title tbd
Audio = Stream from the bar; download from the dots
08/01/1997
Summary = TBD
Condensed News Items = See Below
News Item Gallery = jcap 97071-1923
Transcript = None
Key Words =
The News
97071-923 08/01/97 Copyright J. M. Cox 1997
97071-1
After hearing someone detail a certain despicable event, a man said, “I know
that such things occur but I don’t see what’s to be gained in talking about
them.”
To which the original speaker rejoined, “Well, hell, there’s nothing to be
‘gained’ in talking about anything.” “What the hell you looking for in life
anyway — enlightenment or something? Go on, just get the hell away from
me.”
And thus concluded this particular conversation with himself.
Later (that same afternoon) he did hum this ditty to himself:
“I used to be two,
then I was many;
but now I’ve progressed,
and my dick’s in a crack.”
No question about it, evolution can take some strange and unexpected turns,
especially when it doesn’t really exist, and is going nowhere. (And of
course it really helps “take the edge off” to hear such delightful
observations as “well, hell, what’s to be gained by talking about anything?”
…[Phew, pardon me, but I’ve laughed so much I cried…well…I guess
those are tears?…what d’ya think?])
97071-2
A boy asked his father, “Can the mind ever tell a man what he truly is?”
“Not likely,” he replied, “in that it is the very thing he is not, yet the
one continually claiming to be.”
…(“I see,” said the son.)
“My kingdom,” later cried the kid at play, “my kingdom ate a horse.”
* * *
97071-3
All problems collapse when thought is withdrawn. And note: Death is not a
problem — but a certainty. (And illness, but death by degrees.)
97071-4
One man said that he’d begun to think of his struggle for enlightenment as
“being on the lookout for Shorty.”
And a friend asked, “Did you say, ‘being on the lookout for a short cut’?”
And the first man replied, “No…I don’t think so.”
And the other man said, “Oh.”
97071-5
At those odd moments when he could seem to escape the hold he somehow had on
himself (somehow?), one man would often mentally graze on this patch: “The
‘I’ in me is really nonexistent — truly nothing — but a nothing with the
ability to think and speak, and a nothing that thinks and says that it is
me.
“Is there anything in me to contradict and correct this? Yes, there seems
to be. But what can it be other than just more illusions and nothingness?
Shadows combating shadows, reflections attempting to alter the shape of
other reflections.
“What a farce, what a whimsical predicament; I feel like Gulliver in
Wonderland — Alice among the Lilliputians — me amidst the ordinary.”
Indeed (as this fellow periodically glimpses) when you’re being held captive
by the nonexistent, the struggle for freedom presents a distinctly curious
challenge; what is needed (in fact, all that is necessary) is a full
realization of the situation so that you do not unknowingly contribute to
your own continuing confinement by the expenditure of energy in totally
meaningless activity.
(The phrase “it’s hard but it’s fair” refers to being dumb and not knowing
it.)
97071-6
There was once a mystic whose method was based on a single idea he
expressed: “Never waste any time — not even a second.”
And all who came to study with him stayed continually busy, running here and
there, undertaking this and that, always doing, doing, doing — when what he
actually meant was that you shouldn’t waste any time on thinking.
97071-7
Special Advice To Those Special Explorers
To find the source of the river is to be free of its dangers.
97071-8
Every morning (until he stopped or forgot) one man would get his cat to sit
on the edge of the bathroom sink and they would both look down at the
reflections in the water therein, and the man would chant aloud:
“I am not what I think,
I am not even what I think I am, and
I am definitely not at all what I think about me.”
And upon hearing these concluding words to his master’s mantra, the feline
would agreeingly nod, and they would both then be on about the day’s
business.
97071-9
Everybody has this thing that they’re not quite sure what to do with.
…Most make do. …A few get all caught up in the original uncertainty.
97071-10
A Treatise Regarding The Pertinence Between: Enlightenment & The Mind
Of what use it tarter control toothpaste to a man with false teeth?
* * *
97071-11
One uncle said to a nephew, “Here’s how you should think about the past,
present, and future — you shouldn’t think about the past, present and
future, but just spontaneously and non-mentally react to things as they
occur.”
And so concludes another episode of your favorite soap opera “Easy to
Say — Tricky To Do.”
97071-12
To a mystic, a man addressed this question, “Can you describe, simply, what
is enlightenment?”
And he replied, “Enlightenment is freedom from being mistaken.”
And the man inquired further, “You mean that through enlightenment a man
gains such knowledge that he is never again mistaken in his thinking?”
“No,” replied the mystic. “Knowledge and thinking don’t enter into it.
Listen clearly to what I said. Enlightenment is freedom from being
mistaken. That’s it, that’s all of it, and adding to it merely clouds and
confuses the matter. You see, as you’ve just proven, minds can never leave
anything alone — for if they could, they would be enlightened.”
97071-13
Special Tip To Those With A Special Interest In Conditions
Once you can walk through a hen house without being effected by the smell,
what need is there after that to try and change they way chickens are bred?
97071-14
As he patted various areas about his body a man said, “This is obviously
me — but what is the ‘me’ that is saying it is?”
97071-14(B)
One would-be traveler mused, “Even if thinking and talking have no
profitable basis, perhaps if I keep thinking and talking about where I am
now I’ll get so sick of it that I’ll finally leave.”
…As the fly on the gooey paper said, “When you’re stuck for an immediate
solution, hell, anything’s worth a shot.”
…(How great should be our gratitude to our insect friends for the many
deep insights they so freely share with us.
…[But some obviously less than adequately appreciative guy retorts,
“Hell, if the damn fly’s right and anything is worth a shot, then explain
my fully reprehensible position when I am half-shot.”
…Well sir, perhaps if you just keep thinkin’ and talkin’ about it.])
If there was anything extant in or about human life that would make everyone
happy, then there wouldn’t even be the illusionary possibility of anyone
becoming more conscious and more human.
97071-15
More of how Real Life (Though Undescribable) Is Using De-scribable Examples
Question: Who understands less than those who follow religion?
— Those who explain religion.
(I went ahead and gave you the answer based on my assumption that you now
realize that all examples are vacuous pseudonyms for the mind.)
97071-16
Attention Please: Everyone has swallowed something that causes them to
believe that they can find “answers and solutions” to their problems, but
(still, if I may have your attention please) what is not realized is that
the very thing they have swallowed is the sole source of their perceived
“problems.”
…(“Gads,” said one guy, “ain’t it great (in a perverse way) to be
human.”)
– – –
One man’s birthday song: “It’s swell to be well,
and mighty fine to be outta your mind,
but what I want now
to make my life complete
is to spit up the thing I’ve swallowed
that’s sunk down to my feet.”
And just then his mother scolded him down off the couch, reminding him that
he was no longer a young hair and should be avoiding cat balls to begin
with.
97071-17
A Reminder To Do Your Part
Remember: The Secondary World is real only as long as you make it so.
Thank you for your cooperation.
* * *
97071-18
So-called “Conventional Wisdom” is an illusion — it doesn’t exist.
Oh, “conventional” exists — but not-t-t “wisdom.”
97071-19
One man (for the moment) decided, “If I am going to have ‘me’s’ then I’m
going to look at it as me having particular ‘me’s’: the talking me, and the
silent me.”
He then paused for a moment, brushed his hands together in satisfaction,
and said, “And that takes care of that.”
97071-20,21
A man asked a mystic, “Can you tell me what I am?”
“No,” he replied.
“Well,” said the man, “if I were a student of yours could you tell me what
I am?”
“No,” he again replied.
“Then,” asked the man, “if I were a student of yours could you tell me what
I’m not?”
“That I could do,” he replied, “but a true student of enlightenment could
do it for himself.”
Question: Why is man the only creature said to be unable to see himself as
he is?
— Because he is the only one able to see himself, in a mental sense?
97071-22
One man finally asked himself, “When I don’t think that I’m here to be in
charge — who is in charge?
And so concludes another episode of your favorite game show: “Don’t Answer
That!”
97071-23
The so-called “Education of man”
is a
paving over of an imaginary carpet with
illusionary cement.
* * *
97071-24
Looking over the equipment a man thought, “Is it possible to have something
and not know how to properly use it?”
“Not in this lifetime,” replied the equipment. And just to prove its
point, forced the man to properly use it even though he was never aware he
was doing so.
…(If this does not immediately make sense to you, try taking some
self-produced drug, lay down for awhile, and see what develops.)
97071-25
From our loose-leaf dictionary, yet another take on the word
“Enlightenment.”
Enlightenment: The thing that can point to everything, but nothing can
point to it.
…(Which reminds you to wonder what need has a hand or location for a
description of a finger, what?)
– – –
Mirror, mirror on my wall,
what holds you up? — why don’t you fall?
“No one’s ever asked me, but
if you want to know,
reflections of reflections
have nowhere to go.”
– – –
A young man in search of himself seems a pleasant sight, an old man, a
pathetic one.
If timing’s not everything — there is no “everything.”
* * *
97071-26
A father poked his finger in his son’s chest and so informed him, “There
are two reasons that you can’t see-things-as-they-are: first is because you
can’t do otherwise, and second is that there is no you there inside of you
to do so.”
97071-27
Just to help clarify the matter and get it perfectly straight in his mind,
one man noted to himself, “If I didn’t think that some things are annoying,
how would I ever get annoyed?”
97071-28
The speaker addressed the spectators, “The struggle to achieve enlightenment
is like a fish who believes there is certain knowledge that will make living
outside of water possible.”
And after a hefty silence, someone in the crowd called out, “Didn’t you get
what you were trying to say partially garbled?”
“My good man,” replied the speaker, “garbling is not my area of expertise —
I spoke what I spoke.” “Now, any more questions?…”
As portrayed in a particular myth, there is a planet in another galaxy
on which there is a certain location which, the harder you try to reach,
the more difficult it is to do so.
Go figure!…And you don’t have to go to another galaxy to do so. So!…
97071-29
Do Note Once More: The mind is capable of things other than thought.
And Today’s Safety Tip: You cannot burn up fire with fire…unless you’re
an idiot — I mean normal.
97071-30
Looking at his figure in the mirror with a certain agitation-of-realization,
a man thought, “No wonder it’s been so difficult for me to awaken — there
is no me to awaken.”
(And silently to itself, his reflection muttered, “I could’ve told you
that.”)
97071-31
“Okay,” says one man, “if what someone else understands can actually do you
any good, then I think this should be reflected in our laws.” “For
instance, if you’re stopped while driving drunk in someone else’s car, it
should be the owner of the vehicle who’s charged with the offense. No?”
…(He adds that if this doesn’t make sense to you, you should “have a
drink.”)
97071-32
The following is one man’s question of the moment. “Well, now that I have
it — what do I do with it?”
97071-33
One man says that he’s presently adopted this attitude. “Don’t think about
thought. Whatever you do, don’t think about thought, or you’ll be stuck
for eternity.”
97071-34
A certain man suddenly mused, “Without the original thought of me, there’d
be no sensation of multiple me’s.”
97071-35
When one man heard one kid ask another kid where does the light go when
the light goes out, he suddenly wondered, “Where do my thoughts go when I
show up?”
97071-36
An Essay Concerning The Relationship Between Awakening & The Mind
One man sunbathes on overcast days — when the temperature’s cooler.
* * *
97071-37
One mother’s advice to a daughter, “If you’re not continually doing the
opposite of what you were inclined to do, you’re not doing anything worth
your while.”
97071-38
After many years involved in it, a man thought, “I do not know whether my
struggle to awaken has been good or bad, but I do know that it was
inevitable.”
97071-39
Contrary to the way it’s normally put, that “men have thoughts,” ‘twould be
just as accurate to say that “thoughts have men.” …(And insofar as
useful potential is concerned, “accurate” could be an understatement.)
97071-40
One mystic so said, “Only the blind can see — only those with no personal
views.”
97071-41
Trees, mountains, rivers, clouds, and crows are continually revealing to man
the subtle reality of the truth; they are saying,
“We are what we are,
and we do not know what we are,
and we do not say what we are,
and we do not imagine that we are other than we are.”
This is the great, but subtle and silent, message they send to man.
97071-42
El Curio Time Once Again
With enlightenment, there is nothing to hold on to.
97071-43
Going along with conditions makes one ordinary; going against them, makes
one free.
97071-44
Now for some Social Advice (For The Few)
Being un-enlightened
is like
being un-popular
with yourself.
* * *
97071-45
Sign in a semi-supermarket: “Intense, absolute feelings of an individual ‘I’
are intense, absolute, individual illusions — and shoplifters will be
persecuted.”
97071-46
Even after some enlightenment a man’s mind remains partially clear and
partially dark. There is always more to be done, more to be seen.
97071-47
As men have long suspected, there is a single source from which everything
comes, but not (as they commonly propose) is this source outside
themselves.
97071-48
As Concerns Sects & The Various Mystical Schools:
Those who know
are those who know,
regardless of what you call them —
but if you call them anything, they don’t know.
97071-49
After some time and activity engaged in a certain pursuit, one man now
says, “I don’t believe what we’re dealing with here is thought, mind, or
consciousness.” “I think what we’re dealing with is a ‘thing,’ something
totally unknown to us, so as of yet not correctly identified and named.”
97071-50
One thing in particular that awakening reveals is that there is no “outside”
outside of you.
97071-51
Forget It!
There is no explanation of reality.
97071-52
To be awake is to be in the light — with no shadow falling.
– – –
A man who can be found
is not free.
* * *
97071-53
Special Info For Those On A Special Investigation Of That Certain Cellar
The quickest way to understand darkness is to turn the flashlight back on
itself.
* * *
97071-54
Legend tells of a certain mystic who, on his death bed, said that the only
reason he’d so persistently written and spoken publicly was to keep himself
from reading and listening to the words of others.
97071-55
Pop Quiz Pertinent To The Few
Why is some advertising so irritating?
Because all attempts to sell an enlightened man something are.
…(Course, there’s something even more disgusting, and that’s an awakened
man buying something someone wants to sell him. Yuk-ola!
* * *
97071-56
As he was about to toss one of the wrinkled road maps out of the car
window, he noticed for the first time a message in small print at the bottom
which said: “After some enlightenment you may feel liberated, but not yet
actually be.”
After reading this and pondering its significance, he was momentarily
unsure as to whether to go ahead and throw the map away, or maybe fold it
back and slide it up under the seat…just in case.
– – –
Meanwhile, according to ancient legend, there was once a group of Seekers Of
Freedom whose operational maxim was:
“There’s no such thing as ‘just in case’…and even is there is, we want no
part of it.”
(You ever think how rarely we seem to find any contemporaneous men who are
equal to those of yore? Is this a reflection of the decline of man? Or
could it be an unrecognized comment on our inability to make such judgements
in real time and animate circumstances?
Things seen from a distance are always more agreeable to personal
interpretation and imagination.
97071-57
Special Guide To Those Special Travelers
If there’s a final step on your path — you’re on the wrong path.
* * *
97071-58
All enlightenment perishes and must be replaced with fresh enlightenment.
– – –
An endeavor with no end means a life without limits.
* * *
97071-59
Special Data For Those Special Authors
Until you cannot separate the sheets of paper on which you compose, you have
not found your proper writing material.
* * *
97071-60
A boy asked a cop on the corner, “Is a well-turned metaphor just as good as
the plain truth itself?”
And the gendarme replied with a chuckle, “Har, har, little lad.” “Why, a
metaphor is just as good as any damn thing you can put a word to. Don’t
‘chu get it? That’s the whole point of the thing.”
“Oh,” replied the kid, “you mean regarding people who know what’s going on?”
“Har, har, little nipper, that’s perzactly what I mean.”
And with another combined and hearty “har, har,” they concluded their
conversation as the corner looked on with a smile.