My Principles in 2025, Part 1

A little more than four years ago, I set down a list of forty personal principles on Twitter that became the core of Vivid Void’s “Table of Contents” - my earliest online index of my work. Shortly, it also became the backbone of my self-manual - my personal study of my self-concept, in pursuit of healing, strengthening, connecting and transcending it.

Now, I have been writing, counseling and studying spirituality full time for the last four years, as well as living and suffering and loving and grieving, and I have some updates to make. Part 1 will cover the first half, and Part 2 will cover the last. Part 3 will outline the changes in my experience and thinking that led me to make updates in the first place. Part 4 will cover my process for distilling principles from my experience and writing them in aphoristic form, as well as practical advice for creating your own list of principles. And Part 5 will cover brand new principles as I continue to process reflections and outputs from the previous four years.

Here is Part 1 - I hope you will enjoy it.

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1. I AM

   1. I am, fundamentally, the void that is all things, that which dances and is still, which knows and obscures, which creates and destroys, which is the center and the centerless, the brilliant, eternal awakeness of the universe

   2. The same is true for every human being alive, and everything in creation.

   3. This particular locale of the universe is called Gabe. I am as much him as I am the universe, because we are inseparable, and yet in that unity we are undeniably distinct. My story is, fundamentally, one of coming to understand oneness through difference, by studying myself and the universe, and coming to love and care for both. I am learning to skillfully navigate life’s loves, joys, sorrows and madnesses, to empty myself out and become a vessel for devotion to what is True, to become my own child, parent, lover and mentor. I am learning, by way of love, to become Real, and in so doing, I am making the entire universe Real.

2. KEEP IT REAL

   1. The Real is Quality, Quality is the Dao, the Dao is the Dharma, the Dharma is the Good, the Good is the Truth, the Truth is God.

   2. Quality is the ur-phenomenon, that which grounds the continuous eternal process of creation and change, the context of discernment that precedes time, energy, motion and matter. It is the fundamental reality that enables human judgment (“self” and “Other.”) It is the catalyst for Being itself, that which enervates life and enables movement, perception, thought, emotion, concept, representation and language.

   3. Like God, the Dao, and Reality, Quality can not, itself, be captured or defined.

   4. Quality is the bridge between the rational and the emotional, the left and right brain, the head and the heart, the male and female. It’s the tantric union of opposites, the inseparability of yin and yang, the holy perfection of masculine and feminine. It is immanence, the Monad, ever re-arranging its Form according to its unfathomable Preference and Nature.

   5. The felt sense of the presence of Quality is peace. The felt sense of alienation from Quality is anxiety.

3. STAY TRUE

   1. The shape of all virtue is feeling the fullness of one’s human experience and staying True

   2. Truth is unspeakable, unknowable, unrepresentable - it can only be felt when it resonates with the cells.

   3. Truth is most clearly perceived in silence and solitude.

   4. The ego is incapable of apprehending a capital-T Truth, but it can move ever closer to a capital-H Honesty, and in the marriage of thought, word and deed, can attain a capital-I Integrity.

   5. Courage is staying true in the face of fear. Faith is staying true in the face of doubt. Hope is staying true in the face of despair. Grace is staying true to form, insight is staying true to experience, concentration is staying true to intention.

   6. Presence is staying true to eternity.

4. INTEGRATE, INTEGRATE, INTEGRATE

   1. The process of integration - growing and co-creating a self that is as aligned with the Real as possible - is the telos of human spirituality and perhaps the truest possible meaning of human life

   2. The transcendence of the ego to Union with the Real is the truest desire of the human heart, that which underlies all other desires

   3. Integrity, simply defined, is my present capacity to align myself with the Real

5. BRAVERY IS THE FOUNDATIONAL VIRTUE

   1. The process of integration, at its core, requires facing, enduring and understanding fear. All boundaries in consciousness are made of fear, and therefore all freedom depends on bravery.

   2. Fear is also the lowest of all psychic vibrations, the mother of hatred and atrocity, and the executioner of love and wisdom. Not all fear is evil, but wild, untamed fear will wreak havoc in the self until it’s mastered with great love, patience and bravery.

   3. Once mastered, fears become impeccable allies - extraordinarily sensitive guardians, protectors and intuitions, as well as guides to the parts of myself that are vulnerable, and that need more protection and training.

   4. It’s essential for me to regularly examine my weaknesses, attend to my fears, and train my ability to protect myself, both physically and psychologically.

   5. If I don’t stand up for myself, no one else will, either.

   6. Anyone who demands I abrogate my fundamental duty to myself and my integrity, no matter what they promise in return, is not my friend.

   7. Conformity is the lowest form of transcendence and the most insidious; it freezes fear in place, demands the sacrifice of self-possession, and offers the illusion of safety, glory and immortality in a false collective self.

6. EVERYONE IS A WORLD

   1. The root of the word “world” is vir-eld, or, “the lifespan of a human being.”

   2. Everyone experiences and expresses themselves through the self - a uniquely constructed microcosm of the world that only they will ever understand and experience.

   3. Each self reflects a momentary, divine, infinite image of God. So each action we take in relationship to another human being, we take in relationship to the Dharma.

   4. The shape of the self is that which at first separates one from Union, until it is understood as part of the Whole

   5. The only way to change the world is to change your self.

7. SEE FOR YOURSELF

   1. Truth is an experience you must seek out for yourself. No one else can have it for you, and no one can gatekeep it from you unless you agree.

   2. Because truth can not be represented, I can’t accept anything as true on authority alone.

   3. If I have experienced something True for myself and a teacher or spiritual friend verifies it, I can proceed as though it were Real. If I have experienced something True for myself and the world’s great holy scriptures contain an account of it, I can proceed as though it is Real. If I have experienced something True for myself and neither a teacher, a spiritual friend nor scriptures can verify it, it’s unwise to proceed as though it were Real.

   4. Believe the people you trust, but always provisionally

   5. Assume nothing.

8. THE FINGER POINTING AT THE MOON IS NOT THE MOON

   1. My relationship with the Real is always mediated by the limitations of perception, representation and interpretation.

   2. It is the nature of Quality to defy attempts to capture it. Truth can be experienced, accepted and understood, but never represented.

9. THOU ART CYCLICAL

   1. The transcendence of the self and the experience of Union is always temporary; the experience of pure relation with God cyclically degrades to a joyless apprehension of the world of objects, the world of Form, which the Daoists call “the 10,000 things.”

   2. The cycle renews itself by grace and is not under my control; However, I can influence it - the more I stay true, the more often and easily grace comes.

10. THE UNIVERSE MEETS YOU IN THE MIDDLE

    1. The line between what I do and what happens to me is arbitrarily drawn for the benefit of the ego. The closer I can “carve reality close to the joints,” as Plato put it, the stronger and truer I become.

    2. So it’s a sacred duty to do my best, and trust the universe with the rest.

    3. As my mentor, Samuel Stem, used to say: “Go with the flow. Don’t try to go against it. If the flow is not working for you, change the flow.”