On the free-spirit

Aphorism 34

What is the free-spirit? The genius, the artist, the philosopher, the infinite player, the saint, the revolutionary, the lunatic, so forth and so on, are all imperfect and incomplete manifestations of what in its fullest being is known as a free-spirit. A free-spirit is all of these things at once whereas each of these individual guises is only a portion of the whole. The world has seen its fair share of true geniuses, true artists, true philosophers, and true saints, without ever having seen them all together in the manifestation of one individual. What all of these individual guises (the genius, artist, saint, etc) share in common is the ability, proclivity, and tendency to disrupt the ordinary boundaries and reality tunnels of those about them. All of them represent an energy that cannot quite find its place in society. These partial reflections of the free-spirit are untimely beings, spirits that are ahead of their times, pulled from the future to dwell in the past. That is why the villains of one age may be heroes in hindsight. However, the free-spirit is an eternal creation. It is not ahead of its time, nor behind its time—it is beyond time.

Aphorism 35

The brilliance of the free-spirit radiates so brightly that unless one has eyes for it, one will be blinded by it.

Aphorism 36

The free-spirit is a God among mortals: completely incomprehensible, existing on a different plane of existence, and largely unable to relate to others. When it speaks, it is likely to be misunderstood. Where it walks, it is likely to unsettle the earth. The free-spirit is a madman.

Aphorism 37

The free-spirit is a powerful force. The free-spirit is feared because of its destructive side. Like a tornado among straw houses, wherever it goes it upsets the delicate and fragile network of lies, assumptions, beliefs, and reality tunnels that a society has constructed. It is a threat to stability, comfort, security, and power. But the free-spirit is also ridiculed and marginalized because of its creative side. What it creates is so new, so weird and anomalous, that the herd around the free-spirit simply is not ready to handle, comprehend, and utilize it. Over boundary-defined individuals are antiquarians at heart: they preserve the past and project it into the future refusing to compromise with change. The common majority, the herd at large, are over boundary-defined and cannot but help to judge this free-spirit as evil.

Aphorism 38

“The strongest and most evil spirits have so far done the most to advance humanity… What is new, however, is always evil, being that which wants to conquer and overthrow the old boundary markers and the old pieties; and only what is old is good.” Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Aphorism 4

Aphorism 39

The free-spirit is judged by those around him, yet, is in possession of him/herself to such a degree that the free-spirit does not reciprocate the act of judging. The free-spirit is beyond judgment: it understands that its higher perspective cannot be grasped from the ground. The free-spirit has been awakened to the fact that everyone has a unique reality-tunnel and that no individual reality-tunnel has any claim to objectivity or superiority. Therefore, the free-spirit does not impose its reality-tunnel on others; what it does is this: it resists the error of judgment, kindly tries to nudge others in a new direction, to expose them to a world beyond their reality-tunnel, but at the end of the day accepts each and every person for who they are.

Aphorism 40

Who among us has enough compassion to live without judgment?

Aphorism 41

The business of culture—all cultures—is the preservation and pedaling of its own agenda. Culture attempts to suppress free-spirits rather than cultivate and nurture them because the creation of a free-spirit is a threat to its own stability. The continued success of a culture relies on the ability to keep a docile and monotonously driven populace within rigid boundaries that maximize its own success and power while eliminating variability.

Aphorism 42

But of course, many individuals pose as a genius or artist or saint but in reality are as prosaic, base, and as commonplace as the rest of us. Countless charlatans act like geniuses, philosophers, and artists, with their personas. Distinguishing the free-spirit from one pretending to be a free spirit is not a difficult task. The imposter does not possess the same force of character, the same radiance of energy, or command the same type of vibration that seems to resonate forward throughout reality announcing its presence. True free-spirits radiate brilliantly with courage, innovation, and novelty. They are so awe-inspiring to us that we feel like infants among giants in their presence.

Aphorism 43

The free-spirit is a rare manifestation. Their scarcity is rivaled only by their magnitude.

Aphorism 44

Depressingly so, the vast majority of human beings are born with anchors that they will never overcome. A small percentage of them—those that are the most rebellious and defiant at heart—will free themselves from the anchors but have no sense of direction thereafter. Then an infinitesimally smaller fraction of those that were able to liberate themselves will come into themselves and become both the captain and the crew of their own ships. But even these individuals have a difficult time of taking command and staying in command of their ships. There has yet to be a soul on this planet who has not vacillated between commanding and being commanded.

Aphorism 45

Once it is awakened, there is no lulling the free-spirit back to sleep. The threshold has been crossed, the bridges burned, the new spirit transformed, the old spirit reduced to ashes, and there is nowhere to go but forward, upward, and outward. The creation of the free-spirit is a permanent change. Once the free-spirit is awakened to the reality that it, and it alone, can be the master and commander of its reality tunnel, it will no longer be appeased by its inherited boundaries.

Aphorism 46

One cannot unknown the truth that one is at the center of the mandala.

Aphorism 47

The nature of the free-spirit itself is not static: it will continue to change, play, and move with reality as it sees fit but the free-spirit will never be tempted back into blind, obedient submission, never be fooled by the allure of objectivity, and will never, ever, sacrifice its own integrity by returning to its old habits.

Aphorism 48

As spiritual beings, it is our duty to evolve with the times. As time progresses forward we should as well. Therefore, the luminary, the revolutionary, the genius, of one age may be the common rabble of another. In their time, revolutionaries are often stigmatized as evil and subversive because of their threat to the common order. It is only generations later when the actions of the revolutionary have become commonplace and a new paradigm has replaced the old that the individual goes from being vilified to glorified.

Aphorism 49

The transformation from a boundary defined individual into a free-spirit is as dramatic a change as the transformation from Atlas to Prometheus.

Aphorism 50

The free-spirit, after all, now lives in a world that is radically different than that which preceded it. It has metamorphosed from a beast of burden to one that plays with fire. It remembers that reality of security, obedience, and direction which has all vanished from its current life. But the old satisfaction and complacency that was mistakenly mislabeled as “happiness” has been replaced by both true danger and true ecstasy. The path of the free-spirit is not an easy one and often times a difficult one. After all, if a normal person falls, its society, context, and culture are culpable. If a free-spirit falls, there is no one to blame but him/herself.

Aphorism 51

Who among us possesses this kind of strength?

Aphorism 52

Has there ever been a free-spirit to walk across this earth? Has a true free-spirit ever laid foot on this earth? To the best of my knowledge, a true free-spirit, meaning one that has utterly, completely, and uncompromisingly embodied what it means to take control of one’s reality, has never existed. And yet it remains like an image that we chase after, a mirage, an illusion—but an impossibility?

Aphorism 53

It is like the ever receding horizon.

Aphorism 54

None of us may ever fully, truly, and absolutely become free-spirits. But, once awakened, even partially, we are obligated to pursue that ideal. Though we may not become it, we must approximate it. We must seek to approximate the free-spirit, to make of ourselves simulacrums, to make ourselves in God’s image, no matter how imperfect or how far from the ideal we fall. The free-spirit is our ideal: the image we chase after but can never quite attain—the blurred image which upsets and unsettles the strict dichotomy between real and illusory.

Aphorism 55

The free-spirit is an illusion, a complete fabrication of the mind. But make no mistake with confusing this with the meaning that just because something is illusory it isn’t powerful. Illusions can be just as powerful as reality—often times more so! The boundary between the real and the illusory is thin and permeable. Real and illusory—yet another boundary that must be overcome!

Aphorism 56

The free-spirit, or any of its partial manifestations and scintillations, is an enemy of dichotomies. The free-spirit appears to be an amalgamation of paradoxes and contradictions. In truth, the reason the free-spirit appears this way is because it is able to shift reality-tunnels at will. It is author, engineer, and arbiter of its host of reality tunnels. As beings aspiring towards the ideal of the free-spirit our task is to move beyond our inherited boundaries, to move beyond our old notions of good and evil, real and imaginary, subject and object, being and becoming, time and space, love and hate, so that we can mature and blossom into a being who takes life into his own hands and lives as an artist rather than a prisoner.

Aphorism 57

Emerson said, “I see the currents of absolute being flow through me.” To which I say, “I see the currents of the free-spirit flow through us all.”

Aphorism 58

In short, the free-spirit is the embodiment and personification of the externally changing, the constantly shifting and becoming, ebb and flow of reality—in essence, the harbinger of impermanence.

Metamorphosis of the Soul

Aphorism 16

First—assimilation. Followed by—destruction. Finally—creation.

Aphorism 17

The human being is born anchored—anchored to its family, its language, its culture, its environment, its time, and its reality-tunnel. If the human being is fortunate, it will be liberated from these anchors and allowed to elevate itself. Once elevated, and if twice blessed with good fortune, the being will grow wings and be able to fly, where the only limitation is the strength of one’s own wings. The creation of our own boundaries is the culmination of an evolutionary process that results in the death of the old spirit and the (re)birth of the free-spirit.

Aphorism 18

“Of the three metamorphoses of the spirit I tell you: how the spirit becomes a camel; and the camel, a lion; and the lion, finally, a child.” Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Aphorism 19

As human beings, we have a complex and ambivalent relationship towards boundaries. Boundaries are both our halo and our noose. Our future as a species will be determined by how each of us individually deals with the challenge of creating our own boundaries, integrating those boundaries into the wider world, and dealing with the boundaries of others. If we continue to bear the burden of our ancestors’ boundaries, then we will be ill equipped to face the challenges of a new world. Reality is in a constant state of flux: it is in a process of constantly remaking itself over and over. To adequately fulfill our lives as spiritual beings we must be able to adapt to the ever arising facets of reality. In short: as reality evolves, the obligation placed upon us is to evolve concomitantly. We are the only species on earth that can palpably, readily, and radically take hold of the course of their own evolution. We can no longer shy away from this responsibility. If we let ourselves be guided into the future with a rear view mirror, then the possibility of catastrophe is not a question of if, but a question of when.

Aphorism 20

“What is difficult? asks the spirit that would bear much, and kneels down like a camel wanting to be well loaded. Is it not humbling oneself to wound one’s haughtiness?” Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Aphorism 21

The artist, before he or she can come into their own being, must assimilate to the methods, techniques, and boundaries of those who came before. Only after mastering them, or after being sufficiently mastered by them, can the artist adequately extend the boundaries of what is new and novel. What is true of the artist is true of life in general. Whether we like it or not, being born is synonymous with being brain-washed—the politically correct term is socialized. The human spirit always makes an ass out of itself before it becomes anything else, if indeed it does evolve past the stage of burden—e.g., St. Paul was a Jew before he was a Christian, Freud studied medicine before developing psychoanalysis, Einstein was a Newtonian before creating relativity, etc. All boundaries are overcome, expanded, or dissolved, because they are incomplete, inadequate, or no longer relevant. Dissatisfaction with the current collection of boundaries is the precursor and precondition to moving beyond them. Unfortunately, some individuals become so comfortable with their boundaries, that they are blind to their own dissatisfaction with them.

Aphorism 22

Only bear the burden until it makes an ass out of you.

Aphorism 23

To be sure, being over boundary defined is a palpable and diagnosable disease but the senseless and reckless destruction of all boundaries is a cure worse than the disease. Boundaries are not to be overcome just for the sake of overcoming them. One of the most paradoxical boundaries we have is language—it is, at once, both our halo and our noose. Without the agreed upon rules, norms, and standards of language, communication would be impossible. With language we sacrifice a degree of freedom so that we can communicate with others. Yes, boundaries are impediments to freedom, but they are also facilitators of action. We should only seek to remove boundaries when they prevent us from doing something that assists in the self-actualization of the soul. Before one is ready to overcome a boundary, he or she must be able to feel the burden of it. The weight of the boundary must be too great to bear. But once someone overcomes a boundary, they are now responsible for becoming their own law-maker, their own judge, their own arbiter—a task nearly God-like in stature.

Aphorism 24

“Can you give yourself your own evil and your own good and hang your own will over yourself as a law? Can you be your own judge and avenger of your law? Terrible it is to be alone with the judge and avenger of one’s own law.” Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Aphorism 25

It is during the soul’s darkest hour when it cannot bear any more weight, that the lion-spirit is born. With resentment as its mother and revenge as its father, the lion is born to kill. The individual will become a ferocious spirit filled with hostile energy and a taste for destruction. Pugnaciously recalcitrant, the lion-spirit is the force that frees us from our prison and prevents us from going back; it is the eternal nay slayer, the obstinate “No.” It is the great equalizer, the great eraser, that will raze both the living and the dead. The lion-spirit is the source of our dissatisfaction, our resolve, and, most importantly, our courage. The lion-spirit is the great awakener: it is the catalyst of understanding that allows us to realize that the reality-tunnel we have been living through is the creation of others and not our own. The lion-spirit demolishes every chain, lock, and wall that had been in our way and leaves us in a state of being that is radically free. Radical freedom is a liberating experience for some and a terrifyingly debilitating experience for others because it shows us that all meaning, value, truth, and happiness, are created and not found in reality. For those of us not prepared to meet reality on a clean slate, infinity is a paralyzing prospect. But the lion-spirit is too destructive to be the final evolution of the soul; it lacks something… The unabated rampage of the lion-spirit begins in the desire for freedom but ends in cynicism, pessimism, and nihilism. Having destroyed all and everything, the lion-spirit no longer has anything to value or cherish: meaning is lost, value can be found in nothing, and life becomes empty. It remains incomplete…

Aphorism 26

“But Hours will come when you will realize that [the ocean] is infinite and that there is nothing more awesome than infinity. Oh, the poor bird that felt free and now strikes the walls of this cage! Woe, when you feel homesick for the land as if it had offered more freedom—and there is no longer any ‘land.’ ” Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Aphorism 124.

Aphorism 27

Only creation justifies destruction.

Aphorism 28

“To create new values—that even the lion cannot do; but the creation of freedom for oneself for new creation—that is within the power of the lion. The creation of freedom for oneself and a sacred “No” even to duty—for that, my brothers, the lion is needed.” Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Aphorism 29

In the wake of the lion-spirit, the creative spirit is now free to (literally) create their own reality, one often quite antithetical to their previously inherited reality-tunnel. But the well of strength must run deep for one to be strong enough to be the artist of their own reality-tunnel. Though strength is required, it is not sufficient for creation. The creative-spirit must also be humble, delightfully easy-going, and playfully flexible in demeanor—its every act of creation is done with laughter and dance. The creative-spirit is an artistic force and not a scientific force. In other words, it is radically (but consciously) a subjective creation and not an objective creation. The creative-spirit realizes the folly of objectivity and therefore decides to weave a reality-tunnel that is conducive to its goals, in line with its dreams, and is beautiful according to its standards. The creative spirit is self-contained and trusts no one, kneels to no one, but neither criticizes others. No longer the slave of its boundaries, the creative-spirit has escaped the illusion of objectivity that has allured and deluded so many of humanity. Because the creative-spirit is the artist of its own reality-tunnel, the spirit is now the master of its boundaries.

Aphorism 30

“Why must the preying lion still become a child? The child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a self-propelled wheel, a first movement, a sacred “Yes.” For the game of creation, my brothers, a sacred “Yes” is needed: the spirit now wills his own will, and he who had been lost to the world now conquers his own world.” Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Aphorism 31

Only when we are as free, imaginative, and careless as a child at play can we sculpt our own reality-tunnel.

Aphorism 32

We begin as beasts of burden whom cannot help but say “yes” and proudly accept whatever is heaped upon us. But then we become warriors of freedom, liberators with a bellicose “No” in return to all that had previously been “yes.” Finally, we become transformative spirits whom no longer echo the “yes” of others, whom no longer fight with the obstinate “No,” but now can create with their own sacred “Yes.”

Aphorism 33

The being who can successfully complete the metamorphosis from assimilation, to destruction, to creation, emerges (re)born as a true free-spirit.

Boundaries: a fractal introduction

Aphorism 1

Whether our lives fathom hell or soar angelic is decided by how we as spiritual beings are able to deal with the awesome responsibility of actualizing our birthright and becoming the masters of our boundaries.

Aphorism 2

Reality has been and always will be a story of boundaries. This has been true on every scale, on every level, and in every dimension of reality: microscopic, macroscopic, physical, metaphysical, social, emotional, intellectual, ethical, political, ecological, economical, technological, sexual, spiritual, etc. As space and time have expanded outwards, so have our boundaries. There has been and will continue to be a general trend of moving beyond former states of complexity into greater states of complexity, a process that is more than just the mere acceleration of novelty and creativity—it is the overcoming of boundaries. The universe went from being an amorphous soup of chaotic heat and energy to being a collection of galaxies, solar systems, and planets; the earth went from Pangaea to the United Nations; the evolution of life went from inanimate mud and slime to multi-dimensional beings capable of the sublime.

Aphorism 3

As agents and instruments of separation, boundaries are instances of limitation, demarcation, and definition. They are instruments of action that attempt to remove ambiguity from reality and force us to into very specific categories. The more boundaries that are present in a system—any kind of system: ecological, social, anatomical—the more robotic, mechanical, and automatic that system can run. Chaos is replaced with structure. Freedom is replaced with determinism. Reality conforms to the boundary, not the boundary to reality…

Aphorism 4

Boundaries propagate comfort, security, and stability. Boundaries can come in the form of physical objects, such as walls, fences, windows, rivers, oceans, and such. But even intangible things like cultures, beliefs, desires, knowledge, ethics, language, jealousy, laziness, and fear are boundaries. Boundaries are trans-dimensional. And overcoming them requires a trans-dimensional effort. Boundaries are useful as instruments of action until the accumulation of boundaries becomes too stifling and suffocating and until the actions are no longer desirable. Once we become too enclosed and encapsulated by our boundaries, and once our actions become deleterious to our physical, emotional, ecological, and spiritual health, it is time to overcome our boundaries by dissolving them.

Aphorism 5

Most of the weight and pressure of boundaries goes unnoticed because their constant presence on our being anesthetizes us to them: when this occurs, a drastic boundary dissolving experience is required to remind us of their presence. This experience, which is always traumatizing, is a coin flip between liberation and debilitation—some fly where others fall. But if not for these glimpses beyond boundaries, they remain invisible to us. Rarely, if ever, do we notice the pressure of air—unless we are ten feet from the surface of the water and struggling for breath. Rarely, if ever, do we notice the cultural biases that dictate our thoughts, tastes, and actions—unless we find ourselves in a different country with different ideas, foods, and mores. Rarely, if ever, do we confront the reality of our mortality—unless we or someone we know falls terribly ill. Rarely, if ever, do we reach our creative and powerful potential as human beings—unless we are thrown into a dire situation against our will. Rarely, if ever, do we become aware of our boundaries—unless we deliberately (and radically) step outside of them. The comfort that boundaries provide us with has blinded us to their inimical side-effects. If we are too scared to step beyond our boundaries then we will stagnant and remain frozen in time while all about us reality continues to move forward.

Aphorism 6

“The revolutionaries of any decade will become the reactionaries of the next decade, if they do not change their nervous system, because the world around them is changing. He or she who stands still in a moving, racing, accelerating age, moves backwards relatively speaking.” R.A.W., Prometheus Rising, 214

Aphorism 7

The greatest tragedy is the blindness that we all have toward our own boundaries. It is easy to see how others are limited, biased, and narrow minded—but it is infinitely harder to see that of ourselves.

Aphorism 8

Our personal (collection of) boundaries form the basis for our ‘reality tunnel’ through which we interpret reality. But just like other boundaries, we forget that these intangible barriers are imposed upon reality and may not coincide directly with reality—we forget that our map is not the territory. Our minds function in a way that reinforces whatever reality tunnel we currently have. Whatever the Thinker thinks, the Prover proves. There is not a single individual—not Jesus, not Einstein, not you and especially not me—who is not guilty of confusing their perspective of reality for reality itself. Our concepts through which we interpret reality are as real a boundary as any brick wall is. The nexus of particular beliefs, assumptions, morals, truths, experiences, and environments, forms the structure of each individual’s reality tunnel. And the first step to moving beyond the narrow boundaries of one’s reality tunnel is becoming aware of it.

Aphorism 9

As human beings, we are defined by the boundaries that we submit to and that surround us. When we merely inherit those boundaries from our parents, from our teachers, and from our culture, we become tools for others. When we take those boundaries into our own hands and create our own, we become spiritually fulfilled human beings. Inheriting boundaries means living as a tool for others—others who usually do not have your best interests (emotional, intellectual, and spiritual fulfillment) in mind. Creating boundaries means independently living for one’s self.

Aphorism 10

How do you choose to live your life: as a camel or as a child?

Aphorism 11

The origin of our spiritual, existential, and social tension and dis-ease comes from boundaries. I know because I witness their effects first hand. Boundaries—fear, shame, and timidity—plague my life on a daily basis. They provide me with comfort and stability at the expense of my mind’s sanity and my soul’s integrity. But I would trade the comfort for pain and the stability for abandonment if it meant that I could be liberated. I am looking for something radical to dissolve my boundaries—I am not content to change things one at a time—I seek no ember—I seek a conflagration. I sense, though, that I am not the only one who feels this way. Faintly, I can hear the muffled voices of others. I sense that I am merely echoing the lamentable chorus of many. I sense that I am not the only caged bird that sings.

Aphorism 12

“It is by invisible hands that we are bent and tortured worst.” Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Aphorism 13

It takes courage, real courage, to move beyond boundaries and to move into yourself. All of our lives we have been conditioned to follow orders, to be normal, and to submit to the authority of others. But the truth of the matter is that there is no greater authority than yourself. You are a beautiful being filled with limitless amounts of potential. Do not let yourself be brought down. Do not let yourself be limited. Take reality into your own hands, weave a reality-tunnel that makes you happy, and embrace the person you were always meant to be.

Aphorism 14

“Finite players play within boundaries; infinite players play with boundaries.” James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games, 12

Aphorism 15

We must overcome our boundaries. Overcoming our boundaries means becoming their masters and not their slaves. We cannot continue to consume boundaries. We must create our own boundaries.

“Of all that is written I love only what a man has written with his blood. Write with blood, and you will experience that blood is spirit… Whoever writes in blood and aphorisms does not want to be read but to be learned by heart. In the mountains the shortest way is from peak to peak: but for that one must have long legs. Aphorisms should be peaks—and those who are addressed, tall and lofty. The air thin and pure, danger near, and the spirit full of gay sarcasm: these go well together. I want to have goblins around me, for I am courageous. Courage that puts ghosts to flight creates goblins for itself: courage wants to laugh…” Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra