The Noise of One (by some wandering spirit who wishes to remain anonymous)

The wandering ascetic, hermit, vagabond, is one who might realize that the machine is set up to be entirely for him and his progress. The difficulty is that this seems to be a fairly selfish realization of the self. When one is devoted entirely to others, this can be something of a harsh awakening. And so the adept will attempt to cut himself (or herself) off from others in surprising ways, either consciously or not, for the purpose of reducing the influence of others from that development. Ironically, those actors whom the adept is trying to avoid will still crop up regardless.
"Oh wandering ascetic, we wish to benefit from your wisdom!"
"Please share with us an insight that will help us!"
Gaaaaah, bugger off you lot...
The funny thing is that they are asking him for help and in so doing are trying to help him. Yet he might spend his whole life fleeing from those that he would benefit from most.

The solution (one solution) would be to enjoy whatever contribution received in whatever form it is provided. Another solution would be to actively seek out other ways of receiving this influence, for the field is not simply human-based, but the energy of all is intelligent energy, so we can develop an understanding from anything which might present itself to us. There are monks who have attempted to reduce external influences completely through physical means, for example, permanently disabling a portion of their physical presence (for example an oath of silence). Unfortunately this only serves to reduce the opportunities for input from this intelligent energy (from one source) which is the all of creation. So progress might be limited. And yet the other senses might become "more aware" but why harm oneself in the interests of education, since the end result is the same regardless? Well this gets back to the variations of life and how one's path might determine "how" these things be learned.

This is not to say that it is a judgement against those who seek to limit the input they receive. The human mind has a hard time dealing with all that noise, and there is benefit in "focusing" one's attention (one's mind) to a single focus, for example, through meditation. However meditation, and all other focusings, are only a focus for the benefit of the mind. This is why meditation is only one way. Another way is the heart which is part of "all that noise". The heart doesn't need to understand any of that because it already IS part of it. It is an "unfocusing" to embrace the all that the heart is a part of.

Today we see many various entertaining and terrifying things in the news media that might alarm one or cause one to turn it all off. Shut it out, shut it down. But you saw in the Man Who Fell (to Earth) that he embraced these and set up multiple stations all playing at once because he was a part of that noise, it made him feel comfortable because it reminded him that he was part of the all in a much larger way than his limited experience in human form could provide him. But the human mind tends to try to kick in and take over and once again limit one's experience so it can "deal" with the noise. In the same way, remember that the Grinch only saw the noise so long as his mind was telling him it was noise. Once his heart took over it was noise no longer.

Increasingly "one" becomes the pronoun used because this is the correct form of both the "self" and the "all". It means both. This can be confusing for those focused on self alone, and see the "one" as "me" where it equally means "all". I expect many Shakespeare plays could be reinterpreted with "one" for an entirely different (yet perhaps more confusing!) interpretation.

Embracing the fact that it is all for "us" is in fact a first step. It is not however for YOU. One is for one. All is for all. It is self-sufficient and self-satisfying in an endless loop of variations.  You are a part of that machine, a beautiful and unique part, but you are not separate from the machine, you are one expression of the all in micro-cosmic form. You might argue that this is the definition of the self, so it's kind of a wash. Well, it is in a way like looking at a butterfly's wing through an electron microscope. Does that look anything like a butterfly? No, it's an entirely different thing, and you wouldn't know it was a butterfly unless you had been told or had previously experienced the same thing.

I hope you have enjoyed my "noise" for today. Please go out and make some "noise". And enjoy yourself.

Namaste.