At this juncture I have reached the beginnings of a fixed approach to the quest for immortality: on the one hand there is Law, which is the fateful immortal. On the other hand there are four senses of contract. These contracts embody considerable cleverness, personality, or sexuality.
Previously, the list of potential contracts was reduced to include the following paradoxical approximations, in addition to sheerly lawful and sheerly beautiful conditions:
1. ‘a beautiful contract without a beautiful function’,
2. ‘a beautiful contract without the appearance of beauty’,
3. ‘an ugly contract that serves a beautiful function’, and
4. ‘an ugly person who seems paradoxically beautiful’.
If the struggle for immortality is an encounter with imperfection, it seems likely that it is also an encounter with the paradoxes of immortality. In that case, the path for immortal beauty or lawful intelligence, as previously written, may develop from these further things.
Elaborating the nature of the context with the structural assumption that the absence of a contract is a ‘more original’ and yet ‘less developed’ stage, we have the following:
A. Paradox (Ugliness)
B. Ugly Contract (Paradoxical Contract)
C. Secret Aesthetic Paradox
D. Official Aesthetic Paradox
Presumably stages beyond (D) would involve law or genuine beauty.
So let us permute them.
[AA, AB, AC, AD, BA, BB, BC, BD, CA, CB, CC, CD, DA, DB, DC, DD]
A. 1. Paradox of ugliness, 2. Paradox of an ugly contract, 3. Secret Beauty Answer, 4. Official Beauty Answer
B. 1. Artistic contract, 2. Ironic freedoms, 3. The secret artist, 4. Serious unknowns
C. 1. Secret answer, 2. Secret aesthetic, 3. Open and free answer, 4. Serious freedoms answer
D. 1. Honorary secrets, 2. Official aesthetic answer, 3. Aesthetic reality, 4. Initiation
Notice these paths are not necessarily revealed to everyone. This may appear as an understatement before the middle stages, and even in the later stages what one assumes to be the truth may fail to exaggerate appropriate aspects of the puzzle.
Of course, it seems possible to fail the system, and remain insignificant. Certainly it seems that the path, if I describe it accurately, is in one place a metaphor, in another place a bureaucracy, in a third place a strategy, and in a fourth place a form of citizenship. It is difficult to tell how these things relate, without forcing the ‘player’ further down the path. It is a method of compulsion, as much as a genuine form of psychology. But the two things are not the same.
Consider how a small mis-step in an early decision can lead all the way down the quadrangle. What if ugliness is a paradox after all? What if freedom or irony were misjudged or misguided? What if freedom wasn’t free? What if one wasn’t really initiated? There are ways to fool the mind that can still be constructive, assuming that construction is possible.
One should, in the first place, not assume that construction is impossible. Secondly, one should try to accomplish the most significant things, against all intuition, flying in the face of fate and fortune! On one hand, you may wish to kiss someone in the rain. It will make you more mature, even if the person didn’t want to be kissed. On the other hand you may want to live your most significant years in retirement. Then, if possible, begin now! Changing your perspective depends on validating what you are actually thinking about. If you make a mistake, you have to justify that this is who you are, you are stuck with your own condition, you have made a certain kind of progress.
Returning to the list, we can see that it is a series of missed opportunities.
Initiation comes first psychologically. Aesthetic reality comes second. Isn’t that refreshing? Official aesthetic answers come third. Good: real principles. Honorary secrets come fourth. Something to concern yourself with, to distract you from popularity or misfortune. Serious freedoms come fifth. A sense of reward, arbitrarily doled out for general benefit. The open and free answers comes sixth. Extending freedoms to include ordinary functions. Secret aesthetic comes seventh. The inner stillness of time. Secret answers come eighth, the transparency of the world. Serious unknowns are ninth, a differential engine. The secret artist is tenth, the ability for real accomplishment. Ironic freedoms is eleventh, a sense of self-justice, or genuine motivation. Artistic contract is twelfth, turning process into law. Beautiful, official answers are thirteenth, glorifying the works of the mind and body. Secret beauty is fourteenth, adding subtlety. The paradox of an ugly contract is fifteenth, saving the soul. The paradox of ugliness is sixteenth, creating self-love.
However, after these sixteen minor stages are over, it is important to keep the quest for immortality. These are not merely distractions, thus they are not distracting. The higher form of life may reach for successes that are entirely unimagined, yet life’s contract is essentially ugliness, is essentially un-affording, and only reaches its pinnacle with great reason and resolve.
I will use the sixteen categories as a basis for further studies of immortality in later articles.
With that, this edition of the secret principles of immortality ends.