Syding’s latest newsletter post, How the World Work, is very rich in theosophical and existential treaties. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Obviously, I can’t reproduce it here, but he’s keen on *meetings* being the core of everything and consciousness, not matter or time, is what defines existence. [I spoke about the non-existence of time already back in 2019]. Karl-Mikhael Syding ends up signing his newsletter with the title “Aspiring Sheng-Jen”. According to the Oxford dictionary, a Sheng Jen is in China, one who hears the way of Heaven (Tʾien) and develops understanding, often translated as ‘sage’. Sheng-jen is therefore the ideal wise person who penetrates the hidden meaning of all things and lives accordingly.”

This year, I brought to your attention the Indian mystic Sadhguru . I hope you’ve read my book review of his latest book weeks earlier, and that contemporary mystic Sadhguru has inspired you.

In the beginning was a field…Syding says. Not the Big Bang. What happens is human mind can only perceive snapshots, beginnings and ends, labels. These are our limitations. Past, future. Snapshots of the human mind.

I see this “field” as emanating from the present. The future is made now…and so is the past. Poor human snapshots of reality the mind of the common folk is unable to grasp. The Universe is marching towards its end as well as towards its “beginning” concurrently, because there is no “beginning” or “end” to begin with.

In the Zone (Sadhguru’s latest short video) with former rugby player Jonny Wilkinson, CBE.

1. If you are/were at a large or mid-sized organization (middle range businesses are those that have 250-500 employees) start looking at small sized businesses and startups.

2. Participate in conferences, developers forums, seminars and strategy forums. The more involved you are in your profession and the more you know about verticals the better. Speak to and meet your peers and avantgarde leaders.

3. Whatever your last employer, your best chances are to get hired by a competitor. This doesn’t change regardless of your industry and profession.

4. If you haven’t bought the Book of the Underdog yet, buy it. It is the best, life changing book on personal and professional development of the last decade. Now, 3 years later and into a new decade, the book still holds as the gold standard.

5. Pivot if you have to. Read the 15 Invalubale Laws of Growth by John C. Maxwell and The Big Pivot: Radically Practical Strategies for a Hotter, Scarcer, and More Open World by Andrew S. Winston.

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Relationships

All amorous relationships in your life need to be dynamic. We have numerous posts here on relationships from the male perspective: do a search for 2019 and 2020 and you’ll be floored with relationship advice. We don’t follow the mainstream advice on “working in relationships” because once a relationship needs “work” (other than minor corrections) I believe the relationship should be curtailed. Things to bear in mind:

-People naturally grow apart.

-Monogamy is a myth and all the happy couples that I know have or have had, multiple lovers.

-All relationships end in breakups, hopefully the breakup is gracious and well-choreographed, eg. you have a prenup and a postnup.

-The way you got into that relationship the same way you will split up.

-I don’t recommend marriage for men. If you get married you need to clearly spell out your economic arrangement with the woman. No ambiguity. (The honeymoon phase usually ends in 6 months).

-If you’ve made the mistake of getting married and have kids, you need to obtain 50/50 custody. That is for the kids since they need both a father and a mother in their lives.

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“Ballooning is almost similar to edging with the addition of Kegel exercises while performing a massage on a fully erect penis concentrating on the lower shaft part and the perineum area.”

Menlify.com

Subspace

I was reading this blog E.E.W. Christman when I came across her “Subspace” post:

“As your pain tolerance increases over time, the physical pain recedes into the background and you are left with an often overwhelming euphoria. It is very much like being drunk or high; your body feels as if it is floating, problems disappear, and all that’s left is that fuzzy good-feeling.”

E.E.W. Christman

Video of the day:

Here are some highlights from it…

“Everything existing in the world ‘falls to the bottom.’ The ‘bottom for any part of the Universe is its nearest stability, and this stability is the point toward which all the lines of force from all directions converge.”

Beezelbub’s Tales to His Grandson

“Eldest of my grandsons ! Listen and always remember my strict injunction to you: In life never do as others do.”

C.I. Gurdjieff

“If you go on a spree, then go the whole hog, including the postage.”

C.I. Gurdjieff

Was C.I. Gurdjieff reading this blog ?

“Time in itself does not exist, there is only the totality of the results issuing from all the cosmic phenomena present in a given place.”

C.I. Gurdjieff

The hell ? I wrote as recently as last year that time does not exist…

This book is a difficult read…many of you will drop it after 20 pages…

Meanwhile, I wish Gurdjieff had quoted me…

Max Cantor quote never seen by Gurdjieff:

Taking a controlled breath, via @NYTimes

The best Meditation apps according to NYT Wirecutter

“Young, ambitious, and insecure” is the moniker for this show which…I’m not going to watch. This is a time waster for me, like most shows on TV these days.

The WSJ did a piece about it October 29, 2020.

“She’s very good and she’s meant to be in these rooms, but she comes from humble beginnings so there’s an imposter’s syndrome.” -Myhal’a Herold about her character Harper.

WSJ, John Jurgensen, Oct. 29th, 2020

One of the dumbshits who’ve made the show:

“The way my desk was structured, you could see your career progression across the room, the Vp on one end and the managing director on the other,” Mr. Downs said. “I left, but I think I would have been pushed…I was really, really not very good at it.”

WSJ

Good. Which qualifies you for nothing. And now you’ve made a movie. Which nobody’s gonna watch.

Meanwhile, I have a movie idea that’s 100% solid and has nothing to do with romanticizing banking careers.

Until Hollywood finally wakes up to making a good movie, I’m re-watching GoT and other movies worth watching.

If you play poker, can you talk about the hand from the other perspective ?

In the article, she covers a few things we’ve known for years, such as anchoring, avoiding zeros and even numbers (at salary negotiations, for example).

” Applying this idea to poker, value bets use precise sizes, while more splashy round numbers are used for bluffing (when still at level one of a leveling war, that is — at level two, the opposite could apply). I look out for this one at live tourneys, even when my only read is that my opponent is so annoying he bet 5,075 when I have no green chips.”

Jennifer Shahade

Shahade concludes her article with something I’ve said for many, many years: “too few risks is the biggest risk of all.“

I’ve listed some online resources for those who want to learn poker in the Book of The Underdog. Here are those listed in PN: Websites To Play Free Poker Games Online. (I have no affiliation to those sites)

” I bury the bone so deep that the dogs have to scratch for it .”

I came upon this controversial Armenian mystic whose body of work includes All and Everything. If you’ve never heard of him, this might spark your interest:

Gurdjieff said that he had answered every question that could possibly arise in a person’s mind [Wikipedia]

In his introduction to the Beezelbub’s Tales to his Grandson, Gurdjieff states the following:

Friendly Advice [Written impromptu by the author on delivering this book, already prepared for publication, to the printer.]

ACCORDING TO the numerous deductions and conclusions made by me during experimental elucidations concerning the productivity of the perception by contemporary people of new impressions from what is heard and read, and also according to the thought of one of the sayings of popular wisdom I have just remembered, handed down to our days from very ancient times, which declares:

“Any prayer may be heard by the Higher Powers and a corresponding answer obtained only if it is uttered thrice: Firstly—for the welfare or the peace of the souls of one’s parents. Secondly—for the welfare of one’s neighbor.And only thirdly—for oneself personally.

I find it necessary on the first page of this book, quite ready for publication, to give the following advice:

“Read each of my written expositions thrice:*

Firstly: at least as you have already become mechanized to read all your contemporary books and newspapers.* Secondly: as if you were reading aloud to another person.* And only thirdly: try and fathom the gist of my writings.Only then will you be able to count upon forming your own impartial judgment, proper to yourself alone, on my writings. And only then can my hope be actualized that according to your understanding you will obtain the specific benefit for yourself which I anticipate, and which I wish for you with all my being.”

Does anyone write anything profound like this Gurdjieff guy did years ago ? In our decade ? Maybe sing it ?

How about Ferry Corsten, the House/Progressive DJ ?

Did you get the lyrics in that 2013 song, Made of Love ?

Here.

Onwards and forwards,

Your Man,

Max Cantor

References: Beezebub is originally refereed to as the flying devil -Mythology.net

Imagine you are revisiting a place -it can be anything, anywhere- and instead of enjoying yourself anew, your thoughts of having crossed that place come through. They can be pleasant or unpleasant experiences you’ve had. In this case, the thought process taking place is barring perception and clarity. You stop being in the moment and are swept down the memory lane.

Powerful events – those entrenched in memory -must be relieved where you gain some authority over them, without emotion, without judgement.

How ?

I’m going to cite here from Darth Plagueis by James Luceno , a NY Times best selling novel from the Star Wars Expanded Universe series . Darth Plagueis, the Sith Lord, is training young Palpatine, aka Darth Sidious. Darth Sidious is reliving the memories of the crime he committed upon his family.

…In telling and retelling it, in reliving it, he had finally gained a kind of authority over it, the ability to see the event merely for what it was, without emotion, without judgement. It was as if the event had occurred years rather than months earlier, and as if someone else had authored it.”

Darth Plagueis

The emotional imprint of life defining events -positive and negative – is a shackle. You don’t have to be a Sith Lord (or a Jedi) to have formed those attachments. Memory becomes a crutch. Train to unshackle it.

I will be back and tell you how.

I was watching an Eckart Tolle video last night where he says that to get out of over-thinking one must have the spiritual rigor to come out of perception as opposed to thinking. And of course mindfulness. Not following the thought. But I want to go beyond that.

“Only like can know like. So to know God we must become like God. To do this, Hermes advises us to imagine ourselves at all places at all time, to see ourselves as still in the womb and yet already dead.”

The Hermetica: The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs

It seems that God (if there is one) does something spectacular, he takes time out of the equation. (he also takes the space out, but I’m not going to dwell on that). I wrote about memory and time earlier (see also here).

Q: Max, what happens when we die ?

A: Same thing that happened to you when you were born.

Me

If you want to be like the Big G (God, not gangster here…or maybe ?!) you must constantly recreate yourself. Come out of your own ashes.

Memory plays a funny game. It goes back and forth, back and forth on that line… Timeline that is… But it is only from what it says, is the beginning. So Buddhists have designed this visualization exercise a long time ago, where you see yourself on your deathbed, and work your way backward from there.

So timeline seems vulnerable to mind exploits, but what about time ? Is time that solid we can’t break it ?

Time is clearly a creation of the mind. How come it is that strong and is always referencing you back ?

It is time that crucifies you. For the ultimate freedom is freedom from time. Freedom from the mind. Freedom from thinking.

The theme of the Underdog, a prevailing theme of this blog, is relevant to all people. I call it a “meta” theme. You see, even a filthy-rich person, one at the pinnacle of their profession, will still identify with the underdog. They’ll say they’ve overcome this, they’ve overcome that, and that they are an underdog.

In Vengeance’s Episode 6 “Chosen Path” Spartacus asks Crixus about Gannicus:

“You knew Gannicus from before I did. What is your opinion of the man?”

Crixus: “He is a Champion, like us. A boon to your cause.

Spartacus: He has expressed doubt towards it.”

Crixus: “As have we all. Yet you always find ways to convince otherwise.”

Spartacus does a second round of assessing Gannicus when he and Gannicus go into the woods hunting; this time around alone with Gannicus he gauges the other’s questions.

In this episode’s ending, he doesn’t change Gannicus mind towards the rebellion. In the end, life will set Gannicus upon that path.

12 MM people have replayed this clip with the wrong title

What is he training for ?

What is he training for…? pic.twitter.com/CeVxx455X2

— Guy (@apiecebyguy) February 20, 2019

These people…they have never been in the arena. That’s why they ask the wrong question.