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copyright 2000
jan
cox
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SEPTEMBER 30- OCTOBER 05, 2000 |
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September
30, 2000. Saturday in Madagascar,
a land that some say, "Time forgot." -- not to be confused with
those all over the planet who would like to forget about time. You
do realize that all it takes to wipe time-from-your-mind is to wipe
thoughts from your consciousness?! -- right?! The only thing about
a man that is ever in a hurry and pushed for time is thoughts. From
one view in fact, the entire notion of man living usually in a low-wattage,
only-partially-conscious, distracted state of mind can be summed
up in the realization that his thoughts are ordinarily always running
at a faster speed than his body, and are almost never settled on
the affairs of the instant time & place. Man then is not a place
that time forgot, but rather a thing that it bamboozles, (by way
of self-propelling, perfunctory thought.) Notice indeed that when
your state of consciousness is at its most mechanical and the snoozing
is good, your thoughts will always in some fashion be entwined with
the sensation of time -- with a feeling of urgency, while at times
when you are more awake and not mentally under the total distraction
of thought, a sense of time and urgency is not present. Those of
you who have experienced that anomalistic cerebral condition commonly
called, "being Awake, or Enlightened," know first hand that in this
extraordinary head-clearing-state one of the most salient routine
items cleared from the head is any sense of time. A "Liberated"
man has ALLLLLLL the time in the world, and -- NOTHINGGGGGG
at all to do. Ah, but you know all of this already, right?! So we
will move on to news that is news.
To
a man-who-knows -- no news is
ever of interest to him in that no news is ever news to him.
I
herein use the word, "interest," defined as, "concern," or as,
"of significance."
It
is not that a man-who-has-gotten-to-the-bottom-of-things
becomes terminally jaded or incapacitatingly hip-&-bored
with life, but rather that his enjoyment of
life is no longer marred by thoughts’ illusionary concerns
over imaginary matters.
Such
a person, (I suppose), could still find entertaining
distraction in watching a movie, listening to music,
attending a lecture, or reading a book. But they would
not take what made up the experience seriously. They
would know the activity for what it is. And what it
is to them is -- "a known napping" -- nothing more.
Anyone
who leaves a movie that was written, directed &
produced by other human beings and comments on how
meaningful it was to them, and any person who lays
down a book authored by another mortal and thinks
to them self what a life changing message they received
therefrom, are quite normal, rational people who
in fact, run the world. But from a certain minority
perspective, such people live in an inner world
of dreams and illusions. (Which however, from another
view, offers the ultimate in cheap entertainment!
…….and you don’t even have to leave the house!)
For
the, "secondary,
mental-reality" of man to subsist, (wherein resides all forms of
activity not directly essential for physical survival), the diversions
that entertain ordinary men’s minds need be taken to have an importance
beyond their capricious outer face. Men will insist that they find
a much deeper significance to an opera, or a football game than
just the lyrics & melody, or simply the physical rough housing.
People will, (particularly if questioned), say that they can feel
a metaphysical underpinning to everything from "Classic works of
literature" to comic books; from the paintings of Picasso to the
photographs of Playboy, from Ralph Vaughn Williams to Hank. These
people are not fools; they cannot help themselves. It is their cortical
brain cells, in their endless private attempt to, (well! it’s not
so private any more, now is it Bunky?! – at any rate), in
their cells’ endless attempt to conceive of their own conception
and comprehend the meaning of their existence, that make men believe
that behind the thoughts these cells produce is a significance that
is simply not there.
Everyday
people never look into themselves and see the matter thus --
but thus is how it is, and if your desire to stop living a life
that feels artificial to you is sufficiently strong, you can
realize this for yourself.
The
most striking
manifestation of men ordinarily being made to believe that there
is significance in news concerning the world of thought which is
plainly not present, is in the matter of -- news about themselves.
All men of routine consciousness LOVEEEE to hear reports about themselves.
Nothing is of greater interest, (as it should be), to a mundane
man than words & thoughts about him. These thought-pictures
concerning him and his thoughts serve to shore up the self-propelled
illusion that there is more to the thoughts involved than is there.
By thoughts professing to find greater depth and importance to a
particular theology, or political philosophy than is visibly present,
they make it that much easier to accept similar claims regarding
their own sweet selves.
By
the by, somewhat on the reverse side of this aspect of the story:
a man’s declaration of his on-going struggle to be, "humble"
continues to be taken as a sign of great wisdom and insight
when it is a sure mark that the man is fast asleep and understands
nothing about himself and what is going on in life.
Put
directly: a man who knows anything knows that whatever
"he" and other people "are", it is not the thoughts
in their heads -- and once realizing this, then whatever
the thoughts in his or anyone else’s head have to say about
him is of no interest whatsoever. So, for a man to admit-to,
(much less, metaphysically boast-about), having to fight
his own, "un-mystical", devilish vanity is for him to publicly
proclaim his totally unenlightened condition.
If
"vanity" is still one of your "problems" Bunky, you
have more hurdles to awakening than you can imagine.
Simply,
wanting-to-hear-news-about-yourself, FROM
yourself, or from others is the best example possible
of a man asleep.
You
understand, this has nothing to do with "morality"
or "spirituality". What it does have to do with
is the fact that the dreams & illusions that
are the thoughts in your head sustain themselves
via repetition. By constant reference to themselves
and their self-professed abilities do they support
an illusion of their literal substantiality and
significance.
It
is the old "shell game" taken to new heights, with
thoughts not only serving as both the shells and
the hidden pea, but providing the table as well.
Thoughts
furnish you not only with an unruly, yapping dog,
but a yard you can’t keep him in as well.
Even
the least athletic can surely grasp that if someone
else brings all the playing equipment, produces
the Rule Book to be used in the game, and on top
of all that, provides the playing field -- the only
field available -- that the game will automatically,
(shall we say), be "tilted" in favor of the provider.
I
say -- "To
hell with any news about you!"
I
say this most knowledgeably and sincerely on your behalf.
I
won’t listen to any news about you if you don’t.
I
won’t think this way or that way about you if you don’t.
In
other words; I won’t do anything to encourage your sleep and stupidity.
And
if I, a complete stranger, am prepared to do
this FOR you,
then
how come the hell YOU won’t -- do it for you?!
There
is nothing wrong with having interests & hobbies in life, after
all, few are the people who can make eating, screwing & sleeping
take up all 24 hours, but that still does not give a man who wants-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-things
an excuse to lapse into a total state of distraction, and allow
the thoughts in his dream-reality to become so enamored with themselves
that they engage in incest even though no one is there but them.
(Quite a neat trick, really!)
Only
the mostly meaningless, uninvited thoughts in your head and which
constitute entirely, your nonessential reality, have any interest
in any news concerning affairs generated by similar entities.
Only
ox farts are interested in the ox fart scores.
I
say:
Keep
only your own counsel -- and if you do not have any -- don’t get
any.
And
-- keep-to-yourself! --- and if you do not have a self -- jump for
joy and shout, "Hallelujah!"
(and
above all of course, don’t go lookin’ for one.)
Well,
that is sufficient REAL news for now. After spending so much time
with you I believe I will go visit the lemurs,
(that
was not intended as a wry comment. And upon hearing this, one of
the explorers , [who specializes in circular locations], said:
"Everything
eventually returns to itself." -- to which I add:
Forget
about, "who eats their young " -- here is what is of real dinning
significance -- the fact that
did
not thoughts feast on themselves they could not maintain their illusionary
heft.)
Remember:
even an imaginary dog’s barking will be annoying -- IF
you
continue to take that yard in your head to be real.
Jan
A
father said a son: "The most egregious example there is of a man’s
sleep & confusion is his misplaced seriousness."
and
the lad asked; "But how can you tell if his seriousness is
misplaced."
"If
it is placed -- it is." he replied.
Attempting
to achieve Enlightenment, (thoughts trying to figure themselves
out), is this universe’s only activity in which futility counts.
"Counts!"
Hell! -- that’s all there IS.
Cliché
Clarification: Only those totally out of touch perpetrate the notion
that it is possible to, "Be too smart for your own good." – you
can certainly be too smart-ASS for your own good,
but other than for that, just ask yourself:
how
is it possible to "know too much"
when
there is so little to be knowed?!
One
day a father mentioned to a son that an awakened man would never
tell you that he was.
The
boy went off and thought on this for quite a while -- then returned
and asked the elder:
"But
why wouldn’t a man who was awake tell you that is?"
"Why
should he?" he replied
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October
1, 2000. It is Sunday morning as I write
this on a train in southern France. The sky is clear and it is hot,
same conditions I hope for your head as you read these words, and
attempt to let my purpose in writing them slip past a stale, self-serving
interpretation by the same-old-same-old-thoughts lurking lethargically
in your northern cortex. In the domain of a man’s brain, a changing-of-the-guard
is always in order. What is it intangibly in their heads that
ordinary men pretend to be so protective of anyway? Haven’t any
of them ever taken a good look in there? Contrary to other people’s
fear of being "brain washed", a
man trying-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-things
would welcome such an event could he discover how to bring it about.
(One man thinks it would be some improvement if he could figure
a way to just defrag his current consciousness?!?) But enough about
hand grenades -- on with our special kind of news stories.
One man
has a tag attached to his left frontal lobe that reads: "The color
of some ideas fade faster due to that of others fading slower." (He
says that his right lobe understands that this is a two way street.)
The center of one solar system
in noting the oft times uncertain direction of some of its planets
mused: "Well, by having two leg-orbits to stand on at
least they can keep their balance." He neglected to add that
this arrangement also assures that they never escape the center’s
control.
Perhaps you should have even greater
aspirations -- how about undergoing a "solar system washing",
(internal variety, you know.) All you basically need do is toss
out all of the mirrors. What’s that you say?! -- you weren’t
aware that any are in there?! Ahh -- you’re just joshin’ me,
right?! I mean, how else did you think that that stuff you call
"thinking" gets done? Ahh -- you’re a real little kidder you
are.
The benefits of pretending not to
know what’s actually going on in life are not exactly as
described in the welcoming brochure. (I thought you might like to
be aware of that fact.)
Natives cannot take objective measure
of their own homeland, and a man whose potential-for-consciousness
is too much taken up by the indigenous thought population will never
have more than the foggiest notion of what he actually is.
A son asked his father: "Is knowing
the sang-froid about yourself all that it’s cracked up
to be?" and the old man replied:
"There’s a right peculiar thing
about that; before a man does, he imagines that such a knowledge
will bring him a ship load of benefits and mystical powers."
And after a period
of saying not more, the son said: "So? So how about after a
man has full, objective knowledge of himself -- what then?"
and the father said: "There’s where the peculiar part comes
in; nobody knows, ‘What then’, cause nobody ever says any more
about it after that. Peculiar, huh?!" -- but the lad had enough
experience with how the old man operated to know that the superficially
unresponsive reply to his question no doubt indeed addressed
the matter most satisfactorily. And I might add: same as happens
when the son and the father parts of the mind work with a special
cooperation that encourages their merging rather than helping
sustain their reflective separation. The later is necessary
for ordinary thinking, the former for seeing-through-all-of-this.
To be an enlightened captain of your
own mental ship is to be prepared to "go down with it" if it becomes
necessary.
To be an awakened captain of your
own mental ship is to realize that it is never going down for the
simple reason that it is going no where.
………(to reach fully "liberated captain"
status is to rip off all identifying trappings of your position,
and be able to aimlessly wander the deck naked. That is one way
of looking at it you know?! -- in fact just look how cluttered up
your deck is with rusted out, useless junk you never use.
Maybe that should be your new
rallying cry. Instead of, [for instance]: "Always remember yourself!"
you could be privately shouting: "Clear the decks!")
Everyone knows what’s going on,
but everyone’s thoughts come preprogrammed
to pretend that they don’t so as to make them exert effort to DISCOVER
what is going on,
but what’s happened is that the effort
thoughts now make to discover what you already know
keeps you from remembering that you
know it.
…..(see, that’s why your mamma was
always telling you every morning: "Wake up!")
There are two ways to go about trying
to understand the nature of thought; the hard way, and
the really hard way.
The first way won’t take you all
the way,
and the second one will take you
a whole lot further in a whole nother direction than you ever
thought you bargained for.
But I say: Hey! -- what the
hell IS freedom if it ain’t total and totally filled
with the unexpected! (least that’s what I say.)
Science Cliché Update:
Realizing-what’s-going-on is not only more surprising
than you presently imagine, it is more surprising than
you CAN imagine -- since it is your imagining
that keeps you from realizing what’s going on in the
first place.
As your mother back
in Jersey used to tell you as you wistfully gazed
westward; "Don’t go out to that place of professional
dreams-&-illusions -- stay here with
your family-produced amateur versions.
Okay I’ll tell
you again: You can’t stay home and NOT have
thoughts engage in incestuous affairs.
When you have
a cluttered deck,
that’s all you
can expect.
As regards anything you think about:
if you cannot lay it on a table then all it is is whatever you make
it out to be.
Oh, by the way: The above is about
all that a know-it-all man knows. Sweet, huh?!
Something Useful To Know: When
not holding something, always keep your thumb away from your hand.
Just as there is no, "out there" --
out there,
when it comes to the question of:
"What is behind thought?"
there is no, "back there" -- back
there.
…and by the way; that train you’ve
been waiting for isn’t coming -- you & everyone else missed
it as soon as Adam opened his mouth.
,,,,(and we’re talking cellular history
here, not biblical.)
They’re clanging the breakfast gong
-- I’m gone.
Jan
Don’t forget that when the word "I"
appears from time to time in these writings it is a fiction. I employ
it merely for expediency. It saves me from having to constantly
write such things as: "One man says so-&-so", or, "A father
told a son", and like that. So do remember and don’t be fooled:
if I say "I" , I don’t mean it……..it’s all fiction.
"ALL?" someone asks:
I warned you about being a
smart-ass.
Also:
A man getting-to-the-bottom-of-all-this doesn’t get shot
-- he does the shooting.
-- how else did you think he finally
gets his head clear?!………………………….anyway?!
Oh yeah: correspondence has started
coming in questioning whether such a person as jan actually exists,
or if he is just a figure invented by some unknown group of people
interested in this activity -- and I want to say that we vehemently
resent such a suggestion.
A son asked his father: "Would it
be better to treat my automatic thoughts as an enemy, or as a stranger?"
"Do I know you?" he replied.
"Billy called me a fool."
"Did you remember to thank
him?"
"But I AM Billy."
"Well, I guess he knows you
better than I do."
Everything in the mostly social, largely
nonessential mental world of man must be treated as though it is
much more important than everyone knows that it is.
A son writes and asks if he is the
smaller cellular figure in the larger father figure or the other
way around.
Well hell boy! -- I thought
you realized by now --- EVERYTHING’S the other-way-around.
And as long as we are on these
subjects: how do you know that your own "I" is not just an expedient
fiction?
The boy stood on the cluttered deck ,
and just looked at it."
J.
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October
2, 2000 finds me in Casablanca,
Morocco, an area popular in recent history with certain European/western
intellectuals-cum-mystics both for its drugs and reputed enlightened
ones. With the sunny skies, beautiful seas, and cool breezes, what
could be more appealing and reassuring to a man who has been bitten
by the virus of wanting to, "Wake-up-to" a new and totally extraordinary
state of consciousness. What a set-up: "Those-who-know", near-by
-- and if that doesn’t work -- the drugs! This is not said with
sarcasm or irony. There is an anticipation, an exhilaration, an
indescribable feeling of joyful relief present when the right man
first hears of the ancient idea that says man is mentally asleep
and living in a dimly lit, confusing world of day-time dreams, but
that through certain efforts it is possible for him to awake &
escape therefrom. Then comes the double excitement when he hears
rumors of such awakened & liberated men existing today and ready
to teach others how to follow suit. For the few people wired up
with an innate attraction to this notion, the initial thrill of
it all is, in all ways -- incomparable. For those without that certain
indigenous longing, the whole affair is simply beyond any verbal
description. And not because it is metaphysical, other-worldly,
spiritual or spooky in any other way. It is indescribable because
it is in fact, the source of all descriptions trying to turn and
examine itself; an undertaking for which, per force -- it can offer
no description. No word can define itself any more than any sound
can recite itself, or any scene sketch itself. Those with the addiction
to, "Enlightenment" have somewhere in the neural operations that
produce, "conscious thought" an anomalistic connection or three.
There are numerous cognitive neuroscientists who state their aim
to be an understanding of the origins of conscious thought, but
their interest is not that of the man who has heard about "being
asleep-&-waking-up", and now hungers for it. Their interest
is intellectual, and his, practical. They want to know -- he wants
to experience. The introductory excitement will only carry a man
so far, and most who ever feel an interest in the matter of, The
Great Liberation will, unless they have some exceptional initial
successes, soon abandon the affair, or else will align themselves
with some established, orderly structured, "School-for-Awakening",
and it become merely part of their on going social life. None of
the above is criticism of neuroscientists, or of dilettante "wake-uppers"
for there is nothing wrong in what they do, any more than there
is so regarding anything else going on in this universe. But it
does a man no harm to face up to the reality of whether he truly
is blood-bathed-committed to completing the adventure that originally
so captivated his consciousness, or if he is simply an arm-chair
traveler and dreamer of such adventures. Truth is, if asked -- most
people do not really know which they are, and there is nothing amiss
about that. But until it is clear to you, you do yourself best by
not trying to conclude your degree of determination via words to
yourself or anyone else. (As I have previously noted: A man trying-to-awaken
doesn’t answer questions -- he asks them.) Whatever
your interest in this kind of activity is -- that is what it is,
and there is no benefit in thinking about it, or fretting about
it further. What befuddles most people who make some effort intended
toward the goal is that neither drugs, nor "Enlightened Masters"
help. The inefficacy of dope, most can eventually accept, but the,
"Following-an-Awakened-guru-problem" presents a much greater challenge.
Most people can never escape therefrom, and not because they are
gullible or stupid. No. It is because it is their own cortical cells,
(thoughts), seeking knowledge OF themselves, and since same
obviously must not rest with them, or else they would already have
it and would not be looking for it. What then is the rational thing
to do but look to someone else’s cerebral cells,(thoughts),
which claim to have the knowledge. To the ordinary brain cells that
are responsible for conscious thought, nothing could be more reasonable,
but as supra noted, the few have some cells off on a frolic
of their own. The ultimate futility of the, "follow the guru approach",
plus an accurate detailing of what "being-asleep-and-wanting-to-wake-up"
is about, are both unwittingly summed up in this recent book title:
"How The Brain Learned To Talk." The full realization of what the
idea unintentionally laid out in these six words represents could
be a litmus test to distinguish the amateur sportsman in this instant
game from the dedicated professional. Read the title again and ask
yourself: What is corrupt with this question, (which some human’s
thoughts posed), and with thoughts’ inability to instantly recognize
its fallaciousness? Put simply: The question is, on its face --
stupid beyond belief, and if you do not realize why, then you have
what it takes to be a follower of some teacher or guru, because
you are too lazy to think through the plainly foolish idea that
the brain could learn to talk or do anything else. From whom did
it learn to talk? I give you my absolute assurance: see just that
one question through to its completion and you will not need any
teacher, book, or method-to-awaken. Push your thoughts all of the
way through that one question: "From whom did the brain learn to
talk?" and everything you have always wanted to know will be clear
to you.
Jan
One man had a dog in his yard whose
constant noise and pointless activity bothered him much.
Then after many years of being so
bothered he was much chagrined when he eventually realized that
it was not him, but the dog itself who was bothered by it.
When a man first hears about "waking
up" he believes that it is something he must " learn" how to
do.
He unwittingly thinks that the
matter will require that there be more to his thoughts than
is there now -- MUCH more,
when the fact is that there is
just barely as much there NOW as is there.
Trying to; stop thought, self-remember,
be mindful, (and the like), are all the same thing.
They are a man’s attempt to stare-the-dog-into-submission
---
--- which would be quite a feat, if
successful,
in that there is no one in the yard
but the dog.
Trying to "wake up" is the only
known effort in which the effort is all there is.
……(and while this may not be "literally"
true -- it’s so damn close it’s breath-taking.)
Ordinary men can have seizures of
indignation, demanding to know what some abstract painting, or piece
of music "means"?! as though everything must "mean something". But
note: men make no such demands of the natural world, (concerning
for instance; rivers, redwoods, mountains, or mountain lions), but
express such an expectation only regarding made-up matters of his
own mind. A "believer" in the teachings of Religion X insist that
those of Religion Y, "make no sense" Well hell, none of them make
any sense. It is not thoughts’ responsibility to MAKE sense, other
than when involved with their primary duties concerning survival.
The rest of the time, (which is now most of the time for
most people), thoughts are off-the-clock, are having recess, are
simply on-their-own and left to their own devices as to how to pass
the free time. And what they come up with is what you have going
on continually in your head. In that this is completely natural
and low fat, 99.8% of history’s twelve billion people accept this
as their normal state of thoughtful consciousness. A few do not
and apparently, cannot, and they, (taking the only identifiable
alternatives that seem even remotely related to what’s bothering
them), become involved with, "trying to wake up & achieve enlightenment",
and the other 99.8%, (the percentage of the disinterested increased
since the previous sentence), hear of the matter, they will demand
to know what, "being awake MEANS" .
Only those not awake
believe that "being awake" means something
…..oh, all right; I’ll tell what "means"
something;
believing that you are studying some
teacher or some teaching that will lead to awakening --- that, "means
something" --
it means that you will never catch
on to what is going on.
As long as you think that you
know what you know and that you know what you are doing, there
is no actual "meaning" to this;
It is just a hobby -- your mental
past time, about which there is nothing wrong, but it sure can
be helpful to finally face up to the facts as they be and as
they stare you right in the eye.
When you start out you think that
the difference between "being asleep" and "being awake" is probably
beyond measure.
But that is merely what you THINK,
or else have head that someone else has thought.
Fact: No man’s thoughts understand
what it is to be awake or asleep, and anyone who claims otherwise
is a bigger idiot than you are.
That is the good news -- and I
mean the REALLY good news.
…………. Now you figure out what
the "bad" is, relative to that.
One guy goes to this other guy, (who
has a certain "reputation"), and says to him: "My life stinks. Will
you tell me what I’m doing wrong?" and the second guy says: "I don’t
really have anything to say about such as that." And the first guys
says: But wait -- you haven’t let me TELL YOU ABOUT my life yet."
And the second guy immediately says: "Okay, okay, I’ll say something
to you, but only if you promise NOT TO tell me anything about your
life."
And as always, friends & neighbors;
an alert man will apply the instructive significance of this little
scene directly to his private setting of his own mind. Such a conversation
could have taken place between to men, but such a possibility was
not my motivation in making up the story -- it never is. If what
you read here you do not take in as a purely personal and individual
matter, then you are missing the real intention and potential. Go
back and reread the above paragraph and picture the entire scene
taking place solely in your head, and --- THERE is the purpose.
J.
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October
3, 2000 finds me
in Pusan, South Korea, part of a nation divided. With two separate
governments, and two different philosophies. A place that mentally
reminds me of man. A certain internal survey of man would reveal
two possible sources of him being dissatisfied. One is: how he physically
feels, including inspecifically diagnosed effects of his inherent
temperament, and secondly: the thoughts in his head -- and the more
that a man resides in the latter, the less recognition he gives
to the former. Although my description of the first source may seem
to be an overboard mouthful, all that was said was necessary in
that when men ordinarily tally-up & express how they "feel"
they take into account only instantly identifiable physical symptoms,
and not the life-long, ceaseless effect of their genetic temperament,
whose influence may, at any given moment, be asymptomatic. The
very idea of this
inherited, inescapable reality is not favored by men’s thoughts
in that it stands in direct opposition to the one professed and
apparent ability that marks their singularity. To wit: thoughts,
to operate with their normal and needed efficacy, must think that
they are free in a way unique in life. The thought producing cells
of the brain must think that they are not blindly tied to the banal,
instinctive whims of the body as are other organs & operations,
such as the heart & the pumping of blood. Thought
could not function
with the apparent freedom it does from the routine effects of the
body unless it believes that it in fact has such freedom -- and
when thoughts think that a certain thing is true about THEMSELVES
--- what is there comparable to say otherwise? -- nothing, (if you
don’t count me, of course.) Thoughts can accept the undeniable idea
that individual men can be of a particular "physical type", and
can even go so far as to momentarily admit that some people seem
almost to have been, "born" depressed, or aggressive, but any such
instances are taken to be statistically meaningless anomalies, and
certainly not the norm, (and the observation that spawned the admission
is immediately forgotten.) Put directly and personally: In your
thinking about yourself you do not take into consideration your
genetically determined temperament. We could verbally dance for
eternity debating this term, but I am pointing to, what-I-am-pointing-to
in words as stripped-down, and efficiently valid as possible. The
ordinary have throughout history made non-dangerous attempts to
acknowledge this reality about man as their thoughts coined such
terms as, "his soul -- his spirit -- or, his essence",
all sufficiently vague as to allow any interpretation you might
care to give them. But I put it to you: Any
reasonably alert & objective review
of your own life will reveal that as far back as you can remember,
you have always been of a certain, "temperament". Your mother was
constantly mentioning the fact as she would be scolding you, and
you were perhaps even given an unsolicited nickname by your childhood
peers that annoyingly nailed this very matter to the wall. I give
your readers of my words credit for already being past the common
place of blaming other people, or circumstances for you being dissatisfied.
For no matter what unseemly words another human being may speak
about you, or what nefarious end he may wish you, none of it will
cause you any dissatisfaction until certain quite physical, molecular
action takes places in certain cells. You are not "insulted" until
a specific chemical reaction takes place in specific cells in your
brain’s cortex that eventually produces in consciousness a thought
that says: "I have been insulted!" And whether any particular group
of words insults you or not is determined by your, innate genetic
temperament -- although -- reasoned, educated, sophisticated thought
will adamantly deny same. Ordinary
thought will insist
that if a certain group of words will insult a particular man that
his propensity to be thus insulted rests in his mind -- and on the
face of it this seems an intellectually sound conclusion. But it
is not. (In fact as long as we are here, go ahead and make note
that there is no such creature AS a satisfying "mental" conclusion.
There again, right there, IS thought’s unique ability -- to never
reach the end of its rope -- and which is also the aspect of its
operation that drives the .02% into the grand & open-ended,
private adventure of, "Trying to clear their head.") Put right in
your face: Thoughts are not liable to be "insulted" -- or, "flattered"
-- or depressed, or any other thing, save as how your controlling
cortical, cellular activity decides, and it doing so as dictated
by your overall genetic, physical temperament. Everyone
knows this -- and
everyone is forced by life’s thoughts to deny it. For an alert man
with the right ears, this information can be Liberation Day. To
realize quite clearly that contrary to what you have always believed
and believed that you "felt" -- your thoughts do not cause you any
dissatisfaction -- they simply get the blame same as does any messenger
of bad news. Your overall genetic temperament, (which is in fact,
"what you are") has no verbal voice. When it wants to be directly
heard, you get the message first hand -- you become physically ill.
During the less pressing times, temperament lets thoughts bring
you the news regarding how it feels. There is no mistake in blaming
your torpid state of consciousness ON consciousness, but do take
note that the thoughts endlessly passing through your brain that
constitute consciousness are for the most part meaningless and are
little more than nervous twitches of your physical temperament.
With a man who knows-what’s-going-on, depressing, or angry
thoughts appearing in his head are of no more practical concern
than are the size of the ears on his head. Although this sounds
"funny" until you personally understand it, one verbalizable response
to the above ears & ideas scene is: "What’re you gonna do about
either?!" (Note the use of the modifier, "practical" before the
word, "concern".) So
here it is in a nutcase: When
you are in a state of being dissatisfied it is because you are either
symptomatically, physically ill, or else you are merely experiencing
the ever-present, subtle reality of what you, by innate temperament,
are. And not a bit of it due to whatever be the thoughts in your
head at the time. To believe otherwise is to not have a clue as
to what being a living human being is actually about, as contrasted
to the dreams that thoughts think that it is about. .But if that
is the way you are, you are certainly in the majority, and assuredly
in the good company of six billion other ordinarily conscious, and
thought-centered human beings ……………but you will not be as conscious
as it is possible for some men to be.
And
now the news.
One
guy goes
to see this other guy, (who has a certain, "reputation"), and says
to him:
"For
years I have been trying to, ‘Wake-up’, but with no success. Can
you help me."
and
the other guy replied: "Indeed. Just have your ‘I’ take a seat right
here in this chair and I will awaken it forthwith."
At
the level at which conscious thought occurs there is nothing that
can be done to improve same.
(and
particularly not by the thoughts already there.)
If
vanity is your problem, it is not your biggest problem --- stupidity
is.
Critics
like to say that much of man’s misery comes from external, institutionalized
sources. They will say: "Culture often comes at too great a price."
pretending to ignore the inignorable fact that there is no such
thing as culture apart from man and his thoughts. That is all there
is to culture. So their unintentional note is that man’s thoughts
are often too costly for that which they appear to provide. (Hey,
for once somebody else said it -- not me.)
A
Useful Thing To Know: Any time you think that something is wrong
– something is wrong with you.
Fact:
Some things that humans say and do only make sense if you look at
them from a cellular level.
Hell
Fact: Hell -- hardly anything they do makes sense unless
you consider it cellularly.
Self
effacing is still selfing.
Whenever
this one man, (who would speak about that special subject),
would be asked to explain something he had said, he would always
request that the person asking for clarification describe in detail
what it was he had talked about that they did not understand. He
would repeat the request several times, always asking the person
to go into greater and greater detail regarding whatever the matter
was that they did not grasp originally, until after one of their
increasingly lengthy & complex replies he would finally seem
satisfied; and all would be silent for a moment between them………….
then he would hold his hands out, palms up toward the person and
say: "Well -- there you are!"
Fact:
With an alive dog in your yard, you will always be some times disturbed..
Fact:
Everyone has a yard.
Fact:
Everyone has a dog
Fact:
Everyone has a dog in their yard, and everyone is some times disturbed,
but
what everyone else does not realize is that the dog, the yard, and
being disturbed are all one in the same thing.
After
the bloody battle:
"The
thought stood on the burning deck,
whence
all but he had fled."
You
see; thoughts do not HAVE to flee a battle –
--
they ARE the battle.
Hence
all notions of victory or defeat are left to the boobs..
The
proof that you have no talent
is
if you discuss your talent.
A
boy asked his father: "How do you know when you are actually
beginning to, ‘wake up’?"
Once
upon a time during a cattle drive down New Mexico way, while
squatted around a campfire one night, a young man turned to
the old timer next to him and said: "Pop, you know you never
did answer my question about how you can tell that you are finally
beginning to wake up." The elder spit leisurely into the flames,
then replied: "Oh yes I did -- you didn’t mention it again for
twenty years did you?!"
People
who talk about their life, think about their life,
and
people who think about their life, fret about their life,
and
people who fret about their life are idiots, and deserve
whatever happens to them.
Okay
bailiff, bring in the next case.
Labor
statisticians say that within ten years 86% of the work force will
be employed in the entertainment industries,
but
I note that at least 86% of man’s conscious thought is already thus
engaged
This
in large part is the unrecognized source of the few’s special
annoyance.
Fact:
Everybody needs a hobby.
Fact:
Most people’s main hobby is in trying to appear to be like the mysterious
thoughts in their head say they should appear to be like.
Fact:
Most people have a thoroughly miserable hobby, but most don’t seem
to be bothered by it – so:
Fact:
What business is it of yours?
Trying
to permanently clear your head is the only activity known to this
universe in which winning or losing is only of interest to those
still losing.
Hint:
Quit even pretending that you are really in the game until you actually
know what you’re doing.
It
makes it all a lot more enjoyable, profitable, and eventually,
potentially -- manageable.
I’ll
tell you one more time: Nobody knows what they’re doing, but
the awakened man’s advantage is that he consciously faces the
fact.
In
fact, "faces it", Hell
--
he WALLOWS in it.
‘til
tomorrow -- roll
in it.
Jan
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October
4, 2000.
This Wednesday morning I am in a small village in Iraq not far from
Basra, an area in which many believe the history of civilization,
(from the western view), commenced. But a view that neither expert
nor ordinary thought ever pursues, but which should be of primo
interest to a man trying-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-things,
is one that takes a more radical look and ponders the cellular history
of man’s conscious thought, which is in fact the true source of
his civilization. (Civilization being the behavioral and material
artifacts that mark man’s change from a non thinking & speaking,
strictly instinctive creature to one whose life is distinguished
by its thought & speech based orientation.) To me, "the history
of man’s civilization" is the history of his cortical cells’ search
for their origin and struggle to objectively perceive themselves.
Every religion’s holy book begins with a story explaining man’s
appearance, which routine thoughts pretend to accept on the fairy-tale-literal-level,
but which I plainly see as merely sensual, grosser reflections of
unseen efforts by the brain cells responsible for thought
to explain to themselves their origin. Once you realize this, Greek,
Roman, Indian, Chinese, Norse mythology & the like, offer to
tell you more than ordinary students of same ever suspect. While
the primary purpose of human thought, (from any basic perspective),
is to improve man’s chances of survival, and collaterally make his
time here more physically pleasant, another normally overlooked
activity of thought is its continual scrambling to explain itself
to itself. Aside from the alterations he makes to the physical environment
for the purposes supra noted, you can see all of the other, non
tangible components of man’s invented & constructed civilization
as representations of his brain cells’ metaphysical search. All
art, learning, literature, and religion. (Oh yeah, and wanting to
"wake up".) I say that any "serious thoughts" that any human being
ever has concerning matters that you cannot hold in your hands are
in actual fact, thoughts that the man’s thoughts are having regarding
themselves. E.g.: a man does not, "speculate on the nature of God",
(a concept invented by men’s thoughts), but rather, when
such is said by ordinary minds to be occurring, what is actually
going on is that the cells in the man’s brain responsible for his
conscious thought and speech are, on a more basic, non conscious
and non verbal level, speculating on their own nature. Man did not
invent "God" -- man’s thoughts did. Man’s thoughts did not invent
"God" -- his cortical brain cells did, but the natural scope of
a man’s consciousness does not normally take into account the ceaseless
cellular activity going on within him that indeed IS HIM. Ordinary
conscious thought is observably not set up to have any ongoing awareness
of itself, much less of the true ventriloquist’s hand stuck up its
backside, (the cells responsible for conscious thought.) Every,
"Classical work of literature & fiction," no matter the language,
era, or culture, is always seen, even by routine critics, as being
allegorical; as being, "a metaphorical representation of some deep,
hidden aspect of human existence not normally a part of conscious
awareness", and an observation not without merit. But I say that
all metaphors, fables, myths, and allegories are simply the best
descriptions cortical cells can currently offer consciousness concerning
their literally, IN-describable, backstage activity of trying
to trace their own genesis, and understand their own nature. From
one quite valid view, every worthwhile thought any man ever has,
(exempting those that result in such products as insulin, the oven,
the furnace), are metaphorical; they appear to be about one thing
-- but are actually about another. Thoughts do not exist or speak
without appropriate neural activity at the cellular level, and activity
at that cellular level does not manifest itself other than through
thought. Thought does not "understand" what it thinks, and
it never will; it literally has no such capacity. Contrary to the
assumption accepted by the everyday & expert alike, thought
is not a "thing", but the medium for a thing -- for certain
cellular activity in our brain. When note is made thereof, every
ordinary person on this planet admits that they know it is cellular
activity of a wide variety that keeps them alive, and that without
the ceaseless work done at the cellular level they understand that
their liver would not function, their heart would not beat, their
lungs would not breathe, and their brain would not think. But immediately
after making such an admission -- a man’s thoughts will drop the
matter like an anvil, never voluntarily to face it again. The best
that ordinary men’s consciousness can do is to ponder notions of
Gods; of supernatural powers & entities; of extraterrestrial
visitations & fertilization; of sub conscious & pre conscious
staging areas for conscious thought, and any other ideas that could
be construed to have potential metaphorical significance relative
to the cells’ search for their own roots & identity. I say that
behind the ancient ideas of a man’s consciousness being in a state
of semi slumber, and being subject to an awakening to a greater
degree of awareness than is the norm, is nothing less than the brain
cells who are responsible for conscious thought who are themselves
trying to "awaken" to a more comprehensive state of awareness. If
you are one of the very few actually in the trenches trying to pull-this-thing-off,
you are in good company -- even if you struggle alone -- you are
in good company. The very good company of your own brain cells who
are also struggling to pull-it-off. ……(I mean, Hey! -- who’d
you think you are anyway?!)
Just
consider: once you realize all of this for yourself, what better
friends could you ask for to be on your side and helping you
in this most extraordinary and delightful of adventures --
--
life itself trying to, "figure itself out" -- through you!
A
chicken inquires: "Which came first: the question or the answer?"
Thoughts
thought of frequently, (which you think of as "important"), now
have the opposite effect of their original intention.
Everyone
has a boss.
Yours
is a combination of your instincts & thoughts.
The
boss of your instincts & thoughts are the cells responsible
for their actions,
and
the boss of the cells -- nobody knows,
although
the ordinary are forced to pretend that they do.
……..(Aren’t
you glad you’re not ordinary.
Being
of ordinary mind is no bargain, but trying to change the situation
without knowing what you’re doing makes a distress sale at a firehouse
seem tame compared to a ventriloquist attempting to kill himself
by pouring poison down the dummy’s throat.
A
son asked his father: "How much time does it take an average
person who sets off in the search for enlightenment to ever
find it?" --
"Oh……I’d
say about an average amount."
See,
here’s the point: if you are just the average person who
decides that you would like to, "wake up", (whatever that
might be), then nothing will ever come of it, other than
the notion’s ability to alternately entertain & annoy
you
I
say to you: Why be just the average, "Seeker Of The Secret"?
--
It
costs no more to go whole-hog-&-upper-berth.
And
from the back of the room I hear a voice shout out; "But
how do you DO that?" a question I will be glad to answer:
You do it by not giving any thought to what any other person
says, does or thinks;
Then
once you’ve trimmed down and are fighting fit you can go
on to the greater challenge of
not
giving any thought to what the thoughts in your own brain
have to say.
To
even qualify as a, "Beginning Seeker" you must be able
to recognize the clear distinction between the endless
thoughts that just magically appear in your head, and
those which, (on rare occasions), are there due solely
to your own purposeful effort.
After
that you know what to ignore in your head,
and
how to replace the ignorable
with
the adorable.
You
will never solve your roach infestation problem as long as you believe
that there is something in your personal past that is responsible
for the situation.
One
man has come to the conclusion that "stupidity" is just a metaphor
for something much worse.
One
guy went up to this other guy, (who carried a certain "reputation"),
and said: "For a long time now I’ve wanted to seriously pursue the
thing of, ‘waking up’, but my life is always filled with so many
problems that I just can’t find the necessary time to devote to
the task -- and I feel HORRIBLE for not doing better. Can you help
me?"
"Yes."
he replied; "Stop imagining that you are suffering over this. The
‘problems’, as you call them, in your life are not lumps in your
mattress, they are the curvatures normal to an ordinarily led life,
and unless a man achieve the awakening he should not even
call these problems -- ‘problems’ , for doing so only reinforces
thoughts’ illusionary belief that something can be, ‘done-about-them’.
All
in all my friend, my best advice to you is to not concern yourself
with either matters about which you can do nothing, or those which
in truth, are really of no concern to your life." and the
first guy said: "That seems a pretty tall order; how do I properly
recognize the two?" and the other guy replied: "It’s actually easier
than that. You don’t have to recognize two -- they’re one in the
same."
See
-- that’s why average mystics never get anywhere with the mysticism-thing
,
the
average brain doesn’t come with cells prepared to hear such music
as that, and then -- dance to it.
Come
on gang --- get those legs up in the air!
Jan
One
guy asked another guy who was reputed to know about such things:
"Is
there some way to tell if I am suitable material for ever, ‘waking
up’?" and the second guy replied:
"Indeed
there is. I will make a certain statement, and you check to see
if you instantly realize that it could be true, and if you find
the possibility hilarious."
"Okay,"
the first guy said, "Give me the statement."
"Everyone
in the world is awake but you."
Only
a man seeking the secret can speak a language understandable
by other men on the search --
and
only a man who knows the secret can speak a language
not understandable by any of them.
Once
everyone knew a secret.
Most
forgot it.
A
few didn’t.
J.
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October
5, 2000. I
am back at my private lodge, whose location shall go unnoted. (I
will tell you this: it is just down the road from the clandestine
home of, "The Great Mystical Brotherhood Of Enlightened Masters
Who Surreptitiously, Really Run The World and Who Exclusively Know,
‘The Secret’." In fact, they lease the property they are on from
me. [We will not go into the kind of tenant they are.]) The thoughts
of those born with the quiescent interest in clearing-their-head
& seeing-what’s-actually-going-on are as subject to squirrelly,
(I’m sorry, I meant to say, potentially questionable), ideas as
are the religious and patriotic. When the few with the innate attraction
to the notion of obtaining a state of mind different from the one
you came in with undertake their quest, both the idea of there existing
such a group of extraordinary men already of such mind, and of them
being in possession of the secret knowledge that makes the change
possible, both, on their face, seem immediately plausible, (to say
the least). But if I may be frank with you, (you don’t mind if I
call you Frank), the most formidable, the most difficult to deal
with, Hell, the damn-near impossible to even SEE, obstacle is the
brick wall of artificial-fog-and-prerecorded-aural-distraction that
hides itself confidently within the idea that a man can, "Know something."
As always, exempt from our conversations is anything you can hold
in your hand, but other than as concerns physical objects: Nobody
knows anything. Nobody knows anything about anything that cannot
be touched. Man knows nothing about his mentally funded, secondary-world
of civilization and all things therein. And of paramount significance
to the few trying-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-things is the fact that
nobody knows anything about thought -- but then, (believe it or
buy a Buick!) -- it gets even better! The sweet center of this private
treat is this: The thing in man that, "knows" is the thoughts in
his head, nothing more, and nothing else. It is thoughts that can
know things about the physical world and the objects that are in
it -- but -- when thoughts turn to the inner, non physical world
of man’s mind, in which the only objects present are themselves,
and then announce that they also "know" things about that realm
and thus themselves -- well, that one little, apparently
harmless statement, Frank, is nothing less than the opening bell,
declaring that the Stock Exchange Of Distracted Consciousness is
ready for business. (For the mystics: It marks the commencement
of man’s sleep.) There are many ways to describe what, "being asleep
in consciousness" is, but here is a General Motors offering at penny
stock prices: "Being asleep" is, "Thinking that you know something."
That is the alfa and romeo of it. That, from top-to-bottom, front-to-back,
side-to-side, is what makes up, "being asleep, deluded, and in the
dark" -- thinking that you "know" something. Such a belief
is pure foolishness. Nobody knows anything. This is not a joke,
and I do not say it metaphorically, allegorically, or in any other,
"orically". Nobody knows anything about man’s intangible world for
one simple & plain reason: his thoughts MADE UP everything in
that realm, and thus there is nothing TO BE known about them. ……other
than the fact that they are "made up." My literary theatrics of
capping & underlining words is a wasted effort in that everyone
already knows full well the reality of what I am saying. It’s just
that the cellular activity that produces conscious thought in man’s
brain is not organized to hold a continuing awareness thereof. And
there is the additional problem of thought having to believe that
it "knows" things about its own self-created universe to properly
function therein. In other words: Everyone’s thoughts KNOW that
they do not "know" anything about the non physical, invisible, world-of-stuff
that they themselves have created, but thoughts can only be conscious
of knowing this for the briefest of moments, and only then if they
are unwittingly led into it. Everyone, professional and layman alike,
knows that nobody "knows" why individual men are as they are, and
everyone, from sociologist to political pundits, knows that nobody
"knows" why humans collectively behave as they do, and everyone,
the pious and otherwise, knows that nobody "knows" anything about
a so-called, "God", or, "a life after death", and you can pick any
other example you like from man’s non-physical-worlds-of-reality,
and the same is true -- and obviously so -- for just the briefest
of moments. As long as you think that you know something you will
think that there is something TO know -- and you are thus, asleep
and most seriously confused. And as long as you think that there
is, "something-to-know" you will think that you know something,
and you are as far from comprehending the simple reality of life
as is possible for a human being to be. You can know how a carburetor
is constructed, or how a soufflé is made, or how to remove an appendix,
but neither you nor anyone else knows anything about the other unique,
thought-constituted world of man. Nobody "knows" anything about
philosophy, psychology, art, music, politics, literature, history,
or theology; they are all simply ideas that men’s thoughts -- thought-up.
And anything that men identify as, "newly acquired knowledge" in
one of such areas will merely be new thoughts that thoughts have
thought up about the subject. All of this pretending-to-know-things-about-a-world-that-man’s-thoughts-have-made-up
is an activity necessary for man’s mortal existence -- and to his
thoughts, this world is as real as is it needs to be. But it is
a world that no one can see, smell, hear, taste or touch, and about
this, imaginary-reality, no one knows anything -- not even
the teensiest, weensiest little bit. No one CAN know anything about
it because there is nothing TO know about the non existent.
Don’t you begin to get it?! There is nothing there. Nothing other
than your thoughts THINKING THAT -- something is there. And I say
that even they know better……….except -- what can they do?!
They’re apparently locked solidly into this game of, necessary-pretend
which they themselves were compelled to create in the first place.
Everyone, (read, the ordinary), everyone is required to pretend,
amongst-themselves, and when, by-themselves,
that they, "know" something. This pretending about secondary, man-made-up
affairs is necessary to keep this necessary, secondary form
of reality afloat. But it is all nothing but a necessary illusion,
and all that people are doing when they say that they "know" this-or-that
about it is -- pretending that they do. To be "Awake, Enlightened,
and Liberated" is to no longer pretend that you know anything. Nobody
knows, or has ever known what, "being asleep" means, and nobody
knows what, "being awake" means. I tell you again, and it is not
a joke, it is not a metaphor, and it has no hidden meaning: Nobody
"knows" anything. The only difference is that an awakened
man knows that he doesn’t.
And
there you have your -- clear-headed man.
"Frank
-- it doesn’t get any sweeter, or simpler than this.
Grab
it while you have the chance."
Jan
A
person living alone can easily keep their house neat.
Not
so with two.
(I
think the point is obvious.)
A
question you could ask yourself: Why do only creatures with thoughts
show signs of malfunctioning?…….
…………by
their own definition, I might add..
When
given a pair of ugly shoes, this one chap wore them on his head……so
that he wouldn’t have to look at them.
(I
believe the point is obvious.)
The
nature of thought is for it to think that man’s nature should be
changed.
The
mind believes that it is charged with the responsibility of altering
the body’s instincts.
Another
example of thoughts having way too much free time.
When
this one particular subject that human thought made up finally got
a good ear full of what men were later saying about it,
It
got so mad that it damn near quit existing.
(Well
-- who DOESN’T immediately get that one?!)
Many
people have long been intrigued with the idea that man has," lost
his true nature," and needs to somehow, reclaim it. But attempted
"turning-back" is never operational, (in case you’ve yet to notice),
so a better description would be to say that: Man might need a NEW,
"true nature."
To
a man who-knows-what’s-going-on: Any idea is as good as another.
(I’m
sure the efficiency of this is apparent.)
As
long as you think that you know anything, you will know that you
have "problems."
Not
knowing that you don’t know anything is the cause of all your problems.
You
live, you die. Everything in between is just you thinking about
it.
An
unintentional funny: A patriot scoffing at someone’s devotion
to a religious cult.
And
the point being? ---
Behind
every nothing is just more of the same.
…………grab
it while you have the chance.
J.
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