I've been telling people online in
various ways and in lectures that they
should start fixing up the world by
cleaning up their room and I wanted to
just elaborate on that a little bit
before I get back to the lecture itself
so as it's become this internet weird
internet meme you know and and it's a
joke and good it's a joke I'm really
happy about the fact that so much of
this has got like the leaven of humor
and it's really important because that's
what stops things from degenerating into
into conflict humor and I was thinking
about this idea of cleaning up your room
in relationship to the mustard seed idea
and you see the thing about cleaning up
your room this is also something I
learned from Carl Jung and his studies
on alchemy because for Jung when the
alchemist was attempting to make the
philosopher's stone he was not only
engaged in the transformation of the
material world but he was engaged in a
process of self transformation that
occurred at the same time as the
chemical transformation so as a
psychological work in some sense let's
say you want to sort out your room and
beautify it because the beauty is also
important and let's say that all you
have is just a little room like you're
not rich you're poor and you don't have
any power that's another thing but
you've got your damn room and you've got
this space right in front of you you
know that that's a part of the cosmos
that you can come to grips with and you
might think well what's there in front
of you right in front of you and the
answer to that is it depends on how open
your eyes are that that's the proper
answer because you could say and William
Blake said this for example and Aldous
Huxley made comments that were very
similar that in a transcendent state you
can see infinity in the finite and you
might say well you can say and you can
see infinity and what you have within
your grasp if you look and you could say
maybe that's the case with your room and
so you want to clean up your room well
okay how do you do that exactly well a
room is a room is a place to sleep and
so if you say your room ups properly
then you figure out how to sleep and
when you should sleep and how you should
sleep and then you figure out when you
should wake up and then you figure out
what clothes you should wear because
they have to be arranged properly in
your dresser and then you have to have
some place to put your clothes and if
you're gonna have some clothes you have
to figure out what you're gonna wear
those clothes to do right and then that
means you have to figure out what you're
going to
and then your room has to serve that
purpose because otherwise it doesn't set
up properly and if it doesn't set up if
it doesn't serve your purposes you will
be unhappy and not happy in the room
because the way that we perceive the
world is as a place to move from point A
to point B in and then if the place that
we're in facilitates that movement then
we're happy to be there and if the place
that we're in serves as an obstacle to
that movement then we're unhappy to be
there and so what it means to set up
your room is that you have to have
somewhere to go that's worthwhile or you
can't set up your room and then your
room has to be set up to facilitate that
and then the next thing is well maybe
you have to make it beautiful but that's
not easy right that means you have to
have some taste and that doesn't mean
you have to have money it doesn't
because you can be garish with money and
you can be tasteful with nothing all you
need is taste and taste beats money when
it comes to beautifying things you know
I mean note that money is trivial
because it's not but taste is crucial
and people who are very artistically
oriented can make beautiful things out
of virtually nothing and not only that
the literature suggests that if you're
going to make beautiful things putting
real constraints on on what you allow
yourself to do facilitates creativity
instead of interfering with it because
let's say you have to make something out
of nothing right which I suppose would
be a godly act right you have to make
something out of nothing it you have to
be creative in order to do that and so
then to beautify your room means that
you also have to develop your capacity
to be creative and so then you can make
your room shine but then what will
happen is that if your family isn't
together they will interfere with that
you'll interfere with that because you
won't have the discipline to do it
properly but then when you start
building this this this little microcosm
of perfection with what you have at hand
and it'll evoke all the pathologies of
everyone in your household they'll
wonder what the hell you're up to in
there and they won't necessarily be
happy because if you're if they're in a
lowly place let's say and so are you and
you're trying to move out of that then
the higher you move out of that the more
the place they're in looks bad and you
might say well what they should do is
celebrate your victory over chaos and
evil but that isn't what will happen
will happen instead is that they will
attempt to pull you back down they'll
attempt to and I mean obviously all
families don't do that but but all
families do that to some degree and some
families do almost nothing but that and
so what that means is that if you're
going to organize your room then you're
going to have to confront the devil's in
your house and that's often that's often
a terrifying thing because some of those
Devils have have lineages that go back
many many many generations and god only
knows what you have to struggle with in
order to overcome that and so and then
and so to sort your self out and to fix
up your room is a non trivial matter you
know and you you can do that you'll
learn by doing that and then maybe
you'll learn enough by doing that so
that you can fix up your family a little
bit and then having done that you'll
have enough character so that when you
try to operate in the world at your job
or maybe in the broader social spheres
that you'll be a force for good instead
of harm because you'll have learned some
humility by noting just how difficult it
was to put your damn room together well
and yourself for that matter and so
you'll proceed cautiously with your eyes
open towards the good
you
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