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 that outlines of human needs and motivations. It’s a visual representation of the steps we take to meet our various needs, starting from the most basic ones at the bottom, and progressing upwards.

The top of the pyramid, shown within the triangle, exists beyond the confines of the pyramid itself. It’s the way out. To be on the top actually means to be outside of it. The originally white Egyptian pyramids had a golden capstone. Which symbolize the transcendence to a higher plane. The white base represented the earthly realm and the struggles of mortal life, while the golden top signifies the the divine.

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

― Najwa Zebian

And it is the same with the Maslow’s pyramid. The ultimate state of self-actualization lies outside the scope of the needs and motivations outlined within the pyramid. It’s a higher plane of existence, transcending the framework altogether.

The main goal in life isn’t just to navigate the stairs moping around merely satisfying basic requirements. The goal is to breaking free from the cycle. Do not be imprisoned for life. Close your holes, mend what’s broken, get out of it, and never come back. Transcend it – ascend to a higher place of existence. 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 as, we always in of 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 will see that down below are the bottomless depths of meaning. Imagine a deep well. As you peer into it, you realize it stretching further than the eye can see. Each layer you uncover, each bit of understanding, only reveals more layers beneath it. Each layer of knowledge is within another, never ending. There is no bottom. “It’s turtles all the way down!”

Don’t let yourself be trapped in the endless cycle of hierarchies. Don’t participate and get out of the one you are in.