Mirrored Sunglasses

A man asked the head of a school for awakening.  ”How are you able to tell if an applicant is suitable or not by speaking with him for just a moment?”  And he replied, “I ask him a question – almost any question, and if he is essentially here, he will respond immediately; but if he has to think about his reply, that means he is not actually here, and thus cannot really be making application.”  A man obviously belongs in the body he is in, but, where ELSE does he belong?

There was once a kingdom whose ruler lived in its middle, up on a mountain top where he kept records, and made certain decisions, while the work that actually supported the land was all done in its extremities.

“If cats watch cats, who’s to watch the rats?”  (And for the answer to that, I refer you to the story of father and son supra.)  Being in this particularly named city reminds you of that eternally burning question:  “Where does a carrousel operator take his family for vacation?”

There was once a man who wore mirrored sunglasses, but with a slight variation; his were mirrored on the INSIDE – on His side.  (We can only hope that he has a father to jump out from behind a door for HIM – huh?!)

To be awake is to know what is going on, to “know the truth about you,” (if you will), so your basic approach would seem as obvious as a splotch of humility on an attorney, now wouldn’t it?  To stop lying to yourself about yourself, which is much easier to do than ordinary men perceive it to be, whenever the subject arises, for all you have to do is stop taking seriously the tales that your thoughts tell you about you.  Remember, it is the very “you” that is nothing more than their TELLING you of “you.”

J.

The Truth About Your Self

If you examine at a more fundamental level the matter of men thinking that they want to know the truth about themselves, you find that the attitude of the cellular activity, in the brain responsible for thought, ranges from apparent indifference to outright self-deception. (Which no way can be so, but that is a story for another day, what?!)

So, we have a creature, (man), whose brain has an area that talks and thinks, and which makes him call it his, “self,” and then causes him to think and claim that:  “I want to know the truth about myself.”  The very activity responsible for this assertion already knows “the truth” about what this “self” thing is, yet continues to make/allow the man to engage in a useless and frustrating search.

Of course, hardly anyone takes this search SERIOUSLY! Ordinary men do not ever speak of the matter unless first spoken to about it, or else under unusually stressful circumstances. No, everyday people do not come anywhere close to experiencing the full frustration of sincerely trying to discover the truth about yourself, which is, the truth about thinking.

The truth about a man’s body is obvious, (even if unsightly); it is the truth about what is going on in his brain, (even if unrecognized as such), for which he hungers.

A father suddenly leaped out
from behind a door and shouted at his son:
”Quick!  Tell me, if you use thought to study thought,
what is there left to study?”

J.

The Same Old Thing

Today we are visiting The Same Old Thing, Minnesota, where both our presence and the aptness of the place’s name speak for themselves.  After our previous sojourns to so many exciting, and exotic locales, it is a shame that it has come to this but – alack, (or several lacks, as the circumstances may call for).

As you are digging us out of the snow, I am moved to note to you again the curious fact that it is by purely automatic, instinctive, and inalterable behavior that all of our fellow creatures live.  And while the same is true for man, from the conscious part of the brain down, the activity that IS this consciousness claims to somehow operate outside of these restrictions.

History shows that only a few men, now and then, make specific note of the fact that what men call their thinking, operates just as instinctively and automatically as does any other physiological function.  Simple observation in yourself reveals this to be so, yet if note of same is made to an ordinary man, he will deny its veracity, and if pushed to look in himself, for himself to test the idea, he will commonly become abrasively dismissive of the whole idea.

Curious, huh?!  And this in spite of the fact that men routinely claim to want to know the truth about themselves, and will pay all manner of soothsayers, from the psychiatrically trained,
to the tarot card brained, to help them discover same.

Men will readily admit to all sorts of unprofitable behavior, as long as there is an event in their past that they can point to, whose impact was of such force that it sank below consciousness.
And now, totally beyond their conscious control, is the cause of the behavior question. Yes, people will confess to all manner of unsavory conduct in their cranial area.  From the neck down all operations are fair game, but from there up, well…“Just watch it, Buster!”

J.

Understanding

To be asleep, thoroughly confused, totally in the dark, languishing in chains, is to be worried over the irrelevancy of what the thoughts that come and go through your head, is to –THINK ABOUT YOU.  (I’ll give you this much if you temporarily need it):  you can be a little concerned if have found out that you’re dying, but not if you’ve found out that someone made fun of your ideas.

You are not on the right track yet if you still fight un-winnable battles; sweat the inevitable,
and think about what your thoughts say about you, or if you’re gonna listen to ANYBODY talk about what you are, listen to your stomach, your lungs, your kidneys, your heart, even guys
who have something to say that is RELEVANT.
 
 

Wake up! Dammit – if your desire is to – “wake up.”  You must begin to relentlessly distinguish the relevant from the meaningless in life and be a person who truly wants another state of mind.

Today’s Concluding Reminder for The Few with The Aim:

Any thought that you can have, that some other person has already had, is irrelevant.If it is not original – it is irrelevant, and if it is irrelevant, it is not in any way pertinent to “waking up.”

A life lived by this understanding
           is a life of enriched simplicity,
                  and free from worry.

J.

Irrelevancies

Do not let life’s commonly available ideas misdirect your attention, and cause you to believe that certain things from the second reality are required to be on-your-plate for awakening to ever take place.

For instance; amongst the various systems proposed as methods by which to achieve enlightenment, is the routine insistence that a supplicant must be: religious, or charitable, or deferential to some guru, (or be a Democrat, or Republican, or member of the PGA, to take the point to ridiculous extremes).  Put plainly: nothing – NO THING from the mental, second reality, is needed to wake up.  Indeed, the inclusion of any ideas from there, are anathema to the aim. 

The only thing suitable to think about when you are struggling to wake up is “waking up.” Anything else is irrelevant – totally, entirely, absolutely, completely and indubitably E-REL-E-VANT.

If an enlightened man learned that he had a terminal illness, would he worry over an obviously irrelevant matter, irrelevant in the radical sense of it being inevitable?  Would he be concerned if he heard that someone was talking about him in an unfavorable fashion?  Would he be troubled by the continuing worldwide disputes between people of different political, religious, and cultural thoughts?  Would he fret over the fact that hip hop now outsells speed metal, or that Jesus is coming back, and bell bottoms may not be?

Here is the grande dame of ALL irrelevancies:
       What your thoughts think of you.

J.

Staying Alive

A man trying to get-to -the-bottom-of-things, and see-through-all-this must realize on his own, for himself, that some things in his life are relevant, and some simply are not.

From the most radical perspective, capable of any expedient verbalization, the only truly relevant thing in a person’s life is to STAY ALIVE.  Putting it in these terms certainly does not do full justice to the singularly rich and complex lives men lead, compared to the non-thinking inhabitants of this planet, yet its validity is beyond question.

No ordinary man, totally plugged into the common, collective reservoir that normally feeds mortal minds, can ever make any profitable use of this objective perspective of his life.  Only a man who truly, wants to get-to-the-bottom-of-things has any taste – or even tolerance for, facts from-the-bottom-of-things; (e.g.: “staying alive is the only really relevancy”).

Of course, even a man whose life centers around his hunger to “wake up” has other interests besides just physically, “staying alive.”  Yes, he also has an interest in – “waking up.”

Such a man, (same as everyone else sane), first has an interest in staying alive.  He sees that by not engaging in activities that amount to gradual suicide, he then has the second interest of “waking up.”  He sees that engaging in activities that keep him uselessly distracted, thus keep him asleep.  Such a man simply does not bother himself with thoughts about things irrelevant.

J.
 

The Thought World

Men’s minds have created a whole new reality; a realm dependent entirely on thoughts.

Most of the lives of the people reading these words, is spent in this mentally conceived world. This, alone, is neither good nor bad, here or there, but it is an obvious fact that the would-be awakened must realize for themselves, and thus cease to take seriously.

To be asleep, to be confused, angry, uncertain, disappointed, afraid, envious, resentful, revengeful, pissed, and all of the other things that the few hate, and from which they wish to escape, all involves a man worrying over the irrelevant; (more specifically put):  worrying about matters not really necessary for survival.

There is nothing at all mystical, spooky or supernatural in this.  Ordinary men, satisfied with their ordinary lives, live, to a large extent, in a world that exists solely in their thoughts. But this is so much a part of their lives that the activities they pursue seem, to them, quite relevant.

Thus, to whatever degree your sense-of-self is based in this second reality, to that same degree are measurements made therein, (such as):  your reputation and acceptance by those whose acceptance you seek are integral to your sense-of-self and being alive.  So, to an ordinary man, what other people think and say about him is important and relevant, though plainly not life threatening.

J.

Fretting About The Frivolous

Under the routine, everyday conditions of every ordinary man’s life, much of his thinking is taken up with worrying over the irrelevant – fretting about the frivolous.  (A matter that I call irrelevant, of course, a man with an interest therein will see contraire.)

You can tell a man who voices great concern over political ideas, that his passion is being misspent, but he will certainly not see it as so.  Same with people who have an attraction to and native interest in golf, music, fashion, religion, football, and so on.

No, what I herein highlight for the eyes of the few has nothing to do with criticism of ordinary men’s instinctive mental affinity for things in the second reality.  After all, what could be more natural, in that this world is the brain-child of man’s thoughts?

When other creatures are not engaged in life sustaining activities – they nap.  When man is not, he invents new mental pastimes, and usually puts them into some physical form – about which he can then begin to fret and worry.

When a tiger is not out hunting, he is on his back in the grass.  When a man is not out harvesting a crop, he is on his knees in a church, or on his arse in a theater, or strolling around the aisles of a bookstore.  Having a brain that produces thoughts 24/7, men do not find constantly napping between the periods of survival essential activities to be an acceptable filling of time.

J.

Worrying Over The Irrelevant

As opposed to, “being awake and enlightened,” (in the world of thought), being asleep and confused consists of:  worrying over the irrelevant.

I say that this is every man’s normal condition. 
I also say that everyone is aware of it, and
I further say that life forces most people to pretend otherwise.

(These daily reports are for those people who are not part of the “most people” crowd.)
 

For thousands of years now, a few people here and there pop up who claim that men are not routinely as conscious, alert, perceptive, and understanding as they could be.  They then generally tie themselves and their listeners into mental Gordian knots and run all concerned around in circles that would make metaphysically inclined, British wheat farmers proud, with outlandishly complex explanations for why men do not avail themselves of this possibility.

It can make interesting reading and argument fodder for those who will never do so, but that is all unnecessary.  If you will but take an instant, clear-headed, direct look at the world all around you, and the one inside your brain. you see that there is a totally, over-the-top melodrama being acted out by homo-sapiens.  It is the stage-direction-glue that binds ordinary men’s attention to a level of consciousness that is not the full representation of what it is known it can be. 

J.

Possibilities

Minds of disconnected views see life as being like this, or life being like that; life being fair, life being unfair; life being fun, life being a drag, and so on.  But there is only one thing that can be accurately said about life:  It is ALL of that, and that is the unified understanding of life.

Reality consists of everything you can think about it – including your thinking about it.  There is no way in – and no way out.  What could be fairer or simpler than that?!

P.S.  I have received much mail regarding a previous posting, and here is my response to the overall tone of concern expressed there about. 

First, remember: Nothing is true until it is true for you, but go ahead and imagine for the moment that it is true that there is nothing you can do to change what you ARE.  Then picture the tremendous amount of useless effort you would save by such a realization, and the great relief it would bring. 

(I am not saying that it is true – but,  rather than being disturbed by even the mention of the possibility, consider instead, if it were true:  What would be its totally surprising and thoroughly delicious benefits?)



The facts lurking behind Enlightenment
are never what a man expects or can imagine.

J.

Knowledge

Ordinary minds will pretend to accept the notion that a man will commit murder due to his relationship with his mother, or that one group despises another because of their religion, (and the list is endless).  The brain cells responsible for conscious thought, (and thus responsible for such disjointed spuriousness), know that no such explanations are expansive, and that they only serve to keep men’s views of things sectionalized like separate slices of a pie –  good for inventing indoor heating – terrible for mentally seeing life as it is.

Ordinary minds will pretend to believe that a passionate love affair has come apart because of the parties’ conflicting political views, or taste in movies, music, etc.  Everyone cellularly knows that sexual desire alone initiates every passionate coupling, and that only its absence will terminate it.

To open your eyes and clear your head:

Pay no attention to any view of life that has a beginning and an end, and ignore all explanations that contain the word, “because.”

No one can teach you a unified view, and none of your thoughts with which you are already familiar can help you.  First, you must look open-headedly around you and realize objectively for yourself that what is accepted by collective man as being “knowledge” is, at best, separate pieces to a puzzle, and a puzzle in fact, in which ordinary men have no real interest.

All knowledge not directly related to survival is knowledge that is a hobby – a pastime, a plaything, a way to pass the mental time.  Again: nothing amiss here, but you need to recognize the situation for what it is and thus cease choking on it.

J.

The Great Secret

The common mind
has no interest in itself.

What knowledge men say they have of the mind, (you will note), is as fragmented as any other intellectual/scientific area.  Yet new statistical findings and theories are being continually added, so there is the illusion of movement toward a comprehensive understanding of consciousness.

Such is not actually life’s intention via men’s creation and study of psychology and its related disciplines.  Life has arranged it so, (or else has allowed it so), that only a scant number of people have an irrepressible – almost savage –  hunger to know what being-alive-with-thoughts is all about, beyond the unsatisfying knowledge and theories commonly available.

If you argue with the fragmented – you become fragmented. If you think about what the piece-mealers say – you become piecemealed. And, as always: take everything I have said as applied solely to your mind, for it is the fragmented thoughts that life passes through your head that do the most damage in your attempt to see for yourself what is actually going on.

The desire to know “The Great Secret” 
is a thirst for coherent sight
 in a world of piece-mealers.

J.
 

A Unified View in a Fragmented World

The desire for “Enlightenment”
is a longing for a unified view,
in a world of fragmentists. 
 

Modern science has been accused of knowing more and more about less and less, thus presenting a body of knowledge that is increasingly fragmented into isolated areas of specialization.  The attack is misplaced in that it is the human mind that by nature operates in such a fashion and is responsible for the form in which men possess “knowledge.”

The unique talent of the mind is to conceive of tangible realities in an intangible context, and thus abstractly divide physical wholes into more mentally manageable parts.  This ability to intellectually manipulate real objects has proven most efficient for man’s actual manipulation of his physical environment to better suit his survival needs and comfort, but it has left an impotently diagnosed deficiency in his knowledge of certain non-physical matters:  matters such as the mind, and knowledge itself.

The desire to “Wake up”
is a craving for a unified knowledge of things,
in a world of fractionalists.

Men studying psychology do not really want to know the human mind, they want to know “psychology.”  There is nothing wrong with this, and at some time they likely did have an interest in the questions of consciousness, but the ordinary minds of ordinary men simply do not 
want to know what’s really going on in life, (which is to say) they are not actually interested in understanding the nature of thought.

J.

Trying To Do The Impossible

Trying to do the impossible is the name of the normal mortal game, but same is pure insanity and foolishness for a man wanting-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-things.

Before you can gain a consistent view of enlightened reality you must have a plain, unprejudiced awareness of what you, by nature and temperament, ARE.  No pretending, no matter how minute, is permitted.  No brag – no anti-brag.  No nothing…nothing to say about yourself.

What of any importance is there to say about a waterfall, a mountain, an eagle?  In the physical world, everything is, simply, what it is, while in man’s mental world, (perforce), everything is how it COULD be.  This is how man’s life alone undergoes profitable change, but without a realization of thought’s true nature and position in all of this, an individual man is left hung out on a limb to never dry, and whose roots cry out forever for “Change! Change, dammit, what you ARE!”   (I regret to tell you this is not…how shall I put it…not PROBABLE.   How was that?)

A man-who-knows-what’s-going-on lives his life as it needs be led, and then gives that part of his existence no further thought.

Change, if you must, what can physically BE changed, then give up dreams regarding the rest. First thing you know – you are free of dreams, period…and thus as free as a man CAN be – period!

J.
 

The Nature of Your Nature

People with the natural affinity to the idea of, “man living in a dream, but from which he can awaken,” in one sense, suffer over this unacknowledged situation more than everyone else.
Ordinary men accept it as the norm, (as periodically frustrating as it may be), while the few are in fact, (though unwittingly), attempting a head-on assault on the very nature of – Nature.

You will never understand the reality of what “being awake or enlightened” is, as long as you are operating under the delusion that a man can change what he actually is.

You surely realize by now that you cannot change what other people are, nor can you change the nature of life itself.  In telling you that you should and CAN change what you, by genetic physiology and temperament ARE, your thoughts do you no favor.

Real strength is in acknowledging your own essential weaknesses. 
Wise strength is in recognizing the nature, and literal limits of thought, 
and the abandonment of pretending – along with everyone else – otherwise.

A vital ingredient in holding man’s mentally-based, second reality together is the pervasive belief imposed on him, via the brain’s conscious thoughts, that he is capable of unrestricted change.  He is made to pretend to believe that he can change his behavior, change his mind, and (even though never so stated), can actually change the nature of what he individually by nature IS.

Such illusions, for ordinary men, make the second reality go round, but for the few are the source of all impotent efforts to achieve a non-standard state of mind.

J.

What You Physically ARE

In that an alcoholic can stop his drinking when his liver reaches beach ball proportions, and a liberal can turn conservative when such is his new employer’s political bent, men’s thoughts carry this to its apparently proper conclusion, (to wit), that men can change what they essentially are by genetic temperament.

When confronted with the notion directly, everyone knows that through no act of will, or force of desire, can a man change his physiological body type, or the strength of his heart and lungs, or his genetic predisposition for certain ills, or his neural wiring.

What you physically ARE is what you are, and no amount of thinking otherwise will ever change it, in spite of thought’s ability to pretend to forget this.

This is at the flawed heart of all complaints men have about themselves and each other; the specious assertion that a man can change what he IS, and that people with whom you disagree 
simply refuse to exercise this ability.  As concerns yourself, you feel trapped in a locked room with a “you,” with which in large part your thoughts find fault, but which are unable to lead you therefrom.

You are saddled with the sensation of not BEING what you should be, but being incapable of making conclusive, satisfactory changes.

J.

Survival and Comfort

To better serve their survival and comfort, men can mentally plan and execute changes in their behavior; even to the point of acting in conflict with their instincts. 

Based on the demands of circumstances, and when it improves their position, men can change their mind, (that is), alter their mental commentary on a given situation.

This goes on constantly, effortlessly, and seamlessly, and is a basic characteristic of being a human being.  It gives rise to something further, which men do not take into account as their thoughts, which is to keep a running account of what they tell a man he is.

                                     You can change your behavior,
                                     even change your mind, but
                                    you can never change what you are.

The reality behind the above seventeen words sits-on and mashes-down-uncomfortably, every person who ever trods the boards of the mortal playhouse, (albeit without their direct awareness).

J.

Publisher's Addendum

One of our stringers in Singapore sends in this story:

An elderly man recently interviewed on one of the out islands, says that he does not trust anyone who is complimentary to him.  He says he believes, “that they know more than they’re letting on.”

Publisher’s Addendum:

Do you think he may have somehow heard of that curious theory I told you about, that claims that everyone in the world is awake but YOU!

A local astronaut, just back from a trip, filed this report with the appropriate authorities:

Heaven is where you find it. 
Everything else is where IT finds you.

(It’s always good to hear from that part of the world, is it not?!  Here she comes back with a piled high plate for you.  You two entertain one another, I’ll be out on the terrace.)

J.

Consumer Affairs

This just in from our Consumer Affairs reporter:

If you don’t want to think about certain things –
think about the cost of thinking about them.

And from our South American desk:

It is being reported here that there are two ways of dealing with foolishness when it is presented as seriousness.  One is to ignore it, and the other is to add to it.

One expert in ventriloquism in Montevideo refers to This as,
“Making the dummy do his own talking.”

Editor’s Aside: 

“His comment is based on the obscure gambit of turning up your radio real loud to ward off a tornado.”

Consumer Tip:

When shopping, if you’ll ignore the shelves of sham in-somnolence potions, you’ll lose your taste to chase after light that is illusion.

J.

Brunch with Ban Ray

‘Tis a glorious day here in Pincenez, Pakistan, birthplace of the reclusive inventor, Ban Ray who, after making a spectacle of himself over an armored pun detector he attempted to market, retreated to the nearby Beverly Mountains.  He now leads tours that drive past homes where famous international terrorists have not been recently spotted.  His daughter has joined us here at the hotel for the Sunday brunch, and her well known special hairstyle reminds us of course of that special something always on the menu of the few.   And while she is grazing at the table buffet, let’s look through some of the stories already in our wire service file regarding that scrumptious matter.  (You didn’t forget your glasses again did you?)


 
 

Let’s begin with this report from our correspondent in Paris:

In one reality, what we call staring, the locals call thinking.
In that same reality, what we call the inside of our eyelids, the locals call their world view.
Also in that reality, what we accept as being brain tics, they embrace as enlightenment.

We are citizens of the universe; we live both where we are, and also in that other reality,
(and I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty well pissed about it).

Well here’s a story from our man in Tokyo:

A local researcher delivered this announcement at a conference here today:  “I have discovered the one and only cure for all of man’s non-physical problems, and that is there IS no cure for these problems.  The solution has been right there under our noses for all these thousands of years – yet no one ever realized it until now.”

What a totally exhilarating and obvious answer to such an ancient and complex problem,
(not to mention the efficiency bonus)!

J.