Heaven, Hell, and Mechanics

These frames are all justified:

Hell: The world is burning around us right now, with loved ones and strangers suffering.
Heaven: It is amazing, and enough, just to be conscious and here for this very moment.
Mechanics: There is a law to things, to how this unfolds, to what works and what doesn’t.

Being simultaneously connected to these frames is scarce, and most people only have two of the three:

The Martyrs know Hell and Mechanics. They feel the world burning, they are personally going to Do Something About It, and then they burn out.
The Spiritual Folk know Heaven and Hell. They feel the world burning, they also feel how good it is to Just Be, and their plan to make the world better is more Ecstatic Dance.
The Founders know Heaven and Mechanics. They are excited about how much better the world could be, they are going to Build The Thing, and their clear next step is to take a bunch of stimulants because the intrinsic motivation isn’t quite enough for the vision.

Something quite special can happen with people who are connected to all three frames. Your actions become trustworthy and meaningful at the same time, part of an upward ascent towards a better life and a better world. You can find a union between the frames without getting caught in the obstacles above.

The strength of Hell is that naturally our hearts are open to the suffering world, we feel it, and this feeling can drive us into compassionate, meaningful work.
When we don’t feel Hell, it’s often because we’re crushed under the weight of our knowledge of how bad things really are, and so we chop off the feeling part of ourselves to cope, closing our heart and numbing. A central problem of today is nihilism–not the philosophical, defensive kind–but the kind that has given up on a solution, collapsed into scrolling social media. This kind of nihilism is not a philosophical position, it is a consequence of an overloaded heart that cannot bear the weight of the world.
An integrated engagement with Hell reverses this, taking grief as a catalyst for action.
The strength of Heaven is that naturally our hearts are open to the beauty of the world, we feel it, and like children play and sing, so can we.
When we don’t feel Heaven, it’s often because we’re running at pace, unable to slow down enough to feel simple joys. We get less sensitive when sprinting, demand more stimulation to cut against the buzzing, nervous fog, and flinch further away from Hell, allowing meaninglessness to creep in.
An integrated Heaven provides us with a refuge, baseline joy, which lights the flame of inspiration. The joy is trustworthy and communicated below words.
The strength of Mechanics is that it is empirically true – the world really is law, there is a pattern to how it works, and it is possible to do better–much better–than just spreading “good vibes.”
Without mechanics, or the ability to learn, there is an impotence and dullness. The monk in the cave may have command over the entire cycle of rebirth, but he can’t debug your Python script or fix your country’s housing crisis. With only mechanics (no heaven or hell), there is a narrow, meaningless intelligence—the world’s greatest expert in a subject that speaks only to itself.
An integrated engagement with mechanics knows when the intellect is important and how to direct it wisely.

Buddhists talk about the “three poisons” that make us go awry—attachment, aversion, and ignorance. Heaven, Hell, and Mechanics are these concepts mapped to life patterns.

Motivated primarily by attachment, you’re stuck in Heaven, spiritually bypassing. But attachment ripens into loving-kindness, which we need.
Motivated primarily by aversion, you’re stuck in Hell, burning as you try to douse others’ fires. But aversion ripens into compassion, which we need.
Motivated primarily by ignorance, you’re thinking, thinking, thinking, lost in your mind. But ignorance ripens into wisdom, which we need.

The three are antidotes for each other. Hell calls Heaven down to earth; Heaven shows the way out of Hell; and Mechanics helps the two actually take steps forward.

A person who has integrated all three can be very, very, helpful in today’s world. We need more people who remind us of the joy of life–leading with courage to build a better world rather than seeking simply to avert catastrophe (an overabundance of Hell). Of course we are on death’s doorstep, why else would it feel like we’re all going slowly insane? But to not be bullied by Death’s approach, but rather elevated, enlivened, freed—that is the disposition we need, and the antidote to today’s nihilism.

Yes: all of that suffering, all of that fear, all of that hopelessness? You are feeling that because you have a heart. Because you love the world and love being in it with people that matter to you. Your starting point has always been basic goodness. And all of that confusion? That’s accurate: we don’t know the way out. So we’re going to need to apply ourselves to the Mechanics of resolution. There’s a lot to learn.

And we must ground ourselves in the mundane, because this is where Heaven is. Heaven is not the rave, the Godhead, the fireworks. It’s sitting here next to each other, with the peacefulness of an afternoon of reading, laundry, and jokes.

This piece is mostly to convey a feeling, but there’s also a process here, which I’d like to write more about soon.