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Summary by TK

#247 Feb 12, 1987 - 1:45

Humans are wired to pursue either a horizontal or vertical "muse": horizontal = ordinary world of riches and fame; vertical = spiritual seekers. Each example of such extreme views the counterpart extreme as the epitome of error --wasted life. If you can stand in between, it is possible to see a certain strangeness in either camp. Neither has even a shadow of understanding of their own position and function in Life or that of the counterpart. The Few who treat This Thing as if separate from life --who live off the maps/methods --are still chasing the vertical muse. When This Thing "merges" with you, you become it, can't separate your life from the life of This Thing. ]
  [Any body of people with cohesion must have a governing center. Separate bodies always seem to be in opposition primarily AT that governing center; i.e., the individuals collectively don't seem to be at such odds. This generates the apparent question of why the government can't seem to be in accord with the wishes/ feelings of the populace. The government becomes in effect a second power, a second population within itself. Accordingly government can then seem to be 'out of touch' with the populace wherein they either acquiesce or rebel. However, the aim of the governed is not the aim of the governors. The only aim of governors is to stay in power. Now for the 'big leap': this is true 'internally' :two populations --governed and governors with separate aims, nothing in common except for the required periodic lip service generated by the governors to the governed. Consider the terms 'unconscious mind' vs. 'conscious mind’; the partnership where the controlling partner's power is threatened by others and will always fight to keep status quo even while making outward show of agreement to the other partner's wants. If a merging of aim occurs in The Partnership--lookout! ]
  [All this is related to everybody placing themselves at the center of perception whereas there is no such thing as objective perception --separate and central. Everyone feels that the source of their stress in life comes from without; that unwanted emotions always arise out of actions of others. But in that case everyone suffers the selfsame malaise. Consciousness cannot ever conceive of living in a closed system universe except by the radical merging with something greater. Then there is nothing left to say; no separation. Separation is required from This Thing in order to discuss it or pursue some 'method' to do it. The 'fall from grace' as a separation from a previous state, but a fall of progression from which there is no returning. ]
  [What if there is no difference between This Thing and Life? This Thing is the ultimate hobby. What would you do without it? The utterly amazing quality of the obviously there. To see with the third eye --see all three forces,to merge with This Thing.
  [1:32 epilog: reiteration of prohibition to discuss This Thing amongst group. ]
  [TASK: Neuralize:if the universe is C force what is man's force? Also: if man is C force, what is planet earth's force? ]
  [1:36 Answer of questions from tape watchers. Sleep--get what you need, and don't worry about it. People's understanding of each other as a trickle down from Life’s greater understanding from its own understanding of it’s business.

Transcript

IS THIS THING SEPARATE FROM LIFE?

Document:  247,  February 12, 1987
Copyright(c) Jan M. Cox, 1987           

     From any ordinary viewpoint, all humans are pursuing (or we can more correctly say that they are driven by) one of two muses.  Those driven by the horizontal muse, derive their satisfaction from the pursuit of worldly fame, money, etc.  Those under the sway of the vertical muse are the spiritual seekers. They're the ones who join religious groups and read esoteric books.  Now Consider, try to picture, that you're living inside a colossal bean bag.  If you're inside such a closed system, all opposites -- good or bad, positive or negative -- are ultimately meaningless, because if you reach far enough in one direction everything becomes its own opposite.

     Let's assume that people attracted to This -- including all of you -- start off somewhere close to this great cosmic contradictory crux.  The fact that you have the ability to stand at this crux of contradiction, means that you can hear something about both sides, both camps.  Both muses.  

     Each camp regards the other as being very strange.  Take, for instance, those who are vertically driven -- seekers after spiritual gods.  Such a person shows no interest in the material world, he attacks the world of Caesar, he pooh-poohs the pursuit of money and fame.  And he regards those who are more horizontally driven as being the epitome of the misled.  To him, a life spent in the quest for material pleasures lacks quality.  It doesn't matter that a businessman may work 67 hours a week; his attitude is still one of, "How can he waste his life like this?"  (Remember that I'm using extreme examples.  Those who are vertically driven are as mechanical as those in the horizontal camp.)  And conversely, our businessman regards the seeker as being almost eligible for state care:  "He is probably brain damaged from eating white rice, and he's probably a wimp to boot."  Again, it is not a matter of quantity, the number of books he's read, the hours spent standing on his head have nothing to do with it.  To the businessman, the vertically driven life is simply a waste:  "It goes nowhere.  All these spiritual groups are frauds.  Most of them seem to have some interest in life after death."  To the extremely horizontally driven, life after death is a moot question.  Nobody knows, nobody can know, and it's not worth talking about.  "Some of these gurus and preachers say they know.  They talk a good game, but nobody really knows.  All I know for certain is I've got this minute right now and I've gotta get up tomorrow."

     With a few exceptions -- such as the insane -- everyone in life comfortably falls into one of these two categories.  If you can properly stand at the crossroads of these two and not fall completely into the hands of either one for a few minutes, then you should be able to see something on your own about the extremes of each camp.  Those who are mechanically drawn to each extreme have a mechanical standard by which they judge the other.  If you had your awareness right at the crux, you have no such mechanically supplied standard, so you've got to listen to what I'm describing.  We will use the horizontally driven camp as our example.  Most of you don't believe you were ever caught up in it, so you most readily find fault with that one.  So, to your nose, the smell of those who believe that the world of Caesar is the only world is highly suspect.  But there is also just as strange an aroma to those almost totally driven by a desire to pursue the vertical muse, the life of the spirit.  Most people attracted to This come from the vertical camp, and most can well remember a certain self-satisfied aroma:  "I am a lot better off than some poor fool selling boiler plate stock, or aluminum siding.  I'm building up a cosmic reward.  I have a sweet smile on my face because I don't eat red meat or drink, or chew tobacco, or smoke.  And by and large, I'm a neat person, just waiting for the big blast.  I'm sure glad I'm in the position I am, I'm a lot better off than if I'd fallen into the ordinary rat race."

         If you can hold your attention at the crux, if you aren't held captive by either muse, one of the strange things you see is that though people in both camps are intelligent enough, they can't ever see that what they do is simply what they must do.  They understand nothing -- nothing about whether they have any choice, or why they do what they do.  They have no understanding of what drives the people in the other camp.  They have no idea that the other people are just like them, they are simply on the other team.  "They" are just in another part of Life's body, wearing different jerseys.  And to say a different part of Life's body doesn't mean that they are out of reaching distance of each other.

     And now another question:  Is This Thing separate from Life?  You can't go out and talk to the general population about This, because they aren't interested.  And, it may seem that the more you pursue This, the further you remove yourself from ordinary life.  Most of this material is almost insane compared to ordinary viewpoints, but if you attempt to live solely on the material, the maps and picturizations themselves, you would simply be pursuing a vertical muse. You'd be waiting to be blown away; you'd spend your days expecting to end up out in the wilds of India, or up a tree in North Georgia.  You would be so wise that talking to anyone about ordinary things would be a waste of time.  And you'd be saying that This is separate from Life.

     In a sense, it is separate.  But if you truly use this information beyond the maps, consider that rather than being separate from Life, This Thing might, in practice, actually merge, that is m-e-r-g-e with Life.

     What if you could hardly tell the difference between This and what seems to be not-This; between This and everyone else's horizontal life?  What if you could hardly tell the difference between the times you're actively engaged in doing one of the tasks, and the times you're just sitting around the house?

     Almost everyone on this planet believes they pursue either a vertical or horizontal goal, and they perceive that goal as being separate from Life, from "my life as it is now".  And for them, so it always will be.  They will always perceive that the things they must do to attain their goal are different and separate from what they're doing right now...a different job, more exercise, different habits, etc.  And here I suggest a warning:  if you really enjoy ordinary spiritual, metaphysical pursuits, you shouldn't get mixed up in This, because you will only keep it separate from yourself.  "There is my everyday life, and then there is the pursuit of my goal, my dream."

      When This is done right, there is a supreme possibility that it merges with everything else, and with Life itself.  And then it's no longer a hobby, it's no longer something up there, over there, out there.  In the ordinary world, in the camps, you've heard the idea set forth that, "To correctly be a good Jew, Muslim, Christian, you must actually be one.  You don't study to be one; you must merge with the reality of the teaching and make it your everyday life."  But if that actually happened in the ordinary world, no one would be happy about it at all.  It would be like everyone had lost his main hobby in Life.  It would be as though someone pulled the plug on their cosmic bathtub.

     Likewise, with you people here:  there seems to be a real difference between the way you live, and what I talk about.  But not only that, there continues to be a real difference inside you, between you describing to yourself, "Yeah, that is what I want.  That is what has been driving me, the itch I've been trying to scratch all my life.", and what you consider to be your everyday life.  It is as if there is the you that is trying to pursue a spiritual life, and then there's the crap of blisters, headaches, taxes, etc.  What if it all truly became "mergerized"?

     Let's take a large body of people and call it a country.  We can use its schematic to reflect and illustrate something else in man and in your consciousness.  We could call the country Slyvania and its power, which is its people, Slyvanians.  Whenever a country appears on this planet, there also appears something known as government, and thus, Slyvania has one.  This country is presently involved in a cold war with one of its neighbors; but it turns out that the two peoples have much in common, and have even established an interchange whereby they visit one another.  As the governments continue to rattle sabers and threaten each other, the two groups of citizens continue to comment on how much they have in common.  The citizens get together and say, "Hey!  Do you want to attack us?", and the other citizens say, "No! Do you think that we're living devils?", "No.", "Do you have anything against us?", "No.", "Isn't it weird? And our governments got us all scared.", "Yeah, it is."  It's a fairly common occurrence in Life, and the situation is extant today.  Take Russia and the U.S. as an example.  But remember that I'm not talking about politics.

           We're about to get to the good stuff.  Remember I mentioned the people being the power of the country.  When a government is established, it becomes a second power; it becomes, in effect, a second populace.  So in Slyvania, as in every country, we have two populations going under one name.  (Figure into the picture that there are times that humanity is blinded to the obvious.)  We have diplomats and political writers saying, "How can that government be so out of touch with the people?  Their people don't want more wars, any more than our people do.  But those old men in their government are just out of touch.  They don't reflect the people like our government does!"  Political writers everywhere look across the border and accuse the government there of not representing the people.  But look at the obvious: even if the government took power by force, it is still composed of what amounts to government employees.  And even counting the standing armies, a government is only about 8% of any population! Now even if the other 92% is only peasants armed with sharp sticks, if they all took arms and attacked the government at once, the government wouldn't stand a chance.  But across each border, we have political observers wondering, "How in the world can there be such a dichotomy?  How does the population keep putting up with the government?"

     Remember, I'm not talking about politics...but to believe that any government has common aims with the people is to live in a Fool's Paradise.

     And now get ready for the big leap.  Regardless of the goals one would attribute to any group of people, regardless of the goals stated by the government, the government has only one aim; and that is to stay in power.  No matter the place or circumstance, that is the beginning and end of it.

     Here is the big leap.  It is an absolute reality both internally and externally, and it is almost impossible for people to see.  The aims of your internal population and your internal government do not necessarily ever run in parallel.  The government will say that it has heard the wishes of the people for a better economy, and that it has come up with plans for one.  And yet, you look at the economy and see that they never actually do anything:  they just promise.  When the people tire of complaining about one thing, and mention another, the government is right there, ready with verbal agreements and plans.  But if there is any possibility that action would threaten its power, the government will do nothing.  Any government, by and large, has nothing in common with those being governed except for this:  even if it is a government of tyranny, it will at times, and maybe often, talk about the same aims as the people.  And periodically, someone will hop on top of a statue and holler, "Hey, listen.  You rulers are killing us since you took power. We are starving, and have no freedom.  You may kill me for saying this, but everyone here feels the same way."  They may have him executed, but the generals will announce the next day:  "We have considered what that guy said, and it does have some validity.  But do you think we enjoy killing you people?  Why, heavens no.  The reason we took power was to help you people, to protect you."

     It's the old movie scenario of:  an army occupies a country, and they drive down the street hollering, "Hail to you the people.  We are your friends.  Anyone in the streets after 5:00 will be shot.  Have a nice day."

     Then, "We took power by force, and must use force for a short time now, just to stabilize things.  Now what was it you wanted?"...We agree, and we're working on it."

     That is the nature of what you call "I".  It is a more apt description of the "ambivalence factor" in a human person.  It is also a more profound detailing of what's referred to as the conscious and unconscious mind.  You could look at it as a coup d'etat that happened in your cradle -- you wake up one day and there's a government in charge.  If your name is Fred, the government is Fred.  All power seems to flow from it.  Sometimes is seems to be the ultimate Big Brother saying, "My, my.  You'd really like to do that?  Well, it sounds interesting, a good idea.  We'd like to help out."  If the idea has anything to do with lessening the power of Fred, you're an idiot to tell it to him.  You'll be waiting outside the gates of the czar 'til hell freezes over for him to throw you a scrap.

     For several decades, you've been dealing with an internal government; one that seems to you to be a partnership.  Notice how when you speak of your aims, the partner (the czar) is always in apparent agreement:  "Well, I don't know if we'll do it today necessarily, but it is a darned good idea.  Why not." When the idea involves a change, it threatens to weaken the government.  You ask your czar timidly -- though most people don't believe their government will kill them -- about this new self-help method you discovered.  And your partner says, "Sounds interesting.  I saw you reading that self-help book.  Maybe you should read some more and report back to me.  It sounds pretty good."

     It is Life's arrangement that those in power do not give up power, and will not cooperate with anyone who seeks to diminish their power.  That power structure is there for a reason.  Think of the internal organs of your body.  How readily would the thyroid give over its job to the kidneys?  The internal agreements you believe you make with yourself about what you are going to do have never worked out.  In you or anybody.

     There is a good reason for saying that change is ordinarily impossible.  It is the same reason, it is based on the same laws and principles that keep a general in Paraguay in power.  Someone jumps up and hollers, "You sure have mistreated us since you have been in power, and we'd all be a lot happier if you quit it."  Would the general say, "Really?  Well, forgive me, I am sorry as can be.  I thought I was doing alright.", and then rip off his medals, and go into exile?  For you to suggest something to your internal government which opposes its continued control and then to expect it to cooperate in its own demise is absurd.

     I'm going to talk about a very tricky area, and I urge you not to dismiss it as being too obvious, or on the other hand, too complicated or oblique to get anything out of.  Here it is:  consciousness is arranged so that everyone is placed at the center of everything they perceive, say, and think.  This arrangement is the unrecognized basis of people believing, "I am thinking something.", believing that, "I can't think anything unless it's me thinking it.", "It is my thinking.", and, "It's "me" here in the center; anything I'm thinking is the same as me thinking it."  It all forms the very basis of what you do think.  Thus, there is no such thing as "objective thinking", "objective feeling", "objective perception".  But it is as unlikely for one to See this as it is for a fence to See that it is its own limits.  It is not possible to think without being the thinker of the thoughts.

     To sketch a piece of this from another direction, consider the psychologist, religious leader, teacher saying, "We all have built-in or acquired patterns.  And as best we can, we try to cope with all the tensions of Life."  The unspoken part is that the tensions have a source, and that source is always other people. And when "other people" are told they are causing someone tension, they say, "Uh, I don't know about that, I've got my own problems".  There are books written on how to cope with the tensions -- with your co-workers, for instance.  But it turns out that these others, who are supposed to be the source of your tension, are home reading the same book.  Everyone feels that the source of untoward emotions in life is "all those guys out there who use me for a victim.  I am the only victim.  I am the one reading and agreeing with this book.  It is not me that makes me tense and intimidated every day."  Do you actually believe the world is divided into the tense, and the tense-makers?

     If you see any of this at all, you see how staggeringly obvious it is; and you see that you never would have seen it accidentally or naturally.  And simultaneously, you realize that no one else would really see or appreciate its true reality if you tried to tell them.  If This were to merge in you, with your everyday life, what could we ever talk about?  How could you ever feel or identify an external source of tension or aggression?  How could ordinary consciousness ever perceive of living in a closed system?  It cannot.  But there is no difference between Life and you being conscious.  The "Big Payoff" would be to merge with Life.  And then there would be nothing to say.  It would be like being in the garden of Eden, naked, and without need of words.

     Only as long as you are distanced from This, can you talk about it.  As long as you're distanced from it, you only attempt to do it.  When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, the balance of power shifted.  Words and a Yellow Circuit were born and they needed clothes; or, for someone involved in This, a method -- something to separate them from it.  Getting kicked out of the Garden gave them something to "talk" about for a long time.

     It is a mistake to yearn for the good "ole" days in the garden.  The desire to risk stealing from the tree of knowledge indicated that Man was ready to progress to a more sophisticated place.  It was evolution. Consciousness and tension go hand in hand.  But again, what if there were no difference between This and Life?  What if I said in words that there is a satisfactory completion to this, or that you could at least understand what I understand.  What if you got to the pinnacle of Understanding what was going on in Life?  Consider that it would not be a cut and dried state, but rather a strangeness.  The condition of your insides would make Science Fiction and Star Wars movies look mundane.  But then picture yourself finally calming down and finding yourself on a new planet, a sister planet to this one.  And as you explore this strange new place, it dawns on you, whether real slow or real fast (which is the same thing on this planet) that, "I've never been in this strange place before, but it's the one I've been looking for.  And I recognize everything here.  Have I actually gone anywhere?"  Of course, you've gone somewhere.  But what if the strangest sight you found was a mirror?

      This activity, for those who need it, is the greatest hobby there is.  There is nothing like it.  What would you do without it?  If I suddenly died, and it was all over, what would you do?  You'd feel like you were just getting somewhere and now you've lost something.  But if you'd already activated your brain in new places, what could you lose?  And what is there to think about?  Even the world's biggest and most mystical brains can think only so much.  I've told you the most astounding thing in the world is simply to look around and realize, "Good gravy, I've never seen what in the world was going on."  Forget astral projection, the real Amazement is what's really going on right here.  The most astounding sight is the obvious.  But it's not obvious to everyone.

     Remember the descriptions that pepper mystical literature of developing a third eye.  It is a direct reflection of an attempt to develop a 3-D viewpoint.  Man presently has 2-D sight.  He sees two sides of each issue, two opposing possibilities.  It is 2-D sight that keeps you where you are, as one of the governed.  To grow into 3-D eyesight is to be able to see the continuing dance of the Three Forces.  It is to be merged with what is going on so there is no difference between it and your understanding of it.  So, we are back again to having no system, nothing to study, no separation.  All along I've taken care to have you see that there is no grand,  pre-planned system to This.  We meet every week, I use the same descriptions for periods of time, and thus, there seems to be a continuity to it.  Sometimes it seems as though I'm about to unveil some more of a "system", but I've already told you that there is nothing to unveil.  If I lifted the skirt, rather than something mystical or supernatural, you'd see just a backstage wall.

     Those who pursue the spiritual muse seek something "out there", something mystical, and other worldly.  As long as you're separate, you're safe -- as well as angry, tense, and put upon.

     I must repeat that you people are not to engage, even amongst yourselves, in mechanical talk about what goes on here, or anything regarding This.  It is hard for some of you to understand why I insist on this; it is easier to understand why to not try and talk about it with your family or people at work.  If you belong here, you'll eventually see the reasons for yourself.  Yes, it is easy to think, "Well, if I can talk about this to someone who has been here longer than I, they'll put me on the fast track."  Or better yet, "I'd be glad to tell you everything I know, and have thought about This.  Have you got all night?"  Don't ever do that.  You have nothing to tell anyone about This; and by the time you do have something to say worth hearing, you'll be so close to merging that you won't have anything to say anyway.