Synthesize the Complexity : The Inner Secret To Make Sense From The Chaos
I’m discovering that my mind, my thoughts, the world and my vision for my contribution to the world is incredibly complex. In some ways we want things to be simple, straightforward, have a direction of certitude and clarity that relieve us from the burden of multiplicity. We want to drop the meanderings of the mind and the endless options in front of us and arrive at that monolithic face of undistorted truth that brings peace and surety to our souls.
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I’m discovering though, that it isn’t there. At least, not in the clean and packaged way we would like it to be that relieves that nagging superficial mental anxiety that won’t let us off its treadmill of tribulation.
However, deep down, there is an ultimate simplicity. We can call it death.
Or the primordial void of formless existence, if that butters your cupcakes; ultimately, it is the deep knowledge of the transitory nature of life on earth. We are all racing, at approximately 67,000 miles per hour around the Sun, towards the inevitability of our bodies physical demise. Our funeral pyre is waiting to be lit, our plot of land in the cemetery is empty and patient for the arrival of our embalmed body, and for those of you averse to carbon producing toxic funeral industry, then the mushroom-spore-infused ‘Infinity Burial Suit’ *link in bio*, that mushroom death suit that eats your body after death. However much free-will you have over how your body is disposed, the destiny of death remains undisputed.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s ease into what we’re really here for.
How do we make sense of the complexity given that we’re all going to die?
Value.
Deep Value.
Determining what is valuable in life, what is most precious, what we are truly living for, is what will bring order to our complexity.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to be complex, unavoidable in many ways, but what is it that organizes and sustains the complexity? What is that nurturing force that integrates all the disparate aspects of our minds and ambitions and organizes it in a way that makes sense to us and can be shared with the world?
The value of our lives.
That loving magnetism that really pulls us home, back to the heart;
that integrating force deep within us that yearns to make sense of this vast and incomprehensible human mystery.
Maybe I’m writing this for myself.
Maybe for my intrepid readers.
Maybe this is the prologue for what is to come, a caveat for the ensuing complexity.
We don’t know the answers.
With the increasing complexity of the world we’re not likely to ever know the answers or arrive at a clean and simple theory.
But trusting that in discerning the deep value of our lives, knowing deeply what is important and what makes us uniquely human, we can arrive at a deeper intelligence that weaves together the complexity in a way that makes sense.
In the early 1900’s there was a Yogi who mastered the complexity of the world. Sri Aurobindo was a visionary and yogi and prolific author who lived in Pondicherry, South India. He was considered a sage, a Rishi; one who has seen into the deeper truth of reality. He wrote about human evolution, of the biological sort, but with more of an emphasis on mental and spiritual evolution. One of the ways that he defined evolution in humans was the ability to hold increasing degrees of complexity within a single node of awareness. In fact, the deeper the awareness goes, meaning the pure consciousness of infinite spirit, the more it is able to hold the increasing complexity of the world. He described humanity’s evolutionary arc as going in waves from high levels of complexity that bordered on chaos and disorder — too much information and too many activities racing in myriad directions that seem like they will inevitably sink the ship of life itself — towards waves that somehow over time are assimilated into a higher and more harmonized order, sublating the complexity into a more sublime synthesis of understanding and integrating all the variance into a neatly fitting clear and precise vision of what it all means.
Take an iPhone 12 for example. One of the pinnacles of modern technology, the seamlessly integrated symbol of the complexity of 2021 that fits neatly into our pockets. Now hop in your time machine (that unfortunately won’t be released until the iPhone 20 comes out) and take a spin back to 1984. There yet? Acid washed jeans, bright neon shirts, track suits, Ronald Reagan and the first Macintosh computer that was the size of a large cocker spaniel. Ok. Great. Now, hand your neighbor in the acid washed jeans your iPhone 12 and ask him to spend 2 minutes scrolling through Instagram…
…
Insert that emoji of the upper cranium turning into a mushroom cloud of incomprehension.
🤯
Yeah, that one. The emoji symbolizing the neurosurgical procedure called Hemispherectomy where the upper half of your cerebral hemisphere is removed, ostensibly to releive epilepsy caused by too much digiphrenia…
Anyways, back to 2021…
Modern technology that would have caused massive confusion and be the potential causs for removal of the cerebrum due to information overload is now deftly navigated by a 12 year old as easily as a pro downhill skier slices through fresh powdered slopes with thoughtless joy and ease. The point is — we are able to adapt to complexity and in time turn complexity into an synthesized part of our brains and everyday life.
Despite our ability to nimbly navigate the modern world of increasing complexity, truly making sense of it and integrating it into some stable semblance of coherence remains an illusive labyrinthe leading us to exasperation.
I spent a few hours yesterday doing a Youtube deep-dive and glimpsed just how truly complex the times are. Researching potential content for my own channel I took a tour de force of the world of Youtube, the ‘Stratified Sea of Medea of the Modern Era’ that shows us just how intractably far we are into the 21st century.
Take a breath and inhale….
And… Go.
Topics ranged from ‘nanotechnology’, ‘immortality achieved through cryogenics’, ‘how scientists are uploading your brain to a supercomputer’, to the ‘the geo-political complexity of the South China Sea’, ‘the future of the quantified self and facial recognition’, ‘groundbreaking discoveries in cosmology: double dark matter, weird universes and multi dimensional realities in string theory’, ‘Fake meat is the future. Here’s why.’, to ‘Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, archetypes and the revolution of psychedelics’, regenerative farming and lastly, to bring it all home, ‘Finding hope for the future at home: A Banana Waffle Recipe’.
And exhale…
If your mind is as frenetic as mine after reading that list feel free to take a moment for your upper hemisphere to rectify itself.
Now don’t worry, relax and take a moment.
A reminder that you’re also in the hands of a certified Yoga Teacher.
Yes, gonna need to take just a little bit longer.
Now, open your chest, extend your spine, rotate your head, and…
Breathe deep into your heart.
Exhale the mental overload and root yourself in the sweetness of deep and enduring silence.
See, now that’s better. Add a little inward smile and pat on your back positive affirmation and we’re right as rain.
😉
We live in an utterly incredibly complex world and there is utterly no way around it. Our minds can’t ever possibly comprehend everything, and an attempt at a fulfilling rational explanation will mostly likely leave us even more bewildered. There is a a part of us though, deep down, beneath the surface of the rational mind, that remains pure and untouched; unfazed by the plethora of possibility and content in its own simple silence. Within the core of our hearts there is an abiding wisdom that can somehow piece it all together. In fact, the more we are faced with the complexity of the world and the messiness of modernity, the more we are compelled to enter deep within and find solace and centering in the heart.
As a writer, the above topics deeply fascinate me and I know that engaging with them, at least to some degree, is imperative to understand the nature of life on earth. I don’t presume to become an expert in any of the above, except, perhaps, the banana waffles, and yet, as an average human, I feel like I need to at least come to terms with them, and in my own way, anchor their existence deep within the centering values of my own heart.
As a collective humanity, we are facing the continued multiplicity of the complexity of information and the deluge of Medea from all angles. There is a momentum to the sense of progress and expansion that is happening at a break-neck speed. There are forces far more powerful than we could imagine with varying agendas and visions for how they see the future of humanity.
Where do you fit in?
Where do we fit in?
How do we move forward?
By discerning deep value in your life and cultivating an intimate relationship with your innermost poise and wisdom of the heart there is an alignment that happens.
“A coherence that arises between the head of multiplicity and the heart of simplicity.”
If we plumb deep within our hearts we realize that there is an ancient power there; an immeasurable force that is woven into the fabric of the universe itself.
As I conclude, it becomes clear that this article is more of a prelude. I have a lot of ideas in my head that I intuitively feel when woven together will give us all a better sense of how we can mitigate the confusion and angst of the modern world and anchor in theories that fit deep in the latticework like wisdom of our hearts. Allowing us to move forward with a sense of unified purpose and a positive vision of what humanity could be.
There is shit we know we need to do.
The Non Negotiables.
We know we need to be close to nature, to feel the ground beneath our feet and drink clean water, breath fresh air and absorb the therapy of the trees. We know that human creativity and human connection are what make us thrive and give deep solace to our souls. We know that the religions and spiritual traditions of the past weren’t perfect but were pointing to something vital; an imperative need of the human existence. If we anchor ourselves into these deeper values then the force of our hearts will be able to harness our minds and make sense of the increasingly complex world and guide us towards a new dawn.
So, before you move on to binge reading the next article, or googling banana waffles, straighten your back, open your chest, take a few more deep breaths and spend a few moments in the sweetness of silence. Integrate this article and your next input from the world into this space of synthesizing sublimity and trust that you know how it all fits together.
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