Coming Apart at the Seams

Surveying the literature and realm of the childish mind, one young lad one day paused to ponder:
"Are all our dreams of superheroes but reflections of the future potential of everyday man himself?"
And after a bit more rumination, returned with, "And is this also the basis of history making past everyday men larger-than-life, heroic figures?" He then turned himself to pursuing this whole subject as regards how, more specifically, his own thinking dreamed of him.

Exercise Tip:

As when any particular physical exercise begins to hurt,
you alter the way you're doing it, so too,
when your mental activity is not bothering you,
alter it to do so.

Just released statistics reveal that:

     "Well over 90% of all mystics who persevere in their efforts past middle age, do so on their yet held belief that something most spooky and mysterious still lies ahead." And a man, upon hearing this, pondered it for a moment, then said, "I was tempted to comment that if this be correct then it would account for certain temporal anomalies visible in the lives of those who pressed on with motivation other than the one noted...but, I guess, to what end?

             Fashion Tip:
If indeed you are "coming apart"
it will be "at the seams."

Note:

               This is not merely a warning for the routinely "fashion conscious” or your everyday seamstress, but rather potentially useful information for those engaged in (shall we say) other kinds of construction activities, in that it points specifically where to look when things appear intent on decomposing and disintegrating.

J.

Suicide Pact

The Secret is discovered
not through talking and debate,
nor is it found through devotion or faith.
So what the hell gives anyway?

 At routine level—the greater the thought—the smaller the mind.
(Normal-running machinery tends to shrink the factory size.)

The idea of mental time-and-space-travel is moot in a land ruled solely be the twin regents of “Instinct and The Mind.”  It does no good to yell, "Let me out of here!" while not knowing the confining nature of "me" to begin with.

Educational Update:

"Those who can't, teach," but furthermore, those who can,
but are sometimes too lazy to, are some of the ones who'll say:
"Those who can't, teach."

One man made a suicide pact with himself (to wit):

That every time he'd say something that other people had unquestionably said before,
he'd give himself at least a small, potentially fatal blow.
(You might care to know that his mind refused to participate in this scheme at all.)

J.

A Rhino-with-a-Wristwatch

The mind is want to call instinct
by any name,
save its own.

Minds enjoy reflecting on history
in that it relieves them from instant action.
Why else do men read and watch sports events?

Any physical artisan will say that a laborer is no better than his tools,
yet where be the mental ones who likewise understand?

Have you ever thought about the fact that even if animals had watches, they still couldn't tell time?  And did you further ponder why?

So what could be more ridiculous than a rhino-with-a-wristwatch? …Other than a mind with a plan (a plan that can only be acted on at some future date)?

Then there was this other wolf who found he couldn't wrest physical control of the total pack, so he began howling in metaphor to some of them, and soon developed his own small following, nonetheless.

J.

This and That

Rather than blindly allowing your mental life to be the direct result of your temporary feelings, Remember that you can immediately exercise mental independence and do it. 

You must want to do it,

you must hunger to do it,

you must Remember to do it,

and you can do it.

Man is so accustomed to being totally identified, in his mind, and so addicted to habitual suffering that he has forgotten, overlooked and become ignorant of the immediate possibility of mental independence.

A continuing attempt to be mentally independent of yourself and your states, will immediately interfere with negative imagination and suffering.

It is never as simple a matter as struggling with just one part of the machine.  First it’s this, and then it’s that.  First you look here, then you peer there.  The foe’s on the right, then on your left. 

Boredom’s rampant enough as it is…the ordinary mind is a most captious adversary, but an independent mind is a friend indeed.

J.

Play-Socrates-to-Yourself

Investigate, observe, study, question.  These are the first steps.

 Learn to leap above the raging battle.  Don’t be fooled into thinking you have the ordinary ability to immediately stop or alter passions, once they are loosed.  Do not ignore the potential use of the independent mind to separate oneself from oneself.

Such a use of the mind can serve as a curious aid to the development of consciousness.   It can impassionately investigate and question Horizontal affairs that stir up individual feelings.  This mental operation can stand aside from your induced dreams and nightmares, and throw such a cold, hard light on them as to cause their retreat. 

Remember, both the mind and feelings must be similarly identified for you to be captured.  Struggling to keep one of the two from total sleep will halt identification.  Put more simply; it takes them both to suffer adequately. 

This attempt could be considered the struggle to play-Socrates-to-oneself.  Can you hear me?  Your feelings are so dependent on so many unpredictable forces, that they can change before your notice, and ordinarily, beyond your immediate control… (just like the students questioned by Socrates). 

J.

The Independent Mind: Post Holiday Edition

Everyone is, in a particular way, tied directly to their feelings.  To a great degree little can be immediately done to affect this situation, but the mind in a very particular way can function independently.  It is possible to exercise a degree of independence in the mind that is not possible in feelings. 

There is a mental state that transcends your ordinary mind: the mind can live and function on a level far above and removed from your ordinary mental ramblings.

An immediate way to use this knowledge is to attempt to find the place in your own mind where you can be aware, independent from your passing feelings. 

Under optimum, theoretical conditions, a person could be raised with such an independent mind; largely freed from unprofitable entanglements with the emotions. 

Life has raised men under forces that unavoidably cause a mal-connection between his feelings and his mind, and it appears to be the acceptable norm.  Everyone suffers from this arrangement and thus no one questions the situation.

J.

The Non-Ordinary Mind: Holiday Edition

Although the ordinary mind can be properly labeled our immediate enemy; also remember that he who made the lock must also make the key. 

The mind can function in a manner not ordinarily used, and under present circumstances, is the initial doorway of practicality.  Many systems have given names to operations possible within the mind that are normally unknown—names are of little importance, other than to direct the attention in a certain direction.

There is another possible level of operations for the mind, one that does not occur mechanically.  Other than the true hunger of emotional essence, it was from this higher mental level that you were first driven to find a system.

This mental level can be used to quite specific and practical ends.  It can be touched at times, through inter-group conversations, when two serious people attempt to conversationally, and mentally, consider some question while struggling against the ordinary operations of their mechanical mentation.

Consider this matter quite simply.  Remember that not only can the ordinary mind lead you into impertinent feelings, but also that the reverse is a continuing possibility.

J.

Experiencing The Secret

While poets and philosophers have searched for the "perfect metaphor," the alert have 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.

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.

A Report on Reticence:

The silence that speaks so forcefully to the alert
is both external and public,
internal and personal.

A man asked a mystic, "Is experiencing The Secret the-most-fun-you-can-have-with-your-clothes-on?"

And the super-wired-one replied, “How about the-most-fun-you-can-have-and-still-be-conscious?"

(And the man seemed satisfied...least as much so as is possible for someone in man's normal condition.)

J.

The Rule of the Sea

According to history, there were originally two types of mystics:
agitated mystics, and calm mystic
And one of the two eventually absorbed the other.

 
"Hey, Hubert, what 'chu reckon they're talkin' about now—actual types of mystics? Or are we back to just inside one guy's head again?"

The Rule of the Sea for the Mystical Salt:

                          Don't let your boat be rocked.                                                             

And one man's come up with this idea:
"It doesn't matter so much what you think, just as long as you don't.”

The great thing about being a mystic,
once you're ready to leave, is that there's no one there to see you off.

And a certain mystical equestrian pondered:
"What is the profit in setting free a wild horse?"

J.

Busy Body

One man has presently come to this point: "If I am to get anywhere new with my thinking, I must take it outside the confines of my head."

 The body is indeed a busy place -- but not the busiest in town.

According to legend, a guy once asked a mystic, "If you're awake to the point of realizing that there's no one else more awake than you are, is that as awake as you're gonna’ get?" But the mystic said he didn't answer questions like that.

 


The only worthwhile prophet is one who can prophesy his own demise.
Now, for "prophet" substitute the word "mind."
Now, that makes the information worthwhile.

And a viewer writes:

     "Would you please repeat the one you read about a man who named his thoughts, 'Yeah, yeah'?"

     Yeah, yeah.

J.

Try It This Way

Try it this way:

What if there is no one mystical way, for the simple reason that there is no mystical way,
only people on the mystical way.

 Or, as Mr. Science said upon hearing this, "Boy, now I'm really confused!"

One method that can be employed is a continual "thinking about thinking," but it must be continual: whenever you are thinking you must also, at that very same instant, be "thinking about thinking."

 A certain mystic once said, "No man has ever awakened in a crowd.  I leave it to you, whether I mean this literally or not."

So was recently struck one man, “If my mind had hands and feet, it wouldn't be just a mind."
And his mind piped in, "What d'ya mean 'just'?"

The simple love to sing their own praises;
the sophisticated love to hear theirs sung by others.

Who sings for and about the mystics?
None, thank god, none, by god.

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.)

 J.

Conversations

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."

It might even be suggested that the enlightened state is one in which life drives man's mind as directly and effortlessly as it normally does his body.  

It could also be plausible to describe the liberated condition as being one wherein a man loses part of himself—not his nature, but his mind.

Or, looked at from another view:
You could say that the trick is to have one state of mind; one consistent, undisturbed, indifferent state of mind.
(The key to said state being in the word, "one.")

Mused one guy:

"What need have I for a TV, when I have the ceaseless chatter in my own head?
(Too bad I can't put a .38 slug in it like I did my old TV!)"

J.

And yet a final distinction:

The ordinary always want more—a mystic, always less.

And an awakened man's only comment regarding the nature and operations of life would be "No comment."

J.

Alleged Responsibility

No measurement the mind can ever make is large enough to encompass man's full nature.

Although you can physically take an inactive posture, The Great Stillness is still an internal matter.

Compared to the demands of instinct, everything the mind does is entertainment.

That which is done
and then forgotten may endure,
but that which must be remembered
 confesses its finitenes

The agitated mind is addictive...it's supposed to be.

It is not accurate to say that man has "lost" his true nature, but rather, that it has been partially "overridden."

             The human mind is the primo example of "alleged responsibility."

J.

Interplanetary Warning!

If the active pursuit of a mystical system does not lead to its explosion, then the system leads nowhere.

In one planet’s legend, the greatest knight of them all was Sir Forgot-A-Lot,
while in most, of course, it was good King Always-Remembering.
(You untangle it!)

A father said to his son, "Let me, in conclusion, say this to you: there is a place within a man's system where such as This cannot be said."

                         Interplanetary Warning:

                         Never trust a machine with one eye.

One man says, "Probably the absolutely hardest thing in the universe to do is to describe what this kinda effort is all about." 
And second man says, "You mean to others?" 
And first man says, "Hell, to yourself!"

On one world, life subconsciously tells everyone the moment they're born that, "Okay, I expect you to be good and brain-dead by twenty—you hear?"

J.

Somewhere Else Edition

The reason that the ordinary are forced to think about all the meaningless things they do, is so that the future will have a chance.

One man said, "Thank God it's Friday." 
To which his brother countered, "Nay, premature, merely preparatory; you really mean Saturday."
And a second brother demurred, "No, you did not go far enough, it should be Sunday, a time of respite and repose."
Then their father stepped in and said, "You all missed it -- your attention should be on Monday, the beginning of it all over again."

You don't live on the "cutting edge" unless you think on the cutting edge.
And someone asks, "What would be 'thinking-on-the-cutting-edge'?"
(Any thinking done beyond your present range.)

When one man learned what had happened to him, he wrote and said: "I'm just sick about it!"
Then there was this other guy who sent himself a get-well card...in care of life.
Life didn't think it was funny.

One man got all his ideas from somewhere else—one man is all men;
One man got all his ideas from somewhere else—all ideas are from somewhere else;
One man got all his ideas from somewhere else
—you're surrounded by "somewhere else."

J.

Yeah, Yeah

One man's pet name for his thoughts was "yeah, yeah."

A couple of thugs were plotting to do away with a certain mystic, and one of them said, "What should we do? -- kill him?"  And another of the nefarious countered, "Naw, just make him take a name."  And all of 'em had a good, hearty, and really aggressive laugh at that one.

(Awakening, unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, a chap suddenly sat up in bed and exclaimed, "Mein Got! -- I'm full of thugs!")

Shortly after the carnival had opened for the day, one of the showmen cupped his hands and cried out, "I want to invite any in attendance here today who feel they have any interest whatsoever in my personal life and affairs to feel free to step into my tent over here and take a royal bite of my ass!"

 (Without any warning, one man suddenly awoke one night, and leapt from the bed screaming, "Mama mia! -- my insides are a flaming midway!")

'Tis alleged that on one world they think of the mystical as being kind, caring, and all-around charitable.
'Tis further alleged that this world is a sham, shadow version of their real one.

Upon close examination of himself, one man concluded, "Yes, I smell exactly like myself...in fact, too much so."

J.

Small Annoyances: Weekend Edition

After many years of sampling various mystical systems, one man says he now has a "mental yeast infection."

When this one man knew that he wasn't going anywhere, he'd sometimes make sounds "vud-en! vud-en!" like a revved-up motorcycle. His mind loved this! (Since what I is talkin' about was not going anywhere mentally.)

Whenever he'd think about it, this one guy'd think, "What a shame!"
(I assume you know that he was thinkin' about his thinkin'!)

 Okay, extreme form of a previous definition:
Intellectuals—people who want to stop the merry-go-round, with no idea what they'd do after that.

One guy told another guy, "You sure do annoy me."

And the other guy said, "Yeah, but not half as much as I do myself."

And the first guy said, "So, is that supposed to make me feel better?"

And the other guy said, "Yeah, but not half as much as it should me."

J.

Good News from the Kitchen

A man and a crow were sitting on a log, and the man said to the bird,
"What d'ya figure's the advantage to being in a fable, as opposed to real life?"

And as the crow was suddenly and miraculously able to understand language, it replied,
"You picked a helluva time to ask me."

The ring announcer declared, "Let all in favor say 'yea,' and all opposed, 'nay.'
Now shake hands and go back to being one."

News From The Kitchen:

After all's been thought, chewed, and swallowed,
talk's the automatic dishwasher...
(or is that food disposal?...)

Now for Some Really Good News:

As long as you take life, as you find it, to be serious and important,
you've got nothing to worry about.

                       "Answer-Me-This" Addendum:

                       Just who would find the above to be "good news"?

Him?
Her?
Them?
 Surely not you?

J.

Traveler's Dilemma

Another way by which you can be certain that you're still reasonably ordinary is if you can listen to what the majority of your fellow men talk about as being important, without either giggling or grimacing.

In all your major cities it is prohibited for the collective to be foolish.  (There is good reason the more conscious are always in the minority, and it has nothing to do with their number.)

Life told one guy:

"Look, if the sun gets too bright,
all you've gotta do is whine."

Traveler’s Dilemma:

Why would someone go to all the effort to travel from Paris to Istanbul and then get off the train with the same crumbs in their lap that were there when they started the trip?

J.