The Mechanism of Genius, Part I

Genius is more a measure of the capacity to shape reality than of intelligence. History is replete with examples of powerful people who create stupid, disastrous outcomes. In fact, this is a strong indicator of the mechanism of genius. The reality that we all shape through this capacity is a reflection of all that we are in our inner lives. The more powerful our capacity, the more strongly our inner life is imprinted on what happens around us.

The discoveries, inventions and works that happen through the mechanism of genius are not groundbreaking in and of themselves in some measurable objective sense. They only seem groundbreaking within the reality that the genius creates. That's not to diminish the profundity of these works. They truly are groundbreaking. But it is to highlight that context is everything. A thing can only be groundbreaking if it appears within a reality which is ripe for it. Creating the ripe reality, therefore, is necessarily part of the work of genius. The profound manifestations of genius expose natural, logical, self-evident, intrinsic qualities that emerge from the reality that it also created. This is what marks a work of genius with qualities of elegance and obviousness. The work and the reality appear together as mutual manifestations, as a dualistic pair.

The staying power of genius is a function of the capacity to let go of outcomes in a continual, wholistic manner. It is easy for the mind to claim a particular outcome as desirable and to calcify against all who oppose it. The genius recognizes that this opposition begins to weave itself into the creation, modifying it in dark and dangerous ways. The fruitful posture is to absorb opposition as part of the design by recognizing the kernels of truth that it invariably contains. The benefit of this approach to opposition is twofold. First, the creation gains power via the humble, vulnerable absorption of the fruitful aspects of the opposing energy. Second, the part of the opposing energy that is not absorbed experiences a changing field. A rigid opposer will experience this field as a confounding, dissipating loss of power. It does not survive because it has defined itself through its opposition. However if the opposing energy was sourced from another genius, she will experience this changing field as an aligning influence and a mutual strengthening. The genius has no problem weaving this dynamic field into her creation in novel, reality-shifting ways. Thus a genius experiences everyone around her as a co-creator.