so then I had this vision one time and I
kind of portrayed it in this in this
image of what the world was like and I
thought well it's not a pyramid it's
it's not a single hierarchy of authority
that's not what it is it's it's an array
of hierarchies of authorities so you
imagine this sort of infinite plane and
in the infinite plane
there's nothing but pyramids and inside
the pyramids there are strata of people
everywhere far as you can look some of
the pyramids are tall some of them are
short they overlap it's endless the
plane is endless and those are all the
positions to which you could rise and
everybody's inside the pyramid sort of
crammed up trying to move towards the
top and then there's the possibility of
sailing across over top of all of them
and seeing how the structure itself
works and that's and that's the eye that
floats above the pyramid and it sees the
structure itself and the highest order
of being is not to be at the top of the
pyramid it's to use the discipline that
you attain by striving towards the top
of the pyramid to release yourself from
the pyramid and move one step up and
that's I think that's one of the things
that's instantiated in the idea of the
for example of the Holy Ghost so and I
think that's akin to that that's
Sisyphus and Nietzsche said of Sisyphus
if I remember correctly that one has to
imagine him happy well if there's a rock
at the bottom of the hill then you might
as well push it up the hill and if it
rolls back down well then you've got
something else to do don't you can push
the damn rock back up the hill and
there's no shortage of rocks to put up
to push up the hill and that's what
we're built for anyways and so let's go
out and like push some damn boulders up
the hill and then maybe we could have
enough self-confidence and enough enough
respect for ourselves that we wouldn't
have to turn to hatred and revenge and
try to take everything down because I
think that's the alternative so he's not
weak that's one thing you can say about
him
the same idea represented there right
that's a plus who voluntarily takes the
world on his shoulders it's like the
idea of Christ taking the sins of the
worlds on his shoulders it's exactly the
same notion which is the notion that you
should be able to recognize in yourself
all the horror of humanity and take
responsibility for it because that's
what that means
and the thing that's so interesting
about that is that if you can recognize
yourself in yourself all the horror of
humanity you will instantly have a hell
of a lot more respect for yourself than
you did before you did that because
there's some real utility and knowing
that you're a monster now and just
because you're a monster doesn't mean
you have to be a monster but it's really
useful to know that you are one so then
and one of the things that you knew and
this is something that I find so amazing
about his writings and I think something
that really distinguishes him for
example from Joseph Campbell who talked
about following your bliss is like Jung
said very clearly that the first step to
enlightenment is the encounter with the
shadow and what he meant by that was
everything horrible that human beings
have done was done by human beings and
you're one of them and so if you don't
understand that and to understand that
really means to know how it was that you
could have done it and that's a
shattering thing to try to imagine that
to try to imagine yourself as someone
who's engaged in medieval torture to see
how you could in fact do that you're
never the same after you learn that
but being never the same after learning
that is unbelievably useful because when
you understand that that's what you're
like
then you're a whole different creature
and I don't think and this is something
I did learn from Jung is that you cannot
be a good person until you know how much
evil you contained within you it is not
possible and it's partly because you
just don't have any potency like if
you're just naive if you're just nice if
you'd never hurt anyone you've never
heard a fly you don't have the
capability for any of that why would
anyone ever take you seriously you're
you're just you're a domestic animal at
best you know and a rather contemptible
one at that and it's a very strange
thing because you wouldn't think that
the revelation of the capacity for evil
is a precondition for the realization of
good but I believe first of all why
would you be serious enough to even
attempt to pursue the good unless you
had some sense of what the consequence
was of not doing it you you have to be
serious about these sorts of things it's
not a it's not a it's not the game of a
child right it's the game of a fully
developed adult and you have learned
this in part when I had little kids I
wrote a chapter from my new book called
never let your children do anything that
makes
dislike them and why was that and I read
I read that wrote that after I knew I
was a monster and I thought I'm gonna
make sure I like my kids I'm gonna make
sure they behave around me so that I
like them because I'm Way bigger than
them and I'm Way more cruel than they
are and I've got tricks up my sleeve
that they cannot even possibly imagine
and if if they irritate me I will
absolutely take it out on them and if
you don't think that you're the sort of
person that would do that then you are
the sort of person who is doing it you
know we're not gonna get to Adam and Eve
haha are ya
I watched this great documentary once
called Hitman Hart and was about Bret
Hart and who was the most famous
Canadian in the world for a while and he
was a worldwide Wrestling Federation
wrestler you know and he was a good guy
and he came from this famous family of
wrestlers who all came from Alberta I
think there were seven brothers who were
wrestlers and seven sisters and all the
sisters married wrestlers then they were
all offspring children of Stu Hart who
was a wrestling impresario like 40 years
ago and it was it was such a cool
documentary because I was always
wondering why in the world do people
watch wrestling and and believe it you
know
believe it do you believe movies when
you go watch them it's like that's a
hard question to answer while you're
there you do and so if you're watching
wrestling and you're a wrestling fan do
you believe it
well it is the matter of belief it's a
matter of being engaged in a drama and
there are different levels of drama
right so let's say worldwide Wrestling
Federation drama is not the most
sophisticated form of drama okay but I'm
not being yeah not being a smart aleck
when I'm saying that there is drama of
different sophistication for different
people and that's also why religious
truths exist at multiple levels
simultaneously right there's got to be
something in it for everyone and that's
a hard belief system that's a hard
to put together something for the
unbelievably sophisticated and something
for the common person okay so we have
wrestling and Bret Hart was a good guy
and he fell into the archetype of being
a good guy and that's partly what the
what the story's about it was a bit too
much for him but one of the things that
he he laid out so carefully was because
he figured that a hundred and twenty
million people knew him something like
that and that everywhere he went he was
treated like a hero and he found that
quite a bit of quite a burden as you
could imagine if you think about it but
he portrayed what was happening in the
wrestling ring as classic good against
evil but not conceptualized in disgust
right embodied thought out acted out you
know like like the like Thor and the
Hulk except like right in front of you
and so well that's exactly this sort of
thing I mean look we could consider
hockey more sophisticated than wrestling
perhaps and as I said I'm not being a
critic of these I'm not being critically
minded about these things I understand
their purpose and I would highly
recommend that documentary it's a
brilliant documentary but this is it's
the same thing it's a silver cup right
it's like there's the hero of the team
that's the hero of the teams you know
what here's something cool if you're the
fan of the Toronto Blue Jays or the
Toronto Maple Leafs of course this
hardly ever happens to you if you're the
fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs because
they always lose but but but if you're
watching a game and your team wins and
we take your testosterone levels then
they went up and if you watched the
Toronto Maple Leafs and they lost and
you're a fan then your testosterone
levels go down so that's pretty damn
funny you know I mean really don't you
see how deeply instantiated this is in
people I mean it bloody well alters your
biochemistry like your your your
testosterone levels it's all more my
team lost you know it's like ah
there'll be no there'll be nothing in it
for the wife tonight you know
yeah