Jan Cox Talk 3193 by CFish and Derek Ha

Jan Cox Talk 3193 - August 30, 2004

Copyright Jan Cox, Jan’s Legacy 2019

Notes by Cfish/Derek Ha August 2019

Suggested Title: An Unruly Dog

Begin: Friday I promised a description of a symbolic Spartan but I will get around to it next time. And I promise you will either like it or it will make you scratch your head. But tonight I want to direct attention to your own consciousness.

Every description of consciousness smells fishy. In everyone there is a sensation that their consciousness is out of control in specific ways. They do not refer to it in those terms but maybe they refer to it as having complaints with themselves. And the specific complaints are apparently brought on by external forces. (ex. Curb your temper or lose your job)

Joseph Stalin, one of the most cruel men who ever lived, considered himself a quite jolly fellow. He loved opera and loved to sing along with opera while ordering the deaths of entire villages of men, women, and children. The point: People with horrible tempers must be told to bring their tempers under control from an external source.

It is only then that the internal voice of conscience (ex. the second prince) manifests itself and it is always, apparently, from an external source. It is as if each person identifies something about their consciousness, themselves, that must be triggered by an external source.

05:00 Maybe someone is called out on their temper (ex. Curb your temper or lose your job) and they apologize and maybe forget about it. The internal voice of conscience (second prince) doesn’t just spring into action.

Joseph Stalin after killing an entire village of folks never thought “my temper is out of control.” The voice of conscience (the second prince) is not self inspired. Ordinary people are not self inspired to change aspects of their consciousness.

Folks like us who adopt the idea that we are asleep and want to awaken, living in the dark and want to be enlightened, and seriously try to act on it, are the only people who try to change their consciousness.

And if you ever see it, it’s not about changing some characteristic (ex. curbing your temper), it is about changing consciousness in a very specific way. It is to bring consciousness under control. Ordinary people will never say that. You will never read it or hear it. Check with yourself. Could you have ever thought of that on your own? And you folks know I am not trying to make myself that much superior to you. I know this by looking at the history of humanity.

10:00 It is nothing personal about you. It is something about consciousness. Just ask yourself if you would have ever come up with the idea of “I am trying to bring consciousness under control?” - because the answer is no. It is not shyness, anger issues, etc.

A true mystic's (whatever that is) intention is not in changing some aspect of consciousness (shyness, anger issues) but it is to bring consciousness under his control. I am assuming you understand what I am saying at the moment. Every attempt/method/discipline that claims success in awakening a man comes down to the participant “bringing his consciousness under his control.” That's it. You could call that Nirvana, “being awake” , Enlightenment or anything else. You could just say constant control because if you have control, you have complete control.

The fishy part : We would all accept, trade in everything, if we could, right now, from now on, be in constant control of our own consciousness.

17:39 Shifting to a more agreeable metaphor (symbolism maybe) consider your consciousness as a pet dog. The pet dog/consciousness is unruly. He/consciousness can be distracted by a sound, a song, someone walking by. The unruly dog/consciousness is just gone. It’s distracted and being asleep is a valid metaphor. Staying with it, me talking, you listening, consciousness/talking part of the brain “are we picturing/thinking that the dog is going to train itself?”

20:00 So strike a thoughtful pose, stroke your beard -That thought is not just a little fishy - it Stinks. Your consciousness/talking part of the brain may try to stick with consciousness instead of the metaphor but you will miss it. I have spent fifty years looking at this. Maybe it’s a verbal trick.

Whatever I say, consciousness will miss it to some degree. It will know what I mean when I refer to consciousness - but then it is gone. But if I say picture consciousness as a pet dog - you can see consciousness chasing after stuff as unruly/out of control.

So the symbolism/metaphor is valid and not a deceitful trick. Maybe you are self remembering, etc. and you have been told that if you do it consistently you will achieve enlightenment and you accept that. And I not saying that’s not true.

[Examples - chanting OM, manadala, other mental exercises, monastic extremes and sacrifice]

25:00 But can you do it? Hell no, the dog of consciousness runs off whenever it wants to. Consciousness says the unruly dog is going to bring itself under control. But how is the unruly dog going to unruly itself/domesticate itself?

30:00 Note that this is better than a metaphor -- it is a symbol - symbolism -- because it stands for something that exists as well as standing for something else. An unruly dog - training itself - the thought is ridiculous, but THIS is not a trick.

end 34:14