Alternate Opening

Here is an alternate beginning that did not make the final version of the book. It expands on the starting point of the tale.

 

INTRODUCTION

Everyone loves a story. But it is important to tell the most important tale of all: The Journey of Life. More specifically, the philosophical life: what it is to come to know and understand the world. It is not a tale reserved only for a knight and his steed or the wealthy adventurer who hires a fleet of ships. It is a journey everyone takes. The philosophical life resembles the many steps all mankind takes in order to learn and reflect on experience. It is the most important story to tell because it is for everyone. Everyone takes an intellectual journey where all influences can be catalogued, mapped, and appreciated.

 

THE QUEST OF HUMANITY

This is no ordinary journey. It is a philosophical journey. It marks the development of a boy into a man by the measure of his Tree. It marks and measures each stepping-stone. It shows how the mind develops and changes. It reveals how one’s world always gets larger and perspectives change with the climb and fall of the terrain. It marks the major influences and ideas attained. It trains the eye on the horizon beyond even where the looking glass reveals. It lends a glimpse at a life driven to find wisdom and achieve that end. It measures the length and use of faith, reason, death, trials, sadness, triumph, happiness, love, torment and hate. It endeavors to find truth, beauty, and goodness. In a way, all men take this journey, but each exhibit different levels of these attributes. They measure differently in all minds. Some stop far too short. Others exceed their expectations. And, when the end arrives, each journey holds a different length and a different destination.

As the mind expands, the universe becomes smaller and smaller. Horizons become borders. This is all aided by experience; one step in front of the next, shooting the azimuth and walking straight, sturdy, and determined toward the goal. The mind also expands toward that goal by the aid of imputed knowledge by philosophy. These types of knowledge allow personhood and identity develop. This is the journey that determines who you are. So, friend, do not spend idle time in the city! Aspire to the highest peaks and the most beautiful vistas; frequent the temples of the wise and the explore nations that cherish honor and virtue. Dip your feet in the surf of the ocean only to stare at the horizon and draw it in. Leave no stone unturned. Take up battle only with close friends. A friend is one who will care and give you direction. A friend always has a map to tell you the next destination or will willingly accompany you to unknown regions. A friend will ride the river with you. They will help you find the high peaks and draw in the horizons. Make sure you always know your friends as you know yourself. Fight these battles with courage and only with friends. Then, you will know yourself and all that is in the world by many exercises of the mind. This is that journey. This is the journey where philosophy becomes an aid and a tool for the aware individual and the fruits of such thinking will grow in abundance.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE TREE

All men have a Tree, that very life force that drives all: the essence of being. The philosophical journey and quest toward wisdom is impossible apart from it and a keen awareness about it. It is somewhere inside of you but I cannot map where. This is personhood and identity. All people want to improve. This is the way! This is the very idea the journey wishes to cultivate. No physician has even discovered it. Of course, many do not challenge the existence of such a force just as one does not demand to see his brain in order to believe it is there. Those who do question the existence of the Tree have given to much license to doubt.

The Tree is that which the roots of man plunge deep into the soil of being and feed on the nutrients of the above elements. It is the very essence of a person. It dictates their identity. It shows who they are to themselves and to those who can see character. Many think they see who you are, but few have these discerning powers. Others are very transparent and show decrepit features and sick leaves. Regardless, all aspire to become a sturdy oak, but many find too many excessive experiences. Sadly most are deceived as to what will yield great fruit and healthy boughs. One rots away with too much love, hate, triumph, etc. These and many other things about the purpose of existence and the very essence of that Tree will become clear to us. It is, in fact, only a minor detail to our story. But as much as the lungs breathe in the background with a man’s daily repertoire, it is vital to his survival. So too is the development of his personhood, his Tree.

THE QUEST OF BRISBIN MINDSTORM

This story is not necessarily one that happened once upon a time. Nor is it one that happened twice or thrice upon a time. But, it is one that happens many times upon a time. In fact it happens every time and all the time, in all people. Of course, the specific story to be told about Brisbin Mindstorm did happen only once, but it is by his adventuresome life that one should look and see that the adventure is for every person. No one is exempt from participation in the adventure one calls life. No one exempt from a compilation of knowledge by experience- it is in all human beings.

Perhaps the reason this book looks to focus upon Brisbin is for the singular purpose of treating him as an example. In other words, his adventure is extraordinary by all means, for few have accomplished what he did. But, every individual is on a personal adventure through life, gathering clues, data, nourishment (both physical and mental), conquering places, and meeting people. In that way, our story is not singular.

Brisbin Mindstorm also tested how far adventures can go. Not all possess his abilities, especially the capacity to go to the realms he reached. As an exemplary character, Brisbin Mindstorm shows that all can adventurize, no matter what their ability, but most cannot make it to the very far reaches of their world and reach an end: full enlightenment, certainty, and the Golden Language. All should set out to find this, but few will attain it.

Sadly, many do not make the concerted effort to undertake adventure and it saddens the Author that this is the case. Brisbin achieved this self-realization and enlightenment in the adventure. He discovered purpose by the adventure. He has understanding thanks to the toil and molding of adventure. Every man should do this, but he does not.

Just like the beginning of all things, everything begins as an idea and is breathed forth. I assure you every word of this tale actually happened and will happen. Ask for wisdom to understand it, since the Author is the only one who can explain and lead you toward sturdy understanding.

This is also a cry for self-assessment. Ask yourself how you fit into this story and how you can become enlightened. How do you fit into your own story? Where do you fit in the world? Do you experience the hills and valleys, the breath-taking sunsets, vile creatures that take the good and useful part of your breath, or taste sweet kisses of nymphs and mermaids in your world? Do you dwell where dogs devour the carcasses of the discarded weighed down by self-absorption or do you leap unfettered from purple mountain to purple mountain clinging to and flinging from rays of sun that come down like strings from the sky? Do you look at the grey sea as terrible or a frontier when you are baptized by the ocean spray in the latter part of the evening?? Do you ask the right questions and find the right answers with the right mode of investigation?

Self-realization, enlightenment and understanding. All men ought to set out to capture these in an adventure as soon as they come of age. Create and find where you stand in the middle of the universe. This is not merely your position in the physical world, but a world that goes beyond what is seen, smelled and felt. Take the first steps of adventure and become great!

THE TALE’S BEGINNING

I want to take you to a place where time did not yet exist and all creation was just an idea. In an instant it came into being. It was never material and never will be. I want to also tell you about one young man and how he fits into the picture. With this I would hope all the world would come to see the importance of knowing and understanding, for there is no other greater achievement. It would seem that all men take part in this, but there are varying degrees to understanding. So far as one is willing to inquire, one will come to know more; and more completely. Those who step out into adventure no longer take for granted what they know, but wish to justify and dissect it. In this world there are many avenues to knowing, but only a few can be rewarded with lightening and sunshine.
Creation must be ordered, reasonable, and sensible, otherwise it is nothing. Only one who is ordered, reasonable, and sensible can create anything. And so it came to pass that a creation was spun into existence.
Long ago, as we gauge by time, all things were merely an idea. Then the idea became real. It was a willed apparatus of emanation just as the cantor gives life to the idea of music and the painter’s brush stroke falls onto the canvas. At that moment this world was made and man came to be.
A desire tugged at man’s heart in the first instance. He desired to know himself. He desired also to know that there was something more than self once it was discovered and known. Man came to know that there is always something greater than self and greater than ideas. In this world, all men believe something, all men search, and all men desire to have understanding. One created man came to ponder these things to the fullest extent and the fullest of his ability. He set out to find order, reason, and sensibility…