Feeling the experience

So we want to internalise truth. We want to find more of it and add it to our selves, our being, our body, mind, soul, whatever you want to call it. The process isn’t always a strictly mental one, although such does constitute a large player in the game. As anecdotal as this all is, I haven’t yet the research to refer to so I will just speak from my own experience. I have had countless moments in life where I would describe the experience as “feeling edified”, much more than I would call it “learning edification” or “realising” it. It’s felt. There’s often accompanied new ideas or thoughts, perspective etc. but there’s also often no new concept at all, but what might better be described as a ‘reinforced old idea’. Whatever’s going on mentally, the feeling can still be the same, that I’m experiencing some kind of ‘gratification clean up’ and/or ‘edification install process’. I’m an ‘ever so slightly’ better person. This is experience is usually quite mild, although still very pleasant, purifying and empowering, it is also periodically quite intense. The same experience, just magnified or amplified momentarily. With an appreciation of the varying degrees to which I can ‘feel edified’ I have also learned to try and increase the intensity of such experiences, when they occur. Nothing forced, but more like ‘invited’. As I begin to feel the experience, I’ll often close my eyes, intentionally focus on it, breathe in deeply, open my hands, doing what I can to symbolically ‘breathe in’ or ‘intensify’ the experience. I’ve found that in nearly every single instance of doing so, I can increase the intensity of the experience. I’ve learned to utilise this experience itself as a kind of ‘filter’. When I’m trying to give consideration to the edifying value or potential outcomes of a particular idea, thought, decision, or choice, I’ll intentionally run this process with each option to quickly determine which of them all provides the most intense response when ‘tested’ in this way. I admit to being unable to explain how it all works, but it remains a process I’ve grown to rely on and while appreciating the method remains biased or tainted by the imperfections in myself, I also remain confident that if I do my bet to remain honest about the whole process, that over time I will be able to minimise the extent that my own failings influence the experience. I recommend you and everyone take the idea of such experiences, very honestly and very seriously. Anybody who wants to take the concept of ‘edification’ seriously, isn’t going to be able to do so from merely a mental perspective. Edification is what increased our capacity to be good, and isn’t able to exist solely in a mental plane of existence. It’s going to effect our physical, emotional, spiritual health and wellbeing, whether we want it to or not. It’s a whole body experience, despite being able to be focussed on particular areas at times. I recommend that you intentionally experience truth, when you begin to feel exposed to it. In those edifying/awakening/soul-piercing moments, take the time to be aware of all of your senses and being, and breathe that experience in. Do what you can to take in and consciously experience it, as much as you can. Soak it in. Feel it as best you can, allowing it to take greater place within you, becoming more accessible for future use, or perhaps more ‘thoroughly ingrained’ into us. I think many people already experience this in many ways, but perhaps we all use slightly different wording to describe the experience and perhaps we all view it in a slightly different context, or attribute the experience to various influences or contributing factors.

Independent layers: Feel into each

As truth can be added to each layer of our being, it should also be understood and appreciated that not all edifying experiences involve adding truth to EVERY layer of our being. For example, although edification would USUALLY involve an ‘understanding’ of the truth being added (adding truth to our “mental” layer), it’s not always the case. People can be edified without comprehending the experience. Just as the subconscious can experience things without the conscious mind being involved at all, we can experience things spiritually or emotionally without comprehending them mentally. When comprehension is involved it’s obviously INCLUDING the mental, but edification absent of added mental truth is also available. People can increase the function in their bodies with little understanding of how such is occurring. Exercise itself is a great example of this. Most of us don’t understand the intricate details of how our body is better itself while we exercise, and yet we know and feel that such is occurring. Similarly people can ‘feel’ edified perhaps through a song or art piece, without fully understanding what’s going on. Similarly we can edify / increase the function of any of our layers independent of the others. As aforementioned, I propose that of these four layers in question (spiritual, emotional, mental, physical) that some reside more “closely” to our being or are more “internal” than others, which makes implementation of the pattern in edification of working from the inside out, applicable in varying ways. I propose that the spiritual is the most internal, with the emotional following second then mental and finally physical. The reason such an understanding might be helpful comes in the understanding of inertia and momentum. Trying to move the greatest/biggest gear at the beginning of the momentum generating process, is less effective. Starting with the smallest/most internal gear first, enables one to create the momentum required to maximise the momentum of the subsequent gears. Plainly speaking, if an individual is struggling to increase the function of their physical being, they might be wise to evaluate what they can first do with the more internal layers. Changing our physical habits can be difficult, but doing the preparation required to align those internal layers with the output desired in the external layers enables one to create consistent and effective momentum for change. Any individual driving a 5 speed car who refuses to utilise the first 4 gears is not only going to be less effective, but they can even easily damage the vehicle in the process. It’s also important that we appreciate the methods by which we can influence the internal layers through what we do with the external layers. We can influence the more internal layers (spiritual/emotion) through the more external layers (mental/physical) because even through the internal has greater default influence over the external, the method by which we CHANGE the internal relies heavily on changes in the external. For example, That which we sow and desire to grow from the spiritual, REQUIRES change in the more external layers to ALLOW it room/space to grow. That which we don’t want to grow, we would be wise to modify our behaviours in the external layers so as to not ALLOW it room/space to grow. We can train the engine room or factory to produce what we want by refusing to accept produce/output that’s not edifying or desirable. If we continue to accept whatever is produced without a filter, we give it permission to continue producing in the same way. If we refuse to pick up what’s being put down, or refusing to buy what’s being sold, we can influence supply through demand. Internal layers have more influence control over the default or habitual nature of their external layers. Where one can influence change to create a “majority vote” in any layer, that majority vote creates the default nature of the subsequent layer. If the majority vote of the spiritual layer is prioritising A over B, then A will be the default, habitual priority of the emotional layer. The same from emotional to mental and mental to physical (include the sub categorised parts that exist within these categories: beliefs, desires, thoughts, words, actions). If you spend more of your mental energy prioritising B over A, it’s unlikely (although not impossible) that A will be the priority in your physical world. Internal layers are more easily influenced and changed than external layers. Another reason why prioritising their change over external layers is more effective. When an external layer is seemingly unaligned with the majority vote of its internal layer, I propose that it’s likely the vote of the internal hasn’t been accurately measured. If you’re struggling to overcome a physical habit, perhaps there are more resources dedicated to sustaining that habit in the mental, emotional or spiritual realms that you’re measuring. I propose that external layers will naturally align with the will of internal layers. We have problem when there is conflict in the vote of internal layers. If you are unsure what you believe in, your emotions or feelings relative to that believe will similarly be mixed, subsequently your thoughts and your physical actions also. Find somebody who is completely consistent in their physical actions and you will also find someone who has the same vote of that consistently evident in their words, thoughts, desires and beliefs.

Edifying through the cheese

Further to ‘feeling it out’, another interesting experience I’ve had on many occasions, or something else that I’ve learned to gain benefit from, over the years, is pursuing the experience ‘through the cheese’. What I mean by that is acknowledging the reality that we experience a type of ‘disgust’ when exposed to hollow clichés or unoriginal ideas or content, and that without sufficient self-evaluation, that disgust can be overly dismissive of things that are genuinely good, authentic and real. I spent much of my life with a severe distaste for unnecessary drama and a loathing of self-created chaos. I grew up in a small town where it seemed too many people, especially the kids at school, didn’t have enough real problems so that went about creating their own. Too many people watching neighbours and home and away, that they felt similar garbage needed to exist in their actual lives for them to be experiencing things of value. After spending many years with what felt to me like a zero tolerance for the unauthentic, I found myself lacking appreciation and sympathy for what portion of these people’s experiences was a legitimate pursuit for something good. I still find myself ‘cringing’ when exposed to the same, but I also find myself closing my eyes and consciously trying to separate the cheese from the potentially authentic. When I hear sob stories, love tales, drama epilogues or anything that brings me back to that same ‘disgust’, I do try to see through the garbage and ‘feel out’ the authentic intentions or refined truths hidden within what they’re saying or doing. Just because they’re repeating something that’s been said a thousand times by a thousand others, doesn’t mean there’s not some degree of honest truth to it, for them. It’s not just ‘the bad’ either. It’s sometimes easy for us to get carried away piling on the ‘warm fuzzies’ and take it a bit to far by wrapping the truth in overly used cliché’s, or packaging it in unrealistic parcels. We can find it feel so cheesy that we find ourselves having instantly become completely lactose intolerant. However, when we there’s truth in the underlying message, just ignore the garbage and take in the truth. Close your eyes, breathe in the truth and let the garbage wash away. Still being far from perfect at doing so, I can however honestly say that on multiple occasions I’ve retrospectively found that my scepticism/cynicism and judgemental mentality was often a larger contributing factor than it should have been, in contrast to the delivery lacking authenticity.

Abiding truth helps us see more

We can improve our capacity to accurately identify truth by ensuring that we’re doing what we can to abide and live by the truths already had. It’s kind of like how cleaning up one’s ‘mental bedroom’ can make it easier to see how some new thing might be valuable, or where it could have a place in the room. The messier our room is, the harder it is to distinguish any particular concept from another, making it more challenging to appreciate where or how new concepts could ‘have place’ in us. The degree to which any particular thing is edifying to us personally, will always be relative to our pre-existing truth & capabilities. We’re more likely to accept truth when we can comprehend the context in which it applies. We struggle to accept truth if we struggle to identify applicable context. When we hear something new and it feels like it ‘rings true’, it’s being assessed against the truth already had and deemed to be able to harmoniously coexists with it. When there’s obvious conflicts between the two, it feels ‘jarring’ or ‘out of place’. These are experiences most of us have already had on many occasions. Let us therefore aim to be consciously aware of the multiple reasons why we might be struggling with some new truth. Sometimes the problem is the new concept we’re considering, sometimes the problem is our ‘mental room’ is too messy, or in other words we’re struggling to abide the truth already had, and a third option is that even with a room as clean as we can get it, even with the new concept being perfectly valid, we may still lack the experience required to appreciate the value of the new concept. For these reasons if we’re going to be honest about our pursuit of truth, we need to be living our truth, to ensure we can have confidence in our own lens, to ensure whatever new things come along, we’re looking at them as clearly as we can. When we struggle to see the truth or value in the arguments of others, even if we entirely disagree with them, perhaps we should be hesitant to disregard them entirely, and instead, add them to our infinite lists, to be reassessed again in the future, hopefully at such a time that one has acquired enough additional truth in themselves to view it more accurately. This is especially true when we know that we have not been abiding our own truth. The further we distance ourselves from doing what we know we should do, the more we desensitise ourselves to not only our own truth, but all other truth as well. We should have giant bright red flags going off in our minds at such times, that “our judgement is not to be trusted, err extremely far on the side of caution right now, until we’re once again as closely aligned to our truth as we can be, at which time the judgement should be reassessed”. This is extremely important to learn to do: Don’t trust even your own thoughts when you know you’re not abiding your own truth. The more honestly and whole-heartedly we are abiding our truth, the more confidence we can have in our capacity to assess other/external factors. I think it’s difficult for any and all of us to be able to do with complete honesty and sincerity, but we need to be doing what we can to ensure that whenever we’re assessing truth, that we are prioritising truth itself over merely concepts that perhaps better serve us, than the truth itself. We need to be willing to harmonise ourselves with any and all truth, appreciating that with time, those who do so, will eventually survive with the truth itself, while those who fight against it, are really just moulding themselves into something inharmonious with truth and therefore life, more likely to lie and die.

Our progress is inseparably connected to the extent of our honesty

The extent to which one abides their own truth can be categorised as the degree of their honesty. The more we abide our own truth, the more honest we are. To any extent we fail to abide our own truth, we exist with some degree of dishonesty. The greater the degree, the greater the stumbling block we live with, within us. We can’t cheat our way to any real success. All things by degrees, absolutely… He whose efforts are 80% authentic and 20% inauthentic may still seem to experience ‘the same’ success, but it’s just not possible. It’s not the same, no matter how it looks. We can’t lie to ourselves and not suffer for it. It’s just not possible. We are constantly building ourselves, whether we want to be or not. Each day we add new ideas, reinforce old concepts,  tweak habits, adjust attitudes and dismantle waste, all within the ‘garden bed’ of our being. Working on character. Who we are. He who cheats or is in any degree dishonest, can’t do so without poisoning/tampering/’cancer’-ing/manipulating themselves. We live from within ourselves and it’s just not possible to ‘farm the bad’ for any reason and expect doing so isn’t going to effect us. Each year, each month, week, day, hour and even moment, is another brick, another layer, another shell, and it’s just not possible to continue stacking on top of it and survive ‘the fallout’ when those previous layers weren’t properly quality tested. If today’s build job is garbage, perhaps we can clean it up tomorrow, but when we habitualise building with garbage regularly, we risk creating giant sink holes within ourselves and when some serious weight comes along one day, our failure to have built a sufficiently stable, quality foundation, is going to come and it’s going to hurt. We need to be willing to ‘dig ourselves up’. Hash out the old stuff. Uproot the poison trees, even if they’re decades old. The more ‘good foundation’ we have, the easier this becomes. So much so that it can be done repetitively, time and time again. The good outlives the uprooting of the bad. It’s dense enough, it’s pure enough, it’s solid enough that it can survive the pressure, the flood, the fire. Because truth lives. Truth survives. Lies die. We need to be willing to put ourselves under pressure, put ourselves through the flood, through the fire, because the truth in us will live on and the garbage will be crushed, washed, and purged away, making space to continue building and adding more truth. For any individual who is expecting life-time growth, long-term development , anything even remotely resembling permanent progress MUST appreciate that any impure layers will build within ourselves is eventually going to be required to be dug up and rebuilt/purified or will certainly risk and damage whatever is built upon it. If we’re building every day for 365 days, for 80-100 years, there will certainly be a lot of weight added to each previous layer and no impurity can be overlooked. No matter how deep, no matter how far back we need to go, in fact the deeper or further back we need to go, the more important it is that we do so because we’re talking about even more of ‘the rest of us’ is going to be reliant on the strength and integrity of that part of us. That ‘quality build’, must be ‘through and through’. Beginning to end. Core to shell. Complete honesty. Full alignment. There is no permanent progress that extends beyond one’s ability to be honest. 

Unique and thematic needs

Our individual needs rarely stretch far from the basic needs we all share. We all need the same things, but unique to ourselves or even more particularly, our current state, the order and amount can vary. We all need nutrients, vitamins and minerals, but depending on our current health, genetics and goals, how much we need of what can very substantially. Similarly, when it comes to other non-dietary needs, we share a need for truth, but what specific truths are going to be the most helpful, and in what order, can be just as unique as our dietary requirements. We’ve all been born into a very wide array of backgrounds, teachers, philosophies, influences and experiences which means we all go through life with very unique combinations and quantities of truth housed within us. This also means that our ‘truth needs’ can be just as unique. With as much, we can all experience being exposed to the very same concept, idea, music, art, or story, in very different ways. To some, it may resonate with them extremely deeply, making a life-long memory, to others, it may just feel like another day in the long list of Tuesdays. Therefore we need to appreciate that particular truths can be more or less edifying to some individuals than others. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. What some consider to be priceless, others deem useless. What edifies some, might not edify others. This isn’t just true person to person, but also applies to previous a future versions of ourselves, day to day and even moment to moment. Our needs also fluctuate over time. At each stage of life, or each process of building ourselves, different things are required. Just like we can get sick of a particular food while simultaneously being hungry, we can be hungry for truth while ‘put off’ by particular concepts, even though they are true. We need to appreciate that our needs fluctuate and change. Think of the first time we heard a really great song, or watched a fantastic movie, or played a great game, and we just couldn’t get enough of it. There’s likely some truth, some concept, some experience within it that we’ve been unknowingly craving or even starving for, and the moment we get a taste we effectively want to drown ourselves in it. Over time however, we can end up exposing ourselves to it so much that we start to hate it. Something loved yet with excessive exposure, we develop an authentic distaste for it. Interestingly enough, going without it again for an extended period of time can once again restore some degree of it’s value to us, when again experienced. There is no end to this process. Our lives must be spent constantly finding balance between all things. Responding to current needs with the appropriate nutrition, appropriate timing and appropriate quantity. We would be wise to deal with the greatest lacking nutrient first (eg. fat deficiency, iron deficiency, etc.) whatever is most needful, should be dealt with FIRST. Weakest links, first. Greatest failings, first. It’s how we most efficiently return to our most functional state of balance. Pulling out tiny splinters from one’s body if you fell into a bush is wise, right? But how wise is that advice if actioned while ignoring the fact that you’ve been impaled through the eye ball with a stick? There is no one truth or one principle or one nutrient that will sustain us indefinitely. We will be required to work for the rest of our existence, finding and applying additional nutrients, and we would be wise to prioritise the ones we lack the most, first. Having said that, we would also be wise to understand and experiment with the ‘ones’ that have been most effective for other people, not ignoring the bulk data just because of the unique required application. There are particular truths, principles and nutrients, that are mathematically and statistically more important to focus on. It’s important that we understand they don’t all have equal value. The things that have helped the most people in the most amount of circumstances are going to likely be more beneficial to initially focus on that things that have only helped a tiny percentage of people in a tiny percentage of circumstances. The understanding and application of some truths have greater edifying effect than others, and therefore to maximise one’s edifying success one needs understand the requirement for the pursuit of application of the most relevant/valuable truth at any given point in time. Understand also that this can change, and that’s fine. Like all things, one needs but to be aware of the change and understand it’s occurring due to a more edifying option being made available, not a change of convenience or gratifying end. We’re all at different stages in life, building custom things with unique timing and in personalised ways. One should never seek to enforce a way, method, approach, timing, or any facet of edifying another, with the belief that ‘what’s best for one is what’s best for all’. Even if it may be true in a particular case, it all depends, variables are limitless and it’s near impossible to do all the math. A the end of the day ‘compulsion’ doesn’t edify. We should all use our own conscience to be mindful of the things that edify us most, individually, and respect the desire that we all share to feed ourselves, instead of being force-fed. Help people only in the ways they’re willing to be helped.

Don’t confuse: first, greatest & most important

Sometimes with a rushed start we find ourselves thinking “put the most important things first” which is all well and good, until you consider that the first thing you accomplish is very often not the most important thing you accomplish, while simultaneously being the most important thing to start with. The truth we need now is likely not the truth that will help us the most in the long run, but the truth that helps us get moving from wherever we are right now. In order to accomplish the greatest things in life, perhaps one must first accomplish lesser things, that need to come first.

Don’t numb yourself to the truth you’re not ready for

It’s imperative that we don’t ‘deny’ the truth we come across, or experience or house, because doing so doesn’t change the reality of the truth, only our capacity to acknowledge and utilise its existence. In effect, we blind ourselves to it, decrease our sensitivity to both it’s existence and all the truths it relates to or is connected to. SO, there’s going to be ‘truth’ we aren’t ready for, but we should be trying to bury that reality, even if we’re not prepared to embrace its existence. This is why we need things like our infinite lists. The infinite list allows us to acknowledge ALL of faults, including our POTENTIAL faults as for when we require more energy, time and perspective to determine the extent of our potential failing. We can ‘bookmark’ it, and address it again as necessary. But we should try as hard as we can, to not dismiss the truth, just because it makes us look bad.

Truth exists independent of believers

Gravity’s going to pull thing toward the earth, whether we believe it does or not. Despite belief being an amazing driving force that can both uncover existing truth and create more/additional truth, a failure to believe something true doesn’t decrease its truthfulness, just our capacity to utilise it. All of the concepts in this book, ‘Edifying Success’, don’t really belong to me or to any one individual. They were discovered or uncovered by myself and my never-ending experiments with such concepts evidences that I’m far from perfecting or even perfectly understanding any of them, really. The principles that harmoniously unite to give light to the idea that might be summerised as ‘Edifying Success’, despite being written about by myself, in drawing your attention to them, they were all already ‘there’. I just connected you to them. Much like those who “discovered” new countries in the past, with the realisation that others had been there before, and even if they hadn’t, the land was still there. Not created by the discoverer, but simply found. No truth can belong to any of us. It all existed prior to our discovery of it. Our governments give some of us the privilege of ‘claiming ownership of truth’ to the extent of intellectual property and patents, but in reality, it’s not so much about them having created the truth as it is an effort to try and reward those who put in the effort to discover it and utilise it first, as R&D is extremely valuable, but too easily undervalued. All that exists does so because the truth that it can exist, first existed. Nothing that can’t exist, does. Therefore truth will always precede the existence of any and all things. If we look around ourselves, in literally everything we see, and countless things we don’t see, is housing innumerable truths. Universal laws at play. Chemical, biological, atomic, cellular, and countless other fields of study all housing innumerable principles and concepts, flooding the life around us yet remaining absent from our conscience observation. Truth exists in all function, and is not bound to a mental plane of existence, but is observable in all instances of life where any function exists. Because of this, if we  want to improve anything in life, we can understand that the ‘more excellent way’ already exists, and simply needs to be discovered. Many people think that if they want to do something big or meaningful that they would need to be capable of creating or producing some brand new enormous thing from scratch, that nobody has ever been before – which is rarely true. We simply need to identify the boundaries of what we (mankind) have done (which isn’t too hard with the internet available) and identify then what we have not yet done that might be. It’s usually some kind of ‘remix’. See: “Everything’s a remix” online. Maybe 1-2% ‘something new’ with 98-99% ‘something old’. Even then, the 1-2% ‘new thing’ has likely already been thought of in some way by one or maybe even many people, who just haven’t actioned it yet, or brought it to a reality. If we can see value or potential in a particular space, is likely others can, have and will see it as well. The ‘potential value’, having always been there independent of those who come along and discover or utilise it.

The truth of Edifying Success

This very book and all the concepts I’ve shared under the banner ‘Edifying Success’ is obviously my attempt to share the ‘truth’ as I’ve discovered it and come to understand it to be. It should be understood however that it’s not possible for it to be ‘perfectly finalised’. It’s not the “be all and end all” of what edifying success actually is. It’s simply “my compilation”, to date. Appreciating that with more time I’ll develop a slightly different take on some of the concepts, others might already have a much better understanding of these principles, even if they’ve never discussed them using the same terminology or examples. Understanding that all truth exists independent of it’s believers/disbelievers, it should therefore also be understood that I did not create the concepts of Edifying Success. They existed before I came along and will continue to exist long after. I simply found some of it. I also intentionally pursued the discovery of as many relevant and important principles that I could, as I believed such could be of great benefit to many, myself included, but at the end of the day it is not mine. It’s kind of like an immovable room where when one wants to share it with others, they must either be taken there or given a key to gain access, you can’t actually pass the room itself on to them. Or perhaps it’s like a hidden part of the world that nobody else knows about where, once again, the physical space itself can’t be ‘handed’ to somebody, but you can give them the co-ordinates or instructions on how to get there, based on your own experience and findings. In a way, we can’t really give each other ‘truth’, we just give each other knowledge of the access points we’ve used, in the hopes they also either utilise the same access points or find their own.  Even in your own studies, as you progress through life, you’re going to learn things, even things about ‘edifying success’ as a concept, that I never knew. There is certainly going to be some work produced by yourself, or even others that we’ve never met, at a later date, bringing more light to the topic. Or maybe someone has already produced something with far greater accuracy and helpfulness than this, that while I remain unaware of it, it provides clearer information or does a superior job at defining and illustrating what ‘edifying success’ truly means. Such needs be embraced, and not considered an enemy to this work, but companion and support and ongoing fulfilment of it. For everything that overlaps, great, a second testament. For everything that conflicts, also great, contrasting arguments shining light from two directions making the master truth, more visible to you. Embrace it. Accept there’s plenty of capacity for error on my part, take what’s proved to be true, appreciate it, and correct or improve upon whatever’s not quite accurate. I often think of all of these concepts as having been shared countless times in countless ways, and I have previously felt somewhat discouraged when I write about some great new idea I’ve come across and realised that somebody else has already expounded upon it 1000 times better than I ever could. However, I remain confident that there still exists immeasurable value in re-delivering the truth as we know it, to the people we know and can reach. As long as we are being honest in our pursuit for truth and willing to be corrected, all of us can deliver great value in re-mixing and delivering what we know to those we know. Our unique take is more likely to be expressed in the common language of those around you, using relatable examples and familiar analogies, all of which helps those you share it with to experience those truths in ways that could otherwise be unavailable to them, being too far distant from their lives and minds, or perhaps just too foreign to the reality of their lives.

Truths & Master truths

Not all truths are equal. Not all are as applicable or valuable in any given situation, or in the same number of situations. Some truths provide more function than others, some provide function in more situations than others. The truths that provide us the most value in the greatest number of situations are obviously more ideal than the others: These are the master truths. Most concepts are ‘housed’ or ‘automatically addressed’, alongside numerous others, via the same ‘master concept’. A simple example I’ve shared with you many times as children, is that ‘no hurting’ is a blanket idea that if followed, automatically addresses and deals with any ‘sub-idea’ that relates to the same end, such as ‘no kicking’, ‘biting’, ‘punching’, ‘name calling’, ‘scratching’ etc. In this example, ‘no hurting’ is the master truth because if someone is willing to abide it, they will automatically abide all of the sub-truths as well. There are a lot more than just two levels at play as well. ‘No hurting’ for example, could be accompanied by ‘help when you can’, ‘look for opportunities’, ‘think outside your own box’, and ‘set a good example’, all as various sub-categories for an even higher law: ‘be a good friend’. There are numerous layers but the more one delves into the reasoning behind why they should or shouldn’t be doing something, the closer we get to those truly ‘master’ truths that are over-arching basically all of the rest. It’s important to know both the greatest master truths generally, as well as remembering to periodically focus on the greatest master truths specifically, relative to whatever situation one finds themselves in at the time. There’s often overlap, which makes knowing the ‘general ones’ extremely advantageous, but it remains true that sometimes the general ones are too vague to be as directly applicable as one requires.

Truth is context dependant

In similar fashion, even otherwise seemingly contradicting truths might be at play, the wisest viewpoint is likely not one over the other, but ‘both in the appropriate order’. No two truths completely contradict each other to the point that one is false, and the other correct. What’s a more accurate perspective is one that understands the contexts in which the two concepts are independently true and what overlap/conflict exists between the two contexts. Truth is context dependent: without the relevant context, the truth fails to function. Things which are true in one context, can be false in another, while things which prove to not be true, can be true in other contexts. “The fish in the pond are blue”, might be accurate on one side of the pond while “the fish in the pond are red”, accurate on the other. Understanding that they’re the same pond that have both blue and red fish, is the most complete and therefore helpful understanding. It is the master truth that when known, demonstrates the uselessness of arguing that the other viewpoint is wrong. If somebody is legitimately being honest about their argument for anything really, there’s very likely going to be some degree of truth involved. At least some context where what they’re saying is true, evidenced, reality.  For these reasons we should be thinking “how all” more than “or”. “What context is required to see how both arguments can exist at the same time? Once known, the next step is then establishing priority order. Identifying the more ‘master truth’. Which is more true? Which is more applicable, or which is applicable in more contexts? Let all truth have its place, while not allowing lesser truths to overrule greater ones: just because they both have a place, don’t mean they’re both equal.

Multi-purposing > multi-tasking

Let’s say the question we’re asking is “should I do THIS or THAT?” Perhaps a better angle is “What’s the best way to do BOTH while still addressing priority?” Think of a birds eye view of a man at a 4 way intersection… each way representing a different choice. We often concern ourselves and worry about which one we should pick, believing that we forfeit the remaining three, when the one is chosen. This is unquestionably, ‘sometimes’ the case. However a lot of the time the other three options are available as well, and we’re not picking which road instead of the others, just which road ‘first’. I’m not really an advocate for ‘multi-tasking’ as I don’t believe anybody does a particularly good job at it. However, I am an advocate for ‘multi-purposing‘: meaning doing one thing for more than one reason. The crossroads may leave us only able to walk one road at a time, but I can still achieve multiple goals on the same road. I can exercise not just for me, but for those who benefit from my existence as well. I can cook not just for my wife, but for my kids as well. In life, with a touch of creativity, one is often able to work on or achieve, multiple objectives via singular tasks. When we find ourselves at the crossroads, some objectives can perhaps only be worked on via specific paths chosen, but the more I learn about truths, master truths and appropriate prioritisation, the more I realise that there’s nearly always a path that allows multiple objectives to be worked on. Make sure the top objective is one of them, and proceed. In order to do this effectively, you must be able to identify the weighted value of each option, and therefore give each a prioritised order. Once you have the order, you should be able to conclude which options are edifying, satisfying or gratifying, and therefore which options you would be wise to ditch entirely. Of the edifying options, one should be looking for a course of action that accomplishes as many of the edifying options as possible, without giving unprioritised attention to any of the options. I.e. What are the most amount of tasks able to be completed while still attributing a prioritised amount of resources to the most valuable task/s? If you can accomplish tasks 2-10 but remain able to accomplish #1, then 2-10 should be abandoned. If number one IS number one, then it NEEDS to be number one. If it’s not REALLY number one, then you need to remove it from it’s place. We don’t have to do everything but we do have to be honest. If we achieve 1000 goals while ignore the most important 10, or 5, or even 1, then we’re going to be lying to ourselves. If we can only accomplish 1, but it’s the most important one, we can rest assured of our honesty. For this reason, if we can address secondary or tertiary purposes, while doing what’s required to address the primary purpose, all the better. Consider the point that life is not 2D. When we’re at a crossroads it’s not just four options, but the 3rd dimension comes in to play and we can start making choices not just horizontally, but vertically and diagonally It’s a “sphere of choices” with each option we’re weighing up, having its only place within the sphere. After giving them all their appropriate weighting, their independent ‘gravity’ can act like a ‘pulling magnet’. Which way does the compass point, when it settles down amidst the great variety of gravities. Once all options are given their proper weightings, the compass will be pointing in a direction that’s given consideration to all of the ‘pulls’ one needs to consider, and will point in the direction one should go to accomplish as many prioritised tasks as possible. This also evidences the need for the often repeated ‘infinite lists’. After settling on a direction forward that addresses the most important things, there likely will remain a number of things one can’t address. They aren’t to be forgotten or ignored, just deprioritised. The main difference being, a willingness to add them to one’s infinite list, providing the capacity to review them again and address them as able or as they become a higher priority. For these reasons, be hesitant to respond to yourself or others with things like “I don’t care”, “that’s not my problem”, “that’s not my job” etc. as being overly dismissive forfeits the capacity to deal with the ‘less important’ things later, which may end up being extremely important, even if they don’t seem to be so right now. It’s also very possible that we’ve just weigthed it improperly, as happens all of the time. We literally live every single day demonstrating to ourselves and the world around us just how often we get the priority orders of life mixed up. Appreciating we can’t do everything doesn’t mean we should neglect or be dismissive of the things we can’t do or don’t yet think we should do. Doing so evidences we’re not trying to giving such things their due diligence or weighted consideration, which means we’re not trying to achieve the wisest decision/course of action. Remembering that the wisest course of action is the one that has found an appropriately prioritised balance when giving consideration to the greatest number of relevant, counterweighing principles. Saying “It doesn’t both me” or “I’ve considered it but find it to be outweighed by XYZ considerations” evidences that it’s making it to your sphere, but it doesn’t have sufficient weight to pull a change in direction. By THIS we need consider/realise that no two truths actually negate or completely ‘out-rule’ each other, but that each truth harmoniously co-exists with every other truth. It simply requires one to find out how to appropriately weigh and balance them, see what context each truth is dependant upon, and in turn we can then enact the prioritisation of whatever truth matters most at the time.

Benchmarking others by our truth

Despite the themes and patterns that obviously exists between our lives, the things we want and the things that bring meaning, purpose and happiness to us, at the end of the day we all also remain very uniquely apart from everybody else. We each exist in separate contexts, with specific and unique needs. The truths and master truths that will prove most advantageous to us at any given point in time, could easily be different in another seasons or at another place in our lives. The same is even more true when comparing ourselves to others than comparing ourselves to different versions of ourselves. Before we go applying “the great X truth” that we know works wonders for so many, we need to give specific consideration to the unique needs of the individual in question. Yes, perhaps “triangle” (as an extremely simple symbolic example) may be the answer to the question when asked by the majority of people in the world, but there’s disadvantages to answering so before the individual has asked the question. Maybe they’re not ready for it, maybe they’re an exception to the rule and actually need “square”. We often see ourselves as ‘above average’ because we measure both ourselves and those around us through the perspective of the truth we already have. Truth already had by us, obviously is that which we value and prioritise etc. We would naturally be better at implementing the truth we have as opposed to the truth we don’t have. The truth others have might be valuable to them, but if unknown to us, we won’t view things in the light of that truth. Driving is always a great example. Everyone thinks they’re an above average driver, because in their opinion, certain things are important, or ‘matter most’: Indicating before braking and then turning; keeping left unless overtaking; going the speed limit; shoulder-checking before changing lanes; not doing make-up in the car while driving to work etc. When we see others behave contrary to our values, we devalue them. Consciously or subconsciously, it’s occurring to some degree. Simultaneously, they probably have things that are important to them that perhaps, they see us not abiding by: not texting while driving; not changing lanes without indicating; not tailgating etc. When we see others not doing something that we would be sure to do, or doing something that we would never do, we see them violating benchmarks that we’ve learned to value. Seeing such without also appreciating that it’s extremely likely that they have benchmarks that we’ve yet to learn to value, is foolishness. Benchmarking others by their own truth is doable, but it required a great deal of work. It involves taking the time and energy required to help another explicitly detail their own truth, and remain around long enough to both see opportunities where they could better align to their truth and be in a place where one is able to provide that support and assistance to them in a helpful way.  Helping people align to their own truth can be extremely difficult, especially when it’s brought up at times of failure, which like it or not, is often when the need for such a discussion most prominently presents itself. So certainly, if you actually have the capacity to benchmark others by their own truth, go for gold. For any of you with stewardships, such is a necessity. However, something that is likely much more helpful initially, is making sure we house the truths ourselves, that allow us to see the imperfections in others in a forgiving and helpful light. We’re all going to have a substantially easier time pulling that off, first. And as ‘all things by degrees’, the best way we’re going to thoroughly house those truths, is to practice them, habitualise them, permanently incorporating them into our whole being.

We can gratify ourselves with truth.

Edification is increasing your capacity to be good, both for yourself and those in your circles of stewardship, by implementing truth throughout one’s continuums of being. Of all the truth that exists, it’s not all equal when it comes to our unique position and implementing particular truths is going to be more/less advantageous than others. There’s plenty of things that are true that if we focus on ‘adding them to our being’, it wouldn’t help us either more consistently do good, or do more good, and therefore wouldn’t help increase our capacity to be good. We need to focus on the truths that we have the greatest need to implement, to produce the most benefit. So there remains truths that wouldn’t help us to focus on, despite how true they are. Furthermore, there are truths that we shouldn’t focus on, because doing so would be less advantageous or even disadvantageous for us. As gratification is filterless and edification requires intentionally filtering, despite being an inherently good thing, truth also needs to be filtered, when we’re aiming to edify. Now all of this is said in the context of somebody trying to be good. There remains plenty of situations however, where due to offense, anger, confusion, greed or countless other reasons, we’re actually not trying to be good, but have some other primary motive. Filtering truth in these circumstances is arguably even more important, as in such states we can be so ‘hell-bent’ on producing our desired end that we’re willing to use and respond to even in the good, in gratifying ones. Yes, we can and often do, gratify ourselves with truth. This is why we can give an angry person the very thing they ask for, and they remain unsatisfied. Perhaps they’ve asked for something bad, perhaps they’ve asked for something good, either way, once they get it they remain hungry, angry, bitter, incomplete. We need to find the right balance between applying new truths for their enabling function and appreciating that we are capable of adding disabling truths to our beings, when insufficiently prepared, or poorly prioritised. There are plenty of irrelevant and unhelpful truths that just serve as distractions or unnecessary baggage. When we leave the house in the morning, it’s rare that we take the entirety of our possessions with us, because only a small handful of those things is going to be helpful throughout the day. If we try to take it all we’ll simply incapacitate ourselves. We can’t use it all at once, we don’t have a reason to use it all at once, and therefore, we shouldn’t carry it all at once. The beauty of our bodies being the home of our truths is, wherever we are we can instantly ‘bring out’ whatever truths we are required to focus on, at any given point in time, and leave the rest within us, to be utilised or worked on at more appropriate times. Remembering that the more we focus on a truth, the more we can end up implementing them into the many layers of our being, as such sometimes there are truths that we need to set aside until focussing on them is going to be helpful for us, and not disabling. Sometimes it’s disabling because it’s not true, sometimes it’s just because we’re unprepared for it, either way, let it be a focal point to the extent it’s more helpful to be so than other things. It might be true that I suck at something. Perhaps I’m particularly bad at some one particular thing. In that context, it’s true, I suck. However, if we continually focus on that point, the degree to which we give the truth ‘real estate’ in our mind/focus/life, might not be ‘true’. Perhaps it’s true that we’re awesome 99% of the time and we suck 1% of the time. Both parts, separately true, but if we spend more of our energy focused on the 1%, in a very real way, we’re lying to ourselves. We can gratify ourselves with truth by overvaluing or over-prioritising it. Edification is increasing your capacity to be good, both for yourself and those in your circles of stewardship, by implementing truth throughout one’s continuums of being. Of all the truth that exists, it’s not all equal when it comes to our unique position and implementing particular truths is going to be more/less advantageous than others. There’s plenty of things that are true that if we focus on ‘adding them to our being’, it wouldn’t help us either more consistently do good, or do more good, and therefore wouldn’t help increase our capacity to be good. We need to focus on the truths that we have the greatest need to implement, to produce the most benefit. So there remains truths that wouldn’t help us to focus on, despite how true they are. Furthermore, there are truths that we shouldn’t focus on, because doing so would be less advantageous or even disadvantageous for us. As gratification is filterless and edification requires intentionally filtering, despite being an inherently good thing, truth also needs to be filtered, when we’re aiming to edify. Now all of this is said in the context of somebody trying to be good. There remains plenty of situations however, where due to offense, anger, confusion, greed or countless other reasons, we’re actually not trying to be good, but have some other primary motive. Filtering truth in these circumstances is arguably even more important, as in such states we can be so ‘hell-bent’ on producing our desired end that we’re willing to use and respond to even in the good, in gratifying ones. Yes, we can and often do, gratify ourselves with truth. This is why we can give an angry person the very thing they ask for, and they remain unsatisfied. Perhaps they’ve asked for something bad, perhaps they’ve asked for something good, either way, once they get it they remain hungry, angry, bitter, incomplete. We need to find the right balance between applying new truths for their enabling function and appreciating that we are capable of adding disabling truths to our beings, when insufficiently prepared, or poorly prioritised. There are plenty of irrelevant and unhelpful truths that just serve as distractions or unnecessary baggage. When we leave the house in the morning, it’s rare that we take the entirety of our possessions with us, because only a small handful of those things is going to be helpful throughout the day. If we try to take it all we’ll simply incapacitate ourselves. We can’t use it all at once, we don’t have a reason to use it all at once, and therefore, we shouldn’t carry it all at once. The beauty of our bodies being the home of our truths is, wherever we are we can instantly ‘bring out’ whatever truths we are required to focus on, at any given point in time, and leave the rest within us, to be utilised or worked on at more appropriate times. Remembering that the more we focus on a truth, the more we can end up implementing them into the many layers of our being, as such sometimes there are truths that we need to set aside until focussing on them is going to be helpful for us, and not disabling. Sometimes it’s disabling because it’s not true, sometimes it’s just because we’re unprepared for it, either way, let it be a focal point to the extent it’s more helpful to be so than other things. It might be true that I suck at something. Perhaps I’m particularly bad at some one particular thing. In that context, it’s true, I suck. However, if we continually focus on that point, the degree to which we give the truth ‘real estate’ in our mind/focus/life, might not be ‘true’. Perhaps it’s true that we’re awesome 99% of the time and we suck 1% of the time. Both parts, separately true, but if we spend more of our energy focused on the 1%, in a very real way, we’re lying to ourselves. We can gratify ourselves with truth by overvaluing or over-prioritising it.

Valuable truth survives changing contexts

As previously discussed, having unique needs, everybody has a responsibility to familiarise themselves to the best of their ability with their own conscience so as to be reliably capable of filtering/choosing whatever edifies them the most. I desire to emphasise that it’s absolutely not a matter of “everyone can do whatever they want, because everyone has unique needs”. I give it as my opinion that far too many people use this as an excuse to justify doing anything they want without addressing the responsibility at all. I loathe that so many still reinforce this painfully gratifying idea. Just because truth is context dependant doesn’t many everything or anything can be true due to there being some ridiculously niche, unrepeatably rare context in which even the most remote of ideas can prove accurate. Just because truth is context dependant, it doesn’t mean truth changes just as easily as context does. The survivability of truth across multiple contexts is a great indicator of the extent and value of the truth. Truth is likes rule and exceptions, where the rule proves to be correct in the majority of contexts, with the minority of contexts being the exception. The reality of the exceptions doesn’t overwrite the reality of the rule.

Raise your base-line

We have a need to replace the gratifying flood that surrounds us on a day to day basis, soaking our common living with unedifying culture and unsatisfying persuasions. We need to do what we can to change the flood around us from a gratifying one to an edifying one: raising our base-line. If it’s normal for us to wake up and listen to the radio for an hour while we get ready, maybe swap that out for listening to something more helpful, more edifying, more focussed towards the achievement of our goals. Maybe we watch TV to unwind at the end of the day, maybe we tim tam slam on the weekend to ‘unwind’ from the week. Whatever our habits, whatever our normal living looks like, let’s build edifying libraries, of movies, music, books, even people and places, so that when we go looking for ‘relief’ or even ‘entertainment’, we have a conveniently available edifying library of options to choose from. Let’s move from good vs bad to better vs best, so that even when we “resign” to relief or even laziness, such is going to be engaging in that predetermined content that’s going to edify u