For a Man Who Truly Seeks to Be Free, Everything He Thinks About–Including Freedom–Is Just a Stalling Tactic…
March 29, 2000
Summary = TBD
Condensed News Items = See Below
News Item Gallery = jcap 2022 (2505)
Transcript = None
The News
2505
2022-1
In “being asleep,” in being normal:
What the brain does first is produce in itself the sensation of there being a personal, human “you” that is having the thoughts the brain churns out,
then secondly creates in this fabricated “you” the impression that it independently plans, and willfully directs your life.
Thus does the human brain create for itself a phantom personality,
And then attributes to it, independent will, and individual consciousness.
But ask yourself: What is “your life” but your reactions to your environment?
Does “your life” (the one you think about), originate in you?
Do you consciously and willfully initiate the things you “do” in life that make up “your life”?
Does not, in fact, your life consist of your constant reactions to the environment in which your life is played out?! — including especially, the human environment.
For some, is this not the primary appeal of the reclusive, monastic life, in its stripping of the environment to its bare essentials, thus curtailing its potential effects on the participants?!
No man can fully escape the effects of his environment, no more than he can flee this universe,
But those most encumbered by the ever shifting conditions of life, are those who do not hold a coherent understanding of the relationship between each man and the environment. The unrealized relationship is this: There is no “relationship” — they are one and the same. Push your right palm against your
Ieft palm and there you’ve got it. That “relationship” – right there.
2022-2
One man said: “There is no limit to what the mind can think.”
And a second man responded: “Yes, there is.” And the first man noted: “See, the mind having no limits.
It even allows you to deny the fact.”
….(When you find it difficult to forget this fact, you’re getting close, my friend — real close.)
2022-3
Since the brain created the idea of “enlightenment,”
it is to the brain that you must look to ever find such.
To find a bear, you look in the woods, for it is the woods that produce bears.
Cities do not produce bears, oceans do not produce bears,
woods produce bears.
So, to find a bear, and then to understand bears,
you must look in the woods and you must then understand the woods to ever understand the nature of bears.
And after a brief silence, someone asks:..
“But don’t you have to understand bears to understand the nature of the woods?” — Bravo! — you’re starting to catch on.
2022-4
One man opened his advertised comments on that certain matter thus:
“What I am going to try and tell you is beyond my ability to put in words, and beyond your ability to understand.
Now,
if we are clear on that — let’s begin.”
He then
shut up and left.
2022-5
After their many combined years in this affair of ours,
a son recently asked his father:
“How can you have any faith in anyone who says anything like:
“Well, a man should do this-or-that about — his mind.”?
“You got me.” shrugged the elder, then asked his own question:
“So, why do we keep doing it? “
(And they both shrugged, in bafflement.)
2022-6
Instead of saying (as ’tis norm): “The brain governs the heart, stomach” etc., you could picture the affair from this angle: “The stomach developed a brain to help feed it.”
— but then you could go even further in an unused direction,
and instead of proposing that: “Evolution produced consciousness in man to aid in his survival.” You could think of it more locally and say: “Man’s body itself developed nervous system consciousness so as to
help itself more efficiently survive.”
After all, the all-mighty brain & its consciousness is but a piece of
somatic technology that the totality of the human organism gradually develops to specifically aid its own ends.
But consider how it normally goes with ordinary men, they will say such things as “My stomach hurts.” — “My” being the brain talking about the stomach,
as though it is one of its possessions — which of course is foolishness,
and yet, by the brain having the exclusive franchise for speech via words, makes such ridiculous statements seem acceptable (at least to human hearing — which it also treats as a helpless lacky.
And thus, a self-referential circuit is maintained, and whose informational content is limited to
the subjective and self-serving.
Carried beyond the brain speaking of the stomach, consider what it does in less physical references, as in men saying: “I think such-&-such.”(the brain again still speaking behind its invented mask of “I”), but the brain speaks of
“having thoughts” as though it is either the actual source of them, or at least now their master, which a minimum of objective inquiry will reveal as additional foolishness.
2022-7-1
The very way that the brain structures its thoughts and speech,
(hiding behind the word “I”)
results in sentences wherein your “I” appears as the source of the action
being described —
as though an object can be the actual source of action;
When pushed to respond, even the brain must concede that,
“Objects are objects, and actions are actions,
and the two are separate and distinct, and yet one cannot exist without the other.
All objects are a part of ongoing actions, and all actions require objects
to be on going, and right about here the sight of an alert man will
flash on to the fact that his own apparent “I” is not some “object” separate from
the actions it claims to initiate, but is, in fact, simply a part of the
ongoing actions in which it inseparably lives.
Even though the brain has created (or been the conduit for) thought
and language as we know and use it, and even while it causes to be formed sentences and ideas wherein the subject is “I” and the “I” is made to be the
instigator of actions taking place in the environment,
a man, no longer totally hypnotized and fooled by this appearance, realizes that the environment is as responsible for the actions he takes as the other way around.
So, even as the brain’s thoughts are what drives man’s impact-on his environment, so, equally does his environment drive what impacts his brain’s thoughts.
A mind “asleep” is one which believes the brain’s assertion that the world outside you — and you
are separate entities:
The foolish notion that physical reality is something other than you.
2022-8
For many years did one father tell his son that:
“The two most important things in life are: good posture and uncomfortable shoes: but later on the lad discovered that his father had lied to him, and discovered for himself that the two most important things in life are:
A lack of direction and friends who’ll desert you—
and the moral of this story is that:
Anyone who will believe their progenitor — or believe him a liar,
couldn’t be helped by a moral (or much of anything else for that matter).
….Oh, all right, here is the actual “moral” of the tale: The moral is: “Don’t you see what’s going on here?!” That’s the moral.
Remember this: in dry dock, when the boats are turned upside down, even to a keen-eyed sailor,
they all smell of tar.
Nothing — nothing can fool a man like thoughts!!
…Why does the brain insist on doing this to itself?
…And making us witnesses to the sordid affair. (Just kidding brain,
just kidding.)
2022-9
If, as some have insisted,
to “be enlightened” is to have a mind free of all preferences,
consider this picture:
The mind as a room in which the air consists of nothing but preferences — but
not so the floor.
A certain father said to his son:
“You’ve heard the exhortation: ‘Get in on the ground floor,’ well, I tell you:
Once you discover it — stay there!”
2022-10
The brain has a base like everything else … (although thoughts don’t see it that way).
As the limbic lobe said to the cortex: “Don’t play with my feelings” (or was it
the other way around?)
And a certain son asked his father: “Is it still true that the most efficient path to enlightenment is to always remember the word “cement”?” And he replied: “Yes.
…… ..Or maybe “implacable” or “October,”
It’s mostly up to you.”
….(And the lad’s cortex snarled: “Hey, don’t toy with me!” And the old man cried out: “Yes — now you’re gettin’ it!”
2022-11
One man finally came to conclude:.
“When I complain,
I mis-use my brain.”
…And for quite a while he lived confidently with this view, but
then began to widen the scope of his consideration of the idea, and started to perceive (via intellectual speculation),
the benefits that might be physiologically derived from complaining; how such activity in a given circumstance might be his brain making a re-enforced note to itself to avoid such situations in the future.
Thus, the whining might not be simply an expression of displeasure for others to hear, but rather the brain, by resorting to audible words, underlining in its memory an uncomfortable experience.
After engaging in this, the man then began to reexamine many other similar ideas he had involving verbal behavior that on the surface seemed questionable, if not wasteful, to see if he might also spot therein some unrecognized, physiologically profitable purpose.
And my hint is that you will always find such.
2022 – 1 2
Studying mystical systems can be fun,
studying mystical systems in the belief that by so doing you can achieve the aim they proclaim
can be — not so much fun!
2022-13
For those with that very special hunger: Thinking is not the problem —
thinking that thinking has anything to do with all of this … is.
2022-14
Here is one man’s view of the matter:
“The only way to ever awaken is to get the brain to “turn on itself”; make the brain get mad at itself.
And after you have accomplished that,
then tell the brain that it is not necessary,
and if you survive all of this –well — viola! You may get that thing you’ve been hoping for.”
And a father said to his son:
“Before I die there is one thing of supreme importance I want to tell you: never believe anything!”
So, the boy didn’t believe that the elder was dying.
It’s true — no, really it is:
You’ll never get that thing you’ve been longing for if you believe anything. …And, by god (I might add), you can believe that!
(Upp, the boy shook his head, “No.”)
202215
Being of ordinary mind is in holding everyone else to the
“freedom of will” standard while never entertaining the notion regarding yourself.
Thus, when cornered, men will blame overwhelming circumstances for their censured actions, while not granting the same privilege to others (’cause they have “freedom of will,” don’t chu know.)
2022-16
A man came to a certain mystic and said:
“It is purported that you have said there is nothing to teach regarding the way–is this true?” And the mystic replied: “Yes,” then after a momentary pause added, “except for one thing.”
“And, that would be?” inquired the man, and the mystic replied:
“That there is nothing to teach regarding the way — except,
you cannot tell people this–
their ears will not hear it until their minds are primed to understand it.”
2022-17
Every method to awaken works in the beginning,
But, later on, they become nothing but distractions.
Your own brain is the only method,
and your own brain’s activities are the only distractions that can ultimately illuminate themselves.
As a father advised his son:
“Remember; stick with what you know best — nothing.”
And, one man had a vacuum cleaner with a unique characteristic:
When running, it always spewed out more dust than it ever picked up.
Once he fully appreciated this aspect of the machine,
the man was so stricken thereby that he gave it its own personal name,
he began to call it “The Mind.”
And, from our podiatry dept., this item:
For feet to ever achieve enlightenment they must first stop running long enough to take a good look at themselves.
In the beginning, every method to awaken works — later on they’re nothing but
un-needed complications.
2022-17.5
A wandering mystical troubadour stopping his troublin’ long enough to deliver this personal poetic epic:
“I chewed my nails,
I walked the rails,
I took in drugs,
By buckets and pails.
I tried to wake up, but mostly I slept,
The signs seemed to say,
I’s out of my depth.
Finally I —
Looked at my brain
It looked back at me.
I kept starin’ at it,
It kept starin’ at me!
And we went on like that ’til sumpin’ extraordinary–
sumpin’ quite extraordinary happened
….Which I don’t see the value of goin’ into with you people just now — no offense!
…Here, I’ll tell you what do: You try what I described right there at the tail end of my little rhyme; just take up starin’ at your brain; now, you gotta do it without any animosity and stuff, and the main thing is that you can’t let the fact that it doesn’t make any sense keep you from doin’ it. Okay, you got it.
One man says:
“I find now that when I stab the air around me, I see it bleed, and when I walk through the woods, and the trees inhale,
the air is sucked from me.
…A bit dramatic perhaps, even for metaphor
yet I say: not a wit over-done.
2022-19
A boy asked his father:
“Is humanity asleep?” And the elder replied:
“From the mystic’s view — yes.” Then the lad inquired,
“What can I individually do to be aroused from this sleep?” And his father said:
“Do not pay any attention to thoughts in you concerning whether men are asleep,
or not asleep–
for this alone will keep a mystic’s son asleep for eternity.”
Sons have fathers; thoughts have sons; walls have floors,
and ends have no beginnings,
which is why thoughts cannot free themselves from themselves, and a sleeping man cannot see the door leading out of hls bed chamber.
Question, then: Can a son be too close to his father? —
Answer: Yes.
Let the floor of your bed chamber say to the thoughts that fill it:
“Keep your distance — stay away from me.”
Yet, only the floor — and not the thoughts — can see to this.
“Keep your distance! — keep your distance!” But what exactly does that mean? “Distance” is the quiet that appears when you realize that,
even though everything is in motion — nothing is going anywhere.
2022-20
On the other side of the world is a place where all proverbs are manufactured — and just down the road from there is where they are mangled (for use by true mystics).
2022-21
The “enlightenment of consciousness” is not so much an actual “change of mind” as it is a personal realization and consistent acceptance of the mind “as it is.”
Ultimately it is not a matter of being “master of the mind,”
but of being aware of its source, its nature, and of the reality it creates.
Being knowledgeable of this is the “enlightenment of consciousness.”
2022-22
With an opened book in hand, a son rushed into his father’s room, laughing loudly.
“I have just read the most astoundingly funny sentence of my life.”
Which he then repeated for his papa:
“The teachings and methods of all great mystics were determined in part
by the times and conditions in which they lived.”
Then both father and son fell to the floor and rolled about in unbridled glee,
as they shouted out over and over again the words “In part! — in part!”