You Can Free Your Mind, But Not Your Behind
Audio = Stream or download from the dots on the right
Summary = See below/confirm
Condensed News Items = See Below (OCR needs edit)
News Item Gallery = jcap 95027- 1409
Transcript = None
Keywords =
Rating = FAV
Summary
#1409 – 3/10/95:
Notes by TK
The attempt at enlightenment is always a struggle against the predictable. Cf. non-hostile, non-critical humor. The ordinary evolution of assault on neural predictability is an assault on physical predictability. Cf. Moslem holy wars.
The News
1409 95027 03/10/95 Copyright J. M. Cox 1995 /tw
95027-1-3
A band of strangers came into the land,
And told the people that they were there to liberate them,
But they were not —
Oh, they seemed to be, but they were not —
They were agents of the mind,
And thus, perforce,
Conveyors of a new captivity.
…A “useful reminder” perhaps?….
The simple take blunt news to be bad news.
…Okay, now for some Flat-Out-Sounding Good News:
One man says he’s now to the place that were it not for his
Metaphorical thinking,
He wouldn’t even have any thinking worth thinking about.
95027-4-5
Being apparently intrigued by how he’d conducted himself thus far
As a passenger on the Mythical Express,
Life sat down beside this one man and offered him a deal:
“If you’ll get off now,
I’ll make it possible for you to sometimes feel as though
You are a giant living amongst pygmies —
During those times that you can’t pull it off,
You won’t find existence very pleasant,
But what else is new? Plus at least part of the time
You’re assured of feeling superior and special.
So — what d’ya say?”
…There have been those who’ve said that life does have a perverse
Sense of humor….
…Though they never said it to its face….
…Or if they did, there’s no record of it!
Some News From The War Room
If you can only defend yourself by attacking someone else
— You can’t be defended.
* * *
Question: How can you tell a mystic mentally from everyone else,
Besides the fact that he doesn’t give a damn
One way or the other about the things that interest them?
…One man said: “I’m sick of it!”
And replied: “Not near as much as me, my friend,
Not near as much as me.
* * *
For lunch,
Instead of peanut butter & jelly,
One kid asked if he could have peanut butter & an answer.
* * *
95027-5(B)
Okay — Pretend Time:
If it were a combat —
And you let the dense make you tense —
They win.
95027-6
In his reading, a man came upon this sentence:
“Under quite routine conditions, simple observation of the two, simultaneously,
Will reveal that at any given moment it is almost as though man’s body
And mind live two separate lives in two separate worlds.”
He stopped and considered this — and thought:
“If this is true, then an awareness of it could be of great benefit
To my life.”
Then he thought: “But if I am correct, then my not being aware of it should have
Had a detrimental effect on my life up til now….
But as I sit here thinking about it, I can’t see how it particularly has.”
He later concluded that the episode had been profitable in causing him to
Newly reflect on the general construction of man,
And the operational reality of his assumed “self-consciousness.”
95027-7
Clue Number Ninety-Two
How To Tell A Real Mystic From Those Still Groping
Above all, a real mystic enjoys what he’s doing —
So much so that,
Even if he fails
He couldn’t stop even if he told himself he should.
* * *
95027-8
After having addressed them for some time,
Life finally said to a group of humans:
“Ah, but I could go on and on…”
And one of them said: “We’re hip.”
95027-9
A city traffic cop,
Standing at one of the major, urban, mental intersections,
Gave his take on efforts to abandon the established roadways:
“Ticket fixin’, I calls it — mere attempts at ticket fixin’.”
95027-10
The Evolutionary Sequential Relationship Between What A Man Understands
And What He Says, As Portrayed By Way Of One Chap’s Haberdashery
Loose pants — no underwear
Loose pants — loose underwear
Loose pants — tight underwear
Tight pants — tight underwear
Tight pants — no underwear.
* * *
95027-11
What ordinary things & ideas are actually important to a person
Attempting to extend their own consciousness?
Well, one such man made himself up a list of such,
And it started out with forty-three entries —
And for some time he pondered, reflected, ruminated & thought-about
Each of the subjects, until he decided that the list could be shortened.
— He then began such an effort and found it surprisingly easy,
And appropriate, to delete many of the items that he’d originally believed
Absolutely necessary of inclusion.
Well —
He finally had the list down to fewer than ten subjects,
And was suspecting that it might come to much, much less than that,
When he either died, or woke up!
…It’s not for me to say — it’s your call.
95027-11(B)
In the normal land of silliness, only one thing can stand up to seriousness:
Originality-of-thought.
95027-12
A man in the penthouse, looking around at his children,
Then at the people on the lower floors, stopped and wondered:
“Why has it turned out like this?….
What purpose is being served?….
And why do I not more often look around in this manner, and become so struck?”
95027-13
From A Mystic’s Notebook
Only when in that blissful moment is a man truly at peace,
And when not, only is life tolerable when he struggles to be so.
95027-14
As local conditions passed some kids on the corner it said:
“Don’t forget guys, the most important thing is to stay hip, and
Be part of whatever is currently hot and happenin’.”
And one of them shouted back:
“What the hell you think we are? — sheep or something?
95027-15
Cliche Update
God is not in the details — editing is.
* * *
95027-16
Another mark of original thought would be its noninterference in
The normal flow of consciousness.
95027-17,18
Save yourself some time in the definition mines of ontology & metaphysics:
Reality is simply what the mind makes of life. Period! — that’s it.
…Like the box,
Containing nothing,
Which, when opened,
Swallows the place in which it exists.
Life, fully found & freed, consumes the reality that had confined it.
95027-19
A certain man living in a city high-rise
Discovered an unknown elevator shaft
Running the distance ‘tween top and bottom —
Then, off by himself, he pondered what might be its purpose,
Why its existence was not common knowledge;
Then ultimately came to seriously study how he might make profitable use of it.
95027-20
On his fortieth birthday,
Looking in the mirror at what he considered to be his “sorry self,”
The man said to his reflection: “Yeah — I know what you’re thinking!”
And his consciousness replied: “So what took you so long?”
…Which was not the direction he’d expected the incident to take.
95027-21
How To Spot A Mystic: He’s the one who never bothers himself
With the inevitable.
Next Question: Could it be that he’s the only one who can recognize it?
Thank you, and please shine your bowling shoes before
returning them to the counter. Thank you.
95027-22
Once,
In an unauthorized move,
Local conditions on this one planet,
Unilaterally attempted to start a new religion
Based on the slogan: “A Happy Man Is A Stupid Man.”
And even though life normally engages in serious-frowning
Regarding such freelance activities,
In this instance it went so well that it was soon adopted
In various altered forms,
For use on many other worlds.
95027-23
The Unwritten Patriotic Code Of City Consciousness:
“We stare, we stare! —
Yes, we stare!
We regret that we have but one awareness to give to our
Immediate vicinity.”
95027-24
Your body can protect you from physical harm,
But what’s looking out for the mind?
…Well — I’ll tell you what should be: originality of thought.
95027-25
A trekker asked a guide:
“Is it better to live on the mountains, or in the valleys?”
“It’s best,” he replied, “to be able to go where you want to.”
95027-26
One man says that when he started this adventure
He use to go looking for metaphors,
But now they come looking for him.
95027-27
How (Even If Your Diploma Was Lost Last Time You Moved) To Prove That
You’re An “Expert”
You can only speak authoritatively regarding things you don’t understand.
* * *
95027-28
Local conditions came to this one guy and said:
“Look, if you’re gonna keep being this stupid,
We’re gonna have to charge you an extra twelve dollars a day.”
95027-29
Physically — “Life just happens!” —
And so too does it mentally to those not original in their thinking.
95027-30
Though it has been said that the purpose of all spiritual efforts is to
“Die before you die,”
Note how little is then said concerning the matter of living before you die.
It seems only a wrangle-of-semantics to those still mired in words —
Just because you can yell something up or down the dumbwaiter
Doesn’t make it true…or useful.
95027-31
A man asked a mystic:
“If ordinary people knew what was going on,
Would they be pleased with the knowledge, or frightened by it?
“Why don’t you ask them?”
95027-32
Looking out the window at trees, clouds, and little woody creatures,
A man was so struck:
“Considering how absolutely amazing is human thinking, compared to
Everything else here,
Makes you wonder what ability life itself possesses compared to us.”
95027-33
From The Transcendental Entertainers Guidebook
Don’t call yourself a “song writer” unless you write at least
thirty new songs every day.
* * *
95027-34
…(In case you haven’t already thought about it)
One way life keeps those expanding-their-consciousness
From going too far
Is by making them stay somewhat annoyed at those who aren’t.
95027-35
Forget the moral injunctions against them,
The fact is there’s simply no stable basis on which to construct
Criticism, sarcasm, and irony.
95027-36
Regarding originality-of-thought,
One of the problems (if you want to call it that) — “I do!” —
Okay,
Part of the trickiness regarding originality-of-thought is that
If you can’t do it,
You got no idea what it is.
* * *
It’s rumored that on certain trains the conductors are secretly laughing at
All the riders…well, all the regular riders.
* * *
95027-37
Now for a change — A Proverb Update from Life’s viewpoint:
If life couldn’t’ave thought, it would’ave had to invent man.
* * *
95027-38-40
The Curious Case Of A Genetic Train
That Made It, From Paris, Damn Near To Spain:
You can free your mind, but not your behind.
A Friendly Urban Reminder
In the city, your intellectual credentials can wane
If your denial of the obvious begins to falter.
…One attraction of booze and drugs is that they make limited awareness
seem acceptable.
95027-41
In his backyard, one man found a prehistoric skull —
But not to worry —
It was his own.
95027-42
In things mental — preference precludes originality.
95027-43
A viewer writes:
“If you keep talking about ‘originality-of-thought’ so much,
I may start to believe I know what it is!
…And won’t that be a shame?…since I’ll be mistaken!”
Yes, sir, it will — it surely will.
…Well…being under a punitive directive from the Federal Forest Comm.
To engage only in truthfulness on the air, I must further add that only
Those who feel some dependence on ideas, and their own understanding thereof,
Can be in any way harmed by their own misinterpretations, or by being
Mislead by others, and even then, they can’t really be.
There was once a man who had “personal problems,”
And to save the expense of counseling, just abandoned his personal.
* * *
95027-44
In the land of mice
Once appeared one who thought like a cat
— He looked like a mouse,
But he thought like a cat.
Guess what they ended up calling him? …A mystic.