Talents

Depiction of Krishna (कृष्ण) playing the flute

Talents |
Thursday – March 19, 2026

Do I have any talents? Do you have any talents? Indeed, what are talents? Well, for the most part talents are abilities that people appear to possess corporeally without having any need for input, in the sense of working to become better, effort in other words. To a certain limited extent you may say that talents belong to the metaphysical realm, truly to the supra-intellectual, but it would be more accurate to say that there certain qualitative aspects about a given individual exerting himself in some domain suitable to his particular and essential substance, and this is what is manifested as a "talent" in the corporeal and crude sense. But yes, it is certainly true that people are differently able when it comes to their aptitudes in all the senses to which man belongs, but it should be understood that a talent is merely the lowest and least qualified expression of certain aptitudes, and truly to garner certain abilities from effort should be understood as quite distinct from being able to exercise command without the need to exert effort in the corporeal sense; this though, does not imply that persons who may be considered naturally adept (talented) in a certain field should be more likely to succeed without effort, or in this case without properly engaging with the talent in such a way that truly makes him a master (skillful means), and yes, it would be quite right to suggest that talent, again here in the corporeal sense, constitutes a certain barrier, really a prerequisite when it comes to the sacred sciences, the vocation, and the artifex – truly even within the material consideration it is obvious that it would be quite impossible to completely allow hierarchies to atrophy in the diffusion of egalitarianism. From a historical point of view, it was natural for men to unify with their natural predilections, and truly this was the best way for men to approach the sacred unity, and to this extend each man was truly a master, and while it was true that the societal organization in the pre-modern past had a more corporative character, it was also true that men had a true home in this societal organization—home in this context referring to the whole of the primordial body, truly to each man's rightful place within the entirety of the cosmological order; talent in this context was not merely an individualism, a "quirk", something quite distinct, no talent, again in the corporeal sense, was one with each man, and within this sacred unity existed as well a true anonymity. If talents are something almost completely separated from the individual, in the modern world, then individuals are truly formless and indiscernible; another kind of anonymity, that I have mentioned elsewhere, the anonymity of the masses.

    Again, to make clear what I stated above, before I proceed: yes, there are such a thing as talents, but talents are merely the most primitive, crude, and immediate expressions of something that otherwise requires supra-human knowledge, and this means that, in a sense, you could say that talents are a kind of indication of character, talents are something quite essential in the constitution of each man, and this can also be understood, though to a lesser extent, in connection to "hobbies". Yes, you may say that, to extend the argument made in that post further, a true hobby requires a certain talent, but I do want to add that the "hobby" is a strictly modern concept victim to the whims and the currents of the time, and many people may engage in activities that could be labeled a "hobby"; really, everyone with a certain talent could turn their talent into a hobby, but not everyone with a hobby are people who have truly made their talent or talents into their hobby or hobbies; this distinction is actually quite important. Essentially, the range of the material world tends to be quite wide, and this modern "bandwidth" tends to intrude upon and disrupt the domains outside itself, and this is a source of much confusion and noise, and really this entire dynamic tends to characterize the modern world.

    When you consider yourself and whether you are talented in a certain field, or truly a certain domain, you must consider yourself outside your own ego: yes, what most likely holds you back the most from achieving something quite sacred, is your modern mentality—a kind of impedance, if you will—and at the root of this impedance, this general lack of courage and ability, is indeed yourself, or your individual conception of yourself in relation not to the cosmological order but to the material order, and this is the main source of confusion; essentially you may be talented and you may be likely to stand with some kind of direction in the world, but all the noise and all the continual commotion of the modern world has essentially placed you outside the world, and this renders you without direction; a very materialist conception of this could be to imagine trying to find a signal or a wave, a current, on waters polluted with the noise created by the machinery of the modern world. Sure, you may marvel at the enterprise of industry and technological breakthrough, but somewhere deep down you know that something essential is missing; indeed, the artificial, while comforting, is contrived, illegitimate, and ultimately addictive, because something that is false will never be able to truly satisfy the senses – this falsehood can never become something truly masterful. It is also said, in the colloquial of the moderns, that you should "pursue your dreams" and this is true, provided that your dreams are anchored in the metaphysical order; this "advice" is only helpful within the context of tradition, in the truest sense of the word.

    So should you pursue your dreams? Again, only if you are anchored in the world. To pursue something implies some kind of drive, some kind of will, and a willful drive requires direction and direction requires a vector, and it is essentially this vector that is missing in the modern world: essentially everyone exist as a number, as a scalar, as something merely quantitative and without direction, truly without essence; but as long as you lack essence, as long as you lack direction, you have nothing to pursue. You may dream, and you may pursue your dreams, and you may even be successful in that pursuit, but as long as you lack direction, you lack essence, and anything that amounts to talent in connection to your personal pursuits may only be considered potential in the crudest and most corporeal sense, nothing more. Indeed, moderns have forgotten to listen to the universe, yet they claim to understand the universe.

Reginald Drax – March 19, 2026.