Although according to its latest report, 
the planet says everything is going like clockwork,
one of its inhabitants, (man), sees in his own case, otherwise.
How comes this to be?
Gazelles register no complaints with life;
cats display no feelings of self doubt,
and gorillas show no signs of wanting to 
improve themselves.
So why is it the order-of-the-day for men to be 
perturbed with life, themselves & each other?

(As with all surveys made by the mind,
there are sundry verbal perspectives possible,
today I offer to you this one,
which has distinct practical value for an 
interested man with an
alert eye/I.)

Man’s brain, (in its production of conscious thought),
has given him abilities unique to this world,
but has likewise created,
what seems to him to be,
singular, potential vexations.

Here is man’s position:
you can change your behavior,
even change your mind, but
you can never change  --  WHAT YOU ARE.

A creature without a mind obviously 
cannot change his,
and a creature that does not think 
cannot even conceive of changing its behavior;
only homo sapiens experience such in their lives.
And what are the normally unnoted consequences of
this indigenous state of neural-based affairs 
in the life of man?

To better serve their survival and comfort,
men can mentally plan and execute 
changes in their behavior,
even to the point of acting in conflict with 
their instincts,
and, based on the demands of circumstances,
and when it improves their position, 
men can change their mind, (that is),
alter their mental commentary of a given situation.

All of this goes on constantly, effortlessly,
and seamlessly, and is a basic characteristic of 
being a human being,
but it gives rise to something further which men do not
take into account as their thoughts 
keep the running account of 
what they tell a man he is.

    You can change your behavior,
    even change your mind, but
    you can never change what you are. 

The reality behind these seventeen words
sits-on & mashes-down-uncomfortably
every person who ever trods the boards of the 
mortal playhouse, 
albeit without their direct awareness.

In that an alcoholic can stop his drinking 
when his liver reaches beachball proportions,
and a liberal can turn conservative 
when such is his new employer’s political bent,
men’s thoughts carry this to its apparently 
proper conclusion, (to wit), 
that men can change what they essentially are 
by genetic temperament.

When confronted with the notion directly,
everyone knows that through no act of will,
or force of desire
can a man change his physiological body type, 
or strength of his heart and lungs,
or his genetic predisposition for certain ills,
or his neural wiring.
What you physically ARE is what you are,
and no amount of thinking otherwise will 
ever change it,
in spite of thought’s ability to 
pretend to forget it.

This is at the flawed heart of all complaints men have 
about themselves and each other;
the specious assertion that 
a man can change what he IS,
and that people with whom you disagree 
simply refuse to exercise this ability,
and as concerns yourself,
you feel trapped in a locked room with a “you” 
with which in large part your thoughts find fault,
but which are unable to lead you therefrom.

You are saddled with the sensation of 
not BEING what you should be,
but being incapable of making conclusive,
satisfactory changes.

People with the natural affinity to the idea of,
“man living in a dream, but from which 
he can awaken,”
in one sense, suffer over this unacknowledged situation 
more than everyone else
in that ordinary men accept it as the norm,
(as periodically frustrating as it may be),
while the few are in fact, (though unwittingly),
attempting a head-on assault on 
the very nature of  --  Nature.

You will never understand the reality of what,
“being awake, or enlightened”  is
as long as you are operating under the delusion that
a man can change what he actually is.
You surely realize by now that you cannot 
change what other people are,
nor can you change the nature of life itself,
but your thoughts in their telling you that 
you should  --  and CAN change what 
you by genetic physiology, and temperament ARE
do you no favor.

Real strength is in acknowledging your own essential weaknesses.
Wise strength is in recognizing the nature, 
and literal limits of thought, 
and the abandonment of pretending with 
everyone else --  otherwise.

A vital ingredient in holding man’s mentally-based, 
second reality together
is the pervasive belief imposed on him, 
via the brain’s conscious thoughts,
that he is capable of unrestrictive change.
He is made to pretend to believe that he can
change his behavior,
change his mind, and (even though never so stated),
can actually change the nature of what he
individually by nature IS.

Such illusions, for ordinary men, 
make the second reality go ‘round,
but for the few is the source of all impotent 
efforts to achieve a non standard state of mind.

Trying to do the impossible is the name of the
normal mortal game,
but same is pure insanity & foolishness for a man
wanting-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-things.

Before you can gain a consistent view of 
enlightened reality
you must have a plain, unprejudiced awareness of
what you by nature and temperament ARE.
No pretending, no matter how minute, is permitted.
No brag --  no anti-brag.
No nothing.
Nothing to say about yourself.
What of any importance is there to say about 
a waterfall? a mountain? an eagle?
In the physical world, everything is simply,
what it is,
while in man’s mental world, (perforce),
everything is how it COULD be,
this is how man’s life alone 
undergoes profitable change,
but without a realization of
thought’s true nature, and position in all of this,
an individual man is left, (so to speak),
hung out to never dry on a limb of a 
tree-apparently-oneself
whose roots cry out forever for --  “Change!
Change, dammit --  what you ARE!”
which, (I regret to tell you),
is not……….how shall I put it?…….not PROBABLE.
(how was that?)

A man-who-knows-what’s-going-on
lives HIS life as it need be led,
and gives that part of his existence, 
no further thought .

Change, if you must, 
what can physically BE changed,
then give up dreams regarding the rest,
and first thing you know -- 
you are free of dreams period --

--  and thus as free
     as a man CAN be  --     period!
 

                                        JAN