See Things for What They Are - Developing Profound Realism

The decades between 160 and 180 A.D. have been for Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor, the most stressful period of his life. The death of Faustina, his wife, his colleague Verus and many others close to him, as well as the interminable battles near the frontier and the revolts of Cassius had put his nature to tremendous challenge.

It was in those late years of his life that Marcus wrote his meditations, in which he sought to answer questions of fundamental importance to human beings, even though he did not write with the intention to have them published.

One of the major themes of his mediations is the transient nature of life. Marcus himself is one of the greatest historic figures with deep roots into reality, the kind of person who does not submit...

I'm going to start with a few lines from Marcus' meditations, then delve into the writings of Robert Greene, an original contemporary author. My purpose is to instill realism; to bring ourselves back into our own senses because I feel many of us have little to do with reality; we are stuck in self-deception...

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Developing Intense Realism

This is what Marcus Aurelius means with seeing things for what they are:

"Like seeing roasted meat and other dishes in front of you and suddenly realizing: This is a dead fish. A dead bird. A dead pig. Or that this noble vintage is grape juice, and the purple robes are sheep wool dyed with shellfish blood. Or making love—something rubbing against your penis, a brief seizure and a little cloudy liquid.

Perceptions like that—latching onto things and piercing through them, so we see what they really are. That’s what we need to do all the time—all through our lives when things lay claim to our trust— to lay them bare and see how pointless they are, to strip away the legend that encrusts them."

This implies not attributing unnecessary meaning to what happens to us everyday; but we don't do that. We romanticize over everything we do. We delude ourselves thinking that our view of the world is the same with other peoples' (correspondence bias - will be discussed in a later post)...

Getting back to modern times, here's what one hustler told Curtis Jackson (50 Cent) when they were discussing the struggles of the street business in the South Side of Queens, NY in the 1990s.

"Don’t complain about the difficult circumstances, he said. In fact, the hard life of these streets is a blessing if you know what you’re doing. Because it is such a dangerous world, a hustler has to focus intensely on what’s going on around him. He has to get a feel for the streets—who’s trouble, where there might be some new opportunity. He has to see through all the bullshit people throw at him—their games, their lousy ideas. He has to look at himself, see his own limitations and stupidity. All of this sharpens the eye to a razor’s edge, making him a keen observer of everything. That’s his power."

There had been good days and there had been bad days for the young hustler. When he was about 16 years old, in a moment of inattention, Curtis found himself trapped in a sting operation; he had to spend 9 months in a shock rehab center. Robert Greene tells us that:

"In this unfamiliar space and with time to reflect, suddenly the words of Truth came back to him. This was not the time to get depressed or to dream, but to fix that hustler’s eye on himself and the world he lived in. See it as it is, no matter how ugly."

The unshakable ambition and the thirst for real power allowed Curtis Jackson to go through so many struggles: being incarcerated, deceived in business, being shot 9 times. You see, you and I haven't been through that. Our reality is much more comfortable, less dangerous, and less violent. It is harder for us to see how things really are.

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As a realist:

• you have to stop being afraid to look at the harsh reality
• you have to deeply analyze the details of your surroundings and the intentions of others
• you have to go below the surface into the darker reality

In my previous psychology related posts I wrote a lot about deliberate practice - or how you build any skill.

I cannot become a better programmer if I don't spend time coding every day.
I cannot become a better fighter if I skip training.
I cannot build muscle without consistent resistance training (ehhhm, unless I take vitamin S...).

Similarly, I cannot develop intense realism without deliberate practice.

Robert Greene says:

"You were born with the greatest weapon in all of nature—the rational, conscious mind. It has the power to expand your vision far and wide, giving you the unique capacity to distinguish patterns in events, learn from the past, glimpse into the future, see through appearances."
*pattern recognition is a double-edged sword for us.

To make the mind less rigid and to develop an extended, more penetrating and sharper view of reality, Robert proposes:

• to rediscover curiosity through openness. He provides an example from Socrates' life
• to get to know the complete terrain through expansion. (Napoleonic tactics)
• to see further ahead by getting a good grasp of the proportion of things and events
• to look at people's deeds instead of words (sharpness)
• to reassess yourself through detachment - deidentifying from yourself

I'm not going to reveal precious details behind these tactics. It would be unfair to Robert. I'd recommend getting his book, reading it 10 times and practicing for yourself, consistently and deliberately. Then, you may a sense of what this is all about.

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Ending Thoughts

Robert is not a prophet of doom; not at all. Instead, I see him talking about reality in an uncluttered, unprejudiced, and unfiltered way (without the hype you get from self-development cheap talk):

"Realists are the real inventors and innovators. They are men and women of imagination, but their imagination is in close contact with the environment, with reality—they are empirical scientists, writers with a sharp understanding of human nature, or leaders who guide us thoughtfully through crises. They are strong enough to see the world as it is, including their own personal inadequacies."

To end in a down-to-earth manner, I'll leave you with an advice from the distant past, from Marcus Aurelius:

"You can discard most of the junk that clutters your mind—things that exist only there—and clear out space for yourself:
. . . by comprehending the scale of the world
. . . by contemplating infinite time
. . . by thinking of the speed with which things change—each part of every thing; the narrow space between our birth and death; the infinite time before; the equally unbounded time that follows."

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To stay in touch with me, follow @cristi

Credits for Images: Roman Legionnaire by twilighthowl12 via DevianArt and Manfred Werner - Tsui - CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

#psychology #practical

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Cristi Vlad, Self-Experimenter and Author