![\"mastery\"](\"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/mastery.png\" "\\"mastery\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I\u2019m reading Mastery<\/a> \u201cFrom now on you need never await temporal attestation to your thought.\u00a0 You think the truth.\u00a0 You do not have the right to eliminate yourself.\u00a0 You do not belong to you.\u00a0 You belong to Universe.\u00a0 Your significance will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume that you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experiences to the highest advantage of others.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I am not sure what the first line means.\u00a0 What is \u201ctemporal attestation\u201d?\u00a0 From the context, I guess it means that you do not have to wait around to see whether or not your thought is true; whatever you think right now is<\/em> true, based on your experiences.\u00a0 It may not be true in the sense that it may not correlate with reality, but it is still valid in and of itself.\u00a0 If you gain new experiences, as you inevitably will, you are obligated to form new thoughts based on them, not to refuse them in the name of pride or fear.\u00a0 That\u2019s my Karl Popper-ish guess, at least; it may be something both deeper and simpler than that.<\/p>\n \u201cYou do not have the right to eliminate yourself.\u00a0 You do not belong to you.\u00a0 You belong to Universe.\u201d\u00a0 This certainly struck me.\u00a0 There are people who have had powerful conversions after suicide attempts who also mention learning that their life is not their own to eliminate.\u00a0 And certainly much of today\u2019s political and spiritual misery probably arises from the idea that each man belongs only to himself, and not to \u201cUniverse\u201d (or God as we might say).<\/p>\n While a man\u2019s significance in this life<\/em> may forever be obscure to him, I don\u2019t think it will remain that way forever.\u00a0 I believe part of the comfort and joy of Heaven, that feeling of being \u201cat home\u201d, comes from being able to see oneself fully, and to see the connection<\/em> between oneself and the rest of existence.\u00a0 However, I cannot confirm this.\u00a0 (Yet.)<\/p>\n The \u201cadvantage\u201d of others seems a subjective thing.\u00a0 I can easily imagine someone wanting from me something I cannot or will not give, claiming it would be to his advantage, whether it be my money, my approval of something I cannot approve, my time, my agreement, or my indifference to his words and actions.\u00a0 That is, you do not get to decide for others or for the Universe (God) what would be to your advantage; it is not merely the fulfillment of your latest natural desire, such as money or the adoration of others.\u00a0 To know what would be to the \u201cadvantage\u201d of others is the wisdom we ask the Universe for, in the name of and for the sake of the Universe.<\/p>\n Anyway, the main principle I take away from this is that I am not living my life for the sake of itself.\u00a0 While working on my novel or any of my projects, it\u2019s easy to get sidetracked daydreaming of fame and fortune, wanting a piece of the power that the \u201cbig names\u201d in the entertainment industry have.\u00a0 And, on the business side of things, that\u2019s how the world encourages one to think.\u00a0 Money and power are the validators, and the foundations for getting anything done.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not where the fulfillment in a project comes from.<\/p>\n It also makes me that much more interested in the life and works of good old Bucky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m reading Mastery, the latest book from author Robert Greene (author of the classic book The 48 Laws of Power).\u00a0 On page 42, Greene writes about Buckminster Fuller.\u00a0 A depressed Fuller was on his way to commit suicide when he heard a voice from within himself that said: \u201cFrom now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[18,53],"tags":[624,542,543],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gI4B-pt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2346,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579\/revisions\/2346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=wizardwalk-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0670024961\")
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