JAN’S FRESH REAL NEWS
                           © 2001: Jan Cox
                                           ************************************************

October 1, 2001.
 
 
 
 

Mind fulfills its essential functions by focusing on details,
but you cannot both see what is going on and dwell on details.
This tear in the carpet alone is sufficient to trip up most who try to
walk to the door and open it to let in fresh air.
It is a built-in trap that grabs itself;
it is like being handed the secret instructions on how to
see what is going on and the printing is so small that you
have to squint to read it and what it says is: “Don’t squint.”

The feature of the brain which men call mind is curious;
men want to understand what is really going on in areas of life
which seem automatically to them, inexplicable, unnatural, even,
and this is true in both science and psychology;
some men want to understand volcanoes,
but everyone is puzzled by social upheavals,
and truth is, men find it easier to comprehend what causes the explosion of far away stars than they do what produces
mortal outbursts in their own neighborhood or family.
They look  --  they have been looking at themselves for as long as they have been studying plants and the weather,
but ordinary & professional men alike understand no more about the forces which drive man beyond the instincts for survival,
that they search for,
than they did when they first began their looking.

The world of matter is understood through attention to detail;
understanding the world of man is barred by such an approach;
in his study, a physicist zeros in on a particle,
a man trying to make sense of human culture zeros in on
a particular episode (usually one which he finds disturbing);
the physicist may come to a satisfying conclusion,
such a man --  never.

Mind is born squinty-eyed;
the physicist's success is dependent on it,
as is men’s tolerance for being part of something which they
have the ability to think about --
but not to think about to a satisfying conclusion.

Outside the visual range of squinty-eyed-consciousness
is a place beyond, true-or-false;
in the study of matter, it is squinty-eyed-consciousness which can
lead to a determination of whether a theory thereabout is true or false, which is the essence of a satisfying conclusion,
but in man’s study of his own non material cultural life,
squinty-eyed-consciousness always produces in the observer
the sensation that the activity being looked at is either
proper or unnatural, and the proffered explanations for its existence, either valid or bogus:
an exercise that never satisfies.

Outside the automatic realm of pure physical instinct,
the notion of: right & wrong; natural & unnatural, or true & false
is materially meaningless;
any meaning that any cultural activities have to a man
are simply those which his mind gives to them,
an act itself, neither proper or improper,
(unless you want to understand more than the rest of humanity does.
[And it can be useful to note that not only do men
not have a clue, but that they do not want a clue]).

The already divided mental areas of true & false; right and wrong,
into which everyone is born,
are made even more captious by them being given
an emotional component;
by life directing men to treat their cultural inventions
and conventions with a seriousness for which there is no
visible justification;
whether you pay homage to the local god or not, provides no food,
yet men are made to talk and often act as though ‘twere otherwise,
via the collective position that it is a man’s spiritual duty to do so.

To get men to submit to a non-physical responsibility --
with no material benefit  --
required that such activity simply be arbitrarily accorded a significance that no one sees extant, and to help them tolerate their participation in the game, life arranged for them to pretend that they thought these actions contained within themselves, some supernatural significance which men cannot presently comprehend, but submit to them
simply on the basis that such are the right things to do,
and the ideas promoting them  –  the true ones.

It is not confined to one cultural facet, but is present in politics, religion, art, social position, education:
anything man cannot physically touch is wholly defined by the idea of it being either true or false, (which ultimately is to say: right or wrong; proper or forbidden).

Every single thing that to man’s mind, exists,
and which is entirely a product of his mind,
to exist must be deemed by his mind to be either: true or false;
proper & valid or useless & unnatural;
without any notion of true or false,
corn & the stomach’s enjoyment thereof can survive;
not so, political philosophies & the mind’s pleasure therein,
and above all, not so, any of man’s ideas about his invisible self.

Men see no morality involved with the actions of gravity,
but are made to do so regarding the cultural ones they devise & pursue;
no law or theory concerning the physical world is seen to be
morally right or wrong,
but all mental & social ones ordinary men measure life by
are based on the premise of them having a moral imperative;
men abstain from certain healthy foods;
share their wealth with strangers due to their minds acceptance of
ideas which say that doing so is a moral (incomprehensible) obligation
with ultimate (imperceptible) benefits.

Imaginary-giraffe-in-a-matchbox: to have any potential for seeing what life is about, you must quickly get past the meaningless distraction of there being any morality to anything non-physical,
and prosecute, cold bloodedly the mental matter of, true & false
to its, “Okay!  I confess!” conclusion.

Whatever mind, in the usual course of its operation,
turns its attention to,
it will focus on details in an attempt to arrive at an idea which
seems to it to be a true explanation of the affair:
you hear a claim that praying to the gods can cure illness,
and your mind will announce that this is either true or false,
(let us say your thoughts declare it false),
then you read about what appears to be a scientific study in which
mere verbal supplications to an unseen power resulted in
the visible disappearance of a malignant growth,
and your mind is taken aback:
can this be?……no, it cannot be!…..and yet the finding came from a renowned medical researcher, and an atheist, at that;
so --  could it be true that prayer can cure physical illness,
or based on everything factually understood by science,
is it unquestionably false  --   not conceivably possible?

And no one can definitively answer the question  ---  and yet,
there is an answer.

But it is completely beyond the normal operations of the thinking
with which man is naturally born.
While there is no shortage of other examples you could employ:
(is man inherently good or evil; is there a purpose to life;
does man have freedom-of-will?),
this one fits our purpose admirably;
so stop reading this for a moment;
get in your best, most stable and intelligent mental state,
and calmly ponder the question as objectively as possible,
(just for a few seconds):
“Can prayer cure a person’s physical sickness?”

You find that, far beyond your immediate, willful control,
the thoughts that, by birth, constitute your mind
either automatically accept or reject the truth of the idea,
yet neither satisfy, for if your thoughts deny it,
how do they explain the scientific finding to the contrary?
(and so on down an infinite sloppy road).

There is an answer to every one of man’s historical,
“unanswerable questions,”
but it resides in a territory that is operationally unknown to
ordinary mentation, regardless of a man’s I.Q., education,
or professional expertise, all of which measure life within the  strict boundaries of their conclusions being either: true or false.

Without a clear, perceivable distinction between what is true
and what is not, man’s thinking would be totally useless;
mental consciousness would in no way benefit his survival,
but if to this thing you are truly born,
you will never fulfill your potential to see that
to which collective humanity is blind
if you remain mentally grazing in the moot field of: true or false,
for even though thoughts may not be making such a distinction at any given moment in a particular situation,
the mind itself runs off of the unending, flipping & flopping of:
"Well, on one hand this could be so, but on the other hand, it can't be,"
but there is a third hand that is never seen which is the one that can
grab itself and put an instant halt to this endless & meaningless chase.

You are hungry: true, (with no need for any comment or analysis);
you wonder if there is a purpose to live, other than just eating?!,
and your thoughts immediately respond to their own question by saying that there either is some metaphysical purpose, or that there is not,
but neither of these is correct, nor are they not correct,
and this is not merely a verbal grab-ass-game,
in the land of clarity  ---  it is literally so,
but not so that can be literally described.

All that is verbally available and potentially useful
is the straight ahead statement that:
nothing you ever think of that has no physical existence
has any characteristic of being: true or false:
prayer is not true or false: reputation is not true or false;
good and evil is not true or false, (and on the grown-up’s-menu is
the more adult dish of: true and false are not true or false).

Remind yourself, and be fully assured that
this is not simply sophomoric, playing-with-words;
the relentless struggle to make your thinking see beyond the fences which stake out the mental fields of: true and false,
is no mere game………….well…..it is,
but for a few, its potential pay off is inestimable.
 
 

        Once you find your way there and stand in the mental acreage
                      beyond the fenced in areas of true and false,
                                     everything becomes clear:
                           it is the mouth that can swallow itself,
    leaving nothing behind but a silent, polite burp of total contentment.
 
 

                                                          J
 
 
 
 
 

...note; even a miraculous mouth must be periodically attended.