SPIRITUAL EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION

There are two modes: expansion and consolidation

One is expansive and open and adventurous and MOVING

Other is enclosing and retaining and protective and settling

We obviously rely on both: acquiring resources — then retaining them.

If you’re only acquiring and never retaining — than your work is futile. Water seeps through your hands.

If you’re only retaining but never acquiring — than your work is futile. You can’t retain what you didn’t acquire — because you’ve NOTHING to retain.

Thus unless the two modes are in harmony — they are treacherous and detrimental.

Acquiring and retaining doesn’t merely pertain to physical resources, obviously

The far more interesting aspect is the content of human heart and soul and mind

Our psyche acquires and retains all the time

You acquire knowledge, you acquire beliefs, you acquire habits, you acquire an IDENTITY…

You acquire all that…

and then you retain it

or you don’t retain it

and then you acquire more

or you don’t acquire more.

If only acquire, only experience, only live — without retaining those experiences, without retaining those lessons — then obviously you don’t learn

But if you only retain — then eventually you become saturated, you become complete — and that is the end of your search, that is the end of your learning, you are now learnt, you are now clever, and you no longer acquire

Obviously you need both modes

You must retain what best you’ve learned

But you must continue acquiring

You can discard your useless acquisitions… if you acquire and retain everything — you’ll soon drown in that clutter, in that mess. Don’t be greedy

Acquire new intellectual and spiritual properties — and discard old

UPDATE yourself

Don’t become obsolete, don’t become old

I constantly see failure of both modes

I see men fail to acquire

I see men fail to retain

I see men with their minds closed, dead-minds, walking dead: insensitive, obtuse, dull. The men who “know”.

I see men who never learn, continuously acquiring chaos, living chaos, and never retaining no lessons, never learning, never knowing.

And then I see failure of both modes at once, men who seek but don’t find, men who seem to acquire new but really only retain the old,

I even see men who retain the new, but fail to retain the old, fail to retain what works, impressionable, foolish, argumentum ad novitatem

I see men doubt, I see men realize their own ignorance, realize their NOW knowing…

i see men doubt — thus they seek — thus find — and thus they acquire — and thus the pursuit ends — and then they “know” — and they are back to square one

And then they are back to square one, they “know”, only they don’t know. Because the moment you think you know is when your mind closes, when you become ignorant, when you become unintelligent

Thus you don’t know, again.

And then maybe you’ll doubt again and seek again.

But will you ever learn that what you seek is the act of SEEKING ITSELF?

What you seek is the act of seeking itself,

It’s the state in which you’re RETAINING — but always SEARCHING, always ACQUIRING, always EVOLVING, ELEVATING

But I see men search, and then they find, and then they are stupid again.

I see men find a lovely little nieche, lovely little meme, lovely little ideology, and then it becomes their identity, it becomes their haven, and it becomes their prison, it becomes their chain

And from what I’ve seen — it really doesn’t matter what you find — even the noblest finding, the noblest idea, noblest movement, noblest ideology, noblest philosophical or spiritual doctrine — it instantly becomes UTTERLY CORRUPTED — the moment you embrace it as definite — and thus close your mind, and thus become stupid and insensitive.

I’ve seen fools in EVERY sphere of life, every movement, every ideology, every side, every religion, every idea. Dogma is dogma. Dogma is even worse than we commonly think, and FAR more rampant and pernicious.

And then I see men settle

Settling already creates a bubble around you

Settling inevitably creates an ecosystem around you — biased in favour of you and your preferences — and NOT in favour of the rest of the world, rest of the reality, and the sacred NEW.

You must never settle spiritually.

And if you settle, if settle in this world, physically, intellectually, socially — is when you must be extremely careful — because this settling will settle you spiritually, settle you epistemically, and you will end up in a bubble, and this bubble will separate you from the rest of the world, this bubble will separate you from reality.

And we’re all terribly separated from reality

You know you’re biased — but you have absolutely no idea just HOW biased you are

You are infinitely biased. You are as biased as a fish in an aquarium is biased about the world outside the aquarium. You are infinitely biased.

And believe me — ANY TIME you settle, ANY TIME you “know” — is the VERY MOMENT you become the fish in an aquarium

There are two modes: EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION

Both instincts are innate.

Once one has expanded, once one has acquired — one consolidates, one settles, one retains, protects.

Until eventually one is trapped in a bubble, one is trapped in an aquarium

This very bubble bursts eventually, this very aquarium shatters

It ends eventually — when life inevitably takes its due, when the water eventually breaks down the rock, inexorable

So will it end for you — with your death — or before it

Once your prison becomes too constraining — you will seek to escape it

Once your burden becomes too heavy — you will seek to rid yourself of it

Or else death will alleviate you of that burden

Once your knowledge and beliefs and convictions and ideologies and practices become too obsolete, too at odds with the challenges of life, true life, challenges of reality — you will finally be ready to discard them, to let go of them

The catch is for it to not come too late

The catch is to not let your fear of losing (what you acquired) prevent you from GETTING WHAT YOU WANT, from CONTINUING LIVING AND EXPLORING, with your entire heart

You don’t want that bubble in the first place, you don’t want that prison. You want to be alive, open, ready.

But then again there’s the failure to retain, failure to consolidate

There’s the torrid demand of life, the call to living, the call to seeking, the call to finding and ACQUIRING

You seek but never find

You experience but never learn

You create, you build, but then you abandon, which is to destroy

You move from place to place, literally and spiritually

You seek new experiences, new excitements, new thrills, new heights

And you find nothing

Ironically, failure to consolidate is actually also failure to expand

You think you’re expanding — in your wild pursuits — but there’s one key element which fails to expand — YOURSELF

In all your outside expanding — you fail to expand within

You acquired and RETAINED an identity of an adventurer, of a seeker, or a conqueror — and now you fail to let go of that identity

You fail to cease your chase, your futile pursuits of nothing, your chaos

You appear to be searching but you don’t even know what you’re searching. You’re not really searching anything — because nothing you find is of value to you. You just discard it and search a new thing. You don’t find satisfaction, and you DON’T LEARN.

Sometimes to expand you have to consolidate, settle.

Like sometimes to know you just have to accept your utter ignorance.

THERE ARE TWO MODES: EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION

YOU NEED BOTH.

You must both be LEARNING and EXPLORING

NOTHING YOU LEARN will ever complete you

NOTHING YOU LEARN will ever end the exploration

But this very exploration must not be chaotic either, or else it’s not really exploration, it’s just chaos, it’s just an escape…

You must be LEARNING,

You must LEARN and CONSOLIDATE in order to survive, in order to thrive, in order to grow,

And then you CONTINUE LEARNING, CONTINUE EXPLORING, CONTINUE EXPANDING

…and it’s the most difficult thing!

Because eventually the pull in either direction will be extremely strong,

The bubble will be very comfortable

Or perhaps the vain excitation of the novelty will be very compelling

And you will either cease expanding, or you will fail to consolidate, fail to learn, become lost

Take a look at yourself then and ask yourself,

AM I TRULY EXPLORING — AND WHAT I’M TRULY LEARNING?