• The older I get, the more I’ve realized that everything I want to be and do in life is downstream of proximity to The Truth — to the way things are. The closer you are to the The Truth, the more in alignment with it, the easier and better life becomes — the more relaxed, patient, joyful, and “successful.” Things unfold, more timely and more gracefully.
  • Internally, regarding our understanding of and relationship to self, we call this alignment with The Truth “authenticity” (but depending on the context, you’ll recognize it as genuineness, honesty, sincerity, etc).
  • At the border where our interiority meets the external world, alignment with Truth is what we’d call integrity — or where self-understanding is aligned with external expression and actions. It’s how we relay a (consonant) understanding of self into the outer world.
  • And the entirety of reality (us, others, and otherwise) has a fundamental Truth to it, and our incomplete, compressed understanding of it is bound in maps of “the territory”, models of the inner-workings.
  • The purity of authenticity and integrity, and the resolution of our maps, collectively determine our harmony with reality. The more “in tune” we are, the more beautiful the music.
• So how do you create a life in better alignment with The Truth?
  • Seek authenticity
    • Quotes:
      • “Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him” — Dostoevsky
      • “Do yourself this favor … don’t choose anything that would jeopardize your soul” — Matthew McConaughey
      • “You should have this little voice inside of you saying, ‘Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth.’” — Tarantino
      • If he who is organized by the divine for spiritual communion, refuse and bury his talent in the earth, even though he should want natural bread, shame and confusion of face will pursue him throughout life to eternity." — William Blake
      • The only sin is falseness.
    • There’s a trite, shallow interpretation of “be yourself” in Western culture.
      • People think they already know who they are and just need to express it, saying things like “fuck the haters” or “I’m going to do me.”
      • In reality, most people don’t know who they are because their sense of self is like a compass surrounded by a bunch of closer magnets, distorting their sense of true north. You have to shed these weaker signals.
    • Interrogate who you are, ruthlessly
      • Quote: Sri Nisargadatta said, “Give up all questions except one: ‘Who am I?’ The ‘I am’ is certain. The ‘I am this’ is not.”
      • Introspection, via negativa
        • Question every layer of conditioning; every belief, preconception, assumption, desire.
          • Why do you want to be and do X? Why do you believe Y?
          • Were these things pre-installed, or by choice?
        • You come to find and know yourself via negativa—by discovering what you are not. It’s a process of elimination rather than accumulation. Remove what is “not”, until whatever “is” remains.
      • Link to “Subtraction & Experimentation”
    • ~~[Not fleshed out; may not keep] Act in alignment with that authentic self~~
      • Make decisions that are consistent with your sense of self
      • Speak the truth when it matters. Be honest to others.
      • In this way, I also use authenticity as a container for or parent of all Platonic virtues/ideals (goodness, beauty, etc)
    • Signs that you’re authentic, or getting there…
      • Following your curiosity. Listening to that quiet voice telling you to look into something. I would differentiate this from externally-motivated seeking in that it feels less describable or harder to pin down — and you will sometimes try to suppress it.
        • "I want to unfold. Let no place in me hold itself closed, for where I am closed, I am false." — Rilke
      • Energy. When you’re inauthentic, you expend so much energy trying to uphold a false sense of self – like a 50 pound body suit you lug around everywhere you go. But authenticity is like unkinking the hose in the garden: water runs more freely, and at full capacity. Aliveness, flow. This often follows from engaging and following your curiosity.
        • What feels natural, like you’re living in your skin, versus clothing you put on as coverage to keep up appearances. When do you feel like you don’t have to explain yourself, because your actions just are – there they have a transcendental consistency. Any explanation would be unnecessary forced and fake of itself.
      • External reflection: in relationships & people you surround yourself with. Different than seeking external rewards. It’s seeing the people you attract and how they respond to and interact with you
      • Self-confession: when you do a “confessional” with yourself, what fakery and dissonance and lies are you confessing to? What ways of being do you feel like are inconsistent and you need to “atone” for?
      • You see more Truth.
        • The more honest and truthful you are, the more easily you see fragments of truth and wisdom in the world and in others.
        • There’s a virtuous loop between authenticity and perceiving Truth in the world: the better you can see it in yourself, the better you can see it elsewhere, repeat.
      • Less stress, anxiety, fearfulness, impatience. There’s a calmness, temperance, and confidence in authenticity.
    • Signs that you’re inauthentic: a couple clues, at the micro and macro level…
      • A fake self reads like a side effect list of a drug. Psychological symptoms & neuroses abound. Just a few examples and how to trace them…
        • Narcissism: Narcissism is a defensive mechanism against deep self-loathing: you either know who are and don’t want to accept it and for others to see it, or you’re scared to know and suppress it. In either case, you put up a facade in place of yourself, and preempt true self discovery by obsessively creating & talking about the facade. You can never be narcissistic about your authentic self.
        • Jealousy: Jealousy is always trigged by a faulty sense of self and want. It’s an example of what Luke Burgis calls “thin desires.” It’s only when we have “thick,” or sincere, desires that we have no room for jealousy.
        • Self-Doubt: Self-doubt usually comes from a fear of external reception and (in)validation. When you’re authentic, the authenticity itself is enough.
      • Chasing status, power, and money
        • When you’re inauthentic, status, power, and/or money are your overarching motivations. You want to “prove” yourself through reputation, (threat of) force, or by showing what you can have.
        • Achievements gained through inauthenticity are fragile — like a skyscraper built on sand. With the changing winds of external opinion, and with the authentic self lurking beneath the surface ready to trigger an earthquake at any time, it’s always susceptible to collapse.
          • And success is a poor indicator of authenticity if it’s “fake”/misaligned success. See Andre Agassi’s relationship with tennis.
        • But authenticity is about input alignment — it’s about pure, unbridled self-expression — not the output and reception.
          • Quote from the Bhagavad Gita: “You have the right to work, but for the work’s sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working. (…) Work done with anxiety about results is far inferior to work done without such anxiety, in the calm of self-surrender. (…) They who work selfishly for results are miserable.”
      • Authenticity is a purpose unto itself. It’s complete and self-fulfilling. It’s detached from what follows. The alignment is enough.
  • (Save for another essay, or not at all?) Find out what the world is…
    • The formula is similar: engagement, interaction, dropping of preconceptions; seeing things as they are
• (WIP) Authenticity..
  • Is freedom. You’re free once you fear being fake more than being real.
  • Is purpose. It’s whole, complete, enough, in and of itself.
  • Begets truth. The more you are true, the more you see truth. It’s self-reinforcing.
  • Your sole purpose is to channel yourself and “your thing” — whatever is on The Other Side (but that’s a conversation for another time)

Footnotes

• Caveat: no shoulds. Authenticity is not for everyone. if you desire comfort, security, survival, if you fear not living in accordance with social norms, if you fear pushing back against social pressure, if these are things that you worry about, then living authentically is not for you. You have to overcome those fears and concerns and want to be authentic more than you are in accordance with those external measures of conformity and etc. you have to value authenticity more than you value comfort, conformity, or security. Living authentically requires a willingness to face discomfort, to challenge social norms, and to push back against external pressures. It’s not for those who prioritize safety or ease above all else, because authenticity often involves vulnerability, risk, and the possibility of standing apart from the crowd. “you have to fear being fake more than being real”
• You can only take the appropriate next step in life with the requisite self-knowledge and self-trust—with fully knowing and being yourself—with authenticity and attunement to that sense of true self. When you’re authentic and listening to that inner voice, you can “feel” the next step. When you’re inauthentic, you’re left asking, “What would someone else do in my situation?” This ties into external influence, jealousy, and the pursuit of status, money, and power rather than doing something for its own sake.
• There’s an open question or debate — and possibly tension — between purpose and what you’re “meant to do”—that thing you’re uniquely suited for, built to do. Is it something you get to choose or create for yourself, or is it something that comes from The Supreme / The Void / God? Is it chosen for you, and you have to find it, express it, and channel it? Or is it a dance between the two, co-created based on how life unfolds and the situations you encounter? I lean towards a combination of the two: we’re engrained with a unique receiving pattern, and we’re vessels for a message from the other side.