Mirror of No-Consequence

True willpower, that is, the power of mind to discard suffering, endure pain, and still think clearly, comes only from discipline.

This is an aspect of Life for men only.

Women are protected from this aspect of Life by virtue of their body’s ability to withstand the pain associated with childbirth.

Men are not so created by universe. It is necessary that men feel pain, physical and psychic pain, in different ways than women. Thus, together, we can endure all the pain that Life will provide to us both.

A male, encountering pain, repeated pain dealt by Life, reacts by creating suffering for self (why else is pain delivered than personal fault?). For reasons beyond our ken, Universe provides, in the midst, at the very center of all our suffering, a small hole for the key to conquering it.

When we look into this hole, if we are diligent, and work at it, Universe will reward us with a vision, of ourselves, as though a reflection in a mirror that does not exist. It's a small hole...in the center of your mind.

This “mirror of no-consequence’ is the key to conquering Self, such that the subject of the suffering disappears, leaving only the objects, now unattached, and without meaning.

All males are born to this Life of Pain. Some few will discover the release in the center of suffering that comes with discipline of looking into that mirror. In our present age, rootless, without boundaries, without limitations, the deep meaning of passage rituals have been lost, but there is one passage that is its own marker of a change of personal state. In this discovery of self discipline, the male, finding that he, too, can possess this state, becomes a man.

Such a discovery, is its own, continuously, daily, reinforcing, ritual of passage.

A man can say, I used to have suffering. Then I sought the center of my suffering, and it became merely pain. Then one day, the pain revealed to me, myself.

Pain is without consequence to the disciplined mind.

Suffering needs un-examined pain in order to arise.

A man able to thus discipline his mind, will never be defeated.

Such men sustain their disciplined minds all their days,

exiting this Realm of Changes, on their own terms.

That’s the goal, boys. Just in case no one told you.

真勝吾勝

Masa katsu agatsu

True victory is victory over oneself.

from Clif High's Substack Newsletter, June 29, 2023