ermolai wrote:Do you think that constantly going between the gritty (which I call "the hard reality") and the uplifting brings balance, or is it another form of imbalance? As I said elsewhere, I have being going through constant "highs" and "lows" for a year, and the cycles accelerated in the past 6 months because I allowed the "lows" (knowing that it was part of the cycle). Because of this, my life is not what most people would call balanced, yet I feel I have made a lot of progress in my understanding so there must have been some kind of balance? What do you think? How would you define balance in that context?
I don't know the neat and tidy answer to your question, but here are some ideas floating around my mind:
- the uplifting tends to put the gritty in its proper context, rather than being a separate truth altogether.
- any particular truth seems to have both its gritty and uplifting side. For instance, any method to attain freedom is uplifting, but can be gritty when you view examples of all who do not know or apply this method.
- if you learn the gritty before the uplifting, then you'll experience a shock followed by adjustment. I learned about the NWO and alien conspiracy before I knew anything about metaphysics, so I became very depressed and doom oriented until I "saw the light" and realized the metaphysical reasons behind the conspiracy and the way out.
- if you learn the uplifting before the gritty, then you ease into the knowledge without the wild swing. Had I known the metaphysical background first, I could have read through the NWO and alien conspiracies without the doom mindset, learning just as much without the depression.
- truth is truth, independent of your chosen emotional reaction to it. So something that is gritty doesn't have to be emotionally shocking when you see it from the proper perspective. Getting that proper perspective means acknowledging the bigger picture.
- the proper perspective is one that activates the truth rather than hides or buffers it. Some uplifting material ignores the truth, tries to shield you from it, and says a threat is nonexistent rather than helping you become knowledgeable enough to avoid or handle the threat. So I draw a difference between uplifting "New Age Fluff" and uplifting "STO material" The first is hypnotic and sugary, the second is wise and empowering.
- the more you learn, the less wild the swings between highs and lows should become. When I began educating myself on these topics, the swings were very high and very low because I overreacted to every new bit of information with either overzealous mania or shock and depression. My worldview was the size of a nutshell, tossed by the waves of new information. As I learned more, the nutshell grew into a boat and then into a ship - the waves of new information then became proportionately smaller, and there wasn't as much swinging between high and low.
- temporary imbalance is one way of achieving balance in the long run when wild swings settle down to eventually reach a stable equilibrium, a steady rate of progress. But balance cannot be achieved by permanent imbalance - say studying the gritty to the exclusion of the uplifting and vice versa. Exclude the uplifting and you succumb from depression. Exclude the gritty and you step on the traps.
- So to sum up, I see two ways of reaching balance: achieving it over time as high-low swings reach equilibrium as your world view matures, or beginning with a strong metaphysical background and taking the gritty stuff in context of this understanding.
- But the way life goes, I think that we begin by inevitably swinging back and forth in our progress until we reach equilibrium (crystalization), then all that follows we view in perspective of our highest metaphysical understanding.
- For many people, however, this process is instead wild swinging between different ideologies and programs until programming crystalizes and one then views the world through permanently biased eyes. Depends on the type of education you're following: metaphysical education opens your eyes, institutional education can astigmatize them.
Acquiring fringe knowledge is like digging for diamonds in a mine field.
