Hierarchies

The world is an endless unconscious climb up and down hierarchies. We are always sizing ourselves and everybody up, comparing how we are doing and automatically filling in the pre-defined place. We are always in a hierarchy of some kind.

Maslow’s pyramid is a well-known blueprint of human needs and motivations. Steps we take to meet our needs, from the most basic at the bottom to the highest at the top.

The top of the pyramid exists beyond the confines of the pyramid itself. It’s the way out. To be on top means to be outside it. The originally white Egyptian pyramids had a golden capstone — a symbol of transcendence to a higher plane. The white base represented the earthly realm and mortal struggle, the golden top — the divine.

The mountains you are carrying you’re only supposed to climb.

― Najwa Zebian

Same with Maslow’s pyramid. Self-actualization lies outside the scope of needs outlined within it. A higher plane of existence — beyond the framework.

The main goal in life isn’t navigating the stairs while merely satisfying basic requirements. The goal is breaking free from the cycle. Don’t be imprisoned for life. Close your holes, mend what’s broken, get out, and never come back. Transcend it. Self-realization is the closest we come to the divine.

The pyramids are a symbol of eternity, just like the world itself. And they are towering around us all, we are always in one hierarchy or another. We always measure, compare and analyze ourselves and the others. Leave one pyramid you find yourself in another. They go way up endlessly nested and connected. You will never be on the top of them all. Close your holes and get out of the one you are in.

It’s turtles all the way down.

— Terry Pratchett

Look closer and you’ll see that below are bottomless depths of meaning. Imagine a well. You peer in — it stretches further than the eye can see. Each layer of understanding reveals more layers beneath. Knowledge within knowledge, never ending. No bottom. “It’s turtles all the way down!”

Don’t get trapped in the endless cycle of hierarchies. Don’t participate. Get out of the one you’re in.