# Why there is no overnight success

- Link: https://www.andreidraganescu.info/2016/10/13/why-there-is-no-overnight-success/
- Published: 2016-10-13T21:46:47+03:00
- Author: Andrei Draganescu

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metamorphosis, M. C. Escher

There is a simple process of becoming that is common to all people. This process
is a spiral that gravitates around a central point, that thing we call transcendence.

Transcendence is the end goal of our wondering.

It is so no matter what we do, and it is not a spiritual thing, but a very practical
state, if we’re wondering. If you’re not wondering, it means mastery is of no concern
to you. Which is all right, don’t worry.

Yet, if for some unexplained reason you are one who is constantly striving for whatever,
it might be that you have got _the yearn for mastery._

Mastery is a state that eliminates the perception, and sometimes the existence, 
of effort from existence. How awesome is that? Told you, some find it awesome, some
don’t.

Striving, and the losses it incurs, is a painful activity. It mainly causes _missing
out,_ on so many things that one eventually gives up on counting and indexing. Striving
is the older brother (or older sister) of hustling, so striving is grand and long
term.

The process of striving has one effect: becoming.

Becoming is basically a refining process where we shed metaphor and become blunt
in describing ourselves. Metaphor is wiggle room and it invites interpretation. 
Interpretation is safe, individuality is dangerous. Becoming is the process that
produces individualization.

Individualization is a general coming out of the closet about everything and anything
but nothing in particular. Particular coming outings may be part of one’s striving,
or not.

During becoming one will chant in their inner dialogue a repetitive statement that
represents their current state of the process. Because they’re chants and repetitive,
they’re mantras. The mantras are:

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bond of union, M. C. Escher

#### The Ignorant mantra:

### **I don’t know and I can’t.**

Everyone starts here. Everyone, no matter what you try. **I don’t know and I can’t.**
With this mantra in your heart nothing happens. It is as if the universe is not 
on your side, it is the complete lack of luck. Society has your collar put in place
and wrapped tight, and you’re on display for sale, yes, a metaphorical slave fair
happens every day, for whomever pays more, because whoever pays more earns their
right to tell you what to do. With this mantra in your heart you are _guided by 
a primitive unconscious and in a complete darkness of the conscious_.

![](https://draganescu.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/6b749-1odp1symct83_olpzodyj5g.
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drawing hands, M. C. Escher

#### The Seeker mantra:

### **I know but I can’t.**

With a tad of attention, and calling, some get the miracle of cognition: a question.
Not any question, the question you shouldn’t have asked because it ignites the seek
for The answer. Seeking and seeking, suddenly, in a book, in a scribbled napkin 
or in some crazy talk someone speaks, we see, hear or somehow find The answer. The
moment it is internalized, The answer will have us tuned to the second mantra: **
I know but I can’t. **With this mantra in their heart all the seekers of the world
are living their troubled lives, all the avid readers, the researchers, the fierce
believers and the recipe followers of the world. The people who offer the riches
to the self help traders. Some actually read the self help, some actually listen
and among these some persist in thinking. Yes, it takes persistence, because all
information, be it science, be it snake oil, fights us. **Information builds resistance
in our minds. **While singing the seeker mantra one is _guided by a primitive unconscious
in a light of attentive conscious_.

The ones who still find energy to think, those who keep the fire of the wondering
alive, will carve from their _experience_ new notes for a new mantra, a higher pitched
one.

![](https://draganescu.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/05992-1ucugtueyurpvq0x5roiw_w.
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hand with reflecting sphere

#### The Disciple mantra:

### **I know and I can.**

After a lot of trial and error, some trials who take tolls hard to talk about, and
some errors who may end the journey altogether, some folk finally make all the notes
for the third mantra. They are initiated, they have a well defined target and it
often is that they actually hit the target, even more than once. These people have
one great trait: they find real, true, authentic masters. You can spot the initiated
from the blind by the authenticity of their master. Their masters are those who 
live outside our fractal reality. Those who get to know them are now disciples: 
they know and they can. They help their family and/or friends (often more than they
should), they find meaning in their lives, or what we call vision, hidden in places
deeply ignored not long ago. They also appear to actually fix their karma, and are
noticeably more prone to meet opportunity, because of all the hard work. The disciples
practice what they know day and night. Yes, AND night. With this mantra as your 
tune, you are _guided by an elevated subconscious in a light of a trained conscious_.

![](https://draganescu.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/7199a-1pr6t7tyqnaxzl3_jcjgriw.
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relativity, M. C. Escher

#### The Master mantra:

### **I can but I don’t know.**

After many years, sometimes decades, sometimes months (because whatever the current
society teaches, we _are not born_ equal, we _want to make _everyone equal at birth,
but that is thousands of social and genetic engineering experiments away), after
a varying while, the disciple takes off towards mastery. They suddenly **can but
behave as if they don’t know**. Everything is natural and effortless, a flow that
lacks any breaks or steering. The metaphorical “light”, or what we call mission,
becomes the guide and while everything around makes perfect sense, masters wait 
eagerly for the day of their final becoming. Behold a master, _guided by an evolved
unconscious in the light of a reflex conscious_.

And _that _is where the problem is, _a reflex conscious_!

---

The master sits around, waiting eagerly for the transcendence, but it doesn’t happen,
the transcendence doesn’t show up. Practicing constantly, offering initiation as
widely as possible, telling everyone how the world looks while they sing their mantra,
facing constant disbelief, they still remain made out of flesh and bone. They may
be masters, but as humans they still submit to the supremacy of time and to the 
ruthlessness of thirst (hunger succumbs in certain masters), a submission which 
makes the weight of mastery heavier by the day, a heaviness even harder to carry
while constantly looking for the hidden and tricky supreme revelation.

At some random point the burden of mastery grows so great that the master simply**
can’t** do it anymore. But, as you remember I am sure, a master is in the light 
of a reflex conscious, which in awareness is the equivalent of **not knowing**. 
Just like that, in a stormy kind of weird personal crisis, our master starts to 
mumble, initially to themselves, then to the world itself, the tune of the first
mantra, they’re back to ignorance, singing: **I don’t know and I can’t**. However,
mind you, _the ignorant who was once a master is a different animal: the blazé ignorant._

Becoming is a spiral gravitating a center point of transcendence. Traveling the 
mantras will bring one through the ignorant, seeker, disciple and master cycles 
at least one time, but very probably a lot of times.

Each spire is quicker, faster, shorter, more precise than the last time. That is
why time is of essence. If you’re a wonderer start early. Each cycle comes with 
more transcendental promises, embedded in each new information, each new apprenticeship
and eventually each new mastery.

This is not exclusively about religious or spiritual practice. The spiral is present
no matter what you do: if you’re a programmer or a skater, a break dancer or a poet,
a physicist or a mathematician, a writer or a composer, the mantras of becoming 
are the elevator music playing throughout your life so you don’t get claustrophobic
at the shortness of existing or panicky at the free fall below your aging.

No one signed any contract at birth, so there is no one to hold accountable that
time all by itself carries you back to ignorance, even from the top of individualized
spirituality. You will start over as many times as it takes, because there is a 
slightly good news built in: _there are no closed loops in this entire universe,
everything is a spiral_.

**For some people, transcendence is not even the destination**. The spiral road 
of becoming, the mantras we hum along, vary wildly from person to person. A spiral
with dense spires is the one where you get all the knowledge, but it is such a tight
wound spring that blasts destruction everywhere, should it ever be released. I have
no idea how in the olden days a few parables and drop of revelation from authentic
repositories pushed the human on one smooth glide from ignorant to transcendent 
in one harmonious and clear spire. No wonder we call them myths.

![](https://draganescu.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/bf863-1yksbule75eq1i68mpyoaca.
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order and chaos, M. C. Escher