The Underlying Patterns of Life Beyond Consciousness
By: Eugene Miller
Tags: Stoicism, Life, Amor Fati, Stoic, Essay

Tenesh Webber — Midpoint series via IdeelArt.

Elucidating the root cause of the agony we share.

“How can I seek something I don’t know? Unless they came to me, by nature. Then, gracious! Cold turkey.” — my Ne (extraverted intuition) blantanly pondering.

All that happened in everyone’s life: Tragedy. Misery. Triumph are simply by design, in my book. They are the results of our own interpretation of what have occurred in life. The question is how do we interpret? Has the interpretation got wisely interpreted?

Life is nuance in every sense of the word. Things that happen in the course of our lives are predestined with some preconceived notions. No matter how delicate we map out missions to accomplish our vision, life seems to have its own map too. Even in the practice of doing so, we have made ourselves unbridledly integrated to the path by default. The irony is that life map, in frequent basis, clashes with ours. We can see it by how things throw us off the rails which manifested through classic fiasco hits home: disaster, misfire, or any kind of hindrance that impede the “plan” smoothened in real time. Most of the time, they succeed. Who could against Mother Nature after all? Then you may call it as the moment when and how we truly live. Which I also think this is the same moment where collaborative dynamic between life and human beings needs to be acknowledged. So the fact that encountering bumpy roads that make us buy some time before reaching the finish line is very essential to be normalized.

But not everyone is eagle-eyed enough to notice that kind of puzzle. Some lack of humility to acknowledge that the game of life is afoot, rather choosing to ignore when they have the chance. They are susceptible to take alternative quickly. A shortcut towards which they switch the gear when hitting roadblock. Call it as plan B or C and so forth that can be taken out of disposal at any time in order to hit the ground running. One thing to remember: So Does Life. Different plan only comes with different cost life will give you. You might be thinking, “So we don’t suppose to plan, and just go with the flow?” Well, you missed the point. “Planning” or “being in the present” are two different approaches of living. Both of them have their own double-edge sword. When life gives us carte blanche on choosing how we maneuver our own lives, we must be ready to take the consequence of that choice in return.

Life navigates its dynamic in causal nexus. Meaning, it relies on act-and-react state of affairs. By exerting your metaphysical awareness like intuition, you must have known how to navigate them back.

“Life is like a game of chess. To win you have to make a move. Knowing which move to make comes with insight and knowledge.” — Allan Rufus, The Master’s Sacred Knowledge.

In the game of chess, two people sitting face to face are basically vying up to outsmart one another. The key to master this game depends on how far one sees opponent’s predictability measured by one’s ability of decoding the move patterns that the opponent makes. Of course this would be tricky. And that exactly life is. None of us has the absolute power over the vicissitude of our own fate in this contingent world. But we have the power to prepare, to anticipate what comes ahead i.e. emotions, mental, spirit. Yes we do. In order to cultivate this sort of gladiatorial mentality before curve ball being thrown at us, we only need to be aware of ourselves by not leaving unprepared.

In Stoicism, there is a practical trick to execute. To suffer before suffering is way better than to suffer in the time of suffering. There is a big difference. Meaning, practicing discomfort in the first place in order to be comfortable with discomfort later on. The good news is, we don’t have to leap off our couch. We can simply sketching the worst case scenario in our heads. But “to envision” the worst equates “to showcase” the utmost fear hidden deep inside us. We have to be willing to dive in the sea of our own fear by ruminating the flipped side of our decision/plan/desire/whatnot. Without rambling overindulgent metaphor further, the very crucial step is to convert the mindset of what we think improbable to the mindset of what we think probable. In that sense, our brain muscles need to be exerted to the process of imagining the worst possible things or events that could/might/would happen. But engineering imaginary images is not enough, we need to drag ourselves in. For instance, have a look at things you desire less to happen, throw yourself into that list, and let it dance. In the course of this cultivation, emotional agility should have stirred you up unless you get sidetracked by interval of rest. That being said, any malleable disturbance is highly intolerable during the process. Focus is critically important to maintain visualization on track, keep the work-in-progress to the point of resulted feelings cathartically get under your skin. Otherwise, you will be less likely to get acclimatized on “live stage” later on. Because the ultimate purpose of this practice is to remind ourselves that the worst is survivable, to see that we are far more capable of enduring them than we currently think. And this is how fortitude invigorated. Fortitude must be the shield in the face of adversity.

Lots of people, if not the most, choose to ignore the flipped side of their decision/plan/desire/what-have-you. Some simply do not want to be bothered by the questions of “what could be” or “what if.” Instead of taking hard look at constructive skepticism, they are fixed to unwarranted safeguard e.g. “there is nothing to be afraid of” or the most common, “we’re going to succeed it”. To them I’d say, “Who knows?” And don’t get me wrong, they are indeed too soothing to resist, especially the latter. It won’t be problematic, if you know when to channel that. It will be if you don’t. The problem with the latter surfaced when either the work is yet to be done, or worse, the concrete action is yet to take. For this only arouses ego hijacking your head with its sheer cajolement. This impulse usually appears like an optical illusion projecting dreamland-mirage-like right off the bat before the victim begins to dip their toes in the water, so to speak. It is important to notice quickly and make a detour as soon as it emerges. Otherwise, be prepared to be dragged toward the pitch of disintegration. That said, this delusional portrait comes at the expense of deviating reality, derailing from mental toughness, and will throw you in a cycle of repeated mistakes. For it drives setback. Untamable ego is in favor of corrupting minds as well as characters behind the curtains. Its archetypical gist of giving the victim unwarranted comfort conjures whom into feeling of self-centeredness, superiority, self-righteous, arrogance as opposed to feeling of naïveté i.e. keeping heads down or upper-lip-stiffed whereas life still remains elusive to comprehend and intricate to navigate. People whose characters and/or minds are corrupted will become no other than a comic to the eye of life itself. Ego, by all means, needs to be suppressed once aspiration generates.

This is why we shall not find negative visualization or worst-case scenario, as explained, necessarily easy to uphold. The primary reason to that is due to our brain wrestling with impulse, not to mention, walking in the path of fear whose obstacles commensurate, in equal measure, at the same time. Either way, by repulsing all seductive temptations in decent amount of practice, in retrospect, ego can be weakened belligerently so the focus on the work/action can be maintained, as planned.

No matter how optimistic or pessimistic you are about/in life, we us all, are technically walking in the path to death. This might sound nihilistic. Neither am I one nor have I no interest in espousing. Rather how to see life patterns is what i aim for. You will be less likely navigating life in a rational way if you turn the blind eye. And the trick I mentioned — explained, will be more less likely putting you at ease if you misinterpret them. But it seems very much overlooked these days, whereas, to my observation, connecting dots into patterns is a skill anyone should have possessed from prior time onwards. It is absolutely important to break the enigma of life so that we can keep ourselves on guard. Giving our intuition permission to wander beyond sensory is a gate through which apophenia can be exercised. Okay, I would lie to you if training intuitions doesn’t come with challenges. Of course immersing oneself in prognostication will be as challenging as full time job, especially in this brave-new-world era. how cannot be? Well, be prepared for some distasteful reality i’m about to bring on the table: we live in the time where we unconsciously are the slave of consumerism, are the worshiper of ruthless superior hedonists, and are the puppet of capitalism. Flex culture has indeed become overly pervasive to the point where we’re vying up approval over sensory pleasures we have/possess for its own sake. Also, little did we realize those Silicon Valley giants have devalued human self-worth by turning us into a product to be sold out. (Notice I’m talking about algorithm.) Thanks to the unbreakable chain of our habit eating up gratifications world can abundantly offer without scrutinizing the magic behind such invincible addiction. Which can actually be otherwise if we turn unconsciousness conscious. Picture this, they fall us down rabbit holes before our eye i.e. swept off by instant pleasures as a way to escape from either life stagnation e.g. boredom/banality or tumultuous pain. We let ourselves drugged under this lair without wanting to be bothered by the fact of boredom is healthier when channeled to more actionable creative pursuits. Also, pain is in fact inevitable. This irresponsible instant dopamine under such phenomenon, if not detoxified on a regular basis, will highly put our psyche in peril.

Practicality itself tends to stimulate the world and society more maddening as generations dragged by. Some people evolve forward, some evolve backward, and the rest are stuck in echo chamber of existential crisis. We get aroused towards anger by the news we saw on screen quite susceptibly to the point of paroxysmal rage. We are less capable compartmentalizing private life and public one to be shared with unfiltered-social-media-audiences to the point of inextricability. We lean towards living up to people’s expectation for acceptance more than we challenge them to accept us. We are prone to judge/lash out over to observe when people push our buttons. We disempower a sense of rebellion within us by which pigeonholing individuation for the sake of fitting in the status quo. All this particular unconscious behavior is a by-product of the uniformity of modern society we have built — shaped — been conditioned with low measure of uncompromisable ideals. The zenith of this can be seen through emotional fragility that emerged. Depressions, anxiety, panic, paranoia are amongst testaments of emotional mismanagement itself. First warning can be pictured when there is interval of decay life comes with. For instance, when we accomplished something we have worked for, we somewhat, somehow, more lean towards the missing and less towards the plus, of the accomplishment per se. The inclination of the missing then sprouted to querulous attitude we act upon, which known as complaining. I’ll give you a narrowed, concrete example to expand understanding. Let’s say, you finally got hired from the job you had desperately desired and painstakingly had put amount of effort for. One side, needless to say, you feel exuberant. Apart from effort-been-paid-off, you feel happy because of the will to advance the life of your family becomes more promising at the end of the tunnel, as it grants fat paycheck. The flipped side, you feel sullen as they will be no longer on your reach in closer/usual proximity since higher-ups proceed transferring you overseas. Down the road of the new life, the nagging becomes unbearable. You have hard time managing homesickness. You miss engaging intimate conversation around dining table as indulging in gourmet cupcakes. You miss sharing laughter with your wife and kids upon Warewords board. You miss having dinner readily served as you drove home from work. It all turns opposite by the time you got transferred. Under the pressure of adjusting new chapter, you are eating microwaved TV dinner in cozy living room of your apartment alone, then soliloquizing, “I’m grateful for everything, if only…” [End story.] I’m not filling the blank as I do not intend to stop you from imagining subsequent developed answers. But “If only” here are big words. The entity of two dependent words represents disillusioned part of reality. By which I mean, it springs tendency to supersede the joy plus undermining all triumphs life currently shower you with. And if you misread the situation by virtue of rebutting the obvious, it’s easy to be magnetized into trap of unhappiness. If you are trapped, you will be very much likely prone to suffering.

“Sentiment is a chemical defect found in the loosing side.” — Sherlock Holmes.

That quote is not congruent for this context. Will be, if I reformulate the words. Which becomes, “Complaint is an emotional defect found in the irrational mind.” That is how I see it. You have to keep in mind that life is a game of payoffs and opportunity costs. Every opportunity, even freedom, comes at price. Getting the job is an opportunity that has been taken, and accepting for not being with your family is the cost you should have paid. Complaint is a refusal to pay. Complaining by definition is an arousal of emotional bias to the ignorance of situation that is already conspicuous, unchanged, destined. When you whine about something that conditioned you to accept, wishing things to be any different while they cannot, you have the recipe for pain and suffering. While pain is, as already mentioned, inevitable; suffering is a choice. So in logic, when you complain, you double down the pain. Instead of petting multiple pains, why don’t you eliminate the optional and pull yourself together being comfortable with the inevitable one? As the saying goes, “Much of human suffering results from our failure to do so.”

Being comfortable with hardship is not synonymous with repressing emotions. It is about setting the right attitude towards what we cannot control (external circumstance) and focusing on what we can control (inner self). The gap between those two dimensions is where the truest human power lies, of which all of us are exceptionally capable. The power which functioned to engender our attitude that not only colors our perception but also alters our life. Whether or not you believe in free will, again here to remind you, life is predestined occurred with preconceived notions whose power is omnipotent. So when we are aware of ourselves to be able to see beyond what we see and respond it with noble attitude, the mastery over life is in our hand. In this case, acceptance geared in tandem with rationality is the highest, wisest attitude any human being must operate in the face of adversity. Keep in mind, acceptance is less about surrendering or resigning but more about agreeing to work together with what life has to offer.

Ryan Holiday, modern Stoic writer, emphasized one wisdom from Epictetus, ancient Stoic philosopher:

“Life is like being an actor. You don’t get to choose your lines, you choose how you deliver them. Life is written that there is a high power who is mostly in control and we have this sort of circumscribed role where we do the best we can.”

When those words fell into my ears, I was quickly infatuated by it. It corroborated my instinct about spider analogy. To double emphasize it, i sense the high power is the one who sits in the middle of its web, centering position, motionless. But the web has a thousand lines intersected promiscuously yet they create interconnected patterns. To cipher this, think of every person you met, every event e.g. tragedy/joy/disaster you underwent, and every problem you solved. Did you decide who and how you met that person? Did you choose the event you experienced? Did you pick the problem you solved? Has it occurred to you that you feel like falling to the same sh-t but packaged differently for many times, in many ways? Ponder yourself.

Done? So, are you the one who gets the strings pulled?

No one is.

Are you capable navigating the strings?

We all are.

The underlying maxim of life is that its whole enigma had long been designed to be justifiable. We, humans, are nowhere near too late to be its master decoder and solver. As long as life gives us times to breathe, just remember the chess analogy, tied to the game, yes we still are.

Hot take: People with less strong characters are no more than sleepwalker in this labyrinthine life. Masters are the ones who awake.