The Warehousing of Consciousness
The Warehouse
A retail’s level of viability, efficiency, and management can be seen immediately from a tour of its warehouse. If there is order behind the scenes there will be order throughout.
The warehouse cannot be empty, it’s there for a reason but there must be order; intention. The quality of that space is found in the intent behind its inventory. Do these items exist to be shuffled around periodically or is the store profiting for having invested in this inventory?
The manager endeavors to maintain order. Perhaps the inventory levels are subject to the influence of season or pricing; still order is maintained. There is intent behind every pallet and the question at every moment is, “What’s to be done?” The products of each new shipment are carefully accounted for and organized according to an over-arching intention: the customers' needs.
Sometimes there are ordering errors, repairs or maintenance, outright catastrophes, but the question remains: “What’s to be done?”
We integrate and continue.
The Individual
Look at the individual’s suffering – my dwindling profit margin. There's a perpetual failing in relationship – the loss of my customers.
The cause is a lack of intent. I am ignorant of the contents of my consciousness – of my warehouse.
I receive shipments and simply throw the new on top of the old without stewardship; I do not manage myself. All of my attention is on the sales floor – the Facebook account, a wardrobe; all that is visible to my customers.
I am reactionary, frantically running into the warehouse and grabbing whatever product will fill space on the sales floor. I function with the hope – the fear – that my inventory will always be sufficient and my customers will always be pleased… But secretly, I don’t actually know what’s going on.
There is a division between the external – the sales floor - and the internal – the warehouse. But they are one: the man is a single consciousness and the store is a single structure. I will suffer if I don’t look within – the store will close if it’s front and back are not maintained with equal care.
The Myth of “Helping Others”
I am very concerned about everyone else’s sales floor. Comparing mine to theirs is my favorite thing.
I am convinced that I can help them with the presentation of their inventory - even though I can only see what they have chosen to display.
While I'm dusting everyone else’s fixtures, the disorder in my warehouse is compounding. I have no idea what’s going on back there and I’m terrified of it. This is why I hate being alone, why I take drugs, why I can’t sit in silence.
The Inventory
Is it possible to look at the contents of consciousness without judgment?
“I suffer. What’s to be done?”
I must manage my warehouse. I must not be afraid to look at it! Of all these items, these stacks of concepts that I’ve received over the years, which of them are here with intent?
I receive shipments of concepts from my politicians, my gurus, and my television – did I order them or were they snuck in when I wasn't paying attention?
Do my customers want these items?
Do these concepts match reality; do they contribute to my oneness or to my division? Do they contribute to a mess that I am reluctant and afraid to clean up?
"What’s to be done?"
Perpetual inventory is required. This cannot be a weekly event, when I go to church, or every few years when I vote for a new politician to hate – I must always be aware of what’s in my warehouse.
I don’t spend all of my time back there. If I want my store to be successful I still have to go meet the day and build relationships with customers, but I do so with a degree of preparedness and self-sufficiency because I am functioning with intent. I am constantly aware through the inquiry of,
“What’s to be done?”
It doesn’t matter if I’m on the sales floor or in the warehouse. I can now float effortlessly between the two without fear, without being conscious of any division whatsoever – because there is no division in actuality. When there is division I suffer.
The products of each new shipment are carefully accounted for and organized according to an over-arching intention: relationship.
Thanks for reading