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Summary by TK

Jan Cox Talk 138, Dec 20, 1984, runtime 1:47

  [The "Party of Life" analogy. 3 types of guests: 1st group: loud, unruly, boisterous erratic, unpredictable, fitful.    2nd group: stubborn, stodgy, boring tiresome. 3rd group: aloof, indifferent, reserved, disinterested, remote, unsociable. Evidence of "birds of a feather flock together" and "opposites attract." Both are true at the Big Party--all possibilities exist. Also, no party is all fun to everybody and no party is a complete drag to all. Must not become engaged with any one group, as OAI consciousness must normally function. Cannot separate "people" from the "party". To speak of the party is to speak of the partygoers too. No one sees the party in toto.  Nobody can leave the party (except the dead). No partygoer is isolated, nor are the basic type/groups integral entities. OAI consciousness provides the illusory necessary division of the seamless party. Even if you hide behind the drapes to isolate yourself; so that no one can see you...you can see you. Cannot be isolated. This Thing is to See the whole party--not just the partygoers. To struggle to see the party vs. the partygoers produces a kind of familiarity and comfort with the party itself. ]
  [The "placebo effect"--is like a pill given to entertain the partygoer. Fear: psych. fears are de riguer, not RED Circuit fear...fear of injury. Fear related to the placebo effect; it only exists at that level--the "what" level. Only "whats" can fear other "whats." No fear exists above Line-level. There is no profitable way to track the horizontal past for "reasons why"--birth is the only reason why. ]
  [Why is it that historically, Life drives man to look for redeeming qualities in manifest evil? Example of Stalin: he loved his mother even though he was an intolerable tyrant. What purpose is being served in the overall ripening of Life in this? Is it even possible for ordinary consciousness to see redeeming (C) qualities in the heart of D? Why are the "money driven" objects of extreme disapproval? The physical transfer of money/profit is not the optimum human energy exchange. Solitary act; profit motive only; all take, no give. The other extreme is paradoxically highly approved of, i.e., hermits and saints, yet this also is not an optimum energy exchange for Life. The topological extremes resemble each other--solitary acts. Saints and scrooges. ]
  [The only way to properly deal with the "blahs and blues" is True Rebellion. Rebellion for rebellion's sake. Must create your own new pressure. Increase the stakes. E.g., a real kind of pressure: every Sat. for 3 hrs. for 10 months, live as another person. Go to shopping malls, bowling alley, etc. dress and act differently. No excuses for non peformance...it is a giving in to the natural tendency for shocks to diminish in intensity with time. Cannot acquiesce to "shock-entropy". Connection to the value of relationships in the Group: you should not be so readily inclined to end your relationship with another in the Group; you are passing up a splendid opportunity to learn something. Should attempt to gain insight into what the initial attraction was vs. what now is the disrupting conflict.]
  [What purpose is the belief in life after death serving? The longed-for Reunion with the "force majeur". Return to purity. Is there any real truth in it? ]
  [Neuralize "what would you do if J. stopped doing This Thing?" Recognize distinct voices in you of relief. Compare with voices for continuance of This Thing. ]
  [Gospel song lyrics: "Some glad morning when this life is o'er, I'll fly away." Every mortal dream and belief can be fit into the last phrase. 3 words, 4 syllables. E.g., "I'll buy a car"--; "I'll take a nap"; --"I will get rich" etc. ]
  [Try to find an exception. Try to "do the new" --get ahead of the flow, esp. musically. ]
  [Reading of comments and observations. ]
  [TASK: Design a magic trick with Yellow Circuit involvement. Not an illusion, a physical tricking of the eyes only, but a trick of the mind. Example of card deck with Jack of spades as only card; 3 people draw cards independently and you guess which card they drew.

Transcript

THE PARTY

Document:  138,  December 20, 1984
Copyright(c) Jan M. Cox, 1984          

     Let me tell you about a party.  It's a very special party, including three major types of guests.  The first group would appear to be rather rowdy, disorderly, unruly, unpredictable, erratic and fitful.  The second group at this party could be labeled stubborn, stodgy, stagnant, boring, tedious and tiresome.  The third apparent group of people at this party appear to be rather aloof, indifferent, distant, reserved, remote, even unsociable.

     What ordinary consciousness is constructed to do, what it wants to do, is to look upon the party-goers and divide them up into the three groups I just described.  Your own internal voices might say, "I'm not going to talk politics with that group of people in the far corner.  I can tell, just by looking at them, that they're into wrestling and pickup trucks.  They wouldn't have anything to contribute to an intelligent conversation."  Or ordinary attention might focus in, on other places in the party room and see people talking about music, sports, philosophy, physics or fashion.  Perhaps listening to a group talking about music, your voices react:  "Now I like music, but I can tell, just by looking at those people, they're not going to play music.  They're going to sit around and talk about the impact of Mozart on the contemporary uses of the 12 tone scale in modern day chamber works."  All of this is humanity in action, human consciousness at work.

     At times, you may glance around the party room and find your attention drawn to an area wherein, apparently, there's a living example of birds of a feather flocking together.  Two months later, two years later, a split second later, to continue along the same proverbial lines, you might turn around and find what would appear to be an example of opposites attracting.  "I can't believe Mike is over there talking with Sue and they look like they're having fun.  Mike's the most popular guy around and Sue's so dull.  Well, they say opposites attract.  I guess it's true."  At Line level, these two realities are, in some way, conflicting, for how can both be true?  They reflect the variable reality of ordinary consciousness, a reality that changes from moment to moment and from person to person.  However, at this party, all apparently conflicting realities, all possibilities exist simultaneously.

     Let me also point out to you that no party is all fun to everybody and no party is a complete drag.  Everyone should have some awareness of this, once it's pointed out.  You can apparently be around the same kind of people, be invited to a party, year after year, on a certain holiday, with the same people and the party is never the same.  The party can apparently have a certain tone to it, then you leave to make a phone call, and return, say, five minutes later, and it's as though something happened to the party.  Ordinary consciousness can't see it, but something is always happening at the party.  As long as the party has any life at all, it must be in motion.

     The party room is the universe.  Within it everything is accounted for.  Regardless of where ordinary attention is drawn, from moment to moment -- first here, then there, apparently directed toward the aloof person in the corner, or to the fitful one by the piano -- it is always held by one thing at a time.  And consciousness has a judgement about whatever it is attracted to, at that particular moment.  For everyone, at Line level, no party, including this one, is always fun for any of the individual participants, but neither is the party a total drag.  If you were one of the ordinary party-goers, a forced participant, and, "Here comes Mr. and Mrs. Boring" (as far as you're concerned), the feeling is, "Good grief, why do I always get stuck talking with them?  This party is a drag."  You have no continuing knowledge that two minutes before, you were on the other side of the room, leaning over the piano and chatting with Miss Excitement.  And then the feeling was, "Boy, I'm I ever glad I'm here.  This is the best party yet."  Note that ordinary consciousness cannot connect nor blend the two encounters with each other.  Continual pulsating awareness, like the steady, timely ticking of a clock, makes one comment, one judgement, after another, but can never connect them.  "What a drag, will I live through this!  This party is going to drive me nuts!" to "I'm having so much fun, I think I'm going to explode. Uh oh, here comes Mr. and Mrs. Boring again."  Your own attention, as well as everyone else's, can make one, and only one judgement at a time, simultaneously clouding out all other possibilities.  However, with each pulsating moment, humanity's collective Line level awareness is represented; hence, all possibilities exist simultaneously.

     There is a continual flow that ordinarily cannot be seen.  This flow IS the party.  This flow IS Life, the total party, not just the apparent party-goers.  Line-level consciousness does not see that the party is not the participants.  But you cannot separate the party-goers from the party.  At Line level, you are back to the world of nouns, back to a level where separation into this or that is the only way any thing can be perceived.  Consider the various temporary descriptions I have given you, of everything from forces to flows, to inclinations.  Let me remind you, despite the necessity for me to fragment the whole into these mappings, that there is no such thing as an isolated component of any whole, running loose in Life, by itself.  There is no such thing as an isolated, pure force, of absolute evil or goodness, for example, nor is there an absolute rowdy, stodgy or indifferent type of guest at the party.  My descriptions simply provide one more mapping, to help point you in a direction, otherwise inaccessible.

     Let's return to my party.  You're born into the party.  And you can't get out.  Nor can anyone else.  There are side rooms that you can wander into, but you cannot leave the party room.  No one can.  As an aside, can a few of you see a connection between my description of the three groups of people and the Three Forces?  Just as the party-goers literally, cannot leave the party room, neither can the Three Forces.  There is no way that you can observe someone standing in the corner and say, "Now, there is an aloof person," or, "There is a fitful person."  It takes as least two people, for him or her to be fitful. Someone has to be observing the other person being fitful.  There is no such thing as a person standing in the corner by himself or consider that even if I granted you that they could exist, they cannot be identified.  No one in the room is fitful, aloof, distant, stodgy, whimsical or unpredictable by themselves -- the observer must also be there.  But, of course, you're never in the party room alone.  There's nowhere to hide.  Even if you were to slip into a quiet corner or hide behind a tapestry, some one will see you standing by yourself.  Let's take this one step further, just in case any of you thought there was a secluded corner of the room I overlooked, which is, by the way, what hermits attempt to do.  If there was place to hide out, and you went there, and thought to yourself, "Nobody can see me," then you would see you.

     There is no way to divide up the party, no way to separate the party-goers from the party, even though this is precisely what consciousness ordinarily does and must do.  Likewise, there is no such thing as an isolated C Force or D Force in operation, despite humanity's argument to the contrary, such as being able to absolutely distinguish between good and evil or right and wrong.  Remember, all possibilities exist simultaneously, and any one man's perception of evil, is seen by another as good, and totally overlooked by others. 

     If you could mathematically or verbally, take any combination of the descriptions of the party-goers, do you See that every kind of social interaction between people would be accounted for?  Look around and you might see a stodgy person trying to dance with a very fitful person.  Perhaps one is in the lead mode and the other is trying to follow and then the two reverse their roles.  Or you note a stodgy person, a fitful person and an aloof person clustered together and they seem to be dancing.  Of course by dancing, I mean anything you can think of, that humans are capable of doing.  At my party, you'll see all three types engaged in every possible permutation of human activity. 

     Ordinary consciousness is designed to believe that there is a way to separate the party-goers from the party, to separate reality.  Only at Line level do people believe that there are places in the party room, where things are running more agreeably, more smoothly, and other places where they're not.  The observation that the party would be a lot more enjoyable, "If only those rowdy people would calm down, quit drinking so much and turn down the music," may be your observation, but it's not the observation of a rowdy person.  Then someone else might observe that, "The trouble with this party is those party poopers over there.  They want us to turn off the music and discuss, can you believe it, politics."

     Can you see that what has been referred to as a supernatural, superconscious state of awareness, is simply being able to stand right in the midst of the party, look around, and understand THE party.  You look around and you See, you experience the party, not the participants.  For those first blinding moments you no longer see the rowdies, the old stodgies nor the aloof.  You can See the whole party, undivided.

     You cannot rely upon the ordinarily conceived division of people into the kind of groups I have described.  Nor can you rely upon Line-level consciousness for it's attempts to explain why, there can be birds of a feather flocking together and having a grand time, yet you can look in another corner of the room and find birds who are not of a feather, kicking up their heels.  Then you can look back and find, apparently, birds of a feather, practically in hand to hand combat. At Line level, none of it makes any sense.  It cannot make sense, if you divide the participants from the party.

     You must begin to See the party.  Once you can, if only for brief moments, it begins to produce a kind of comfort with the party itself.  It's the comfort of Seeing that the party is the direct manifestation of Life's ripening.  It is a familiarity, that is the reality behind ideas of enlightenment, mystical insight and all other commonly held dreams of personal growth.  You See the party in toto, beyond the divisions and clusters of people who gather, then disperse.  You See beyond the apparent animosity and cohesion between people, for it serves Life's growth, regardless of the religious, psychological or proverbial attempts to explain the seemingly irrational behavior of humanity.  Remember, the two people over here, or the two million people in the far corner of the party room are not THE party.  By the time ordinary attention turns away, then looks back, the two people, or the two million people are no longer the same two or two million. The party continually shifts.  A handful of them have wandered off, replaced by a group of aloof and boring people.  Or if they happen to be the same two million, there are now different people talking, so the energy exchange has been altered.  All you've got to do is look away and look back a moment later. Something will have happened.  Something must happen, as long as Life is growing.  Ordinary consciousness, an ordinary observer, however, will not be aware of it.  But you must become aware of it.

     The party goes on.  No one can leave the room, but everyone shifts about, searching, seeking change, independence, a sense of self, going here and there, until, of course, you grow up, and find a good job, a spouse and begin to settle down.  Then where do you go?  You go to the same places over and over.  There may be only two or three places in the party room that feel totally comfortable.  Everywhere else is either too dangerous, boring or just totally inexplicable.

     Let me refine what all of you normally refer to, when you ask about fear.  We are no longer referring to a Red Circuit based fear of being robbed, beaten up or murdered while strolling down the street.  In most parts of the world that is no longer a problem.  We're talking about what Ordinary consciousness would perceive to be a kind of psychological fear; the fear of not being liked or respected, etc.

     Begin to catch a glimpse of the phenomenon known as fear, then expand upon it.  It expands to the fact that at Line level, everything is the placebo effect, recalling that a placebo, is something given merely to satisfy the patient.  It could be anything that is passed around at the party.  Everything that is going on at the party -- the dancing, the exchange of business cards, the serious conversations going on in the kitchen -- is the placebo effect.  How about another definition of the placebo effect?  That everything passed about at the party is merely to entertain the party-goers.  The unruly crowd over here playing loud music, knocking over plants and scaring the children.  Political discussions.  Everything at that level is the placebo effect.  Begin to understand this, then, can you See, that what consciousness currently refers to as fear, exists only at that level.

     The only time you can experience the sensation of there being something to fear like a villain at the party, your boss, someone to avoid, your former spouse, is when you are operating at Line level.  Note, that this apparent fear resides, side by side with a natural gravitation toward certain "safe" places in the party room.  It's the pulsating awareness born each moment a man looks upon the party-goers and splits them up into "the types I don't trust, the types I don't understand, versus my type of person".  You should also note that, only at Line level can you have heroes.  The only way you can have the sensation of, "These are the bad people," is the same way you can have any sensation that there are heroes.

     While operating at Line-level consciousness, no matter where you seem to move at the party, you should be aware, by now, that your movements within the party room are extremely limited. Once you, and everyone else reaches the age of maturity, there are few places you might travel within the party room: "Well, I'm just not interested in talking with that guy over there.  I don't trust him.  I'm not going to walk over there.  I just know that those two million people over there are talking about me.  Look at them.  Some of them are even turning around, right now, and laughing at me."  However, an ordinary man might explain his movements, you become limited to certain places in the party room, where you feel comfortable.  "That seem to be worthwhile.  I want to be with the right kind of people.  Participate in some interesting discussions.  They're playing my kind of music."  But if you are experiencing any kind of fear, or hero worship, regardless of the circumstances, or explanations you might come up with, you are operating in an ordinary manner.  There are no exceptions, though you're quite welcome to look.  In fact, if you don't look for exceptions, if you accept my word without thoroughly exploring all possibilities, then we've just come up with a new definition of a follower.

     If you are experiencing any so-called psychological fear, you are operating at a minimal level, even if the area in which you happen to be, is swept with mass hysteria.  Someone begins to shout, "Did someone holler fire?  Did somebody say atomic war is coming tomorrow?  The environment is falling apart!" Remember, you can be aware of this type of fear and not participate in it.  You can recognize your own internal voices declaring doom and destruction and fear but you cannot allow yourself to listen to and act upon them.  Remember, you must be at that level, to fear anything at that level.  Above the Line, there is no such thing as fear.

     There is no way to profitably track the horizontal past and find an explanation for fear or any other behavior men exhibit.  There is no such thing as unparty-like behavior.  An idea deemed unfit, inappropriate, unsound or dangerous by one particular group sweeps through the party room.  And the feeling is, "We've got to stamp out this political ideology.  We've got to stamp out personal prejudice. We've got to stamp out religious intolerance.  We're going to throw those who oppose us out of the party room!"  All you've got to do is look around and See, that there is no way out.  Where are you going to put them?  There is no garbage disposal.  You can't open a window and toss out the idea.  It would be like opening a window in an airplane at 30,000 feet.  It would, produce a fourth dimensional atmospheric pressure change, that would be the end of everybody.  If ordinary consciousness could effect the ultimate cure upon whatever you, and everyone else, believe to be the faults and evils of the universe; that would be the end.

     Back to some of our four-dimensional rhetorical dancing.  Why is it that historically, Life has driven men to seek apparently redeeming qualities amidst evil?  There are examples of this everywhere, once you begin to understand how to look for them.  For the sake of this discussion, let's assume it was, say, a biography of Attila the Hun's life.  The publisher-author points out how attached Attila was to his mother. "And even though he was personally responsible for the demise of an estimated 10 to 15 percent of the population, over a period of years, it would touch your heart to see how close he was to his mother.  There he was, the leader of one of the most powerful city-states in the world, yet he took the trouble to visit her two or three times a year.  He always sent his personal physician to look after her health.  He supported her financially.  It just shows you, doesn't it?  You can have a man who, on one level is an intolerant tyrant, a mad man, yet he was kind to his mother."  Or you read the right kind of book, watch an interview on television, talk to somebody and you find out, that despite the fact that in most respects, such and such person was undeniably nasty, "He loved animals.  He played the piano.  He was an artist.  He was kind to his mother."

     You can find this type of description, since the birth of the Yellow Circuit, since man recorded history. There are examples of would-be philosophers, dramatists, novelists, biographers, people with the apparent insight into the complexity of nature and human relationships, describing the phenomenon of seeking apparently redeeming qualities amidst evil.

     To take it one step further, you will find people seeking out these descriptions.  You read about it and you can feel yourself attracted to this feeling of, "Ah, it's good to know that Attila the Hun was so attached to his mother."  Or, "Genghis Khan furnished housing for the poor."  "Jack the Ripper was a gardener." Along with the feeling that it seems good to find such redeeming qualities, resides the sensation that, "I'd like to believe such descriptions."  What purpose might this serve in the overall ripening of Life?

     I ask you further, aside from the possible purpose this might serve, is it even possible for there to be redeeming qualities in the midst of evil?  Can there be C force existing right in the heart, right in the dark belly of D?  Is it possible?  If it is possible, then can you call it D?  Can a figure, reputed to be a vicious mad dog killer, the epitome of D force, carry within him a great love for his mother, be an artist, a painter, a gardener?  Can you really feel, "Ah, it's good to know that Attila the Hun was good to his mother," after it's been established that this man is the epitome of D force, of evil exemplified?  Is it possible?

     Once ordinary Line-level consciousness recognizes that which seems to be evil personified, be it directed toward an individual, an area in history, a specific group of people, or a particular section of the party room, can it then isolate any apparently redeeming quality amidst that evil?  Can you do it, at Line level?  Again, I ask you, what might be Life's use for this continual, apparent search for redeeming qualities amidst apparent evil?

     Is it time to remind everyone to take any observations you might be making about what's going on out in Life, what's happening in the party room, and look to your own internal workings.  There is likewise, a universal party inside your own nervous system.  Far beyond worrying about Attila the Hun and the mad dog killers wandering through the streets, there is a continual drive, varying slightly from person to person, to seek redeeming qualities amidst, "my warts, dandruff, ill-temper and crooked teeth.  There must be some redeeming qualities in there, if I could only find them."

     I have another rhetorical dance question for you.  Why, throughout the history of the Yellow Circuit, the history of man, have apparently money driven people been the object of immediate and extreme scorn? Look at the general attitude toward figures in literature, be they historical or fictitious.  The feeling of disapproval is widespread.  What might be going on, vis a vis the direction in which Life is growing?  You should Neuralize this on your own.  Consider this to be one more example, one more question that ordinary consciousness cannot compose by itself.  An example of Life talking about the complex nature of the party room.  What could be going on?

     One consideration from a right-angle viewpoint is that optimum use of human energy cannot be confined to an exchange that seems to be on the basis of material profit.  The optimum energy needed for Life to grow in the way it is growing, cannot be limited nor confined, to any specific area within the party room. It would be inefficient.  Of course there is no such thing as absolute, and there is no one absolutely money driven.  Let me also refer you to the fact that the kinds of people who Life, and in part, the party, seem to disapprove of, those apparently driven only to make a profit, are also, in a sense, doing some of the best work for Life.  "Okay, I'll smile and I'll have dinner with this guy.  And I'll be nice to my family, because the company I work for doesn't promote you if you're divorced."  Keep in mind that an exchange based upon material profit is not wrong, but it is not the optimum exchange in relation to the way Life grows.

     I might also point out something as it's expressed throughout humanity about those who fall into a highly approved category at the other end of an apparent spectrum:  the recluses, the monks, the people who give away all their possessions and devote their time and energy to charitable works.  From one vantage point in the party room, you might think, "Now that's more like it.  That's surely getting closer to the way Life is moving.  That's got to be better than some guy over there who's working 14 hours a day and wouldn't give his mother the time of day, unless he made a profit.  That must be closer to what the gods want us to be doing, closer to the creative force."  Don't be too sure.  From one vantage point, the apparently money driven are serving Life better than the recluses and do-gooders.

     Both extremes, and everyone in between, are at the party and they all belong there.  But, remember, as soon as you run from one apparent extreme to the other, you're ignoring a kind of topological similarity between the two.  You're ignoring a curve in the road that winds back toward its apparent opposite.

     The kinds of people who seem to be primarily driven to make a profit, are also, in a sense, doing some of the best work for Life.  The people who seem to be delighted to get up in the morning.  To work, work, work, then party, party, party, sleep a few hours, then work, work, work some more.  They seem to be simply delighted.  They have no great complaints.  "Just wish there were more hours in the day, so I could work some more."  From one viewpoint, the "go-getters" are serving Life better than those driven to do "good works."  From another perspective, in relationship to This Thing, those driven by material profit are extremely dangerous.

     Here's one more rhetorical dance question.  What might Life be saying through man, by having men believe that after death, they may go and join the gods?  From a certain place in the party room, such a question could be discounted as being, "The kind of belief that served our forefathers, back in the days of mythology, back in the days when men were induced into believing there were gods outside of this system, when men were less sophisticated.  We know better now."  Nonetheless, you should be aware, within the normal flow of the party, that the belief in something after death remains extant throughout humanity. "When I die, if I was reasonably good, or if the gods are as tolerant as they should be, I will leave here and join them."  What possible purpose could this belief be serving?  Could there be any truth to it?

     Why has the belief in a something after death always been around?  Everyone at the party believes it, to varying degrees.  It's part of being invited to the party.  The bad people believe it.  The good people believe it.  The indifferent people believe, even though you don't know that yet.  Like everything else in Life, there is a validity, there is a basis for this belief.  What might Life be saying through humanity when men believe that, "When I die, I'll leave the party and join the party-giver himself."?

     I might also add, that everyone at the party, everyone, is assisting Life's natural growth, by simply being that which they seem to be, warts, guilts, fears and all.  But a few people, more directly assist the thrust of where Life is going, hence everyone dreams.  Everyone is infused with the belief that once I die and leave the party, I'll join the great party-giver.  There could be a natural basis for this kind of belief that is a mechanical reflection of something Real.  However, would you not care to be closer to that which is casting the shadow?

     Let me reintroduce the word "rebellion".  At Line level, everyone experiences a certain kind of pressure, the kind of tensile strength that holds the party together and keeps it going.  There is a diminuendo of ordinary pressure when you are doing This Thing.  It is a release from the kind of pressure that limited you to playing out your genetically produced party role.

     Initially, with those involved in This Thing there seems to be a lack of that kind of Line level pressure, the motivation to go go go and become a rich, famous, respected somebody.  It coincides with the periodic sensation of running out of steam, lacking enthusiasm, or experiencing ordinary fears. The only way you can deal with this, is through a sense of rebellion.  It must be constant rebellion, even when at times the "only rationale for rebellion right now, is simply for the sake of rebellion".

     As long as you are in agreement with party, you are not in rebellion.  As long as you are at the party, and you find yourself taking it personally, you cannot be in rebellion.  The diminuendo of Line level pressure must be replaced by your own willfully created internal pressure.  And it's pressure at a new level.  Ordinary pressure, anything that you've already done and know you can do, anything that comes naturally to you, is not new pressure.  It's not rebellion.  Rebellion must be a constant demand, a constant necessity.