The Power of Necessity

In a world of abundance, the hardest thing to see and understand, is necessity -- and its power to organize and achieve human purpose.  That challenge is one's primary environment, and so it was often said in times past, that necessity was the mother of invention -- and in its absence, everything was much less likely -- because it is the organizational driver of every activity -- and not understanding that purpose, doomed one to futility -- whether that be winning a game, earning a livelihood, or ensuring one's health and well-being.  One has to have that focus and clarity -- especially in a world of confusion and uncertainty.  Obviously, that will assure a great competitive and survival advantage -- when many have lost that edge, or never learned it in the first place.

Life is not automatic -- assuring the same outcome for everyone, no matter what one does -- or does not do.  Rather, everything one does, and doesn't do -- matters.  That is the world of personal reality -- and success, and greatly explains the extent to which one is effective and efficient in anything they do. They have to perfect their understanding as much as possible before their undertaking, and not simply hope to attain it at the end -- like so much wishful-thinking.  Those who begin with that clarity and focus, are much more likely to experience success at anything they do.

That means even understanding what they do NOT know -- and are operating under faulty premises that got them into their present mess -- so more effort and struggle in that same pattern, is not going to solve their dilemma, but entrap them further.  Thus the concept of NOT DOING -- or beginning all over again with nothing, can be an effective strategy when things are not going so well -- though one may persist at it unsuccessfully for years, if not all one's life.  At some point, they must wake up and smell what is happening -- and where they got everything wrong.

And that is the beginning of wisdom -- and any success.  Otherwise, it is all sound and fury -- amounting to, and signifying nothing of any great significance or meaning.  But once one achieves the smallest of successes, they can go on to build much greater ones -- seemingly without much greater effort.  That is the power of necessity -- only what is necessary, and eliminating what is not -- ruthlessly, and building one's health and well-building on that structure.

Of course not everybody achieves that -- even living to an old age.  It is easy to mistake quantity for quality, and just add up the years -- but those years are dependent on how well one built that structure.  That is not a random outcome but the summation and accumulation of everything one has done -- to get to that point.  Those lessons are easily lost -- in a world in which everything and anything is possible -- for the ridiculous to the sublime.  Each has to cultivate that appreciation and distinction individually -- and not in the mass media model of one size fits all -- no matter how badly.  That has never worked -- and conveys no survival advantage.

And by survive, we mean to thrive -- and not just simply hang on for as long as we can -- bloodied and bruised, until finally we let go.  One hopes to cultivate and live a much better life than that.  That is entirely reasonable -- in this day and age, for nearly everyone, and not just the 1% -- and that 1% is not determined by privilege and advantage -- but where everybody goes from here.  It doesn't matter how great a head start anyone begins with -- if they don't know where the end is.  For all they know, they may be heading in the wrong direction -- secure in the knowledge, that they know everything that can be known.

And the truth is never like that.  It always has to be discovered in the present moment -- as the only truth that matters.  What seems to work for others, is not necessarily the reason it works in every case -- and especially this case.  The situation may be entirely different from what one thinks it is -- and it is not the thinking that makes it so, but the reality of the situation -- obviously.  That is the difference between correlation and causation -- and knowing that difference above all else.  Especially from the very beginning.

That is usually easier said than done -- and when the group immediately disintegrates into those who have a clear understanding of where they are and what they are doing, and those who believe that anything is equal to anything else -- because they simply say so.  That is not enough to secure and assure a successful outcome in everything they do and undertake.  That clarity is ensured by doing nothing for as long as necessary to know that one is beginning with no previous misconception and misunderstanding -- when everyone is eager to get underway -- doing what they think is most important to do.

For most, that is simply doing more of the same -- whether that  is working out well or not.  That is often all they know -- and think that is all there is to know -- even if it is not working!  It doesn't matter that it has ever worked either -- and everyone says it is so, and not working for everyone else also.  That "might" makes "right," they have been taught to believe.  But it doesn't matter how many people say it is true, if it just doesn't work -- or everyone will just be deluded -- instead of finding out what really works.

For this, there is great advantage for independent thought -- which is the bedrock of scientific inquiry -- and not simply repeating everything everyone else has learned.  It is not the conformity and repetition that gives power to truth -- but whether it is successfully challenged each time and comes up with the same unmistakable result.  That's when one is on to something.  It works the first time, and every time thereafter.  Then one knows something worth knowing.