Today I just happen to be in an amusement park, 
Six Diapers Over Distraction,
which just happens to bring to mind my 
secondary reality, and a specificity thereto 
on which today it just so happens, I shall report.
I of course did not have to come to such an unconcealed,
self-proclaimed place of childish frivolity
to find an example of man’s secondary activity;
I could have visited any church, museum, university,
or legislature, but the food here is better --  so………

Let me remind you of what I mean by my expedient term, 
“man’s secondary world, or secondary reality”.
This refers to all activities that are not specifically essential for 
physical survival, and which, were it not for man’s thoughts, would not exist.

Now –
In the secondary world,
symbolism IS the substance.

In man’s primary reality of activities 
essential for survival,
things simply are what they are,
and do not ever seem otherwise;
there is no symbolism in the primary world.
On the other hand,
in his secondary reality,
symbolism is everything.
Without symbolism there IS no secondary world.

In the physical sex act there is no symbolism,
while in man’s secondary world of romance,
symbolism is de rigueur:
Gifts, notes, phone calls, whispered words of love.
In learning to raise crops by watching another do so,
there is no symbolism involved,
while the study of psychology, philosophy, history,
literature and all the soft sciences are nothing but
lessons in symbolism.
The intangible framework that supports civilization itself
is in the symbolic words and gestures that constitute its
social strata, mores, and legal structures.

The substance of the secondary world is entirely symbolic.
The substance of man’s secondary reality is totally
intangible --  invisible  --   non existent,
all in the mind.
Religion is not the cathedrals,
but the symbolic activity carried on therein.
Education is not the college’s physical buildings,
but the passing around of symbols going on inside of them,
and The Law is not the impressive courthouses,
but the activity of men acquiescing to a 
mortally contrived symbolic, secondary reality.

Those of you reading these words spend most of your time
in the secondary reality, or in thinking about it.
Even when the initial impetus is primary & essential,
as in eating to sustain the body,
your thinking will fix on questions regarding 
which restaurant is currently fashionable, 
and which is passe.
For every instinctive, essential, primary impulse
there is a secondary version:
for eating --  there is “dining”;
for sex     --  there is “romance”:
and for shelter  --  there is “interior decorating.”
There is nothing amiss in all of this,
but to ever clear away the smoke and noise,
and see what is really going on in life,
you must see that man lives simultaneously in 
two distinct worlds:
one that is physical and essential,
and controlled by animal instinct,
and the other, a pure creation of his thoughts.
In our time & place, both are necessary,
and in ordinary people, they work cooperatively
to produce all of the amusements & assistances 
associated with modern, civilized life.

   ( Now to the relevance of this 
    as regards that subject of interest to us here.)

Is the, “struggle to awaken,” or 
“achieve enlightenment” an exception to any of this?
Is not the interest in such activity different from that of
people attracted to religious worship?
Is not the desire to know, “The Secret of Life” 
different from that which puts fannies in 
classroom seats?
The secondary world is the secondary world 
is the secondary world, (and like that, Gertrude).
When you hear the idea of man believing that he is
fully conscious whereas he actually lives mostly in a dream, 
but through certain efforts can awaken therefrom,
and adopt it as your own gyroscope,
initially, everything you think, do and want 
seems to be, “exceptional” --  and by god it is! –
just not like you imagine.

To those with a native and irrepressible interest in this affair, 
the worlds of man, “being asleep,” and of, “waking up”
could not be more real, but you will never experience
their reality until you see & realize for yourself that
they exist only in man’s secondary reality,
and that the ideas are perforce --  symbolic,
and that the substance of the efforts most people devote to 
the goal of “waking up” are acts of symbolism.

Devotion to a guru is not waking up --  it is symbolism.
Praying, chanting, or dancing is not waking up -- 
it is symbolism;
meditating, and studying scriptures is not waking up –
they are all symbolic acts --  nothing more.
Only waking up is waking up;
only being enlightened is being enlightened;
only being free is being free.
Anything other than that is --  symbolism.

        In the secondary world: 
        symbolism IS the substance.

If you try,
and when you do see all of this for yourself 
in the manner appropriate to you,
you will instantly lose forty pounds of unsightly fat,
(not to mention those invisible, but confining, 
cotton candy chains around your ankles and forehead.)

When those suitably drawn to this sort of activity
hear that “man is asleep but could be otherwise,”
they immediately know that THEY are asleep,
(and that settles that!)  --    but   ---
if a thing cannot be set on a table  --
it is of man’s secondary reality.
Can you set your state of being asleep, 
stupid and confused on the table here between us?
Do you believe that some awakened, enlightened
person could set his state of enlightenment 
here on the table for you to see?

The trickiness of the thought-based, secondary reality
is that -- 
to thoughts   --   it couldn’t BE more real.

Do not take short odds on Batman ever realizing that he is fictional,
and do not waste your life waiting for the thoughts that
naturally make up your consciousness 
to ever realize their own nature,
and wake up to the reality of what they do.
They cannot do it  -- 
you must do it for them  --
(and here is where “trickiness” gets its definition raised to 
gold medal level.)
Your thoughts cannot realize their own nature --
--  only you can do that,
but the “you” reading these words 
who can decide to undertake the task 
is nothing but the thoughts in your brain.
“You” are but one manifestation of the ceaseless
electrochemical activity in your brain.
That is all that anyone's "you" is.
How can it, “be asleep”?
How can it, “be enlightened”?
I personally assure you that there is a quite solid,
non metaphysical reality to “being asleep,” and
not being asleep,
but it is not what your thoughts say that it is,
and it is not contained in the various 
symbolic activities normally associated with the affair.

“Being asleep” is living largely a life of symbolism.
It may be fun,
it can be amusing, and it is certainly normal,
but within each person’s thought-based, verbal “you”
is a purely instinctively-driven, silent you that
actually directs and lives YOUR life.

Your “head you” does not digest your food,
have your orgasms, 
or curl up under the blanket in bed.
It does not breathe your air, pump your blood,
or heal your wounds,
but what it does do when not involved in daydreaming
about secondary world activities,
is help solve survival challenges, and figure ways to make
survival more efficient &  physically pleasant.
This ongoing electrochemical activity in your brain’s
cortex decided to --  I don’t know --   maybe for a joke, 
name itself  -- 
and it named itself, “you”.
 

If you’re not just fartin’ around 
and wasting my time reading this,
then you need to apply your inner sight to examining
that all-too-real sensation right behind your eyes
that speaks in the name of, “I’,
and makes such claims on your behalf as,
“I am asleep!”
“I want to wake up!”
which are just what you would expect 
in people like us,
but for the time being,
forget the idea of “being asleep”
and investigate instead the thing in your head --
--  that seems to be YOU 
that says you are asleep.

I tell you again:
Drop the package as soon as it is handed to you,
grab the UPS man and open HIM up!

….and when you see what’s in there --
         your eyes & yous are goning to pop right out of your head.
 

               “No symbolism for me --  I’m driving.” 
 

                                              JaN