Therefore all things whatsoever
ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets and
That's a reciprocity issue right? It's like
Well imagine what would be.. this is another thing I learned from Jung because Jung reversed this because this is often read
It's it's the golden rule. It's often read as be nice to ot.. be nice to other people
It's like that is not what this rule means it doesn't mean that even a little bit it means something like
And we'll reverse it so that will concentrate on you rather than the other person to begin with it means something like
Conceptualize how things could be great if they were great for you if you were taking care of yourself
and then work to make that the case for everyone else
you know you see that in Buddhism because Bud... Buddha reached Nirvana, right?
that's the theory and then he he was tempted with the offer to stay there and
He rejected that offer and came back to the profane world
because he felt that the attainment of Nirvana was
insufficient unless everyone attained it simultaneously and so it's something like that but
It's.. treat yourself properly that's a hard thing to do because you're a fallen
shameful
cowardly
deceitful
malevolent
Mortal creature and so it's not easy and you know it and it's not easy to treat something like that properly
and.. and.. and it isn't obvious that people treat themselves better than they treat other people
I don't think that's obvious at all. But maybe you could start with yourself and think ok
I'm going to take care of myself as if I have value
What would that look like? and then I'm going to work to extend that courtesy to everyone else and that's well
the hypothesis here is that if you take all of the moral wisdom that mankind has
Generated over its millennia of struggle
Evolved and then manifests in metaphors story and then codified into law
Articulated law and you pick one principle that dominated all of that. This would be the principle
And it's interesting too because it's the law and the prophets
and the law is the rules but the prophets are the process by which the rules are being updated
Right, and so the prophets are superordinate in some sense to the law and the proposition that's set forth in this particular statement
Is that this maxim
Which is, optimize your own mode of being and then work to do the same for everyone around you is not only
The thing that's at the core of the law, but it's at the core of the process that generates and updates the law
It's a hell of a thing for someone to say
Enter ye in at the narrow gate because that's what Strait means enter
Ye and at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction
Well who in the world could possibly argue with that?
Everyone in the right mind knows that there's a million ways of doing things wrong and one way if you're lucky to do things
Right, and so the notion that it's a very very narrow pathway that you tread upon if you're doing things right
That's... that's... wisdom
That's the line between chaos and order that you're supposed to be on constantly, right
It's a very very thin line because if you're a little bit too far in one direction, then it's too much chaos
And if you're a little too far in the other direction, then it's too much order and both of those aren't good
it has to the balance has to be exactly right and you can feel that and I
Truly believe you can feel that and I think it's your deepest instinct. It's your deepest instinct and I mean that I mean that
Biologically, I don't mean that metaphorically I think that your psyche is arranged to exist in a cosmos that's composed of
Chaos and order. I think that's why you have the hemispheric structure that you have
This is this is deeper than metaphor and then when you feel as if you're meaningfully engaged in the world
When the terror of your mortality strips away and you're engaged and it's timeless
That's the deepest instinct you have
Telling you that you're in the right place at the right time
and then what you do is
Practice being there, practice being there and that's that that narrow spot is so difficult to find you wonder around it
Maybe if you're lucky you can watch you can watch this is an experiment watch yourself for two weeks
Like you don't know who you are because you don't so watch yourself for two weeks and notice
there's gonna be times when things are proper there arrayed properly for you you
It's not easy to notice because when they're arrayed like that you're so engaged you don't exactly notice, you know, but you'll see
Oh, I'm in the right place. It's like okay. How did I get here?
What am I doing right?
You know, how is it that this could happen more often? I'd like this to happen more often
How would I have to conduct myself in order for that to happen more often?
And then you practice that and then maybe instead of ten minutes a month or ten minutes a week
It's like fifteen minutes a day, and then it's half an hour a day
And then it's an hour a day, and then it's four hours a day, and maybe if you if you're extraordinarily careful
then you get to a point where you're like that a
good proportion of the time
Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it