A Mason's Work

[00:00] So I want to follow on to yesterday's episode with something that's a little bit embarrassing or frustrating to talk about.
[00:10] And it's embarrassing and frustrating because a lot of folks get attached to the wrong ideas about Freemasonry and what it is.
[00:21] Um, when you have, uh, a domain of knowledge that allows for a lot of interpretive analysis, it becomes kind of this holding place for all of the extreme positions of the world.
[00:36] And what I really want to kind of dial in here is the, the sort of Western mysticism idea that's attached to the craft all the way into the occult space and the stuff that's going on there, uh, all the way through from the sort of ancient wisdom tradition idea that there's some sort of secret knowledge.
[00:58] Uh, if we talked yesterday about one thing, it was about understanding the process, um, and, and building a life is about you and in the moment and making sure that the things you do are going to work for you.
[01:10] Um, the, the ancient wisdom stuff is, is being sold like a magic pill.
[01:17] It's, uh, the, this esoteric knowledge that's behind door number 12 of 7,000 doors, whatever.
[01:23] Um, you're, you're not going to be able to get there from here because it is a forever moving goalpost.
[01:30] Well, you just haven't read this book or you just haven't, uh, you know, gone down this esoteric path.
[01:35] Number 12, here's the real challenge with all that stuff.
[01:39] If you can't use it now, it's not useful.
[01:45] Nobody wants to hear this.
[01:47] Everybody's favorite, you know, uh, esotericist or mysticist or, uh, you know,
[01:53] wisdom tradition.
[01:54] If you can't use it, if you can't make use of it, it's not helping you in your life.
[02:00] So, uh, while there is, and I want to be quite clear, there is wisdom kind of in a lot of the things that are out there.
[02:09] Um, it is not a magic pill.
[02:13] What you need to do when you pursue information like this, like the mystic and all of the stuff that's, you know, um, uh,
[02:23] out in the fringes, um, understand that again, because, because the interpretive science of
[02:30] Freemasonry is kind of this big, uh, mess of stuff.
[02:34] You're going to have folks polluting the well with crazy things like legitimately crazy things.
[02:40] Um, and, and so, you know, obviously don't, don't look for that stuff because, uh, that's not going to help you.
[02:47] It's going to seem like it's going to help you.
[02:48] Everyone's going to tell you behind door number two is, you know, this, this sort of a cult solution to the problem, but it's all nonsense.
[02:57] Uh, and anyone that's romanticizing the nonsense is also kind of not trying to help you, right?
[03:03] They're trying to turn you into a consumer.
[03:06] Um, that's not the goal, right?
[03:09] The goal is to get better.
[03:10] If I can help everyone, for example, my goal with this channel and what I'm doing here is if I can help everyone learn the things that I have learned about how to build a better life, then we all get better.
[03:21] And then I have really cool people to talk to and work with.
[03:24] Right.
[03:24] So, uh, there's tons of self-interest involved here.
[03:27] Um, but it's not to create, you know, dependency.
[03:30] It's not to create consumers.
[03:33] It's to create collaborators.
[03:35] And so when you look at some of this mystical information, some of this type of knowledge, you want to understand, uh, or trying to evaluate as much as you can.
[03:45] What's the objective here.
[03:47] If the objective is to keep selling you the next secret or keep telling you, uh, that over here is the thing that you've always waited for, or over here is the thing you've always been looking for.
[03:56] Um, that that's probably not your go-to space.
[04:01] That's probably not the place you want to go to for, um, you know, any kind of meaningful advice.
[04:07] Again, with all of this mystical stuff, it's not to suggest that there aren't some truth there, but, uh, you know, be mindful of who's trying to sell you what.
[04:20] Um, if, if we can't help you figure out how to solve a meaningful problem in your life, uh, it's probably not true.
[04:28] Uh, with one final caveat, uh, I know there's a lot of caveats today, uh, with the one final caveat.
[04:36] And that is, um, if you're, you may not be ready in some cases to hear the wisdom, right?
[04:44] You may not be in a place where, uh, the things that you are hearing make sense to you.
[04:51] Uh, and my guidance here is if it doesn't stop trying to make it make sense, go live a little more, go back to the field of your everyday life, go back to the world.
[05:03] And, uh, look for the friction of, you know, opportunity for you to grow and develop.
[05:08] And as you do, you may come back to some of those statements, uh, that, uh, really just make a whole lot more sense.
[05:15] And we'll get into the, one of those statements tomorrow.
[05:18] And actually it's from Yoda, uh, and it's, uh, do or don't do.
[05:22] There is no try.
[05:23] We'll talk about that in our next episode.