The working state of consciousness against which 
mystics rail and struggle,
(and which they variously refer to as, 
"being asleep, deluded, distracted"),
has a readily observable non esoteric basis
which none seem disposed to note;
an oversight most costly to their aim of change.

With 99% of those who say that they seek to, 
"Wake Up, be Free & Enlightened,"
their activity presumably pertinent thereto
never goes past the hobby category,
and their sincerity or I.Q. intelligence is irrelevant.
What limits them to being
frustrated,
happy-to-discuss-with-you dilettantes
is their failure to individually investigate
then realize the quite mundane, nature of
what it is that propels their interests.
Most are quite satisfied with having,
"the-desire-to-awaken" as a hobby, 
and topic for conversation,
and nothing I ever say is in any way a
criticism of such people.
My words are for the few ears 
on the few heads
atop the few bodies of people with an 
inherent taste for the cream within the éclair.

Did not our brains produce thoughts, 
you would not be reading these words;
I would not have written them,
we would have no language, 
and  there would never be any talk of,
"being asleep," and, "waking up."
But our brains do produce, deal-in, and depend-on
thoughts,(and their language, "words"),
and here we are talking about man’s,
"state of working consciousness,"
(the very activity in our brains responsible for thought),
and right here I am just about to put the finger on 
what it is about thoughts that is responsible for their routine behavior,
and what it is about them that motivates a few to 
seek a radical alteration thereto.

           Thoughts are attracted to thoughts.

This is the simple physiological fact that 
holds together the entirety of man’s, 
intellectual, artistic, and spiritual worlds.
Thought’s attraction to thought is not an election,
but an instinctive preference.
Thought is as involuntarily attracted to thought as
male is to female.
It is species-genetic, 
the nature-of-the-neural-beast.
 

Man’s thought-based world of civilization & culture,
(that, "secondary reality" that is his singularity),
exists solely on, 
thought’s-attraction-to-thought.
The world of painting does not survive 
based on paintings, but rather on 
one person’s thoughts being attracted-to, 
then reacting-to 
another person’s thoughts about painting.
Same with politics, drama, religion, literature, etc.
One man says: 
"I just saw so-&-so’s new movie, and it is terrible,"
while another man responds by saying that 
he found it to be his best work yet,
and the second man’s thoughts are not really discussing the movie, 
but rather the first man’s thoughts about it.

Thoughts just seem attracted to movies and reading,
but this is an easily pierced illusion.
Your thoughts do not motivate you to go to a movie, 
or pick up a book because of their apparent content,
but rather to make available to your thoughts 
new thoughts to which they may be attracted,
and can chase after.

(All of men’s social conversations serve this same purpose -- 
--  gossip & self promotion alike.
[Also note how cell phones have extended thought’s
field of opportunity: while strolling alone the aisles of
the supermarket you can have someone else’s thoughts broadcast 
privately into your ear
so that your thoughts will have something different to chase after
besides the thoughts printed on the soup cans].)
 
 

If your consciousness consists of nothing but the
thoughts indigenous to it,
you can never realize the staggering significance of
what I’ve just noted.
If your thoughts are totally absorbed in their 
own routine activity
it is impossible for them to see what 
I just described regarding how they operate solely on the basis of 
instinctive attraction-to, and reaction-to 
other thoughts.
For they will be reacting-to, and chasing-after after the very thoughts 
I just enunciated concerning  how their nature is to be: 
attracted-to, and to chase-after other thoughts,
and in their blindly doing as I have  just described,
they cannot see the reality about themselves that I have
just described.
 

      You can’t be aware that 
      your lips stay locked around tailpipes
      until you stop chasing cars.
 
 
 

Unless your thoughts are specifically engaged in activity related to your physical well being,
they will be chasing after other thoughts.
This is -- "being asleep."

   Unless your thoughts are giving someone 
   physical directions,
   they are trailing after other thoughts.
   This is -- "being distracted."

      Unless your thoughts are involved in a
      real-time monitoring of your instant surroundings,
      they are running after other thoughts.
      This is -- living in an inner world that is a fairy tale.

If your thoughts are not chasing after thoughts they found attractive in 
the world outside of you,
they will be chasing after the thoughts already in you.
In this condition, your consciousness is so self-centered, restricted,
and self-referential
that to say that you "live in a dream world" is charitable.operational
It is man’s natural, normal state 
of non essential consciousness,
but it is also the very basis for 
a few men finding it personally unacceptable,
and their subsequent longing to make a change therein.

Historically the most common method employed
in pursuit of this goal has been meditation,
which is described as the effort to, 
"calm the waves of mind so that it becomes a still pool, 
perfectly reflecting reality,"
a verbal picture without fault, yet I recommend to you 
the view I have above detailed -- 
for if you see for yourself the ass-sniffing, 
natural operations of the thoughts always 
active in you and everyone else,
the physical reality of, "awakening & enlightenment"
moves palpably closer to your grasp.
 

The problem faced by the few
is not truly one of, "flawed consciousness,"
or, "metaphysical ignorance,"
but rather a situation wherein the thoughts, 
by which consciousness manifests itself 
to each person,
live a life of ceaseless attraction-to,
and of, chasing-after other thoughts,
and while in such a state
cannot be aware thereabout.

You’re in a dream -- and don’t realize it,
for if you REALIZED it, 
you’d no longer BE in a dream.
 
 

Simply seeing for yourself that the thoughts 
always in your consciousness are
always trailing after some preceding thought,
and that the content of the thought being followed is totally irrelevant -- 
can open a man’s eyes faster than twenty years of
benzedrine-drenched, sitting mediation.
 

I offer this to you today as always,
not merely as an amusing new way of 
looking at something,
but because having spent a lifetime
involved with the "waking up thing,"
it is another instance of how I personally discovered a way of 
seeing something that proved to be of most practical value.
(Such practicality I do not attempt to describe;
try it, and you will discover it for yourself.)

         
         Get a good grip on what thought is truly about,
         and you are well on your way home. 
 
 

              Jan
 
 
 
 

(This week's weekly reminder:
Any mention made of me personally in these writings
is entirely fictional.........nowithstanding references to, "things-that-work.")