The moment you are in touch with your full potential is the moment you relinquish the idea that there is a pyramid which there is for everyone to climb. When we drop the desperate climb up the pyramid that only gets increasingly and stiflingly narrow towards the top, we all are free to be higher than the pyramid could ever allow us to be, no longer under its pressure, as the pyramid is ultimately a product of collective illusion of society.
This does not mean we each do not have an individual mountain to climb, but there is no one else on your mountain to look up or down at. Each of us are on our own mountains, our own individual personal journeys. Jealousy and condescension are detriments to you, and they will cause you to lose your focus looking up and down the illusory pyramid of society, when there is no one really above or below you. Looking up and down will only serve to distract you as you climb your own mountain, causing you to lose your place and fall.
I can only keep my eyes on the rocks in front of me as I climb, and the more present I am, the more I am on my way. I will make all the progress I need this way. Though I may not find myself as productive as one person, as smart or as creative as another—when I can trust my own process by focusing on it rather than another’s, I will discover my own approach to the world. This approach, like everyone else’s, will be of a unique and distinct combination of diverse qualities hard to quantify, rather than of a narrow scale of qualities society measures everyone by. Through the practice of climbing my own mountain, I will patiently discover the contours of my mountain that make it what it is, and make it stand out in its own way. Only I am best equipped to navigate it, and thus realize my own full potential.
Rather than belonging to a top-down pyramid of winners and losers that lacks in imagination and breadth of understanding, we are all part of a vibrant, complex, interconnected ecosystem that is collectively powerful. This power comes from our diversity, as each of us has the potential to play a symbiotic role in the ecosystem by offering the best of our unique selves.
Parasitism in the ecosystem arises only from the feeling of desperation, a feeling that the top-down pyramid breeds. Parasitism is bred from the desperate climb to the top of the pyramid, and depends on a hunger to feel superior, and on the fear of being inferior. We must collectively understand and have empathy for where this feeling of desperation comes from, and invite everyone to be part of this ecosystem. No one can throw the first stone, as in some area in our lives, or some point in our lives, we have all felt desperation before and know how it is like.
When we each could truly witness how beautiful and enriching a world that we can all be a part of by participating in a vibrant, interconnected ecosystem together, all attraction to be part of a top-down pyramid will fade away. The pyramid only seems an abysmal, one-dimensional cardboard imitation of life by comparison. An abyss of the pyramidic black-and-white, dog-eat-dog, survival way of thinking will give rise to a world of thriving, possibilities, and interdependence between fully realized selves.
This greater world already exists, and once you know of it, even if you are in the environment where the culture of pyramidic thinking is strong, your heart already feels like it is in a better place. Once your focus is fully on your own progress, and not on others’, and believe that you are part of an interconnected web of people rather than of an adversarial dog-eat-dog life, you will feel freer and your mindset will be broader. No matter how prevalent society’s culture of pyramidic thinking, it cannot take a hold of your mind.
You will no longer be in flight-fight survival mode, which reduces functional IQ, but in a mode of higher thinking that expands possibilities and sees the bigger picture. Every bit of acting towards the mindset of an ecosystem will attract others towards it. It will take time, patience, and we will go through challenges, but together as we slowly cultivate this new mindset and live it by example rather than coerce others into it, more will be naturally inspired to join us along the way.
