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The News
1558 96024 02/26/96 Copyright J. M. Cox 1996
96024-1
For man the thinking creature to accept as inevitable his ultimate
incapacity to understand the nature of life is not good enough —
it is not an acceptable excuse or explanation, in that
if he is intelligent enough to realize that his efforts thus far
have failed to produce adequate answers to the big questions
then he is intelligent enough to consider the need for an alternative to
his present approach.
For the weak to plead weakness, and the simple to cling to their ignorance,
is for men to remain weak and less intelligent than they could be.
Ordinary men, regardless of their contrary protestations, want to be led,
and not just in behavior, but in thinking as well,
and above all want to believe that they’re being led by some force other
than simply life itself.
…A situation comprehensible only to the more conscious.
96024-2
One man says he’s come to the conclusion that he’s little more than a
big hunk of walking-around flesh with a
shrill, little, dazed voice stuck in its head.
…(He adds, however, that he suspects a potential for something more,
though he’s uncertain as to exactly what.)
96024-3
If certain troubles are caused by forces beyond your control,
then, as painful as they may be,
since there is nothing you can do about them — forget ’em.
But,
if they come through forces over which you can exert some control, then
shame on you — and
the pain is deserved.
…And upon hearing this said, a man asked,
“But how can you tell when something is beyond your control and when it is
not?”
And the answer to that is simple (annoying, perhaps, but nonetheless
simple): If you have to ask how to make the distinction,
you’re not yet capable of recognizing it.
Life requires no man to swim who cannot locate the sea.
…And upon hearing this a boy asked his father,
“Is this why mystics were once reputed to carry
little vials of water around with them wherever they went?”
96024-4
One guy’s theory is that
men’s individual personalities are just the result of certain
unrecognized, institutionalized pressures —
the institution being collective humanity,
itself operating under direct, unrealized pressure from life.
96024-5
Once upon a time there was a father who swallowed his son,
only to have the boy pop his head back out and say,
“Why did you bother with this when you know full well that
no amount of foolishness will forestall the arrival of tomorrow?”
96024-6
Sure evidence of the degree to which one is civilized
is the extent to which one’s life is unnecessarily complicated.
96024-7
One man says he suspects he was put into a hypnotic trance at birth —
he doesn’t know by whom,
and he doesn’t know why,
but he suspects it just the same.
96024-8
One legend tells of an ancient band of would-be mystics
who decided they could never reach their goal
as long as they stayed in the place where they were born.
So they decided to leave and journey forth into new areas —
and they were sincere in their decision —
and some of them would even sometimes venture outside their hometown,
but taken-as-a-whole
they dreamed of and discussed the abandonment of their present position
more than they did actually make any sustained efforts pertinent thereto.
In that the transcendental migration begins firmly in one’s thoughts,
it can prove tricky indeed to escape and ever advance there beyond.
…In fact, just trying to describe to the mind, in the most general of
terms, what this is all about sounds to it as though it’s being told that
it would be much better off if it didn’t exist.
96024-9
Sheep forever look to the skies for direction,
and fish, to the hills for salvation.
…Only a man awake
knows which side his fax machine is buttered on.
96024-10
One guy says,
“I figure it’s not so bad being ordinary —
as long as you remain unaware of it!…and I mean totally unaware!”
96024-11
Until you reach a certain understanding,
behind all mystical methods seems madness,
but beyond that point
behind all mystical madness you recognize methods.
96024-12
Today’s news is yesterday’s news recycled,
with yesterday’s news being a recycled version of the day before,
and it a recycled edition of the day before that, & so on.
…Not unlike the normal evolution of man’s thinking.
96024-13
A man once asked a mystic,
“What drug has been most commonly involved in the achievement of
the more conscious state?”
And the mystic replied, “Food.”
And the man said, “No, be more specific.”
And the mystic said, “Thought.”
“No,” said the man, “be more specific than that —
I want to know the really secret drug you guys use to attain Enlightenment.”
So the mystic told him, “Life, my friend —
just being alive and looking around a lot.”
“More bad luck,” thought one concerned mother
as she looked down at her school-age son,
“all the other children have head lice and we can’t afford any.”
96024-14
The simple love the loud, the gaudy, the ostentatious,
while the more civilized favor the reserved, the restrained, the
understated, and to see this you need not look at just their cars and
clothes, but to their minds, speech, and behavior,
and all of this, taken in a wider context,
representing counter areas in the time line of man’s continuing progression
— which is to say that the past always seems loud, gaudy, and ostentatious,
while dreams of the future strike man as otherwise.
And one man mused,
“Head lice on the outside of the skull are not the real problem —
it’s when they get inside your head…in your mind…
agitating and aggravating your thinking.”
96024-15
After some years of research,
one man has reached the conclusion, concerning the development of mystics,
that they have no “formative years.”
96024-16
In the ordinary world of the mind
there are only two types of knowledge:
knowledge that is useful, and knowledge that is entertaining.
…Only that of a transcendental nature can be both.
…And one man’s question became:
“Which is the greater danger, to talk too much, or to listen too much?”
(And it was a private inquiry, just between him and himself.)
96024-17
There was once a time when those involved in the struggle for greater
awareness were not called “Mystics,”
but rather were known by the name “The Future.”
…And I should point out that while I did say
“there was once a time when” this was so,
there has actually not yet been such a time,
for it exists forever in the future —
and since yesterday can never catch up with tomorrow
any description of mystical activity is always outdated, even when first
spoke.
96024-18
In what strange times is it that progress seems destructive,
weakness is taken as strength,
ignorance as the norm,
and the debasement of man is celebrated?…
…You know in what times — the eternal, mundane now.
96024-19
There are three major categories of people who dislike the name tag
“mystic”:
ordinary men with no interest in such matters,
who consider those who do as deluded, if not insane;
and then those who do have a theoretical interest therein,
but consider the sobriquet “mystic” either
far too specific, or else intolerably vague;
and the third group who disfavors the word is real mystics themselves.
All of this
based on the foolishness of trying to nail the wind to the wall
…but, at an expanded level, even more so in that
were the foolishness to succeed
the damage done to the wind, in the case of the few, would be substantial.
After some years of study in the matter,
one man began to wonder if the reason the work of the mystics seems so
secret and is so seldom seen
is not because it’s hidden, but rather due to the fact that
what mystics actually do they never talk about.
96024-20
More Tall Tales
One guy was from another planet,
and to keep the fact hidden
he just told people he was a mystic.
* * *
96024-21
All the simple know to talk about is themselves,
while all the more civilized know to talk about is what they think.
…What do you talk about?