This Is What You've Been Looking For

You have to give up an equivalent amount that you want to gain. This is first rule of Alchemy: the law of equivalent exchange. When the medieval scientist first saw the possibilities that thing can be changed, up to its core, like a chemical reaction where some inert black solid can become a highly active milky liquid, just imagine the excitement they felt. Because they heard that man can become God like or Angle like creature, the alchemist started to devote their life to find the secret formula that they knew indeed exist! This is the real alchemy. Today alchemy is not being practiced under the brand name of alchemy. Rather it is embedded and hidden inside many disciple like Psychology /Neuroscience, Theoretical/quantum physics, String theorist, TV/Hollywood, Behavioral economics, High finance/Banking and Politics. It is alive and well active, but just like always, working in secrecy and practicing in underground.

The opposing force working against any possibilities of personal transformations is organized and industrialized science employed by High Priests. The human genome project tried to find the ground from which you cannot escape. It then give you the stranglehold of fixed, concrete genetics almost like a law written in stone. It preaches that transformation is not possible and you tied with whatever gene you might have. If you try genetic transformation, you will be just a mutant and degenerate. So forget about transformation. On the other hand, evolution is without any specific goal other than blind urge of survival of the fittest and maintaining the continuity. Freudian individual life is doomed by the ultimate drive from Libido. There is no possibility of transforming yourself other than the old you. String theory is trying to say that there are multiple universes and our universe might not be the center of any attraction. We, the human being, are just a meaningless, pathetic existence or a fluke/glitch on a forgotten and neglected corner of a universe that might just be part of a multiverses. Relativity theory is saying everything is relative, so your point of view is not superior to any other dumb persons. This is why they killed Lamarckian hypothesis of acquired but inheritable traits, instead, promoted Darwinism , Relativity and Freudian psychology. For really desperate case, they will allow some limited version of changes but only as a blind evolution and libido driven acts. And for your unruly mind/thoughts, they will employ the ultimate mind control devices like school, TV or finance.

But nobody is asking a question just one layer above. Why we have to survive as the fittest, and why to have sex. Are those really blind? I do not think so! Seek yourself and you will find.

The true opportunity of free thinking without any restriction, censorship, fear of God, kings or governments, danger of blasphemy, demand for political correctness, desire for being conventional, need for winning over other people and so on, existed a long time ago. This was even before the organized society formation. After serving their family well and learning from the world and nature, the Elders of the hunter gatherer clans could retire early once they had few sons able enough to provide them the essentials such as food and protection. The elders of the hunter gatherer clans did the highest quality and purified thinking. And few Elite among them found the sublime truth and naturally became the high priest. The Elder i.e., the high priest of the clan was the administrative authority regarding that particular clan. Later, with the development of agriculture and cities, as the society grew bigger to such an extent that a professional and dedicated ruling class to rule the larger mass of people became mandatory. The Elders did not want to have that positions for various reasons, including the job being too mundane, too distracting, too much responsibilities etc. They delegated the position to the best and most righteous person in the clan under the auspices of their wisdom. These newly ordained Kings by the Elder or High Priest on behalf of the Divine, started to rule over the common people.

As the civilization spread across lands and the organization grew bigger and bigger, in order to rule it efficiently and "Justly", kings started to add restrictions on what you can do and think and what you cannot. Under those divinely ordained kings, you can enjoy certain liberties and privileges as "prescribed" by the king but you were not absolutely free. Those privileges and liberties can be modified or limited anytime by the King's wish and discretion. Under these primitive divinely ordained kings, ancient civilization flourished and reached its peak. Like anything material, which eventually start to disintegrate, so does those divinely ordained kings. They started to do unjust things, waged war against the meek and spoiled themselves with luxury, lust, extravaganza lifestyle and started to disregard the advice of the Elders or High priests. Over time the monarch declared him absolute authority on earth, thus eliminating need for any advisor or priest to back him up. Instead, they assumed the role of King, Priest, Lord of the Kingdom combined. Thus they became absolute dictatorial, tyrannical "Son of God" on earth. Many intelligent citizen under those kings realize the emptiness behind the throne and revolted. Kings controlled the initial revolt very expediently. Fearing the imminent death, many intelligent and visionary citizen escaped, typically to the other side across sea to build a new civilization. They carried with them only the shadow of truths that the high priests and kings possessed. The new visionaries built an entirely new civilization based on absolute freedom of the individuals. This was the birth of ancient democracy. Under the paradigm of individual freedom, the new civilization prospered for a period of time but eventually degenerated like their predecessors, but in this time only quicker. Ruling by People is almost equivalent of rule by mob and eventually failed. The only difference here is that those kings ruled for thousands of years but the the new democratic leaders ruled only for few hundreds years. Taking the lessons from both kings and democracy, some other visionaries built a new system of oligarchy (rule by few Senates). Initially they also prospered but eventually they failed and soon fell into monarchy. That was the first cycle form Monarchy to Democracy to Oligarchy [Senate] back to Monarchy. Out of the ashes of the second session of monarchy, the Phoenix of Aristocracy rose again (Oligarchy or rule by few Senates), then corporatocracy or capitalism [Ancient Phoenicians], radical communism [Epicurean or Pythagorean communism] then finally back to democracy again! This is the cycle of geopolitical structure, happening again and again. Every time people think this time it will work because their way is the new way [not realizing, it is not new or novel] and they have learnt from history. But every time it fails. How many  more times they has to fail, before they can realized that something is fundamentally wrong here? If someone keeps trying the same thing over and over again without any success but still keep trying the same thing hoping that one day everything will work out just fine, technically that is known as "insanity". With all those repeated failures in geopolitical history, people continues to keep trying the same thing which only proves either: 

1. Political leaders do not read history or books carefully or they do not have the time to read.
2. They read history but out of context without the backgrounds of that history and got it all wrong.

3. Humanity has a very short attention span or amnestic memory.

4. People are just insane, not realizing that they are trying the same strategy that failed earlier. 

5.There are some fundamental problem in our understanding about the nature of the reality and political problems associated with it. 

What is it? Do you know? 

With all those geopolitical turmoil, distorted views of reality, confused life, as well as widespread and rampant corruption, war, conflict, restriction, censorship, obfuscations and not to mention the emblematic codification of the symbolic representations of the signs pointing towards the hints suggesting the clues indicative of underlying allegory expressed in metaphors instead of a simple totem and ad infinitum creating a simulacrum devoid of any real substance what so ever and finally with millions of laws that limits your freedom of thought, humanity is slowing but surely losing their original free thinking capability that gave rise to this magnificent civilization. What a sad story! Despite all the restrictions, you still have infinity ways or degrees of freedom remaining. So, do not complain about restrictions persistently, instead find the Ways that overrides the restrictions. Against all those odds, if you still have the brain, heart and guts to think freely, when you find the glimpse of Truth, your joy will be proportionately gigantic too. So, do not be pessimistic. The truth has been always out there. Seek.

If a paradox is such that one entity cannot exist without the other then it means they are just an artificial dichotomy for the purpose of description and understanding. And they are just two aspects of the same and one underlying indivisible reality.

For example, light cannot exist without darkness. The notion of light automatically implies a concept of darkness. Light without the contrast of darkness is meaningless. So light and darkness are the pair that cannot exist independent of one another. This is the same paradox here. This only implies that the distinction of light and darkness is just an artificial one, for the purpose of understanding and description. Actually the absolute darkness and absolute lightness is the continuum of one Light-Dark concept, but we call some dim-light as darkness in presence of brighter light. Since lightness and darkness are relative terms they don't exist on their own independently. They are just part of the same underlying continuum, but better described and characterized for easy understanding in dichotomized terms- The Light and The Darkness. Morale of the story is- they are the different degrees of the same One thing.

Example of light and darkness seems too abstract? Let's consider an example of a coin. The coin has a head and a tail. As long as it is a coin [not a cube or other platonic solids], it has the both two side. There cannot be a head without a tail, no matter what. Head and tail is just a way of understanding the same coin. Head and tail are just parts of the same coin, just as Republicans and Democrats are the part of same hidden "Ruling Class". How's about the dichotomy of the body and the mind? How can a mind, as we know it, exist without a body and a body can be perceived without a mind? In order, for us, to exist in this universe, you need the dichotomous body and mind, just like for an electron to exist, it needs an observer. Those half-wise who are troubled by this "Grand Dichotomy" of the body and the mind will remain rightfully Quasi-Wise, as long as they are troubled. Just by the fact that they are troubled with body-mind duality means that they do not understand the real meaning behind this dichotomy. Wake up Quasi-Wise, for Wisdom's sake!!

Can anything exist without any mechanism or way to recognize it or in other words, a perceiver? If something has to exist, it automatically assumes to have a perceiving device or a tool or a receptor or a mind. So a perceiving mind has to divide the indivisible, quite artificially, in order to perceive it. Unless the one becomes two there is no way for the one to perceive the undivided original. That is The Marvel of dichotomy. Although this dichotomy is artificial (ie. unreal), it is needed, nonetheless. On the other hand, quite paradoxically, this dichotomy will created an everlasting paradox of duality for the uninitiated minds but, in contrast, for the Wise, this dichotomy is the Supreme Gift known to exist in the entire universe.

Goodness in thought and goodness in action run side by side. One cannot thrive without the other. It's like chicken and egg. Which one comes first? If I am not good in thought then I cannot do good deeds and if I do not do any good deed then I cannot have good thought. Why? If I do not do good deed, my mind will know it and my mind will always try to escape from it. In doing so, it cannot think or decide unbiasely in future. And these effects are cumulative. That's why good action is a prerequisite for clarity of thought which is in turn a prerequisite for good thoughts. On the other hand, if you do not have the good thoughts or intentions then how can you ever do any good deed to begin with. Again, this is same the problem of chicken and egg. Good thought and good action are circumambulating each other around same cycle and you need a little alchemy to solve the paradox. Just enter the cycle from outside in whatever phase or part (good thought or good action) of the cycle, without thinking too much, such as, in what phase I need to enter, (action or thought), when should I enter, what should be my exact entry point, should I enter barefooted or with shoe, should I do it in the morning or evening and so on, ad infinitum. Just do it, like you go to sleep or walk without thinking too much about detailed of such actions. Just follow the cycle, it will take you to the escalating cycle of goodness of action and goodness of thought, like magic. The intention to be in that perpetual self maintaining circle and the actual action that initiated the start and hence continued circumambulation of the cycle is the secret of that alchemy. In doing so, did you see that you just solved a paradox!!

Now why you need good thought in first place? Your mind will not open completely without good thoughts and actions. You cannot open your mind just by commanding it or ordering it or forcing it. Your mind will only open fully only when you are in the cycle of genuine good thoughts and good action persistently, even in face of self-sacrifice or material/emotional disadvantages. And finally, only when you mind opens fully, it will start to work to fulfill its original purpose, just like a parachute that only works when it is fully open. When your mind opens, it will have diamond sharp edge yet crystal clear clarity. Only with that clear mind, you will begin to see things "As They Are".

Everything is in motion or changing or interacting or transforming into something else.  The rate of changes, although might be slow or fast, but the information or evidences of such changes as recorded in the fabric of the nature itself, where available, is always happening at a Max speed, like a speed of light or if not, at superluminary speed. Motion, however, also implies existence of stillness. Unless it was still, then how come everything is now changing. And it is changing from what? The answer is stillness. Motion and Stillness are the primordial eternal duo.

Now if you consider the entire universe, is it changing? Change means an outside reference against which you compare and contrast the change. How do you measure changes if you do not have anything else outside you. Then how do you know that anything is changing, ever? From the perspective of the entire universe, there is not even a concept of change. Everything is the same and still, forever. Yet, internally, the smaller parts are changing, incessantly, in reference to one another. In this way, the universe is simultaneously still and ever-changing, just with the change of perspective. Things those which are currently changing has an imprinted information/memory of both original and current stillness in the background, even though they cannot perceive that stillness themselves. A good analogy will be a photon and a human. A photon is already moving at the speed of light, hence from its own perspective, no time passes by and hence nothing is happening.  Everything is just still.  But the human sees that the photon is moving very fast, at the speed of light. For a human, nothing is resting, everything is changing. If a photon wants to perceive changes and motion, it has to slow down. It's a paradox! In order to see the changes, ie, changing yourself more, you have to do less changing ie. slow down!  For a photon, if you want to experience time, motion and changes, you have to slow down. In fact, the photon will experience the greatest time, changes and motion if he completely stop. Likewise, we are perceiving the highest degree of changes because we are relatively still compared to photons. For the "time perceiving" purpose, still objects like us are at the highest speed at perceiving and the photons are at the lowest speed. If photon ever wants to do that, then it will face the problems, as we are facing, like causality, and time. The morale of the story is that the universe is simultaneously still and in constant motion, depending on context, both of which are equally valid.

This co-mingling of stillness and incessant changes gives rise to "something". This "something" is just "one thing" but unfortunately named and used as "different things". Because this is just "one thing" but people have treated it as completely different things, people cannot reconcile the difference among them. The difference among them are purely your misunderstanding or ignorance, it will not be reconcilable unless you can see that it is just the same "one thing". The relation of incessant motion against the bigger, more primitive absolute stillness is that "one thing". It has been known as Time, Causality, Memory, Logos, Mind, Physical Laws of the Universe, Karma, Universal Consciousness, Thermodynamics, etc.. The sheeple might call it with different names but the Sages of all ages always knew that, "It's just One".

If you do not think for yourself, but rather try to find the answer by reading other people's work you will never find any real meanings, because the Sages or wise people have something in their mind but write it only indirectly about it, either knowingly or unknowingly. When they do it knowingly, they do it, quite paradoxically, to help you, so that you can find the meaning of life or any other subject matter by yourself. Additionally there are some thoughts or knowledge in the mind of the writer that they themselves do not know how they know it. Even worst, there is a deep paradox at the core of existence that is not amenable to logic, inaccessible to ordinary intuition, and hence not communicable in writings. So, instead they write only the parts of what they know with full confidence but something is always missing from their writing. Words are not really enough to convey what they actually trying to say. One way or another, unfortunately, you cannot have the complete understanding and knowledge of being from the writings of your fellow people, although it might help you as long as you yourself is also thinking and verifying by your best inner judgments (see thought training essay). On the other hand there are some half wise who will deliberately hide the telltale signs or giveaways of their ignorance and will try to pretend as wise as their masters. The only way they can achieve it by obfuscation, difficult sentence and wordings and introducing a bunch of unnecessary and useless new terms to sound erudite. In this way they earn your confidence for their own ego boost and your demise. You will also find some quasi-wise who are just downright imbecile but unfortunately trained themselves to read, write and talk. Those are the real culprit for the confusion in the world if you take those stupid babeler as an authority, unsuspectingly, just because were were taught in the school as blind dogma.

Example: Plato.

Most of the Pre-Socratics came into the same truth but they approached it from different directions so what they were saying is partly true, but truth, nonetheless. It is like the elephant seeing by the binds. Some of the Pre-Socratics actually experienced the truth but only from different side of the elephant so their description seems totally disparate, enough for anybody to reject them altogether, if that person does not have the eyes to see it correctly. Plato, who himself never experienced the reality that the Pre-Socratics experienced, but pretended that he understood what they were trying to say and reconstructed a monstrous metaphysics, quite innocently. This is the problem of not knowing and not acknowledging one's own limitations and folly, and when one tries to hide it. But those who believed Plato as the authority, instead of themselves, are suffering intellectually and they deserve this suffering because it's simply self-inflicted.

On the other hand, instead of using the schema constructed by other people, if you think and observe yourself, you can reach a valid conclusion, all by yourself. After finding the meaning and the conclusion, as you read others sages, you will see that you are Right, too. Only in this way you can have your flower of your own, rather than poisonous schema injected by others, typically in schools. 

Footnote: 

If you don't know the meaning of the word babel, do your homework and read the meaning in context of Tower of babel.

As a human with a limited time to live, we have a constant need for short-cuts in order to be time efficient. This same time constraint is also the driving force for us to ponder about the meaning of our lives, because we will not be here forever, so it is natural to ask where we were and where we are going. Time constraint is the mother of everything in this physical world. Time makes us to think about meaning, and the same time is working against our understanding the meaning of life by tempting us to take short-cuts.

In this culture of post-modernity where real meaning of most of our lives has been long lost, it is hard to find what are the questions that really needs your attention and deserves an answer. Here are some questions as a starting point for your consideration:

1. Who are you?

2. Where were you?

3. Where are you going?

Instead of asking those questions, we are more interested in some immediate issues like 

1. What shoe I need to wear  in order to be more sexy?

2. What are the best ways to spend my easy money with my mistress?

3. What brand of toilet paper is recommended by your doctors?

If you decide to deal with first sets of questions, which are more general, eternal and of sublime importance, your natural starting point would be science and religion. But demystifying what religion is, why it started, who started it, is a daunting task. Much easier would be to follow what the priest say. But in case you really want to have your own answers to those questions, you have to dig deeper. The deeper you dig, it will become clearer that the world religions are Man made. They were started by Man, maintained by Man, amended and adjusted by Man to fit the need of time and culture. If you do not have time, and want to decide quickly, your verdict will be, religions are just nonsense, made up by Man! Once you convinced yourself, too quickly, that there is no substance in these so called religions, you have to turn yourself towards science to find your answers. If you want to find answers in science, which is a inferior mode of finding those nonscientific questions, the following quotes by Steven Weinberg will be the answer "The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless." In this dilemma where you can see that religion is a made up things by Man and science is not going anywhere, under the time constraints embedded in human nature to decide quickly, you will decide that there is no meaning of life. Nobody can convince you that there is any meaning of life. Because it's your own voluntary will, it is and will always be valid, no matter what, and it will become the new law, at least in your universe, that cannot be overruled. So before you decide anything you have to be really careful to make sure why you are deciding quickly. Is it you want to decide to get the ego boost for apparent rightness or you decided because that's the reality and there is no other explanation. You have to also very careful in your decision to check if you have any presupposed idea or preference or cognitive bias towards your intended decision or if you have some hidden biological, social, political or financial agenda but not consciously aware of those.

If you can see the real situations or the real issues or the real problems, despite all the aforementioned noises, even then, do not decide instantly. Wait for a period of time, typically weeks to months to years. I am also aware of many mundane situations, where you cannot wait, rather you have to act quickly, because those has an immediate biological need (for example, you are hungry), or survival significance. Aside from those or similar situations, you don't have to decide quickly. You are not in hurry and hurry will distort your decision making ability. The issues that we are talking about in this discourse are not an urgent thing to decide quickly, not a shallow river to cross easily, not an easy cognitive task to be done by a rhesus monkey, not a job to claim that you are right and others are wrong. So, do not decide quickly and easily. You have enough time to do that in your life but do not do it under fixed time constraints. However, it does not mean that you can loiter away all of your valuable times and behave like a prodigal who has spent all of his money, but nothing left when he has to buy some life saving supplies.

If you are really sure that the decision you are making is the right one then try the following thought experiment. Try to reach the polar opposite conclusion that you previously make. Your only safeguard in this stage in utmost honesty and modesty. Do not try to distort, or get ego boost, but try to consider all explanations to explains the nature of the issues or situations. Be like Sherlock Holmes to rule out as many possibilities as possible & feasible and at the end use Ockham's razor for whatever remained after SherlockHolmian exclusion method. If you keep doing this for a period of time [in contrast to instant decision] then the real situation or truth will unfold before your very eyes. Because you waited enough, thought enough, cooked your own body enough, fermented your thought enough, your transformed mind will see the truth and then you can decide wisely. That is the only way you can decide, non-blindly. It's not easy, it will not give you ego boost quickly and it takes lots of time. All of these are exact reason why people tend to decide, even on very important life decisions, very quickly. Your premature decisions will blind you and do not dare to decide before your blindfolds has been lifted!