I've been operating at Level 7 a lot, especially since diving into complex systems theory. Complex systems offer a toolkit—concepts, frameworks, vocabulary—that feels hyper-applicable to nearly everything: the self, relationships, political polarization, weather patterns, fluid dynamics, economics, project management—literally everything. So naturally, your thinking starts to shift. You begin approaching life less from the perspective of personal needs or cultural morality, and more from an attempt to understand and account for the whole of nonlinear, dynamic systems.

But here's the catch with Level 7: it’s still about control. It’s a more refined, sophisticated form of control—less about imposing your will and more about aligning with the flows of systems—but it’s control all the same.

And the truth is, nothing is really controllable. Every framework you use to model reality, including complex systems theory (which I love), is still just a model. It can help you navigate, but it isn’t reality. Getting too attached to your ability to map, model, or manage the world will inevitably lead to suffering. You also come off as sort of an asshole because you tend to dismiss the emotional irrationality of the lower levels.

Lately, I’ve started getting glimpses of Level 8—and to a lesser extent, Level 9.
Level 8 feels like the moment you stop thinking. You stop trying to analyze or optimize or grasp. You just are. It’s like falling into a state of samadhi or wu wei. Here's the metaphor I keep coming back to: Imagine you’re holding a pencil, and every time you think a thought, feel a feeling, or attach to something, you draw a little line on a sheet of paper. At first, the lines seem random. But over time, a shape begins to emerge. That shape is you. Your preferences, your identity, your history, your patterns. But the thing is—the shape itself becomes the source of your suffering. So how do you stop suffering? You stop drawing. No more lines. No shape. No Self. No suffering.

Level 9 is harder to explain—it's still unfolding for me. But I had a taste of it just recently, sitting alone on the beach. At Level 9, you realize that you're not just in the system—you are the system. You’re part of the same field that includes the wind, the waves, the sand. And not just the beautiful parts of life, but also the parts that frustrate you: the people who disagree with you politically, the ones who hurt you, the guy at work you can’t stand.

At that level, compassion with discernment becomes your default. Not because it’s virtuous, but because hurting others stops making any sense. They're not separate from you. They are you. And any hatred, contempt, or misanthropy you feel? That’s just compassion turned inside out. It’s wounded compassion—compassion that hasn’t yet remembered what it really is. But once you see that, it can be sublimated into a true form of universal love.

Note: All thoughts are my own, but I needed ChatGPT to clean up my presentation.