/fringe/ - Fringe

Lets talk about character building /fringe/.

There's an entire section/sub-book within Personal Power dedicated to it.

It's also part of Initiation Into Hermetics and is the subject and focus of The Universal Master Key.

I am very interested in the matter. I see few men of upstanding character in this age. So to be one of them, well that can be a source of great pride, I think it's great.

Yeah some people just think you're stupid if you don't cultivate virtues, that you'll be "easily exploited by the world", or that you "should get ahead". That's kind of irrelevant and a misunderstanding though. They don't understand the intense synchronistic power that comes with being a man of get character. They don't appreciate how strengthening the personality unlocks the doors to the higher powers.

I also have an innate desire to be a man of great character. Like all men, I'm presumably going to die one day, me discovering the philosopher's stone aside. What legacy will I leave? Will I have favourably impressed everyone I crossed paths with? Will I know in my innermost mind that I acted in accord with divine principles, making myself more godly?

I think everyone should improve their character. Even if they have done very shameful things or been very low, their reputation is terrible, and it seems like there's no point as you've already disgraced yourself; one ought to turn that around the very moment the idea comes to them to do so. Now could be such an opportunity as you are now thinking of it. Let your heart's desire be to meld yourself towards greatness.

My way forward is to contact a divine, perfected, "higher" self. A version of me that is wise and who possess every quality developed to a high degree which would bring me to a state of perfection. Perhaps the superconscious soul mentioned in Max Freedom Long - The Science of Miracles.

I don't want to fake it either. I request to God that I be shaped in this way, that events are arranged in my life to bring me to this perfection, and it must come from a place of love that my intentions and actions come forward; not a place of fear where I am afraid to be perceived a certain way or I unnecessarily limit my range of expression.

What is here called "character building" is nothing short of the Great Work. Man making himself into philosophical gold. From this purified state, only good thoughts and actions can spring forward, and a higher understanding and genuine power.

Post your thoughts, observations, and aspirations concerning this topic.

>Post your thoughts, observations, and aspirations concerning this topic.

Alexander the Great will be always better at this

Maybe this helps?

>To attain such an achievement it is necessary to KNOW what has to be done, to WILL what is required, to DARE what must be attempted and to KEEP SILENT with discernment.

I have noticed how I lack on the daring part recently, such a foolish mistake. You can have the purest and perfect intentions, but as long as you don't put it into practice, you will never create(literally) greatness.

I'd say it's up to every man to create a code to live by and building upon it as well as testing his resolve as he lives and gathers experience.

I'm not big on written moral codes with the exception of the Universal Master Key, that book should be required reading for anyone who's going through the first steps of the IIH.

I suppose the main rule of thumb in these sort of things is doing actions you will not regret or be ashamed of later on, which are both negative emotions that no wizard should feel anyway. We're not mundanes and visualizing the future isn't difficult for us so I doubt anyone on here would struggle with character ennoblement.

Some solid advice from the UR group's "Introduction to Magic".

"Lets talk about character building"

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You have some work to do OP. Probably a lot of work. You'll never become a real man if this post represents your attitude.

But anon, where is the boundary between your own self and reality?

Can you see it, feel it, point to it?

>>11585

This. How can you be so entitled when you even know who you are? Surrounding yourself with other wise people is the best way to confirm whatever you feel you need to in this existence, and to discover what you may have neglected to consider in the absense of a third eye. Too many /fringe/ posters I find need to get over this whole attitude of “I want, therefore I deserve” in order to get much further in your journey of knowing yourself, AKA the whole character building process. And to be humble can be a significant personal strength; nobody respects, trusts, or lets down their guard to a self-righteous faggot.

“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

-T. Roosevelt-

>>11591

…so entitled when you *don't even know who you are

>>11583

>If passions bother, do not react or become perturbed. Bring them deliberately to satisfaction

What is the difference between indulging passions and 'deliberately bringing them to satisfaction'?

But what is great? Does restrain really make a man great? What about money or power? Is a man who can resist temptation by living in a cave better than the man who falls to temptation but lives around other human beings and makes them happy?

Is knowledge great? Social skills? Quality or Quantity? Every person has a different idea of what it means to be great. Is it really important? Why not focus on big groups instead. Who says individuality is greater than being part of a big group and assuming group identity?

>>11594

>But what is great?

It's subjective, of course, but I think we can agree that someone who has the moral strength to carry out their will, whatever that may be, is greater than someone who can't. So that attribute is great.

>>11599

Not necessarily. The exercise of the will takes effort. Maybe the greatest accomplishment in a man's life is the elimination of all effort. Who knows? You can't demonstrate that lying on the floor and dying is any better than living a "successful" life and having lots of friends.

>>11600

>Maybe the greatest accomplishment in a man's life is the elimination of all effort.

That would not be an easy thing to accomplish. You would need the strength to defy societal norms, to resist your desires, to overcome your doubts. If you succeed in carrying out your will to do this, you could be considered great.

Greatness is fundamentally about being different, or special. Someone who is just like everyone else cannot be personally great, although the collective might be great.

>>11593

it means do it with full awareness and control, as opposed to being "sucked in" to our activities.

For example, let's say you're really hungry. Well obviously, you're going to have to eat eventually. So you go and make yourself something to eat. In a deliberate manner, you pick something out that you know will satisfy your hunger but isn't what you are craving in particular. You eat slowly, resisting the urge to overly indulge. You stop eating as soon as you have eaten enough to satisfy the appetite, and don't let yourself eat till you are overfull. All this you do as deliberately and consciously as possible, putting awareness into every movement.

The point is that we all have many things we do simply from our urges on a daily basis. The first step toward getting these urges under control is to modify the way we do them and to put deliberation into them.

>>11591

>I want therefore I deserve

I don't know many who think like this. I typically see people just trying to take what they want with no attempt at all to justify taking it. It's not a question of "why take what you want" but rather, "why not?"

>>11606

I wouldn't call the need to eat a 'passion', though. Maybe it was a bad choice of word on the author's part.

>>11690

Yes, you are right that we should differentiate between appetites and passions. The question is whether the principle which I applied to an appetite can also be applies to a passion. Monogamous marriage seems like a way of controlling a passion by directing it consciously. Or let's take anger. Say you are angry with someone. Instead of either exploding and venting uncontrollably or totally repressing the anger, one could opt to express one's feelings firmly and decisively.

The thing to keep in mind is the reason for doing all this which they give as the need to cease from being "reactive". It's a step in the direction of excercising authority over yourself. I suppose it only makes sense as a transitiinal stage. Directing a passion is superior to being controlled by it but is inferior to being it's master completely (being able to manifest it or erase it at will). What are your thoughts?

>>11694

I think you have it right. But I feel that passions are by definition impossible to 'bring to satisfaction'. They may be controlled or temporarily sated, as in your example of marriage controlling sexual passion, but not permanently satisfied. That's why this can only be what you call a transitional stage towards the end goal of being able to switch passion on and off.

>>11704

to use a Platonic metaphor, it's like learning to reign in a horse.

Dedication to uplift oneself and humanity as a whole is necessary for initiation; but it is possible that the motive to do so is ill-defined or even dishonest. In such a case, every effort to "build character" will eventually serve the opposite purpose - to build new samskaras or strengthen the old ones; to feed the conditioned if yet unconscious psychic structures at the pretense of "ennobling them".

Narcissism is a complex but very pervasive problem. I claim that not one of us posting here is completely absolved of it. To know oneself one must also know where sickness and weakness lurks, and how when left unchecked, said weakness can drive us from the shadows - to our very peril.

How to differentiate between an honest love for truth and a narcissistic admiration for "the great initiate I've become"? How to tell whether it is a natural, organic part of development to, say, fast for 40 days, and not only another petty and strained trick of the "blind spot of psyche", the narcissistic self-referential Choronzon, to swell in pride and relish in a masturbatory house of mirrors?

I keep coming back to this question every time I fast or do other such things to actively change my behavior. What for; what is the real agenda?

I recently discovered a book called "The Book of Sufi Chivalry" which is about the Islamic concept of futuwwa which is related to our Western notion of chivalry. It's essentially an extreme form of generosity and self renunciation. Not for everyone, but there is some very solid advice and insights in that book. Screencaps are from the translator's intro to the book.

>>11753

So this Fawa is to become one with all things that one can.

>>11796

Something like that. But since there are many groups that aim at that same goal the question here is how the fata in particular accomplishes that. An important component of that is the particular code of conduct that followed. Most likely they also had an esoteric side. They belonged to exclusive artisanal/warrior guilds that are really reminiscent of "Fourth Way" schools.

>>11805

that they followed*