Who You Gonna' Call?

What is it that I mean behind the words, “personality” and “imagination”?  What is the blinding fog that engulfs man and keeps his eyes cloudy?  What is this thing that seems to stand between man and reality?  Ahhh, the impure likeness, of oneself.

In the correct usage of rituals and ceremonies, the emotions find speech and discover movement.

Is it barely possible that a more evolved man would simply “do things” and “not do things” “because”…?

If you only strive to work on the present mind with the mind, how can you escape immense confusion?

It has been said that a man's state is not truly developed unless it is natural, and not the result of some extrinsic discipline.  But if this be so, “Who you gonna’ call?” when this “natural” state is out of town?

J.

Lady of Spain

The simplicity of the primitive man, and the enriched simplicity of the Evolved.

Once, in jest, I told a man that being more evolved would be in hearing an accordionist play “Lady of Spain” without despising the player. But thinking back, I'm not so sure that was a joke.

In case I ever decide to write a series of books to “explain everything,” I've already got the titles. My four volume set would read:

Vol I:    All Aboard: The Steam Is Up.
Vol II:  On The Way: An Allegorical Departure.
Vol III: Full Speed Ahead: Where To Now?
Vol IV: Home At Last: Where're The Damn Brakes On This Thing

(These books would, of course, carry the endorsement of the BACP:The British Association of Chiropractic Psychiatrists.)

Within the Life-of-life, the mass of humanity is as its own organism, moving and expanding at its own speed.  There are two rates to this speed: The actual rate and the prophecy rate, which is talk, theory, and impractical-ideas-for-the-time.  Both are of consequence and both exist, but without the former soon following the latter they are not recognized.

Some mortal poet has said that man is conceived in pleasure, and delivered in pain.  Now if this were twisted around enough you could probably learn something.

J.

The Great Law of Chaos

I've decided to try my hand at mystical rhyme:

Red sky in morning Blue sky at night,

Green sun at dawn, Pink moon at dusk,

Sufi take warning, Yogi take flight.

Swami’s gone wrong. who can you trust.

(That which is Caesar's meets that which is gods’: film at eleven.)

There was once a hermit who somehow had gained the reputation of being wise and enlightened. One day a messenger came to him with an invitation for the recluse to be a featured guest at a well known, annual gathering of religious leaders, yogis, gurus, and famous swamis.  The old man told the messenger, “Tell ‘em all to go to hell.  If I wanted to associate with trash and maggots I’d go sit in a room by myself.”

I know that oftimes my speech seems vague and obtuse, but let me mention to you one specific absolute, The Great Law of Chaos: the rule of random certainty.

It matters not what a sincere man may temporarily believe, say, or teach as the truth, so long as his extraordinary Aim remains firm and constant.

A Subjective Man wants to see what he wants to see, while an Objective Man wants to see what is to be seen.

J.

The White Stallion

What is the final insult?

Hearing a priest's words translated into a foreign language.

What is the first insult?

Hearing him speak in his native tongue.

The Struggle to Evolve
is the only quality form of human labor.

Could men accept the possibility that more evolved states might not be concerned with “seeing things never before seen by man,” but might be simply seeing, whatever one couldn't see now.

Once, two boys who were friends, were out in the fields, and far up on a distant hill they spied a giant white stallion that pranced on its hind feet, flashed fire from its eyes, and filled the air with trembling sounds before disappearing.  Once back home, the first boy tried to tell everyone about the white horse, but no one could find it and they scorned him.  The other boy learned a lesson and never mentioned the horse to anyone.

I have heard it said that man's religious leaders pray on their knees, but it seems to me that they pray on almost everything...their neighbors, their enemies, hopes, and fears.

J.

Mirrored Men

Only two types of men look deeply into mirrors:  the fearful and those without fear…or is it the uncertain and the indifferent?

It is only when you truly know a place,
that you can truly say good-bye.

Some may say that This Activity is useless, while others say it is simply illusionary. The truth, however, lies somewhere in between.

One may attempt to study the matter of talent and interest by moving backwards to strip away the layers of acquired imagination.  You turn your investigation in the rearward direction so as to gradually move through the crusts of imagination that have grown up around the original sight, and locate the original seeds of real talent and interest.  (This will not, however, work with politicians and priests.  For if you move such an inquiry back far enough in their case, you fall off a meaningless edge; for they have no original talent or interest.)

Remembering is the struggle against the ephemeral.

Understanding is the embrace of the temporary.

J.

Rude Noises

     Whenever he'd think really hard, this one guy'd make rude noises.

The speaker at the convention said, "Show me the gene that causes aggression and then I'll believe it's biological and hereditary."

               Denouncing the collective keeps you one of them.

Many travelers who stopped at the inn would at first express great interest in the upstairs rooms, but eventually seemed most comfortable sleeping in the lobby.

Okay -- Moral without a fable:
Since he could think better standing up,
this one guy laid down.

 One monarch grouched, "The worst thing about being king is that everybody wantS to fuck with you."
And the highest part of one guy's brain said, "Same here."

 After some instruction and observation, the view of one kid from his youthful perspective was, "Being civilized is being able to not do what you want to."

"Hey," said one guy, "Hold it just a minute here; if opposites do attract, then why is not intelligence more drawn to me?"

J.

Arts and Sports in the City

Until a scoreboard is erected, the two teams don't even know they exist, much less that they're in conflict.

So as to better turn the students' attention in a certain direction, the professor began appearing in class fully clothed.  (And one primary-realm, hearing of this, remarked, "I don't find that very amusing.")

One subversive ole sort told his kid, "A man with a label might as well be a suit."

One artist's outlook: "The thing about being a poet in the city is that you can cover up for what you don't know by what you say."

After many years in a certain room, the man came forth and announced,

"Based on extensive study and reflection, I conclude that our greatest potential as humans is to become even more human."

(Not many people at all seemed very impressed by this.)

J.

The News

One man kept up with the News, and he was such a sweet guy the News didn't have the heart to tell him that it didn't make any difference.  (Okay, Test Time: Everyone who believes the above to be true and correct, raise your hands, and take poison.)

One part of one local reality thought, "Creatures that'll talk about themselves sure as hell ain't got anything better to talk about."

Public Service Announcement:

 Having some idea what life's about,
and knowing what life's about,
are not exactly the same thing.

(For additional information,
or to complain about this,
you can write to Boulder, CO.)

One guy's mind said to him, "Remember, there's a way out of everything but this."

J.

Measurements Mislead the Mind

Who but the liberated might have a mind
as still as a lazy man's body?

When you consider the search for The Mystical Way, consider this: Man's instinctive nature has no way, but rather is a way.

Things are arranged as they are so that Man will think as he does.  Or, the way things are arranged is the way Man thinks.

All measurements eventually mislead the mind.

Said one man, "The insightfully creative always do their work anonymously, which is why I am not the author of my words."

The man said, "Don't let the intellectuals confuse you."

And someone asked, "Which ones?"

And the man replied, "Oh, I don't mean any 'out there'--I mean those within you."

J.

Real Magic

The external progress of man has not resulted in a fundamental change in his internal position.

There is a calm and safe center at the Escape Point where the two lines of the Cross meet, existing even in the eye of frantic and dangerous Horizontal conditions.  The location of this point is known only to those who understand the Union of attention and consciousness.

Why cannot ordinary men see that all is Reflection? They know they must use a mirror to even see their own face, (and that too is but a reflection).

Deficiency in part
is deficiency in the whole.

Ordinary men go from path-to-path and system-to-system like travelers from one hostile city to another.  It is a trek from one so-called authority to another, but it is not the Work.

Real magic does not simply lay about to be discovered by dreamers; it must be consciously produced by those with Will and an Aim.

J.

The Tree of Knowledge

One should not speak of immutable laws,
but rather of continual suggestions.

Why is it:  that men continually look for extrinsic, even supernatural, help, in the seeming belief that they themselves can do nothing?  Could it be because this is indeed so?

No way is a Work way unless it transports the whole person.  No liberation is True liberation unless it frees the whole man. And there is no total liberation without total rebellion. 

That which now I have not found, that alone do I.

Adam (the race of Man) could reach for either the Tree of Life, or the Tree of Knowledge, the former representing original creation, the past, and the latter symbolizing his earthly experience, his future.  In times of fear, ordinary men stir return to a desire for the Tree of Eternal Life rather than face the hardships of pursuing their creative future via the Tree of Knowledge.

The two aspects of biological and psychological evolution arc now reflected in contemporary notions of the conscious and unconscious, and in religions' ideas of spiritual and carnal man. From this viewpoint, the idea of man's true Essence refers not to a past state of biological crudeness, but to a future state of psychological refinement.

J.

Effects and Causes (Not)

It is ordinary men’s fate to perceive of only problems, and only those of the Work, solutions.

Only those who accidentally draw close to the Source speak publicly about god, and they lie to their listeners, in that they say they have spoken to, or experienced his presence, when in truth they do not know what occurred.

As one begins to truly Struggle he realizes that self-honesty is not simply a matter of wanting to tell the truth, but of somehow finding a place to begin.

There are no causes to be seen, only effects.  There is no “now” to be ordinarily perceived, for every apparent sense-of-now is but a delayed reaction (effect) of some previous cause, even though it may have occurred only seconds before.  Do not be so foolish as to search for causes; all you see are effects, hence, no one to blame; all are mere victims of effects.

When one is certain that things are going from bad to worse, should the leader become an obscure cult as soon as possible?  The objective reality of life would not be seen as fitting pattern, but would be a pattern. Not contained within a process, but the process itself.

J.

Things Will Become

Inasmuch as all things connect and ultimately reconnect, even with themselves, the attempt to draw close to the creative force entails certain danger in that one is brought closer to the force of destruction.

Men like to recall the past because it is safe and comforting; an escape from the need to push the future and live creatively.  Real Work exists only in the future.

Much of man's so-called “fear of god” is no more than his unspoken biological dread of the unfeeling forces of original creation.

Life may be the biological gift of creation, but a profitable life is the reward of one's own psychological evolution.

Some men say that things will somehow get better; some men say they will become worse.  But one-who-knows would say that things will become as they will become, beyond all of man's verbal prophecies.

J.

The Future/Now

The blind need eyes, not additional light. The objective study of oneself within the Work is the unknown realization of a patient freely offering himself, symptoms and all, for the therapist's consideration.

To live a more objective life of sincerity, without induced seriousness, is to deal in necessary agreement without commitment (and by what name could this be called were it all taken internally?).

Ordinary maps direct one to a final, identifiable location, while Work maps only point to an infinite journey. Even though one may discover a System close to the Ultimate Map, it too does not end, but rather throws one continually into new uncertain places just beyond the lastly perceived point of the map. To be pushed toward the forever future/now…Oh my god, what next!?

The Three Forces can be considered as symbolic of the past, present and future, and with an ordinary man's consciousness the present moves so swiftly to the past as to be almost non-existent. Yet his sense-of-now is real enough for him, but it is wimpy in whatever he attempts to sustain through his mechanical memory. So consider that such memory is tied to the past, linked to destruction; the foundation of walking-sleep.

Real Work exists only in the future; only the future can be now creative. Even the apparent study of previously established teachings and systems are dangerous for the serious, in that what is actually being attempted is to:  Understand an understanding of the past which is no longer creative.  No matter what the natural mind may say, and no matter the apparent power of memory, that which is in and of the past is dead and dangerous to the living.  Only the “living/dead” can abide such horrific conditions. The living have no past.

J.

Things as We Are

Sufficient pressure must be brought to bear on this artificial shell so that the varnish will crack and be allowed to run.  (Moving ever closer to the river from which all things flow.)

A more Awakened man would not speak of immutable “laws,” but of “continual suggestion.”

 To be identified with ideas of spiritual matters extrinsic to, and in conflict with, the human condition, is to be sentenced to endless torment.

Under ordinary conditions
we do not see things as they are;
we see things as we are.

The Sandy Path and all pseudo-systems adopt a rigid map and force reality there to conform. But we all know better than that ...right?  (Although it may now and again slip the ole mind ... right?)

J.

A Tango Built for One

Men dream of Liberation as a freedom somehow taking one outside the equation (I + Not-I = Everything),
making one an isolated, unaffected being.  Not correct: the true Liberation is freedom from the inhibiting illusion that one can be so totally isolated and unaffected.

All theories that say external change will be of ultimate benefit to the internal in man are doomed, in that external change is natural to the ordinary game-of-life, and will be suitably absorbed thereby.  One political system may overthrow another, while proclaiming its cause to be in the best spiritual and psychological interests of the people, as opposed to the overthrown system.  But the “new” system-of-Caesar will ultimately offer no more than clever revisions of the rules of the ever continuing game.  The actual game itself continues, no matter any slight alterations of the rules.  That which lives within the game is at all times subject to its power and control.  The game moves where it will, no matter the activities on the field.

Live first, then philosophize.
Then live some more and philosophize some more,
and so on and so on.

The true self-observation-method of the Work is almost like an unnatural realization of psychiatry as time-induced-dreams, but in our case, as a patient, it truly offers his psychological symptoms for the therapist's consideration, being a tango built for one.

Here, here we be to re-learn the language of the gods.  And the language, a language of “I” per knowledge or forbearance.

J.

Footprints

The Jews following Moses to the promised land, and Jesus’ giving himself over to the crucifixion can both be seen as symbolic statements of a man’s release of his own illusionary will and judgement.

Men attempt to prove their alleged self-improvement by bragging of the new areas of learning they undertake.  But we would have something if we found a man who could simply remember all that he already knew.

I see men travel ten million, forty-eleven hundred miles just to step into the next room, and watch them dance a lifetime of ten thousand leaps and turns just to learn the two step.

Never believe in anything you must defend.

It is not what you know that can awaken you, only what you remember.  That’s it, it and all of it.

Whatever Work System may be discovered and pursued, know that it is but the footprints of some lonely previous scout.

J.

Good Taste

Is man to assume that the rules-of-the-game are literal reflections of the rules-of-nature and of god?

The errors of an awakened man are the errors of god, nature and life; likewise for the sleeping.

Why attack the body of a man if you disagree with his mind? 
But why not, come on and get in the spirit of things!

After all is said and done, the Work is simply “Good Taste,” a sign of good breeding, intelligence and cultured sophistication.  Ah yes, our going out of business sale.  One should definitely awaken in Palm Beach not Jacksonville.

The creation story of Adam and the garden may not be about the fall of man, but rather the fall of god for becoming entangled in such foolishness.

A religion without humor is no religion at all.  And a religion with humor is no religion at all.

J.

True or False? (Not)

The Work begins as a struggle, the secret intent of which is to show a man that all struggle is meaningless and impossible.  Or:  The Work Struggle is to awaken a man to the fact that illusionary struggle was, in the first instance, the cause of his sleep.  Or…

No statement is absolutely true or false, including this one, or, should I say, except this one…no, including this one.  Wait, except this one.  I guess that’s right.

Although people say, “I can’t believe what I saw,”
they actually can only see what they believe.

You can always increase your awareness about anything by simply listening to the observations of others, and it has nothing to do with correctness of their views.

One way in which to consider the extraordinary maps I have laid before you is to see that they initially bring about skepticism.  But you must pursue this to its favorable end, to the point that initial skepticism even becomes skeptical of itself and indulges in self-consumption, leaving the mind then as free of skepticism as of any other map.

J.

Up Becomes Down

The Work looks at a divine reality not as a person to be worshipped, but a state to be realized.

True evil is not sin, but ignorance.  If one were able to fully foresee all the consequences of such deeds, he would never commence the act, or follow his course.

Mechanical rituals
offer mechanical results.

That which ordinary men label “ritualistic” was originally designed for the cultivation of un-mechanical attitudes.  (So up becomes down once again.)

We begin the Struggle looking within, for make no mistake, there is nothing without.  Then, make no mistake, there is nothing within.

J.