culture, and just dug into it until I found the truth. This isn't just politics, this is anything. This is understanding life, relationship, people. And all this effort of mental focus and cutting away the bullshit is just the start. The second part then is to move that core learning through your body. Swallow it, move it. Enter it and become it. Then... not to sound crude, but then I try to shit it out. What is left is the part of you that is true. And then, and only then, can you start to teach it to others. Which is why my quote today (below) is so interesting to me:

"All the recognized experts can be just as wrong as those who recognize them as such, and it’s possible, even easy, to move beyond them all."

Moving beyond them is done by ruthlessly THINKING FOR YOURSELF. I've done this so few times in my life. I've been an ass talker. I thought I was educated. But I really wasn't. I was just babbling bullshit. I hadn't done the work. I hadn't walked the path. I hadn't moved it through my body and then shit it out and integrated it. Here is another quote about the process:

"Rather than being hurt or angry to have my ego balloon popped, I was exhilarated to find out that what I thought was solid and real could be so easily reduced to vapor. He was calling me a blockhead, an ignoramus, and sophomoric, which some might find offensive, I suppose, but it was true. He was absolutely right. Mortimer Adler was the first guy to call me on my bullshit and I’m still grateful to him for it. Sad to say, but yes, I enjoyed having my nose rubbed in my own shit, and yes, I think it’s a pre-requisite for any form of growth in life. Man is a self-fertilizing animal. We rise up out of our own shit, or not at all."

The question I've had to ask myself then is why bother? And WHAT to bother spending this energy on? Who has time to really understand anything? The EFFORT it takes to get to the root of certain concepts is immense due to the illusions of belief we are lugging around. I see this in myself every day. I cut away something and I feel free, only to realize the feeling of freedom was just the comfort of the next layer of chains binding me in ignorance.

"The fundamental guiding principle of an honest life: Guilty until proven innocent. False until proven true. Every belief is wrong until proven right. No man, teaching, religion, system of thought, doctrine, ideology, or creed is sacred unless it’s indestructible. If something is worth understanding, it’s worth self-verifying. If it’s not worth self-verifying, it’s trivia and may be safely disregarded."

Not to be too self deprecating, but it seems like a good portion of my life has been trivia.

The path of learning is strewn with rocks, not roses...
All the experts can be wrong...
We rise up out of our own shit or not at all...