A little writing on brilliance
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Just something I posted on Facebook for the sake of writing, just basic philosophy written by my own words and thoughts.
What is brilliance
What is brilliance, it is consciousness. When someone is brilliant he is observant, he observes the object that is at hand. Brilliance is not about abacuses, it is not about knowledge or neuroses, it is about silent observance. Everyone can see whether someone has "school" knowledge or whether his actions are thought out. Brilliance is not outside of how one acts, how one is. It is a state of being and a state of action. Brilliance often alludes to intellectuality, but can it not allude to true humanity? Real brilliance is not self-centered or mechanical. It is the kind of thing you can feel in the night all alone, feeling that everything is all right, that feeling that gets easily brushed away in the day, when you have to get your mask on, this mask that separates us, that makes us think of each other in terms of friends or enemies.
Often brilliance and non-brilliance are also separated from each other, as if they were two things. That is how you get figure worship, star worship, personality worship, or contentment towards those that are labeled better. Brilliance is not something that is outside of oneself. It is ever present as the potential, one can feel it in the eye of life's turmoils, in becoming completely in love, in becoming completely one with sports action, in seeing a most beautiful sunset. Brilliance is ever greater than one could expect, one's potential is ever greater than one could expect. Whenever one taps into one's own resources, he becomes ever bewildered as to his own capabilities. Whenever one becomes completely successful, he becomes completely bewildered as to how it happened.
Real brilliance is effortless and self-abiding. It is not interested in do or do not, it takes its own course. It is like a river that finds the least resistance by its own virtue. Our mechanical morals try to dam it and make it go the way we want, but in that way only poisons it and stops its own effortless course.
Often we hide our own brilliance behind the veils of religion and dogma, thinking only about the words, names and figures, and forgetting the content. It is the words and names that make the wars, not the content. We consider ourselves Buddhists or Christians or Moslems, and forget about the application of love. We consider ourselves black, white, yellow, and forget that we're human beings. We consider ourselves man and woman, and forget to hold each others' hands. We consider ourselves Finnish, German, American, Indian, Chinese, Mongolian, and forget that we're all living under the same sky and we're all feeling the same kinds of joys and sorrows.
Brilliance is not something that has to be grasped, got hold of, assimilated, it is not a secret doctrine, it is not only for those that can afford it, it has nothing to do with the circumstances of life, good or bad. It is there, as your inherent knowledge of good and wrong, compelling and watchful.
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Nice post.
For the record, my dog is brilliant!
http://www.robert-allen.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Reji-1-web-199x300.jpg
EDIT: It was late when I read your post—on my way to bed. I woke with the sense that I didn't do a very good job shaping my inner response at the time, it slipping between the cracks of my own thoughts on 'brilliance.' I just want to say that I hope you continue to work on this text, or make a point of writing other, new essays on a regular basis; just don't walk away from this kind of effort or allow it to languish for long periods of time. Writing is thing unto itself, a kind of meditation. I sense this kind of process in what you have written, so I hope you keep it up.
Liber Al, 2:11: I see thee hate the hand & the pen; but I am stronger.
Love and Will
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93,
Wow Vlad, that's a beautiful post! What you describe as "brilliance" seems pretty synonymous with my understanding of "Will." Was that intentional? Seems like it was, but that might be my perspective coloring it
@Vlad said
"Often we hide our own brilliance behind the veils of religion and dogma, thinking only about the words, names and figures, and forgetting the content. It is the words and names that make the wars, not the content. We consider ourselves Buddhists or Christians or Moslems, and forget about the application of love. We consider ourselves black, white, yellow, and forget that we're human beings. We consider ourselves man and woman, and forget to hold each others' hands. We consider ourselves Finnish, German, American, Indian, Chinese, Mongolian, and forget that we're all living under the same sky and we're all feeling the same kinds of joys and sorrows."
Your post also puts me in mind of the fact that there seems a tendency for us Thelemites to fall into the same trap of dogmatic perspectives and attachment to words... Very thought provoking. Thanks!
93 93/93.
AL H-ShMATh