Tag: philosophy

The study of what has come to be known as esotericism is frustrating for countless reasons. The first of these is the number of charlatans and fraudsters who swarm in this field. Then there is the tedious universe that surrounds it. But above all, it is because esotericism does not deliver what it promises that it becomes more frustrating. At least, the student does not find fulfillment in it, and only discovers this after much study, and often after something worse. However, it would be untrue to classify this as a vain study. “Esotericism” has appropriated a tradition that, without it, would have been almost forgotten. But beyond that: after thousands of pages, one realizes that something has been learned. And even if, during the process, such learning has not been evident, the study itself, perhaps using the pages as intermediaries or as inspiration, gives the final impression of having revealed something of value.

Financial mathematics has something cruel about it. When studying it, it is not difficult to see that it works, that is, that the long term really does confirm the theory of multiplication. Although recent, it already has sufficient historical data to estimate with some certainty the results of different scenarios, including those that are unforeseen. Risk, too, can now be quantified in fairly reliable figures. But all of these calculations, all of these estimates, all of this sufficiently safe way of operating, with more than satisfactory results, is always based on percentages. No matter how sophisticated the calculation or how powerful the computer, it is impossible to escape this constraint: a percentage is always relative to the principal.

It is never easy to visualize the present moment and calculate how quickly it will have been an opportunity that has gone. Some decisions mature much sooner than expected, and when one realizes it, the hesitation itself has already borne fruit. A mere five-year interval creates a new reality, in which the past has materialized into visible consequences from which one can only learn. One learns, of course, but the knowledge acquired does not help much in overcoming that initial difficulty in the present.

A worldview that eliminates the non-measurable and non-understandable from reality, as well as being childish and sterilizing, tends to enable man to commit monstrous acts and make him a supremely treacherous animal. His misunderstanding of the world distorts the importance he attaches to himself, undermining notions of dependence and fragility. But the worst thing, without a doubt, is the illusion of feeling liberated, isolated, empowered to all knowledge and all action. This is how the most destructive self-love imaginable takes root. Nothing holds him back, no one watches him and there is no accountability. Such a man is to always have him far away and not pay him the slightest attention.