The Mirror (Holiday Edition)

There was once a man whose greatest desire was to, “See Far Away Places,” (and you’re gonna find this hard to believe), yet in spite of this professed, overwhelming desire, he mostly just stared at his own insides.

Can you fathom such foolishness?  He didn’t keep his inner eye on distant horizons, but, rather constantly, let it sag, droop, go limp and lapse into a meaningless staring at itself.  Talk about a promising undertaking!

Ask yourself:  What benefits and discoveries might ensue from a mirror looking at itself?!  What would it expect to find there – but itself, its own reflection?  What else possibly could it see?  Nothing!  If just the mirror “looks in” then all it will ever see is itself – “looking back.”  What is that ever going to prove or accomplish?!

(Please note:  What has just been said has nothing whatsoever to do with the so-called, “Attempts to Awaken and Achieve Enlightenment.”  Really, I’m quite serious – it doesn’t – really.)

J.

The Trick

From one view, a man’s feeling constitute his REAL self,
while his thoughts are the basis of his APPARENT self.

The way you trick a mirror into realizing its own nature, is to trick it into not trying to look at itself.

The attempt to achieve enlightenment is a trick – the trick is to understand the circumstances that made the trick necessary.

At the bottom of everything is…everything else.

Concerning Unnecessary Loss of Closeness:

Anything that interests you –
you have a feeling about.

Anything you have a feeling about,
that you TALK about,
ensnares you needlessly.

J.

Things-As-They-Are

While poets and philosophers have searched for the "perfect metaphor," the alert have already realized that it is right before us: Things-As-They-Are.

The symbol of a serpent swallowing its own tail does not represent the culmination of life -- but life as it forever is.

Once man left the peace and quiet of paradise and became a thinking creature, he took on a kind of illness, and to help compensate, life provided a form of self-treatment: constant mental agitation.

"The doctor will see you now."

"Hello, Doc, you've go to help me!"

"Certainly -- just look over there...now over here...now back over there."

"My God! good Doctor -- I'm cured!"

"I know, my boy, I know.  Next."

No matter where, no matter when,
no matter the language, the customs, the culture,
no matter the people's simplicity or sophistication,
what one attribute do all of man's many religions ascribe to God:
That he is "unchanging."

...Quite a coincidence, huh?  Next.

J.

Just Over the Horizon

Instead of directly trying to STOP thought, try looking over the heads of those to which you’re most naturally attracted.

When a man has some substantial awakening experience, it is good for unjust occasions to befall him (such that, for example, he can find himself – standing alone, naked on a barren plain – and this might produce the voice of, “I’ve been mistreated!”).   Thus a man might discover himself standing alone, naked on a barren plain, with no companion save the voice which begs for an analyzing of the injustice he has suffered, affording him the immediate opportunity to look up above the voice – just over the horizon –  where feelings are free from such noises below.

You can try to be a guard
who tries to bar the door to thought;
or be a man who stands beside the door
and does not look in thought’s direction.

It seems to me that there is a limited time, specific to each man, in which he can be profitably engaged in, “analyzing his life.”  And once the saturation point is reached, he should cease making eye contact with thoughts that appear regarding his life.

J.

Try-to-Do What You Gotta Do

One day one man so pondered:  “To ‘be awake’ amounts to, ‘mentally-standing-still-in-traffic.’”  He then further reflected and asked himself:  “Is this a good thing?”  He instantly realized that he would never be able to answer the question to his own satisfaction, and simultaneously understood that he would never stop striving to awaken, no matter how many different ways he could make it sound verbally foolish.

Moral:

A man not satisfied with his consciousness will try to do what he has to “try to do” –
no matter what!

There is no such animal
 as a retired or reformed mystic –
if he was a real one to start with.

Amateur Mystics and Scientists are all the time going on about: “This or that may be true, regarding the mind and its influence on man, but nevertheless I’m here to say – you must be dogmatic to ever understand the matics of dogs.”

J.

Secret Smart Creatures

At the most recent, “Secret Smart Creatures” Pan-Universal:

Laugh your ass off at the unintentional human humor competition.  The winner was:  People who are interested in the mind who pursue their interest by reading books about the mind.

The few earthy psychologists and the couple of mystics who happened to hear of this did not find anything therein to laugh about.  (Guess the next thing will be the awarding of prizes to people who want to achieve freedom, who think about freedom.)

A man writes:  “I really enjoy it when you push my thinking forcefully in one direction and then later push in the opposite.  P.S.  You do realize that I am being sarcastic, right?!  Sincerely,” etc.

Has anyone yet to notice that while the mind can easily find absurdity-in and laugh-at everything from god to death, that there is one area about which it has no sense of humor or sense of the absurd: itself?  (Do you find that interesting?!)

Whenever he’d be asked about his feeling on a certain matter, this one man would always reply:  “Oh, I leave all such things as, ‘opinion, preferences and beliefs’ to my glands.  You’ll have to ask them about that; they make all such decisions for me.”

What if behind the various “duality scenarios” I have conjured, (a man and his dog; the ventriloquist and the dummy; the voice in the head; and the awareness of the voice), what if the actual support for such metaphors is the relationship between the mind and the endocrine system?  I sometimes wonder if in my trying to convey what it is that I am “trying to convey,” and in trying to make it listenable, I have set up a situation not unlike expecting a fly to “swat itself?!”

J.

An Endrocrine Order

What if “Wanting to Awaken,” is a reflection of the pituitary gland’s desire to take charge of the few operations of the endocrine system not presently under its control?

If there was validity to this model, much needed light would then be shed on explaining the ancient school for enlightenment that went by the name: “The Grand & Secret Order Of The Pea Sized Thing In Our Brains.”  (Not to be confused with a different, near-by community dedicated to being and staying “asleep,” who identified themselves with the term: “Our Pituitary Acts Contrary.”)

A man mused over this:  “Is it about half possible that more than half the non-specific, general bitchin’ I do is me unknowingly commenting on my hormonal condition?  Since I’m always thinking about and picturing something when I’m complaining, I guess, I always assumed it was coming from my mind.  But I can see it as damn sure originating someplace else.  Always thought I was “mentally pissed,” but it sure could be just my nervous system’s verbal reaction to silent hormonal conditions.  Hmmm, now I’ll never be able to say, ‘Ah, shit!’ without thinking about my testes or pancreas.”

This just in:  “When you first brought up the subject of the endocrine system and the impact of hormones on every aspect of our lives, I thought you were speaking entirely metaphorically, but now you’re making me nervous and I’m beginning to wonder if that’s so?”

And in response to the previous; (it’s good that you contacted me about this):
Nervousness can be caused by a malfunctioning thyroid gland.

J.

Mostly My Glands

How often do those who think of themselves as unusually intelligent, reflect on the fact that had their endocrine system been short a few grains of iodine, they would be clinically classifiable as idiots?!

Some men declare:  “My mother’s love made me what I am today.”  While others will say:  “All that I am, I owe to the discipline of my father.”  Some even proclaim:  “My faith in God made me as you see me now.”  But one man, surely somewhere, surely sometime, said:  “It is mostly my glands, and their most delicate balance, that is mostly responsible for what I am – including my proclivity to engage in reflection such as this.”

While the lack of embracing any particular idea in the nervous system’s consciousness will do you no actual harm, the lack of proper thyroid functioning can spell the difference between intelligence and mental handicap.

Although hormones do not have a cerebral cortex through which to audibly proclaim their presence and profess their power, they make it continually known, throughout the body to singular effect on how we feel, and physically enjoy life.

The more that a man is bound up in thought, the greater to him seems the significance of the mind.  But let such a man, through an act of will, bring his noisy inner world to a momentary stop; then amidst the unnatural silence, let him attune his ear and hear a non-verbal side of him say:  “Hey, who’s your real Daddy?!”

J.

More "What If"

What if the “sensation-of-duality,” that is the basis of both ordinary consciousness and the condition mystics call “being asleep,” is, in fact, a reflection arising from the dual activities of the nervous and endocrine systems?!

What if hormones provide the brain with inner-sourced stimuli, just as the physical world provides it with externally based stimuli?! 

What if, when nothing of significance is happening in the physical surroundings, the mind “daydreams,” and the day dreams arise from hormonal stimuli driving consciousness when no external stimuli is of sufficient interest?!

A man about to plunge over Niagra Falls in a crock pot is not asleep at that moment.  His endocrine system is working all out, at the maximally alert level, and it is doing so in reaction to significant external circumstances, and not to its own unfocused, internal musings.

J.

"What If" Time

What if we direct our attention to the mind, solely because, by virtue of its activities being verbal, we can talk about them.  Whereas, what can you say about the goings on in the pancreas, or the thyroid, that lend themselves, to extended intellectual commentary?!

What if we study the mind by default?!  Since only the operations of the mind seem of philosophical or mystical significance to the mind.

What if the “desire to awaken” comes, not from the mind, but from the endocrine system and its glands wanting their, “day in the sun”?!

What if the full range of: “Wanting to awaken, achieve enlightenment, experience liberation,” etc., could all be genuinely said to amount to this: “The mind’s desire to – ‘control itself.’” Yet consider, nothing about us “controls itself”; the entire notion is demonstratively ludicrous to a keen eye.

The mind, being verbal, gets most of the attention and nearly all of the credit for man’s meteoric rise, and miraculous ability to affect his environment and reactions.  Yet still, what if it is not actually any aspect of the mind or consciousness that urges people like us to change, to awaken, but rather the hormonal glands silently chaffing us to “move up!” to further evolve, and follow the lead of nervous system neurons?!

J.

DO Something

On mystic mused:  “I began all of this trying to “DO” something, and have ended up “Studying” something – something I started out trying to “DO.”

One chap has titled the biography of his consciousness:
“Everything is Right where You Left It.”

Perhaps the greatest, unsubstantiated display of egotism is in the mind’s ipse dixit belief that it is the supreme commander of man’s life.  Better deserving, (for one instance), would be…well… the endocrine system.  Consider, why do such as we focus our attention regarding enlightenment on our mind rather than, oh, let’s say:  our hormonal state.

Man has no knowledge of what is running and controlling life, and certainly none regarding his individual existence.

J.

The Ground

The consistent “sensation-of-duality” underlying man’s perception of reality is all pervasive.  The secondary world is firmly structured thereon, and it facilitates rational thought and logic. It makes possible our manipulation of the environment and our alterable reactions thereto, and is the irreplaceable basis of all science.   But above all, (of interest here), is the fact that this “sensation-of duality” is the ground upon which all mystical questions and complaints stand.

Although all of ordinary consciousness is dependent on this duality concept, so also is all that troubles those with our interest.  The concept produces the impression of there being both:  that which is perceived and a perceiver; thoughts and a thinker.  Such is necessary for the basic operation of human consciousness, but such is also from what all complaints about consciousness arise, with the likes of us.

Whenever this one man would suddenly stop and silence his internal, mental world, he would instantly sense the presence of another unknown entity inside of him along with his normally perceived self.  No mystical imagination involved; just direct experience that there is another “something,” similar to “him” – in him.

People with no realization of themselves or of life are not aware of this phenomenon, (leastwise not enough to directly think about it or speak of it), but that other “something” is sure enough there in them and, in part, running and directing their life.  (Just outta random curiosity, can anyone spell, “Endocrine System”?)

J.

The Evil Elvis

Another man, whenever his dummy – I mean voice – no, I mean, dog – leaves his yard, throws up his hands in glee and cries out:  “Praise be, the Evil Elvis has left the building, and at last – I’m alone!”

Another Proverb Update:  “Old metaphors never die, they just get re-dressed.”

Proverb Update, Updated:  “Old metaphors never die, because their birth was an invented illusion to begin with.” 
(Or, as my dear old uncle Fluttermyer loves to say:  “The universe itself may be blown all to hell, but by god, it looks like the secondary world will be with us always…dammit to hell!”)

Latest Undiscovered Scientific Finding:

Many explanations of consciousness explain a little…
but not enough to actually explain anything.

Two Things Regarding The Matter Of What Is Possible:

Anything is possible if you don’t realize how the mind works, and how stud you are: but anything is also possible if you do understand how the mind works.

A proposed title of one man’s new book:
“The Goings-On in the Brain That No One Takes Time To Take Note Of.” 

(He has a half-brother who has his own manuscript he’s trying to peddle with the working title:  “The Significance of Consciousness Is Way Overblown.”)

J.

Everything is Contagious

Yet one more way to look at the difference between ordinary people, and those longing for the freedom of what enlightenment is:  Everyone has consciousness, but only people like us, take it personally, “seriously.”  Everyone has thoughts, but only such as we, get all caught up in the questions of:  How do they come about? 

Oh yeah, and the ordinary believe that they have a naturally occurring “individual self.” 

While the enlightened, thanks to their having taken the matters of consciousness and thought “seriously,” are no longer so distracted and mistaken.

Proverb Update:

“Give a man a fish and he’ll eat today,
but teach him how to fish and he’ll eat tomorrow –
slap him upside the head with a fish and maybe he’ll wake up.” 
(This may shed some light on an ancient school,
the origins of whose name has long been a puzzle: “The Mystic Order of Mullets.”)

One father gave these guidelines to his son:  “Never look in mirrors; Never listen to anyone else’s talk; Never talk to yourself, think-about, discuss, mull-over, ponder, reflect-on the matter of ‘enlightenment’ for twenty years – then don’t…did I mention, look in mirrors?”

Health Info:

In the secondary realm, everything is contagious.

J.

Pin the Tail

When he first heard reference to the Army division known as ‘The Airborne,” one man thought, “I’ll enroll my mind.”

In a seeming shift in position, this one man, whenever his dog would run off out of the yard to play, would say, “Ahh – free again from the Pharoah’s bondage!”  (Has anyone discovered that the ventriloquist can walk off stage without turning the dummy into a complete dummy?!)

Asking people to listen to what I presently attempt to talk about, is like asking them to stand in front of a mirror, and try to pin a tail on the reflection of a donkey.

One man says, “’Waking-up’ itself is no longer my real problem, stabilizing it is.”  (I’ve got-the-picture – I just can’t get the print to stay fixed.”)

Now for today’s news wrap-up: 

There was once a man who had a drug dependency…which he finally learned to break…but, he still frequently returns to it under the guise of reviewing the method he’s used to break it.  (Now that’s either a Davis Cup News Item or a Super Bowl Smith & Wesson.)

J.

The Stuffing in the Mattress

A certain group, (with our kind of turn-of-mind), one day mused:

“It would seem that a proper reply to a xenophobe, who said to a foreigner, “Why don’t you go back to where you came from; you’re not welcome here,” would be for the one assaulted to say, “You would be welcome in my country.” 
If you consider it a bit further, and you realize that the response lacks any meaningful substance, the xenophobe could then respond by saying, “Hell, I don’t care if I’d be welcome in your country or not, ‘cause I don’t want to go there – and apparently you don’t like it enough to stay there yourself.”  (While the foreigner’s original response that I proposed, and which at first seemed fitting and irrefutable, upon further reflection crumbles.)

One man thought about this same scene, regarding how one part of some people’s brain/mind, believes other parts of it are asleep, deluded and all-in-all “unwelcome intruders.”

Chauvinism, for the ideas you hear uttered in your head, is the stuffing in the mattress upon which men so comfortably sleep.

At the end of a TV show, when the message appeared, “This program was pre-recorded,” one man thought:  “Hell, my life was pre-recorded.”

J.

In the Library

A man sitting in his library reading a book comes upon a passage such as: “The Zen Experience Of ‘Satori.’” It can be seen to differ truly from say, Christian ideas of “God’s Grace,” or from “Divine Love,” in that Satori lacks any such sentimental trappings or emotional inferences.  And the man felt so struck by these words that he lowered the book to his lap and looked out a window into the far distance, as his mind was bathed in a sense of the supreme significance of what he’d just read.  And as he sat, he even repeated it to himself, and yet – regardless of his sincerity or intelligence, and notwithstanding the pleasure his cortex derived from it – the words have revealed nothing whatsoever about Zen, Christianity, Satori or God.

As long as a man – no matter his sincerity or sophistication – does not – cannot – through his personal experiences, continually distinguish between reading about, thinking about, and talking about “being enlightened,” and actually being so, he remains confused and ill informed as to what’s actually going on in Life.  Anyone who can explain any of the “human problems” to their satisfaction, does not understand the problem.

J.

You Do the Math

One man wrapped up everything he’d learned about the matter of interest to us in his magnum opus, which he entitled:  “Everything You Need To Know About Achieving Awakening,” which still consisted of but these few words on its single page,

 “You’re asleep;
You Know What It Takes To Wake Up;
You Do The Math.”

The first stage in being mystified – I mean, “Of being a follower of a mystical system,” is in being thoroughly fascinated with its descriptions of what’s wrong with man and how to change that.  The second stage is when you are no longer satisfied with “descriptions,” but want “explanations.”  The pay-off stage is when you’re not interested in explanations of why things are as they are, or in descriptions of how they might be changed.  The only interest you have left is what you can actually DO at this very instant to effect change.  (Hey, that other guy already summed it up when he said, “You do the math.”)

A quick way to tell, “If you’re getting closer” is if:  You now have but “one problem” – ONE – classifiable to you as a, “problem.”  “Ah, good day to you sir, and welcome to, ‘The One Problem Thinker’s Club.”  You’ll find nametags over by the coffee and doughnuts.”

J.

You and The Mind

One man serves up a portion of his experiences in these words:  “I originally was dissatisfied with my condition…and tried to change it.  But with no success, later I was doubly dissatisfied:  I was still dissatisfied with my condition, but later became also dissatisfied about being dissatisfied with my condition, and not being able to change it.  I now still don’t much care for my general condition, but I don’t dislike my disliking it as much as I once did.  Are we talking ‘moving-ahead’ here or what?” he asks us, (rhetorically, I hope).

If you’re ordinary, you believe that “You” is your mind;
If you concentrate, you believe “You” are directing your mind,
If you awaken, you believe “You” are attempting to subdue your mind,
And if you are awake, there is no “You” and the “Mind.”

(Don’t let a boy wander off believing that he can do a man’s job, for all he’ll do is screw up the man’s possibilities. Keep your children clutched as close to your breast as you can.)

Here is another quick test of your understanding:  Do you comprehend this statement:  “Even if a man could constantly, (for instance), ‘self-remember’ without understanding what ‘self-remembering’ is, he would not be fully therein engaged.”  Do you have a rough idea of what’s being pointed to?!

J.

There is Nothing as Strange

The opening line in a recently published textbook of cosmology pronounces:
“There is nothing as strange, as the universe which we inhabit.”   
A statement that will likely be unchallenged even by experts, but one which is thoroughly vacuous, in that the mind of man, which makes such a statement, has no other universe against which to compare this one’s “strangeness.”   This is also true regarding many statements men mouth as self-evident facts, and no one seems ready, or interested, in taking the mind’s experimental limitations into account as they merrily roll along, serenely with its wheel.

The only real difference between ordinary people and a man who wants to awaken, is that This whole thing is like a game, and the former do not take it “seriously,” (in a certain way), while the latter DO take it “seriously,” (in a certain way).

The explanation for all of the weird and crazy stuff that men believe they see, is due to them not comprehending the nature of the mind, and the role it plays in their perception of Life.  When you are enlightened as to the nature and goings-on of the mind, everything about Life falls into place and makes perfect sense.

 J.