In truth, the recommendation to be true to oneself, to chart one’s own course in life, to make a deliberate plan a reality through conscious choices, applies only to a specific type of personality—one with a rather uncommon predisposition. It seems crazy to point this out; after all, who does not want to live the life he has chosen? However, that is the way it is: there is another, more common type of person who does not want this; what he longs for is simply to live a life planned by others, or rather, by consensus—and satisfaction, for this type, lies in enjoying acceptance. There is nothing to lament or criticize. For both, there is a formula that leads to genuine satisfaction—and, therefore, the best recommendation will always be the one that best suits individual needs.
Category: Notes
Over the Course of a Lifetime, One Only Experiences…
Over the course of a lifetime, one only experiences a sense of progress through beginnings and endpoints. Without them, one feels a sense of stagnation that, being unnatural, causes a growing discomfort; which, even when masked, tends to intensify until it erupts when least expected—and then there is no way to recover the time that has been lost. That is why it is essential to set them regularly as milestones marking progress. This is how one truly evolves: by maintaining the initiative for new beginnings and the maturity to realize that something has already fulfilled its purpose.
A Decade Is Usually Enough to Transform…
A decade is usually enough to transform a beginner into an expert. But what is more striking than the knowledge acquired in a discipline or profession is the obvious change that study tends to bring about in one’s surroundings. So much changes! Ten years later, the beginner has become a different person; physically, he is someone else, and it is sometimes difficult to connect the new expert with the person he once was. Someone who did not know him will no longer find those traits that led to his current state. And someone who knew him before, even if they try, even if they force it, even if they refuse to accept the change, will likely fail to strike old chords, and will end up realizing that they—thank God!—will never vibrate again.
Witnessing Even a Single One of These Moments…
Witnessing even a single one of these moments of “meaningful coincidences” or “synchronicity,” to use Jung’s terminology, more than justifies the study of esotericism as a whole, from the most obscure theories to the most exotic systems of divination. In these moments, one realizes just how inadequate, how foolish this modern scientistic conception is, one that relies on an authority ridiculed by the tremendous, unquestionable, and unforgettable violence of certain experiences. To witness it just once, and it becomes difficult to take any interest in anything “scientific”—the sacredness of the adjective crumbles. So, the real problem: immersing oneself in what is the most prolific territory of charlatans. But there is no way out: one must listen to them, perhaps be deceived, and discover, in the end, what good could be gleaned from it.