A Saturday, and here we are in a little coastal village not far from Bordeaux, land of Montaigne, father of the personal essay, and source of many still repeated maxims and witticisms.   France also be the home of the proverb, “a tendre escroc, employer escroc”    --    employ a crook to catch a crook, 
a phrase that always reminds me of the principal role thoughts play in the enlightenment game, but how seldom they are identified by being given a jersey with their name on the back.

For thousands of years have been, and even today still are,
people who say they are actively engaged in efforts to radically change the state of their inner life. 
The best known descriptions thereof come from participants who pursue the aim within 
a religious context,
and be they a Hindu, Buddhist, Jew, Christian, or Muslim, 
they explain the goal as being,
“A spiritual union-with or, 
mystical understanding-of God,”
(by whatever appropriate name),
and prosecute the goal primarily through
prayer and the study of holy scripture.
And while they might admit that achieving this,
“Religious Enlightenment”, or, “Awakening”
will surely effect the way a person thinks,
they still see the endeavor itself as one that is purely,
“spiritual” in nature, 
(a concept even they confess is difficult to define.)
. 

Outside theological settings are also some seeking to alter their inner condition, but who, 
rather than seeing the undertaking as being dependent on the grace of a
personified,supernatural power
believe it is to be accomplished by the acquisition of
extraordinary knowledge,
for which they usually search under the tutelage of someone who claims to have already found it,
or else by studying the writings of such a man.

(Between these temporal and divine poles there are
others who say that enlightenment is to be had through good works & charitable deeds,
and others who believe it will come from following a
particular physical discipline & mind set, 
but everything between the two supra noted approaches are but variations thereof, 
which I leave to you to see.)

When a man prays,
or studies holy scripture,
or meditates on a sacred word, 
or tries to hold a mystical symbol in his mind,
or strives to put the mind into a perfectly placid state, 
he is sending a crook to catch a crook,
he is unknowingly --  as astounding as that seems -- 
doing nothing at all other than attempting to get the thoughts in his own head to
reorganize themselves into an operation that he will find more agreeable.
That is precisely what people who,
“want to know God,”
or who, “want to wake up” actually want.
That’s all --  that’s it.
But seldom, seldom, seldom does 
anyone ever recognize what they are doing.

Praying to Allah, 
chanting mantras, 
or repeating mystical phrases to yourself
are all nothing other than thoughts’ attempts to understand themselves,
or as I just noted, 
from the total person’s view,
it is their effort to bring the thoughts in their mind
into a more acceptable mode of operation.

People studying the words of some proclaimed,
“Enlightened Master” are not actually in search of
secret knowledge to help them join him,
(even though they profess so).
What is really going on is an unfocused search for thoughts that someone else has had which will
some how jar yours into 
acting in ways more gratifying.

But what eventually occurs if a man does not realize what is taking place in this, 
“sending of a swindler to trap, and
rehabilitate a swindler,”
is that he falls prey to another maxim,
“ignem igni ne addas”  --
don’t  try to put out a fire by adding more fire  --
which is exactly what is occurring all the time that a man is talking to God,
reading a mystic’s words,
or listening to the thoughts in his own head.

If you do not eventually come to realize for yourself that all of this,
(along with everything else you cannot touch),
is all thoughts --  nothing but thoughts,
its only existence is in your thoughts,
not only will you never wake up and see 
what’s really going on,
your believed efforts to do so only help to 
keep you dazed and in the dark.
 

Since it is the weekend, and I know how much you enjoy being cut loose & fancy free
I will put it to you again as straight on as possible.
Think of anything you want to –
then look straight on,
if what you’re thinking of,
 you cannot physically touch,
it is nothing but a thought.
It does not matter if the rest of the world says it exists,
and even insists that it is holy, or supernatural,
or otherwise of extreme importance to man –
it is nothing but a thought.
It is now a word that you can say,
along with some related image it triggers,
but it still originated solely in the electrochemical activity in someone’s brain that produces what we humans call, “a thought.”

Recognizing this to be so, is no assault on other people’s belief in a God,
nor is it ridicule of their reading of mystical tomes, or their listening to metaphysical teachers,
but  --   it is what it is,
and must finally be seen so,
or else a man simply sits in one spot while his 
day dreaming thoughts roam the pleasant,
though wholly imaginary Elysian Fields in his mind.

Anyone can have thoughts about being awake, 
and enlightened,
just as anyone can talk-to-God, or their dead mother,
or little green men from Mars if they want to,
but you cheat yourself if you do not turn your best,
most alert and unbiased attention to asking yourself,
and investigating within yourself 
the question:
Just what is the physical reality of this, 
“I’m asleep” idea that I have so
passionately embraced and which seems such a valid
statement of my condition,
and what is the actual, physiological basis for these methods that I have undertaken to “wake up”? (whatever they may be).

Most people who ever get involved in this sort of activity are so pleased to have finally discovered it,
and have so much fun reading, and thinking and
talking about it
that they never ask themselves such questions,
and thus never realize that every single aspect of
The Great Work To Awaken 
consists of nothing but thoughts.
Thoughts the same that make up The Republican Party, The Methodist Church, Socialism, 
and every other grand & petty scheme in the lives of men which they cannot set down on the kitchen table.

You can sure have fun --  trying to wake up, and,
Discover The Secret,
but until you face up to what 
you’re actually involved in --  it will never happen,
and believe me,  this is good news I am conveying.
Even those who have spent a life time involved with some system for awakening, 
and have had a grand and glorious time
will have a bigger thrill than ever experienced
by simply finally coming to grips with what this 
thing is really all about.

It is really all about thoughts --  and nothing more.

….(well of course, excluding for the moment 
that all important, all encompassing matter of your
instinctive genetic temperament,
which obviously fuels each and every one of your thoughts  --   but   ---
time runs short, and we simply cannot get into
all-of-THAT  today,
but I suspect we covered more than enough already.)

I leave you with my revised version of one of Montaigne’s maxims which aptly expresses the ordinary world’s view of what the few do:
“Since we cannot attain to  --   knowing-what's-going-on  --
let us ridicule the very notion!”

….(won’t do a bit of good though,
for those with the bug will press on regardless,
but if you will just stop and do a fish-eyed survey of
the territory in your head that is “thought”, 
and establish the proper orientation of 
your internal position,
the pressing-on will become both easier, AND
more profitable).

                                 Sbohem,

                                       Jan