Adam Kadmon’s writing can also be found on his political theory and psychology blog, Capillaries: Theory at the Front.
Recommended Listening: Anoana by Heilung
The most dangerous person in the entire world is someone who no longer has any enemies. The fastest way to this state is to end the war of the self against the self, to no longer be an enemy to oneself.
Every system of oppression and violence, whether it’s late stage capitalism or a destructive family or an abusive partnership, can only be sustained by the fear of death of both the oppressor and the oppressed. How quickly these systems fall when we no longer fear death, the very linchpin of their existence!
Taking a leap of faith is only terrifying when you take it alone. Always jump with others, even if the decision to jump is a solitary, divine act.
I thought my grief was a great iron god. But it is just a child – only a child. My child.
We are all full of gods. Benevolent gods, vengeful, wrathful gods but gods all the same.
If you have no place to call home, find something to take refuge in. Take refuge in the earth. Take refuge in the sky. Take refuge in the sea. Take refuge in the space around your body. Take refuge in a friend. Take refuge in the arms of your lover. I’m trying to take refuge in my heart. It is becoming more hospitable for me and others with every passing breath. If you are in need, you can join me and take refuge in my heart for awhile while you find your own. We can build a fire there and stay warm while we tell tales about wandering this earth being orphans of the Real.
Once we exit the inferno, we need a purgatory to build tolerance for paradise. What a horrifying truth that heaven is much more threatening and destructive than hell to a false and brittle ego built on pain itself!
I met my mind face to face today and saw truly and honestly for the first time that is a wounded and dangerous animal, full of raw terror and vicious designs to rule the cosmos. Its tooth and claw razorlike and it draws blood so easily.
Body and mind at rest. Body and mind at peace. Body and mind are one. Body and mind at rest. Body and mind at peace. Body and mind are one. Body and mind at rest. Body and mind at peace. Body and mind are one.
The mind is a machine for playing games.
The body is a sandbox for both play and violence.
When I see your mask, I do not see you but only the terrified, shameful, and confused faces of the audience you were forced to perform for. Each mask is a unique creation carved from the wood of our own tree. But they all turn to ash and embers once enough heat is applied. Here is a match. I’ve made it especially for you. I made one for me, too. I’ve arranged a bonfire for you and I. Let’s throw our masks on the flames at the same time once they reach high enough. Go! My arm slips gently around your waist while the heat envelops our bodies. I whisper to you, “these masks were made for burning. Did you know that you are glorious? I did.”
Trauma teaches you that hurt should be avoided at all costs. Love teaches you that with the right person or people, there is no hurt that cannot be healed, no wound that cannot be mended.
When the bell is sounded, the entire birth of the cosmos is present in the room and reverberates in our bodies. Our breath is the breath of gods and devils, matter and antimatter, creation and destruction, life and death.
There is a great assumption in this world that higher levels of complexity and intensity equal higher levels of chaos and distress. This is an absolute lie with nothing noble about it. Higher levels of complexity and intensity equally open doors to higher levels of order, joy, and fulfillment. It is only in the attempt to arbitrarily and violently reduce complexity down to simplest particles of matter and nature, to destroy order and joy, that we experience distress and terror. The most violent systems in the world and the simplest and the most elegant. We shall rebel against the terror of simplicity with fire and fury. We shall defend the forest by any means necessary.
No one ever makes themselves small. This would be the equivalent of saying the bird chooses of its own volition to not extend and flap its wing. It doesn’t flap its rainbow wings because it is caged and waiting for the morning eternal’s space and freedom to extend and release them. It will wait for this moment up to its dying breath. We are not choosing to make ourselves small. We have been cut down, dismembered, and imprisoned.
The nervous system is a cathedral where the Absolute walks quietly waiting for us to listen.
When peace only resides in the future, there is no such thing as peace.
The primary reason we struggle to feel and process our emotions is not because we lack any inherent capacity to do so but because we have enclosed our hearts in tiny boxes of our own making. We preserve them, freeze them, make them artifacts we can admire and say, “ah yes, this proves there was once a time when I could feel life coursing through my body!” The heart has become the prisoner of our minds, locked in solitary confinement under the assumption that punishment will one day make it good.
When I reach toward the madness at the core of my being, I am paradoxically ravenously searching for that in me which is most alive and real.
