The Philosophy of The BarBarian Way
By Tony Saghbiny
In The Barbarian Way we say these three words a lot: Being, Overcoming, Becoming.
We describe them as the cornerstone of this path and its philosophical foundation. They are rather vague as they can mean very different things to different people, so what do they mean?
We’ll try to explain the concept in this article with the caveat of knowing that any written or oral explanation won’t be enough to express the full depth of the concept.
Being, Overcoming, and Becoming, is not an intellectual concept and neither a mindset one can contemplate from afar, but a living practice and a way to understand the world and our purpose in it.
we understand human existence as a dynamic interplay of Will (spirit), Consciousness (energy), and World (matter).
Where does this come from?
Throughout history, most spiritual and philosophical schools attempted to understand the essence of human existence and answer the question about the purpose of life.
The dominant schools of thought today fall into three categories:
- The Abrahamic religious approach: those who understand human existence and purpose through the concept of Heaven and Hell and divine punishment and reward, and use their holy books as law and truth.
- The nihilistic approach: those who think that life has no meaning or bigger purpose besides what individuals choose to pursue, and think of human existence as merely biological, chemical, and physical reactions.
- Beyond-Humanity approach, which is something that has roots in both nihilistic and Abrahamic worldviews in thinking that human existence is fundamentally flawed and therefore needs to be enhanced and changed through technology to create earthly heaven where human shortcomings and suffering don’t exist.
The Barbarian Way on the other hand follows pre-civilization spirituality and is greatly influenced by ancient mystery schools which we consider to be the closest expression to universal truth.
From such a perspective, we understand human existence as a dynamic interplay of Will (spirit), Consciousness (energy), and World (matter).
This process is characterized by constant transcendence: it’s a spiritual-material evolution, that happens on individual and collective levels, internally in the unseen world and externally in the seen world.
We understand purpose and existence through this process.
It’s the essence of the Tao, so to speak, or the nature of the flow of life and all that is.
Being
Being is a loose term that can mean a lot of things, but in essence, it means “existing”.
However, when used in The Barbarian Way, it doesn’t mean just any existence. It’s used to point to something very specific: knowledge, perception, and presence.
In more detailed terms: it’s the knowledge of existence, the perception of the truth of existence, and the presence of will and consciousness in existence.
Being in the world doesn’t only mean then, simply existing; it means knowing, experiencing, and making a journey in the world.
Let’s break this down a little bit to make the explanation easier: knowledge is mostly intellectual; it can be acquired from books and teachers. Everyone can acquire knowledge, it’s easy to find and doesn’t require too much effort.
However, as we all know, knowledge alone doesn’t make much difference, unless it’s put under test through action, and this is where perception comes in.
Few people move from knowledge to perception, because fewer people today move from thought to action.
Perceiving is direct experience; it’s one thing to know the truth about the universe or the self, but a completely different thing to experience that truth for ourselves.
Knowledge without direct experience is sterile, and direct experience without knowledge can lead to misguided perception.
Being is the knowledge of existence, the perception of the truth of existence, and the presence of will and consciousness in existence.
Both knowledge and experience are the perquisite for exercising Presence.
Presence is the transformation of our Being from one state to another.
Today, we hear a lot of talk about presence and mindfulness, but in pop culture, it mostly indicates a mere observational presence: of being in the moment with no judgment nor want or need.
Such presence is a good practice, and essential, but in the context of The Barbarian Way, presence has a larger significance than just observation.
It also means exercising an active presence that manifests itself in the world, that engages in the bigger purpose of furthering the same transcendence process in the universe around us.
In other words, it’s becoming active in the process of Being, Overcoming, and Becoming of the world around us.
This might still be obscure to some readers, as we haven’t defined what kind of knowledge and perception we’re speaking of, and this is something worthy of discussion before we move to the next concept.
We encounter the phrase “know thyself” countless times in today’s self-development and spiritual literature. It’s one of the most repeated “wise” axioms that people advise other people to do, and we agree: knowing thyself is the foundation of knowledge, but there’s a huge difference here.
Most people use that phrase to mean something like knowing your own preferences, character traits, psychological patterns, spiritual leanings, deep beliefs, and so on… But this isn’t what we mean by self-knowledge, at all.
Knowing the self in the personal sense as we outlined in the previous paragraph is of course beneficial, and it’s an essential part of the Barbarian Way, but it’s an incredibly small part of what we mean when we talk about knowing thyself.
Knowing the self, spiritually, isn’t about knowing YOUR self, but about knowing EVERY self: it’s about knowing the essence of human existence, and the laws that govern the self and the universe.
It’s important to note that all knowledge in this regard, can be experienced first-hand. None of it is an abstract or intellectual concept. This is important because the perception of truth cannot happen unless you can experience the truth for yourself, in your body and being.
That’s why the Barbarian Way doesn’t ask you to believe in metaphysical or religious concepts; it invites you to attempt to experience the truth for yourself.
There’s a lot to say about the Ultimate knowledge; we have touched on some of it when we talked about the seven dynamics of human existence in The Foundation Program, but there’s so much more.
This knowledge also includes the understanding of the impermanence concept, the dynamics of generating the consciousness of the moment, the universal laws of existence, and the components of Being.
However, like all mystery schools of old, we also strongly believe that this knowledge can only be taught in the context of practice, through direct human interaction, and not with written or oral transmission.
We’re going to add this, though: true self-knowledge is the same as the knowledge of truth, the self is the same as the universe, and governed by the same laws and dynamics.
Knowledge of the self leads to the knowledge of existence, knowing the truth about the Self is knowing the truth about the universe, such perception is the basis of true Being.
True Being is a scary word; however, the meaning here is simple: when we know and experience the truth of our being, we are set free from the narrow definitions of existence that are dominant in our culture. We can experience existence as it is, without our dominant cultural programming.
As a side-effect of this process, we become more aware, we would know who we are and what we are and what the universe around us is.
Another result is becoming wilder – as in connected to the raw essence of existence, of nature, without the artificially constructed filters and lenses of civilization.
We become aware, wild, and free, which brings us to the second pillar.
Knowing the self, spiritually, isn’t about knowing YOUR self, but about knowing EVERY self: it’s about knowing the essence of human existence, and the laws that govern the self and the universe.
Overcoming
As we can see from our understanding of Being, True Being is a process, not a final state, a process of transcendence, a process of overcoming.
In the modern world, we spend so much of our energy trying to live life in a comfort zone, without struggles or discomfort or pain. We offer pity for those who struggle and try to avoid it as much as possible for our whole lives.
The problem is, life is struggle, not necessarily in the meaning of constant conflict with others, although that’s always been a part of it, but in the sense that life is a constant flow of change.
Comfort zones can only exist in a stale environment; in something that doesn’t move, in a state that cannot receive input from outside.
Ironically, the harder we pursue comfort zones, the more we will struggle with reality because reality is an influx of change that moves outside our personal control.
The Barbarian Way embraces change and struggle, because it embraces the process of constantly overcoming ourselves, of growing.
When life puts a mountain ahead of us, it’s inviting us to climb it. That’s what struggle is: an opportunity to sculpt our character and enrich our soul, and help us reach new heights of being.
Embracing the process of overcoming is also a paradigm shift in how we perceive ourselves; we’re not at war with our own self, we don’t seek to overcome because of self-hate, but quite the contrary.
We love the ability given to us to grow and constantly transcend our conditions, and we love to explore the possibilities given to us by the universe.
We aren’t just trying to implement a habit here and there; but to change our being from one state to another, we’re trying to overcome the old self, and not just add new habits or fancy words to it.
However, overcoming is not an automatic process that happens when we intellectually adopt a concept; not at all.
Overcoming has a tool; our Will, and requires work.
Overcoming implies action, and it’s not something that happens to us, but rather something that we make happen.
We’ve talked about Will in the foundation program and we will repeat some of that here: our desires and emotions are impermanent, our thoughts the same way; so we can’t rely on either for true long-term change.
Fortunately, we are equipped with the right faculty to handle the process of overcoming: our Will.
The Barbarian Way is a path of Willing; willing through action.
The expansion of consciousness is a side effect of exercising will, and the spiritual path of the Barbarian Way is the path of discovering our True Will.
Embracing struggle also means we will inevitably find ourselves moving away from the victim mindset to taking responsibility for our life.
We will also inevitably find ourselves moving away from spectator and consumer mode to contributor mode; creating and engaging and giving back to life instead of watching it go by.
We will inevitably find ourselves switching from reactions to actions, from intentions and words to realities. We will inevitably find ourselves Becoming.
Becoming
Becoming what, you’ll ask?
Some might answer becoming a better person. Some might say becoming Enlighted, and others will talk about becoming superman or ubermensch.
All these answers are okay, but they aren’t The Barbarian Way’s answers.
Becoming a better person is just one phase of becoming. Achieving enlightenment is just one phase of becoming. Even transcending standard humanity is just one phase of becoming.
Instead of thinking of a final state that we need to achieve, we think of Becoming as a continuous state of alignment that constantly evolves.
Becoming is like the North Star, it guides us to where we need to go at all times, but is not a final destination.
We said earlier that the spiritual path of the Barbarian Way is the path of discovering our True Will; and it’s time to revisit this concept.
In the eyes of modern culture, everything is separate, space is separate from the earth, emotions are separate from thoughts, nature is separate from people, and people are separate from other people.
It’s normal that some readers might think that discovering True Will means searching for something separate from their own, and that if they find it, it’ll be something exclusive to them, a personal property, disconnected from the larger reality.
In reality, True Will and Universal Will are the same.
The process of discovering our True Will is the same process of discovering the heart of existence; the process of connecting to our True Will is the same process of connecting with All That Is.
Our individual existence is an expression of the universe itself; in spiritual terms, our individual will is an emanation of True Will.
What’s fascinating about the process of Being, Overcoming, and Becoming is that it has a clear direction: such process inevitably leads to more awareness – there’s no way that you can come out of it without an expanded consciousness.
Such a process also inevitably leads to more freedom as there’s no way that you can come out of it with less freedom, mentally, psychologically, and spiritually.
And finally, such a process inevitably leads to a wilder state of being, as there’s no way that you can come out of it with a weaker connection to the heart of wild existence.
Understanding this simple yet outstanding insight opens the door for us to understand the larger purpose of human existence.
Even with the risk of coming out as cliché, I’ll still say the following: the light can only shine as much as the lamp allows, and our process of Being, Overcoming, and Becoming, is the universe’s way to make more light shine through us, and to help us make a bigger impact in the larger process of Being, Overcoming, and Becoming that happens all around us in all life.
In ancient mystery schools; it’s believed that every individual soul has evolved its will and consciousness from barely a glint to a full ray of light while inhabiting minerals then plants then animals then humans.
Each stage allowed us to experience the universe on a scale like we never did before; in a deeper, bigger, and more impactful way, each time the soul moved from one vehicle to another.
While we still have a lot of adventures; we owe it to ourselves to fully experience and become what the universe invites us to be, and maybe the small candle we carry inside us can become a star, and this is what our adventure is all about…
Ninar 