The Never Ending War
The centralizing tendencies of humanity stretches all the way into the Bitcoin community and it is time to reflect on actions in a larger perspective if we really want decentralization.
Background
Traditional religions and cultures have had a section of people with mystical experiences that often lived a life in silence, prayer and meditation. There were the sufis, kabbalists, druids, shamans, theurgists, daoists, as well as the christian, gnostic, buddhist and hindu mystics to name a few.
Those religions and cultures have also had public leaders whose job it was and still is to be vocal about beliefs, provide comfort and direction to the followers. These leaders have been called a priest, president, king, queen, chairman, CEO, brahmin, lama, rabbi, imam, guru and so on.
While the mystics strive to live in the frequencies of the pure heart, the leaders tend to live in the frequencies of the mind. When the mind operates without the heart it is drenched in duality. The open heart is beyond duality so we can see through our projections but a person focused in the mind identifies with the projections.
The projections are created from the shadows within us, our past experiences are projected onto the current situations as templates to easier deal with new situations. When we are not aware of this functionality of consciousness we deal with the old shadows over and over again without updating our templates to fit with the current people and situations in our life.
The Bitcoin war
I feel like a Christian mystic in the Vatican as a Bitcoiner today. The similarity between priests calling for judgment of witches and the Bitcoin influencers calling for judgment of bankers, VC’s and alt-coiners are stunning. Both shouting their war cries against the villains out there who apparently want to destroy their earthly kingdom, their vision of how the world SHOULD be.
The mystic in me wants to tell them that it is not through external violence (actions taken against another man) we can win this war. Rather, it is through connecting to our personal inner node and growing our inner kingdom first.
The mystic knows that the external is just a manifestation of the inner world. Inside-out. The mystic has an intimate experience and knowledge of this fact that neither priests in their office nor soldiers on the field have time to uncover because they are busy with the never ending war.
When we feel weak, or victimized and only rely on external reference points it feels like it makes sense to take external actions to pull ourselves forward. We use willpower and manipulate the world to our advantage. But if we think about it a bit deeper we can understand that it is our inner state that makes us feel weak and it might be a good idea to upgrade the inner state.
When we upgrade our inner state with contemplation we can see what patterns put us in the weak situation in the first place and we can stop using those patterns and try something new.
I can only hope that some of you have experienced how it is to feel grand on the inside and how our outlook on life changes. How we can see more opportunities and we feel confidence that we will be able to act on them. This is a feeling that the priests and influencers have perhaps never experienced and this is the glitch in understanding the differences between them and the mystic.
War for freedom
How many times have we seen religious wars for god or love or freedom that have used external force from inner weakness to try to solve their victimhood? Is it different this time? Is Bitcoin finally the word of god that we should fight an external battle for and this time when we win we will be ready to enjoy that freedom and love?
We can’t experience freedom on the outside if we have not yet found it inside of us.
What is different with Bitcoin is that this protocol actually has a formula for true decentralization built into it. The war cries we hear from the priests are just remnants of the old centralized groups imposed on this pure decentralized ‘word of god’.
True decentralization
First principles of decentralization means that we can not demand anything of anyone else and no one can demand anything of us. True self sovereignty. There will probably always be drama in the world that we can choose to identify with and justify the need for force but similar to a rich man who always wants to become richer because he still thinks external wealth will solve his problems, we as humans have this tendency to think that external freedom should come before inner freedom.
The patterns of humanity live within us. If we find an excuse to repeat those old patterns for whatever cause we seem happy to do so. It gives us a sense of identity and belonging to something greater than ourselves.
How about we instead upgrade that sense of belonging from a specific group to the whole of creation? When we understand that all is one we can also find our small part, our path on this earth as the most valuable thing. Our path is not to be part of a group and try to fight some never ending, always changing external enemy. It is to be true to ourselves, to find what makes just our life shine more brightly, the individual path that simultaneously supports the whole.
As long as we are fighting someone else's war, our inner kingdom will be weak, since our existence in that situation is built on other people's approval. One true step guided by our inner node is worth more than a thousand steps in the name of someone else.
The day that understanding of internal value over external value will be as common as a Netflix subscription will be the day we can start to build a new world based on truth. But until then the only truth we can find is within ourselves. Even if bitcoin is objective truth we can not be caught up in the narratives around it that fly around from the priests. Their truths are not our truth, our truth comes from within.
Do the actions you take come from within yourself or do you base your actions on conceptual narratives from other people?
Individual choices
Flow state is when actions come from within ourselves. It is effortless. We give value to ourselves and the world. Actions without fear come from a place of unconditional love that does good for both the micro and macro worlds, they align and restore everything they touch to its natural expression.
Flow state can only come from a thriving inner kingdom, and light up the external world with actions in harmony with creation. Fighting using force comes from a weak inner kingdom and brings more destruction to the external world.
Humanity as a whole and each individual are at a crossroad. Do we learn from our past mistakes and choose a new path forward into true decentralization, or do we stay in the old patterns that feel safe but lead us to more centralization and destruction?
Thanks to Tomer for edits and feedback.
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