An Age of stimulation, A Poverty of Wisdom
We live in an age with unprecedented access to a vast and stimulating quantity of information, yet this advantage simultaneously challenges us to curate knowledge forms capable of enabling ourselves and our kin to operate at higher dimensions of reality. Transcendence, adaptation, and self-definition are essential faculties to be consciously cultivated and exercised in an age beset by identity crises and a vacuous longing for meaning.
“Man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked” – Viktor Frankl, Mans Search for Meaning
The pursuit of authentic self-definition and transcendence rests upon fidelity to the truth. The less faithfully one approaches the truth, the more distorted and impure one’s conception of reality becomes. The clearer, more truthful, applicable and relevant our mental models are shaped from the information available to us, the greater our capacity to operate at higher dimensions of reality. Conversely, models built upon impure or faithless attitudes towards truth hinder the effectiveness of practical living. Practical life, when rooted in truth, becomes what we call culture: the holistic and time-proven human experience – the tested way of being born from the successful creation and transmission of order. Such cultures endure, as evidenced by survival, competitive strength, proliferation and flourishing.
Men Are Within Kingdoms, Yet Kingdoms Are Within Men.
Each of us, by the way we exercise knowledge and live our experience, becomes the draft of a little culture. The story of humanity is written into our very being; we participate in the human race through our continual pursuit, refinement, and organisation of the knowledge that confronts us. In this pursuit lies the opportunity to discover, to preserve, and to cherish knowledge in all its forms – stored, abstract, and experiential – handed down and crystallised as heritage.
This heritage is a form of wealth wrought through an intentional, courageous, and inquisitive approach to life – one that demands constant challenge and contact with reality. From such engagement arise grounded forms of knowledge, born of direct human-emotional experience. This wealth, beyond the reach of currency, matures into what may be called socio-cultural inheritance: the enduring treasury of meaning earned through lives honestly lived.
- As recorded in Genesis by Moses: Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
- As recorded in the proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: “A good person leaves an inheritance for his children’s children, but a sinners wealth is stored up for the righteous”
- The words of the teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem declares: “The Lord bestows wisdom, knowledge, and joy upon the man who is good before Him; but to the sinner He grants only labour that what he gathers may one day serve the righteous.”
Where the multi-generational, lifelong striving of attainment of such wisdom imbues this inheritance with gravitas over time. Forming a sediment of centuries of life-affirming, truthful living.
When Walking In Truth; Truth Becomes Culture
This sites ultimate aim is to be a continuously evolving philosophy: a living exploration of culture in all its dimensions, a repository for the actualisation of higher consciousness. such depths of introspection demand courage and character from those who read, for “in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow”. The nature of truth is not obligated to satisfy us with comfort, but its duty is always to sober us. Its role is to confront our reality, heighten our perceptions, and judge the sensibilities of our hearts.
As written in the Gospel according to John: “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”
They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.
“The Kingdom of God Is Within You”
In seeking for something bigger than ourselves we commonly seek and intend on finding it beyond our own being, yet the world around us will never cease to disappoint. So how must we be grounded?
The road to transcendence is counter-intuitive: to walk it – you must not seek expansion beyond the self, but strive to go deep into the depth confined within you. As it is not through outwardness but inward profundity the soul attains height.
“Do not go outward; return within yourself. In the inward man dwells truth.” – St. Augustine
So passes the empire, but the treasure is within
~ Sic transit imperium, sed thesaurus intus est.
I have had many requests over the years to share my understandings and particularly to write a book, and so using the time I have available, a blog will suffice. I aim not to change your opinion, but to satisfactorily provoke your thoughts through this site as I have done in the past. Building on the substance of the insights I have to share, and their delivery as we go along.
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