OH, I’m Driving ?
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Condensed Transcript
Jan Cox Talk # 2526 – May 17, 2000
Notes by DC
Suggested title = OH, I’m Driving ?
00:06 I was having a flash driving over here, considering whether too infrequently nowadays do I push the experience of all this.
00:39 I regret personally if you people are not
making some sort of effort to have your own experience.
01:01 You’re driving your car. Ask yourself, “Who is driving the car?”
01:44 You can bring on states that are absolutely in their own way extraordinary [if not the big E].
02:23 Your mind is not driving that car. And what you call you…is what’s going on in your head. That is the only thing that speaks and thus it is the only thing that can in any way feel as though it is something. Your body in toto, devoid of the mind for a minute, stripped of the mind, does not think of itself in any way. It certainly does not think of itself as you. It’s just itself. But here you are, and you’re thinking all sorts of things…you’re there on the highway at one particular place…and hell, your mind could be in Panama City, in Paris…
03:45 [If you ask yourself “Who is this driving?”] you can produce an absolutely splendid experience. It makes all other secondary entertainments pale.
05:22 [Reads] Series 2037, Page One. From one view, pertinent to the few, it could be said that the origin of the dissatisfaction that fuels their special interest is their saying more than is necessary. (To get us going again along that path.)
05:45 Analyzing what you think can be of passing amusement but it will not help you get to the bottom of things, other than showing you that what you think is of no consequence. WHAT you think.
06:03 Historical footnote: The mind attempting to analyze itself was the model for a room constructed entirely of mirrors.
06:11 Cognitive footnote: Some mental feats are possible, but one is not, and no one studying the matter can distinguish between the two.
06:25 Travel footnote: You can’t get to Istanbul while trying to get there. Oh, you can reach the outskirts of town…
06:55 The mystical city doesn’t actually exist during the times you’re trying to reach it.
[03:21] Or, put another way, when you’re in a room whose walls, floor and ceiling are all mirrors, you can’t tell you’re in such a place when your attention is held by reflections you see in the mirrors. To discover where you are you must turn your attention inward and discover what it is in you is naturally drawn to the reflections.
[03:24] Do not let someone tell you that the mind cannot comprehend itself…NO!!!
[03:56] From one view the difference between the ordinary and the few is that while everyone mentally runs around in circles, the ordinary believe that they’re going in a straight line.
[04:08] Fun is fun and info is info. Info’s amusement, but few ever catch on.
[04:17] Dogs enjoy chasing their tail, but — jeeze! — they don’t take it to be a metaphysical activity.
04:31 One man mused: How is it possible that I spent 50 years reading about enlightenment, talking about enlightenment, thinking about enlightenment, and claiming that I sought enlightenment, without ever realizing what it’s all about? And he answered his own question: It was possible because…
05:12 And one dog looked at his tail and mused: it IS entertaining, but it is not very enlightening.
05:48 Something else concerning that matter we’re herein noting: saying more about a matter than is necessary is what gives so many of them [the matters] an undeserved sense of seriousness. Talk enough about a trifle and it will become formidable. Well, look what happens with men continually talking about that illusion that they call themselves.
[05:53] So thinks a man: I must be of special significance, else why would I stay so on my mind?
[06:11] Let’s all go out and drive our cars…why is it always me driving this car?
06:51 I can’t believe you’re not all going to get it, ’cause otherwise you couldn’t have put up with me all this time.
07:10 Or, you’ve already gotten it, always had it, and you just can’t believe I still don’t get it.
07:52 You see this monastery and there’s this one guy — they call him the ancient sage …why do I keep making up these little stories?
08:38 Page 5: And now to that most popular of our features, “That CAN’T Be True”: The most worthy-sounding of aims is to “know yourself”; the most stupid of endeavors is to try to.
09:08 Headline: A technical fact. When machines attempt to comprehend their own operations, they experience ‘performance alienation’.
09:41 All men like to discuss theories of the truth and of lies, but few ever realize that anything said that is more than is necessary is all lies.
10:07 There are two possibilities: you can either be confused, or enlightened. And when you are enlightened, there are two more possibilities: you can either be enlightened about enlightenment or else be confused about what enlightenment actually is. Isn’t that scrumptious?
10:33 If the goal is to find yourself, you will never do so while saying any more than is called for.
10:43 If there is anything more than man’s illusionary self it’s hidden behind the din of excessive speech.
10:53 It is easier to be plain thinking when you are not drunk on words.
10:59 Verbal descriptions are not without ANY value, for they may faithfully correspond to physical reality, but they never do so regarding man’s internal reality.
11:15 It’s not enough to want to awaken; it’s not enough to be told how to awaken. It’s not enough for you to believe you know how to awaken, for unless you get to the bottom of what awakening is, you’ll never really get on top of it.
11:39 One mystic told a man that the way to awaken is to “keep your eye on the ball”. And after years of trying he returned and told the mystic that he had come to the conclusion that he didn’t have a ball. And the mystic said, “Now you’re beginning to see it.”
12:05 Only a man fully awake fully understands what he says. And only a man totally free is free to say whatever he wants.
12:18 For those of you that were here, you know that for about a night and a half previous to this I had mentioned the idea, only relating to those trying to get to the truth of things…that from a very specific view, not just a broad-stroked attack on palaver…you will stay dissatisfied, you will stay distracted as long as you are saying more…to others and to yourself…than is necessary.
13:16 Two forms of talk…talk for the conveyance of information or talk for the purpose of socialization.
16:55 The excessive talk which I say is a form of sleep…origins of dissatisfaction of folks like us. What is the talk, especially the internal talk? Is it for the purpose of conveying information? Don’t make me laugh…so, what’s left, according to my model? For the sake of socialization.
21:13 The running commentary in your head…why am I socializing with myself? Why? If we were in fact free-willed, separate-from-our environment creatures, and in some way we are now responsible for this running commentary…ask yourself “Why am I socializing with me?”
24:05 What could have been the original purpose? What is the intent of our talking to ourselves?
24:34 How is it that I can point out that the term, ‘talking to yourself’ is an astoundingly bad and misguided figure of speech?
25:27 The side trip I was going to take us on is, ponder this: if that be true…then why do 6B people on this planet, if I say the term…would know what I mean?…How can something be so blatantly in error and 6B say, “Yeah, I know what you mean.” What’s going on with that?
26:17 What could have been the purpose?… The brain itself is engaged in much more than simple consciousness, as we call it, thinking….if we were dependent on conscious thought to see us through life, to get us from your house over here in your car, you wouldn’t be here, probably.
[16:33] From Alabama, driving a Camaro, moving little finger. [All that goes on while driving].
[19:15] Of how much of that are you aware?
20:00 Are you consciously aware of anything that you’re doing over some prolonged period of time, all 15 seconds, nonstop?
You don’t find that at all out of the ordinary?
20:42 Back to: if there are two forms…the original purpose of this running commentary…had to be the conveyance of information to a conscious level, and then you could convey it to another person…how to bring down a dinosaur when you’re almost out of bullets.
23:07 It had to be the conveyance of information, survival information from one person to another.
23:47 If one man found a new source of water and came back to his friends, it’s not impossible that he could show them where it is…in that sense, his real self could do it. But look how much more efficient it is once the brain learned to speak.
24:44 After that, how much of the talk that you do to yourself — ha, ha — how much of it is for the conveyance of information?
25:35 Loosely as a Baptist out of town…
[19:50] [Example of obsessing re pending interview…could that be seen as conveyance of info in that you’re instructing yourself on the best way to handle it?]
20:05 I not only paint myself into corners, I make up the corners to start with, so getting out of them is nothing. But doesn’t that almost sound right?
20:55 Or you could do it in the other temporal direction, replaying an argument…reworking a psychological problem…slightly changing your view of what happened….pffft. I say it’s still socializing.
[21:28] [If you ask ordinary people if they think all the time, they’ll sort of cut their eyes (as if considering) and say, “Well, yeah.”…that’s why I keep looking for the exit off this planet…
22:10 It sustains the illusion…the feeling that you have about yourself… that everyone has…that starts you off. And most people still die with it: “Well, I didn’t succeed.” And they never look at what it is they’re trying to succeed at. They never look at what is the cause of it.
23:04 Who is driving the car? Does anybody get the trick? The trick is, who is asking who is driving the car.
23:35 Who is it that wants to awaken? Well, it’s me. No, you don’t get it.
24:43 If you ask yourself “Why am I trying to do this?” “I’m trying to awaken”. You’re just socializing yourself.
26:19 [Sense of ‘making progress’ is self deception]
[24:45] If you’re a die-hard wanna-waker-upper, you’re continually engaged in a running commentary, observation, checking, catching oneself, how am I doing, and you don’t stop.
25:08 I am absolutely astounded that I ever caught on.
25:20 But to ask yourself, “What am I doing?” because that’s where the answer is.
26:00 To actually see what it is has got to be the trickiest thing in the world.
[25:15] I have yet to bring up the metaphorical use of the black matter composing most of the universe. Just my view as a layman. Have you ever considered being a layman is the only profession that requires no experience?
25:50 Ask yourself driving home, “Who is driving the car?”
25:51 The real question is not who am I; the real question is who is it that’s asking who am I.
…That’s the only question. That’s the only thing you need to awaken. That’s the only thing you need to get to the bottom of everything in the universe that you can get to the bottom of….What is it in me that wants to awaken? What is it in me that thinks I’m partially awake?
[26:19] That’s what I was getting to [[There are two possibilities: you can either be confused, or enlightened. And when you are enlightened, there are two more possibilities: you can either be enlightened about enlightenment or else be confused about what enlightenment actually is.]] And I say to you, almost all the people who’ve been considered to be enlightened…I suspect almost all of them fall into that latter category. It may not make verbal sense to you. But there’s something beyond — it is so subtle. I would cheer for anybody who says “I had the experience”…
[Tape ends abruptly]