To Begin Is to “Know Thyself” Uncritically
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Summary
#1518 – 11/24/1995
Notes by TK
What is the mystic quest about? A different state of consciousness. The beginning is to understand the ordinary state (e.g., “know thyself”) without criticizing; to understand the basis of duality. Then comes method: still and focus the mind (on a supreme, but non-specific reality).
The News
2518
95123-1
And Now Another Distinction Delineated Between Describing Ordinary Things
and Attempting The Secret:
Let’s make the comparison more interesting tonight and use a compound
example — let’s see…how about Food and Health:
Oh, you can
talk about food, and
talk about health,
talk about food, and
talk about health;
you can
talk about food, and
talk about health,
talk about food, and talk about health.
95123-2
Thus did the speaker speak to the crowd:
“All of the many different mystical methods devised by man
are for the same purpose.
Does this come as a surprise to any of you?”
And many people in the crowd immediately responded by saying:
“Huh?…We’re sorry, but what’d ya say?”
Addendum: The trouble with booking a good speaker nowadays is that
all of the good ones speak too simply,
and all of the useless ones are too popular.
And a young girl asked her mother:
“Are we still more-or-less figurin’
that all these stories about speakers addressing some crowd or the other
are not actually about external events, but rather about something that
took place within the comfort and cozy surroundings of one person’s mind?”
And her mom (going along with the gag) turned to the girl and replied:
“Huh?…Oh, I’m sorry dear, what were you saying?”
And then, at that very instant, they heard the threatening sounds of
the crowd as they began gathering in front of their house.
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What makes this so difficult is that it is so simple — or
what makes this sound so simple is that it is so difficult to explain — or
what makes this sound so vague is that it is so plain and specific — or
what makes this sometimes seem so obvious is that it is so obscure — or
you’re sure gonna be happily surprised when you finally realize
just how plain and simple this actually is!
…(Well, notwithstanding its inherently devilishly-tricky nature.)
95123-4
A viewer writes:
“I’ve been watching your show and you’re about to drive me crazy!
How much further, you figure, do I have to go?”
– – –
And a father so advised his son:
“Never accept a fool’s offer of assistance.”
And the lad replied:
“Even if it’s my own?”
And they both rolled in the floor with glee until
the neighborhood Serious Patrol began banging on their door.
* * *
95123-5
Like many before him, one man,
after becoming intimately familiar with the routine workings of his mind,
and based on his understanding of the foundation necessary for
any alteration of consciousness,
decided it would be beneficial to try and hold some specific idea or picture
constantly in mind amidst the random, ever-changing ones normally present,
and he selected (for no world-shaking reason
other than its prima facie appropriateness) the image of Buddha.
But like many before him who’ve attempted such,
he quickly discovered that in spite of his best intentions and efforts
the mental picture of Buddha was always in competition with some other image
for center stage of his attention —
with the competing picture prevailing as often as the one of Buddha.
But then this man came up with an extension of this approach
which no records show that anyone previously had conceived of.
Now realizing clearly how the routine operations of the human mind are
dualistically based, and thus there will be, at every given instant,
two ideas, words, images simultaneously extant
and fighting for momentary supremacy,
he decided that, rather than leave his intended mental image of Buddha
at the mercy of whatever random, competing picture that might pop up into
his mind, he would provide his own willfully selected second image
to go along with Buddha’s so that no matter which one of the two
gained the upper hand temporarily in his thoughts, he’d still win.
So, rather than leaving this most important effort to chance,
he chose (again for no reason other than the fact that he found it
enjoyable) a second image to accompany that of Buddha,
and, from that day on, this man — no matter what else might be running
through his thoughts — tried to hold constantly & continually in his
mind two images:
that of Buddha, and of women’s breasts.
…And lest you think I went to the trouble of relaying such a lengthy
tale to provoke a laugh — I did not —
hidden and obvious therein is a potentially potent weapon & piece of info.
95123-6
Salt Air Quiz
Is a sailor concerned whether waves batter his hull from starboard or from
port? — Or about finding calm seas?
95123-7
What ordinary men call thought is mostly memory —
pushed further, thought is not so dependent and constricted,
and can be a prelude to an expanded state of awareness.
95123-8
If you do lead an ordinary man into a realization regarding the
unidentifiable-basis-for-the-mind’s-operations,
after that, ’tis damn-near inevitable that he’ll try and fill in the blank
with notions of “God.”
Even after they’ve walked the path together for a while,
it is at this juncture that many part company,
with the dilettante and aging mystics taking the road above noted,
and the true ones always pushing onward —
regardless of unpaved stretches of highway.
95123-9
There was once a man who wanted to raise corn in his backyard,
but discovered there was asparagus already growing there —
so he said: “Ah, what the hell, asparagus it is.”
…(Is it actually necessary for me to attach a title to this piece
to indicate that, about agriculture, it is not?)
– – –
There was once a man named Cleveland Grover
who escaped being President only by the skin of his teeth.
– – –
In consideration of the contemporary interest in things low fat,
I’m pleased to point out to you that all ordinary thought is, in truth,
“Lite Thought.”
* * *
95123-10
Though no sane man will knowingly eat contaminated food,
and will only consume that which he knows to be healthy for his body,
why nothing similar in what he normally serves his mind? —
Why do men continue to take in, mentally, rations which are obviously,
to any reasonable observer, without nutritional value? That is:
what they generally accept in their minds as entertainment (even
information) offers no real, new knowledge,
no up-lifting or challenging ideas,
and nothing that speaks to the positive future and potential of man.
And yet…out in the public marketplace of man’s mind, there things stand,
and once this is clearly seen and understood aright,
a man can retire his attention — nay, he must retire his attention —
from this torpid, redundant, lowest-common-denominator-from-the-past
mass spectacle,
and begin to mentally abide solely with himself — and with the stillness
that is now his private feast.
95123-11
For his own private purpose, one man rewrote a well-known Biblical dictum:
“Be ever vigilant of the mind —
for it stalks the world as an insatiable beast,
seeking whom and what it may devour
(like road signs, billboards, lyrics to songs,
other people’s words & ideas, etc.).”
95123-12
To ever get on — much less trod — the mystical path,
a man must have a map, a set of instructions, some system,
and yet the day will, without fail, fall upon him when
he must see through the frailty, the limits, the transparency of all maps,
and take up the individual task of walking on one’s own feet.
…(Which, of course, is not a physical matter.)
And a boy asked his father
(or perhaps it was a man asking himself):
“Just when does this time come?” And the elder replied:
“It could come next year,
it could come next week,
or it could come tomorrow,
but one thing’s for sure, the time long ago arrived — in fact
on the day you undertook the journey —
it’s now a question of when you’ll realize it.”
(Which shut the kid up real good!)
…And relative thereto, a viewer writes:
“But, you once said that a weak man is a happy man.”
Ahhh — shut up, viewer!
95123-13
One man finally concluded:
“Believing that the thoughts you think are getting you anywhere
is like believing it’s possible to dust & vacuum the planet.”
95123-14
A speaker was addressing the crowd:
“To free our minds from mundane shackles we must forget desire.”
And one guy asked another: “Did he say ‘forgive desire’?”
And the other guy replied: “I don’t think it matters.”
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One who knows The Secret is like a naked man in the land of the clothed
…naked, I might add — but invisible.
Footnote: It is the wise person who does not want to see himself.
95123-16
And now a Quickie Quiz from Mr. Science:
What is the absolutely stickiest substance known to man?
— You got it: thoughts!
…(And Mr. Science adds: “How come people don’t remember that?”)
95123-17
Another common religious concept clarified for your motoring pleasure:
The idea of penance, to a mystic,
would not be to compensate for being sinful,
but for being ordinary.
95123-18
The Mind’s Idea of It: You live, then you die — I don’t want to think
about it.
Instinct’s: You live, then you die — I’m not able to think about it.
…So, I guess for now we leave it as: Mind 1, Instinct 0….
…(Or, is it the other way around?…)
95123-19
The head of one knightly order,
before setting the warriors loose on their quest,
demanded that each shoot himself in the foot.
And one of them asked:
“Does it matter which one?”
To which the Prince replied:
“Yes, now that you ask — both.”
And he who’d asked limped off, a better man for it.
As always,
I want to remind all of you children watching this at home —
GET OUT OF THERE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!!!
– – –
There was an old lady who lived in a shoe,
but, the smell being hers,
she didn’t go, “Phew!”
I’m telling you: get the hell outta there while there’s still time.
(Ya’ll.)
* * *
95123-20
Regarding an item read earlier this evening, a viewer writes:
“But can you have thought without using memory? I don’t understand.”
And from a 3-D level his confusion is predictable,
for how can you journey to another place without starting from here?
And yet, continually,
at every instant,
you can, in your own mind, be trying to strip whatever thoughts are
passing therethrough from their immediately recognizable ties to your
past, while attempting to instantly locate some other “thought-area”
— up ahead somewhere —
over to your left — over to the right —
anywhere but where you find your thoughts to presently be.
This is possible!
It is non-indigenous to man —
it is extremely difficult to remember — but it is possible.
…Just like everything else in the land of the mystical.
95123-21,22
Today’s Fairy Tale
There was once a man who had a cat and a dog,
and he could tell the cat things that he couldn’t tell the dog,
and tell the dog things that he couldn’t tell the cat —
’til one day it suddenly struck him like a blubber mallet! — What! —
This is no cat-&-dog situation we’re dealing with here! —
This is all about the construction of a man’s mind, and how
(although they both live in the same tree)
a worm can’t be taught to fly, nor a bird to burrow.
And the only reason that ordinary thinking can stand up at all is because
of it having two legs!
–And if you find this to be reasonable and in your favor,
then within the unseen confines of a cat-&-dog story will you happily live
ever after.
There was once a planet that gave birth,
birth to twins — This and That.
– – –
And there was once a man on The Mystical Express on his way to The Secret
who decided that perhaps he might get there quicker if he got off.
– – –
Then there was this other chap whose most prized possession turned out to
be a fake — and I’m gonna level with you:
he was ab-so-posi-tively,
double-damned delighted.
… (And if I didn’t fear there were some civilians listening in
I’d say: “Hint, hint, hint! — get it?)
* * *
95123-23
One day (as a kind of “joke” or something),
life told one guy he’d won a prize,
and that he had his choice of the following three:
to have the most active and crammed-full-of-facts mind in the world, or
have the most peaceful and satisfied mind in the world, or
have no mind at all.
And the guy thought about it for a while,
then asked life if it could clarify the exact distinction between numbers
2 & 3.
Now —
may I suggest to you the three following possibilities regarding this
incident: one is that this story is not as simple & obvious as it may at
first sound; or two, that it is just that plain & obvious; or three,
that only a patent-leather dunce would need to be quizzed on the matter.
And a viewer writes:
“Am I supposed to be somehow intellectually ‘offended’ by this?…
Or is it too late for that now?…”
* * *
95123-24
Some creatures on one world
sent unexpected word to the creatures on another world
that they were coming to “take over!”
and the creatures on the other world all cried out: “Well, it’s about time!”
…Or, as Galileo said as he rubbed the grain from his eye:
“Are they actually talking about something that might interest me —
or are they back on all that weird, internal crap?”
95123-25
The Mind: Another Brief Essay
The mind can only know what it knows about any particular thing,
and if it tries to comprehend something different that somebody else knows
about the same thing, it becomes less certain of what it knew originally.
…Well, what d’ya know. The End.
– – –
One day, a certain man paused to muse:
“If we didn’t have the mind — who’d we have to pick on?”
– – –
We now interrupt for this late-breaking Health News story:
The mind can only take so much! —
But just how much this might be has yet to be discovered.
…And now back to your regular whatever-it-is.
* * *
95123-26
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!”
95123-27
One method that can be employed in pursuit of The Secret
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.”
95123-28
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.”
95123-29
So, was recently struck one man:
“If my mind had hands & feet, it wouldn’t be just a mind.”
And his mind piped in: “What d’ya mean ‘just’?”
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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.
If you don’t ask ordinary people for something,
they don’t believe you ever think about them.
One man never asked people for anything.
One man asked himself:
“Do I find it interesting that there are more books written about mystics
than there are books written by mystics?”
95123-31(B)
One guy’s motto was: “Who gives a rat’s ass?”
While his pet rat had an alternative version.
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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.
* * *
95123-32(B)
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.
95123-33
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.
95123-34
In yet another untold version of the creation myth:
life did not drive Adam from Paradise — but the other way around —
when Adam discovered that life had let the drugs run out.
…Or (as he brushed the dust from his wings) said Wrong Way Corrigan:
“Sometimes it doesn’t seem to matter which way you turn….”
– – –
And a viewer writes:
“Would you please repeat the one you read about a man who named his
thoughts: ‘Yeah, yeah’?”
Yeah, yeah.
* * *
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According to history,
there were originally two types of mystics:
agitated mystics, and calm mystics.
And one of the two eventually absorbed the other.
“Hey, Hubert — what ‘chu reckon they’re talkin’ about now? —
actual, two types of mystics?
Or are we back to just inside one guy’s head again?”
95123-36
The Rule of The Sea
for the mystical salt:
Don’t let your boat be rocked.
* * *
95123-37
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.”
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The great thing about being a mystic, once you’re ready to leave,
is that there’s no one there to see you off.
– – –
A viewer writes:
“I was originally fearful that listening to you would drive me crazy! —
but I’m now far past the stage of mere fear!”
95123-39
A certain man visited the grave of “One-who’d-known-The-Secret,”
knelt to one knee,
bent close over,
and whispered:
“Why didn’t you leave word how simple & obvious it is?”
And the Earth whispered back:
“Had I done so, would you have ever undertaken that Glorious Search?”
And the man departed that site,
knowing he’d moved a bit closer to the one he truly sought.
95123-40
A certain mystical equestrian pondered:
“What is the profit in setting free a wild horse?”