Tag: philosophy

The absurdity of not wanting traumatic experiences lies in the fact that such experiences are often the most memorable and rewarding, from which one can reap the most abundant and lasting benefits. It is not uncommon for a fruitful life to be built around them; an admirable life that knows how to transcend the negative and create something of value from it. Why, then, would we not want them? Because we are naturally inclined to believe that a pleasant life is superior to a fruitful one. What a mistake! And, when all is said and done, it is not hard to see how much more satisfying it is to be able to look back and admire how much one has done and how much one has managed to transform.

Some of the most valuable lessons life has to offer are those revealed by a contrast with common expectations. It is, for example, when one discovers that true generosity does not always present itself in a generous guise; or, conversely, that a violence, an enormous evil, lies hidden beneath the best of dispositions. Such experiences teach us a great deal about the essential nature of people and their intentions. Through them, one learns to admire and to despise in an unconventional way—but in a more dignified manner that values what is truly valuable.

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.

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.