Thinking About Paris

One man thought:  “If I’m so smart then why can’t I be all of the time, the way I am some of the time, and want to be all of the time?”

Then further thought:  “Because smartness has so little to do with it.”

Another man thought:  “If I’m so pushy then why can’t I be all of the time, the way I am some of the time, and want to be all of the time.”

And further thought:  “Because aggression has so little to do with it.”

And still another man thought:  “If I’m so spiritual then why can’t I be all of the time, the way I am some of the time, and want to be all of the time?”

And further thought:  “I guess because you-know-what has so little to do with it.”

And wouldn’t you know it, a fourth man heard all of this and said to himself:  “If so many things have so little to actually do with it, then why are we standing around her yacking about it!”

(A chap, apparently uninvolved in the above, told the clerk:  “I believe I’ll have a Danish, plain, if you please.”)

What’s the sense in thinking about Paris
when you haven’t even reached France yet? 
Okay travelers – back to sleep.

One day while thinking about stuff, a man said to himself: “Perhaps the easiest way to do it is simply don’t criticize anybody – even mentally.”
And one of his thoughts responded:  “Why don’t you just shut up!?”

The ends do not have to justify the means or anything else – the ends must simply identify themselves.

No matter your art, if your work is not surprising, it’s not fully entertaining.

J.

Remember Thoughts For What They Are

I urge you to try and abandon all concern for thought and the mind.  Don’t struggle with them; don’t look at them – don’t even think about them.  Cause yourself to be, remind yourself to be, non-verbally “aware” (in some weird kind of “awareness” in quotation marks), that you are always being run, directed and controlled by feelings – not by any thoughts you may be having.

It is not to become a hypochondriac of some type constantly fretting over the latest mole.  It is having awareness that feelings are all you are intent to notice. 

When you discover your own way of doing this, you’ll experience an immediate freedom from the annoyance you feel being apparently a captive of your thoughts: the classic image of an enlightened man as totally un-emotional.

Fasting and single-food diets are unrecognized efforts to stabilize feelings, so as to indirectly have a calming, stabilizing effect on thinking.  Celibacy, silent men urged to “control” their “out of control” thoughts, even to eradicate them, is foolish and impossible.

Rather than staying at the place of continually and futilely fighting thoughts as being the real problem, recognize and remember them for what they are.  This alone, by this stage of the game, should give all of you a brand new, highly refreshing experience.

 J.

Shadow Physiology - Post-Holiday Edition

In your second-to-second existence, there is no comparison whatsoever in the importance of feelings over your thinking.

Even though all thoughts come solely from feelings, at any given moment, the words and images in your mind may or may not bear an apparent direct relationship to the feelings of the moment. 

You could, from this perspective, even say that feelings are your real self, and thoughts, your illusionary self.  The reality of this would also throw bright new light on the seemingly endless conflict men say they experience within themselves.

My method vis-à-vis this alternate model:

“The Acknowledgement of The Obvious,” whereby you see quite plainly, (in both model theory and actual practice), that thoughts are not actual separate entities unto themselves, but are merely registers-of and file-clerks-for feelings. 

Thus, all attempts to directly “deal with” thoughts in some metaphysical fashion is pure foolishness; like trying to learn the workings of a machine merely by watching its gauges; like trying to treat a sick man by ministering to his shadow; like trying to learn human physiology by looking at a man’s shadow.

J.

Shadow Thoughts - Holiday Edition

Those with an interest in this sort of activity have been forever assured that they need to have a mind that is “Free of preferences” to ever achieve enlightenment.  And yet no such mind is possible, for the thoughts a man normally has have an emotional past for him, (or else he wouldn’t be having them).

All feelings, (passions-of-the-body you might say), are preferential, which is their purpose.  And since all thoughts are simply mental notations of some feeling, they too will always be preferential, biased and prejudiced.

According to this model it is not sufficient to forever just “study the mind” – you need to go deeper into the subject to get to the “bottom-of-the-mind,” which brings you face to face with “feelings.”  It is feelings that are at the bottom of the mind – not any other “secret.”

The voice you hear in your head is not the sound of your “mind,” but is rather the noise of your emotions sounding in your brain. 

Thoughts are like a shadow
speaking for an un-speaking object.

J.

You Think What You Feel - Holiday Edition

Throughout the history of this sort of thing, those interested have been told that to “wake up” to what’s really going on, you must “understand the mind.”  And the study of the mind is indeed the best you can do to start with, but is ultimately the lamest, for the sole source of all things that fill the mind are our feelings, emotions and passions.  A man’s thoughts are not a statement of what he thinks, but of what he feels.

To take the mind seriously is to take a reading from a seismograph for an earthquake.  Consciousness is charged with registering and remembering the activities of feeling.

Feelings are constant monitoring the state of the organism and its environment; thoughts are their readings put into manipulable, abstract forms…(words, images). 

Based on this model, thoughts are not actual “things” in and of themselves, but are just registrations of feelings, which are supremely real and responsible for our survival.

When the mind is not specifically and consciously engaged in problem solving pertinent to your survival, it is a mechanical device which re-runs, reaffirms, and refreshes our memory of previous, profitable responses to challenging situations.  Thus “day dreams” can be viewed as the mind “staying in shape,” to make quick, beneficial decisions whenever the feelings, passions of our total organism are in need of same.

J.

Answers

There are no such things as “missions.”  The only ones that actually exist are secret missions.

The only answers that mean anything are those to questions that have never been asked.

One man declared:  “Subconsciously I am more intelligent than I appear,” then added, “I must be – we all must!”

Every man’s life is his own;

Unless he looks abroad,
Consumes history,
Perceives political intrigues,
of prairie dog nations.

Conversational Fragments Continued:

“Which is the more obscene – discussing the intimacies of your sex life, or of your mental processes?”  And I’m sorry, but I couldn’t make out the second voice’s reply.

“Always”:  An Explanatory Poem in Six Words:

A partisan view’s
only partially true.

J.

When Maps Become Snares

It is truly uncivilized to say, (aloud), that cats run birds.

When maps become snares, they’re called institutions.

They rubbed so many oils, salves, and ointments on one dead body that it looked almost life-like again – guess what they called it.

All maps finally melt, but not fast enough for the few.

Anyone can act civilized, but only the individual can be personally civilized.

J.

A Thinker With A Fear

A thinker with a fear always has a best friend.  (If this seems too weird for you, consider this:  A thinker without a constant, personal, fear of some sort, is sorely lacking.)

Being able to produce your own original material has to do with awareness, not daydreaming, study or planning.

What hungry, anxious men seek is not what they initially believe they seek.

The above item was a “two-parter” – this instant comment making it a “three-er” and thus, a liar of us all – as always.  Ask not what words can do for you – but what consciousness can do to words.

One man paused and reflected on his own neural signals: “I am in constant, world-wide communication with myself – even when I don’t care to be.”

J.

If It Won't Float

To be conscious in a new way, you must become privately passionate about your thinking.

Men invented the different time zones to help account for his diversity of development.  It was only later that the dense began to believe it had something to do with naval navigation.  And a rabbi and big-game hunter said, “We knew that!”

Ship Builder’s Tip:

Remember, if it won’t float it can always be turned into an institution.

(How do you think that Noah and Neural-Geology got so popular?)

Act Three – Scene Three:

“Well, if thinking alone won’t take me where I want to go, then what will?”

“Do you know exactly where it is that you’re wanting to go?”

“Well…no.”

“Then what the hell kinda question is that!?”

“Well, it’s my question – have you got a better one?”

“Hey…cut…hold it right there, where’s the director, where’s my agent?  Who do you have to sleep with around here to get out of this production?”

“That’s a pretty old joke.”

“Yeah, you got me there, so maybe we should just stop and think about all this except for my original question about whether thinking alone will ever take us anywhere.”

“Oh, Mister Prop Man – yoo hoo – would you please get my agent on the phone.”

Once, in a drama, my role diverged, and I – I tried the one less traveled by and that decision has, to say the fucking least, made all the difference you could ever imagine –baby!

J.

Maps of Reality

Dialogue Determinus:

One man found that while on drugs he was more like himself than otherwise.
“May I ask a question?  Do you mean, drugs-ingested drugs, or drugs he neurally produced himself?”
Hmmm…damn good question!  Now where was I?

Maps of reality
may not be perfect,
or even accurate,
but they are, by god,
comfortable.

One man said:  “Tell me what you don’t understand and I’ll tell you who you are.”
And replied:  “Well, I don’t understand anything!”
Then said:  “Ha!  I’d know you anywhere!”

If genes are your reading light, the past is always looking over your shoulder.

“Has talking to others ever lead you astray?”
“No.”
“Then, to whom?”

J.

Life Makes Sense

A certain thinker was once accused of not being “sincere” in his periodical, emotional displays of friendship, and he replied, “That’s correct, but I am also not insincere.”  Now the question is – do you get it?

Here’s How the Tune Goes:

Life makes sense –
It is man who can’t make sense out of Life.

The Street Corner Commentator Declared:

“If fate had wanted us to be any different than we are, she’d have made us different.”

And a man stopped and said:

“But she did make me different from you.”

And he received the reply:

“Well – there you are!”

And the man went on down to the bakery, as he had originally planned.

Human Institutions:  Faux punchlines – in search of out dated set-ups.
“Gimme two muffins and a bismark.”

A Truly Energy-Saving Tip That Almost No Human Will Ever Use:

Thinking about anything that anyone else has already thought about is worse than a waste of time – it is a hypnotic glue.  Just as the cattle police were prepared to storm the building, a voice from within shouted, “I’m warning you!  I’m in a trance and I know how to use it!” (Don’t we all,  Elsie – don’t we all.)

J.

Men With Mirrors

A man asked his mind, “Why must we continue to talk of the past?”
And it replied, “But what else do we know!?”

According to the mythical wisdom of this one planet, the physical laws of the universe are only there so that man will have something besides animals to use in metaphors.

Men with mirrors will talk only about themselves – until a hippo walks behind them.

More Intergalactic Dialogue:

“Hey, Helitheo, what the hell is that!?”

“What?”

“Say-y-y you’re not Helitheo!”

And Now For Some Earth-Bound Conversation:

“I say – I seem a bit upset.”

“Do you say a ‘bit’?”

“Yes, a bit.”

“Hey, you’re not human!”

 J.

Boffo Headlines Make A Comeback

And lo, the cry went out, “Let there be more talk and less entertainment!”  (Thus it was, for example, that Bach was terminated and critics brought on-line.)

And, “Ahh,” they contentedly sighed, “History bears us out once again.”  As behind their backs, History chuckled as it straightened on its morning coat, awaiting indeed to, “Bear them out,” but not in a manner intended by their words.

Sang a man, near a willow:  “If home is where the heart is, then my head is in my heart.”

Then, looking back on it all, the young-Jack-in-Us-All, enthralled: “I should have known that days long gone saw the last of the magical beans.”

Flash:  Boffo Headlines Make Comeback:

When many mortal performers reach maturity and see where the production’s headed, they’ll make their voice sound real gruff, and say, “Somebody get my agent on the phone – and I mean NOW!”  (Okay gang, the good news is that everyone’s been held over for another week – of course, that’s also bad news.)

J.

Talking About Oneself

One way to spot the intellectually civilized is that to try and learn about themselves, they’ll study
anything but.

Related, El Note-to:

Talking about oneself is not the same as studying oneself.

Carouselian Comfort:

Look here dear,
Have no fear,

The mind was made
to run in circles.

A Range Of No Regrets:

Horsey, horsey,
Who’s got the horsey?
I don’t care long as I ain’t the horsey.

The more sophisticated becomes the king, the more he tries to make your Execution Proclamation sound like a Public Service Announcement – done for your own good!

(Just because you don’t know what you’re doing, doesn’t mean that anyone else does.)

J.

The Mind Latches On

Alright, if you’ll all calm down, and we can get all of the contestants back on stage, we’ll announce the finalists: 
The Second Runner Up is the man who wouldn’t take no for an answer,
The Third Runner Up is the man who wouldn’t take yes for an answer,
And our winner is – the man who wouldn’t take reality as an answer.

The mind wants something to latch onto,
but are you gonna’ let it latch on to you!?

“So,” said a man, “Are we to then consider the normal knowledge of the mind to be a little more ‘Socratic irony’!?”

In a land where “no knowledge” can pass for “quite adequate knowledge,” where will civilization and routine men be found?  (“Is that all, Sir?  May we go home now?”)

The official city Sculptor and ad hoc Corner-And-Rough-Edge-Chiseler states: “No man with attributes shall ever possess a daughter of mine.”

J.

One Man's Rhyme

One Man’s Rhyme:

I passed my days
 in a daze, then,
discovered my way
in a maze.

(Simply “being alive” is not pressure and confusion enough.)

The war is over only when you don’t hear it anymore.

You can separate things,

You can put ‘em together;

You can make things worse, but,

Not any better.

(Thus is one generation’s verse to the succeeding one.)

The shit is passed only when you hear it no longer.

Any idea that a definition can help, is an idea that is beyond help.  There is nothing absolute that you can say about the mind – while there is about consciousness.

J.

To Be More Human

We can play with our sex,
We can play with our food,
We can play with our mind,
Will it do any good?

The preceding verse was brought to you by the, You, Me, and Why, Semi-Charitable Trust.
(By unconscious accident, I might add.)

And Now A Little Quiz For The Kiddies – With Prizes Appropriate Thereto:

“What’s a bigger waste of time than being civilized? – Talking about it!”

(Any of you adults who want to play along may, for the term, “being civilized,” use instead either the words, “art” or “being alive.”)

No one’s map perfectly matches reality.

Inside of every solar system is a place where all of their local words are produced; and inside this area are always a few people, sort of genetic side effects of the overall effort.  And a man mused, “Is trying to be more human a form of science fiction, or vice versa?”  Yes, you can call it anything you want to, but that’s still what it is: “Attempting To Be More Human.”

One man wanted to go to a certain place, but since he couldn’t seem to get there, he just thought about it a lot and that seemed to keep him from worrying about it too much.  Now that, info-lovers, is being human,  not more human.

J.

When All Becomes Metaphor

The human inclination is to tell people about the neat vacation spot you traveled to, but the too-human danger is that you’ll try to show them snap-shots of the place which are not in your possession.

Regarding A Thinker’s Aesthetics:

It is only the “new” that is the “joy forever.” (A man thought, “If I could locate the center of the storm, perhaps I could stabilize it.”  Perhaps.)

You do realize that everyone may have it backwards, and it could be that myths invented men!

How “Travel-Smarts” Operate On The “Not-Quite-Possible-Yet Level”:

A man who already, “has-it-in-him,” can direct himself – in fact, only he can.

When all becomes metaphor,
even the grandest plans run awry.

All philosophy is bullshit, and all bullshit, somebody’s philosophy.

J.

Theories Were the First Form of Space Travel

How The Singular, Non Physical Side Of Mortals Expands:

“What can you say about man once you’ve said everything that can be said?’
“Something else.”

After many, and I do mean “many” starts, stops, starts, hesitations, successes, failures, triumphs, then setbacks, one man summed it up in a rhyme:  “Conscious clarity’s, Life’s act of charity.”  And after having thought this for himself, he felt no better for it, nor any worse, either – for such is not the purpose of thinking for yourself.

And yet, on another planet was a certain man who each day set his watch to buzz at three o’clock to remind him when it was three o’clock.  Ring-g-g:  You can either think for yourself, or you can’t – and without such a background, an expansion of consciousness is foolish to discuss.

A Bonus Question from next year’s “Dry Waller’s and Appaller’s exam:

A two dimensional mind in a three dimensional world will never reach its full potential!?
The simple are disturbed by indigestion, the more complex by irony and uncertainty. 
Opossums and birch trees laugh in the face of the scientific method. 
Theories were the first form of space travel – minds, the original space.

Notice: Everybody’s in show business – everybody’s an impersonationist.

How You Need to Look At Even This “Point-Blank”:

The question is not whether the gamble will ever pay off or not, but rather, whether you’ll ever even find the right place to lay down your bet.  (“Sweetums, as long as you’re in the kitchen, would you go ahead and tell me if that was supposed to be good new or bad?”)

J.

University of the Air

The idea of “arm chair travel,” came about when men discovered it was easier to get an arm chair, than it was to travel.  The mind can be a wonderful pet – as long as you keep it inside, or else make it stay out of doors.

If there is “one thing wrong with man” – nobody knows what it is!

You are fully civilized when you want to start playing,  “Hey, look at me! – for what appear to be non-sexual reasons.”

University of the Air:  Lesson Three In The Course:  “Look Over Here 102”:

One unique aspect of becoming a new being in consciousness, is that you cannot prove to anyone that you have accomplished it, or provide any evidence that it is profitable.  What more can you ask for you tuition dollar!?

The ordinary like to note that there are no infidels awaiting execution, but look over here, dear, there are no myths in an empty stomach.  Feed a cold, starve a fever; strip my mind – “I’m a believer!”

J.