Toughtus Interruptus
Video = none
The News Gallery = jcap 2044 (2539)
The Condensed News = See Below (ck OCR)
Transcript – See below
Summary – None
The News
COPYRIGHT 2000: JAN COX 2044 – 1
“GRANDFATHER”, SAID A LAD, “BEFORE HE DIED MY FATHER MENTIONED, “THE GREAT SECRET”, AND SAID THAT YOU KNEW WHAT IT WAS.
I AM YOUR ONLY LIVING RELATIVE — WILL YOU TELL ME WHAT IT IS?”,
THE OLD MAN CHUCKLED, AND SAID: “I’M SUPRISED TO HEAR THIS
I DON’T KNOW WHY YOUR FATHER TOLD YOU THAT, BUT — YES, IT IS TRUE.
AND WHILE I LOVE YOU AS THOUGH YOU WERE MY OWN SON —
IT WAS ALL SO LONG AGO..”, AND THE OLD MAN RUBBED HIS CHIN,
AND LOOKED OFF IN THE DISTANCE, “TRUTH BE TOLD,
I CAN’T RIGHTLY REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS.”,
AND UPON HEARING THESE WORDS,
THE LAD WAS MORE IMPRESSSED BY THE OLD MAN THAN EVER BEFORE.
ONLY THOSE WHOSE CONFRONTATION WITH”LIFE-AS-IT-IS” HAS NEVER BEEN SUFFICIENTLY ‘il’-DIRECT AND HEAD-ON
REMAIN CONFUSED ENOUGH TO TRY-TO DESCRIBE IT.
A MAN WHO’D SEEN THE GREAT RIVER WAS ASKED: “DID YOU LIKE IT?”,
AND HE REPLIED: “WHAT’S TO LIKE?!”, AND WAS THEN ASKED: “DID YOU DISLIKE IT?”, AND HE REPLIED: “WHAT’S TO DISLIKE IT?!”, AND WAS THEN ASKED:
“ARE YOU SURE YOU EVEN SAW THE GREAT RIVER?”, AND THE MAN WALKED AWAY.
THE NORMAL OUTLET FOR THOUGHT IS TALK — AND YET, A MAN WHO UNDERSTANDS THE
REALITY OF WHAT TALK IS, TALKS NOT. (GO FIGURINE, ILENE.)
2044-2
HOW IT’S DIFFERENT FOR THE FEW…YET NOT SO DIFFERENT…BUT STILL DIFFERENT — WAY OFF THE NORMAL “DIFFERENT SCALE”.
ALL MEN SEE LIFE AS COMPOSED OF SHAPES, ATTRIBUTES AND THEIR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE SHAPES AND ATTRIBUTES;
A MAN WHO GOES AFTER THE SECRET THEN BEGINS TO SEE THE SHAPES, ATTRIBUTES AND HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT THEM AS METAPHORS FOR SOMETHING ELSE.
WITH:A MAN ‘:::WHO GETS THE SECRET IN HIS SIGHT THE SITUATION IS ALTOGETHER DIFFERENT.
….(TO UNDERSTAND HOW IT IS DIFFERENT, YOU GOTTA-13E:THERE_AND SEE FOR YOURSELF)
2044-3
ANOTHER WAY TO MARK A DISTINCTION BETWEEN ORDINARY MEN AND THOSE SEEKING THE
EXTRAORDINARY MYSTICAL GOAL IS THAT WHILE
MOST OF WHAT GOES ON IN AN ORDINARY MAN’S MIND IS COMPLETELY USELESS —
HE ISN’T PARTICULARLY BOTHERED BY IT,
BUT SUCH IS NOT THE CASE WITH THE “SEEKERS OF THE TRUTH.”,
…BUT WHAT’S HARD FOR THEM TO RECOGNIZE IS THAT THEIR-SEARCHLIS CONFINED TO
THE USELESS STUFF THAT GOES ON NORMALLY IN THEIR MIND.
A DOG CAN MAKE ENDLESSLY FINE PROMISES TO HIMSELF ABOUT STAYING IN HIS YARD, BUT AS SOON AS THE SOUND OF A PASSING CAR IS HEARD — BAM!, HE’S OFF AGAIN.
THE TRICKY WAY BYWHICH YOU CAN MAKE SOME USE OF THE MIND IS BY NOT TAGGING ALONE . AFTER ANY. IDEA THAT COMES TO MIND AS A RESULT OF SOMEONE ELSE’S IDEA,
(ONE OF THE EARLY DESCRIPTIONS OF BEING “MENTALLY IN A DREAM” WAS TO SAY: “BEEN THERE — DONE THAT, AD INFINITUM ET TAEDIUM.”
IF MORE.PEOPLE WOULD PRACTICE, “THOUGHTUS INTERRUPTUS” THEREAOULDN’T BE SO MANY UNWANTED IDEAS FILLING UP OUR ORPHANAGES FOR THE USELESS.)
2044-4
PHYSICAL LIKES AND DISLIKES ARE NECESSARY TO STAY ALIVE, THE PURPOSE OF MENTAL ONES ARE LESS CERTAIN.
WELL. WE:CAN BEBORE SPECIFIC THAN THAT.
PHYSICAL LIKES AND DISLIKES ARE NECESSARY FOR AAAN’TO.SURVIVE;
MENTAL LIKES AND DISLIKES ARE NECESSARY FOR HIM TO BE CONFUSED, AND .,1_„ TO. BE AN ACTIVE ‘PLAYER: IN A::CONFUSED..COLLECTIVEI) GAME WITH ALL OTHER MEN.
FROM THIS YOU COULD SAY THAT AN ENLIGHTENED MAN IS ONE WHO LEAVES HIS BALL
WITH THE OTHER PLAYERS AND GOES ON HOME — BUT BETTER PUT WOULD BE TO SAY THAT
TO AN ENLIGHTENED MAN THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE GAME”OUT THERE.’,
AND HIS OBSERVATION OF SAME — “IN HERE” —
BECOMES BLURRED TO THE POINT OF EXTINCTION.
2044-5
THUS DID THE SPEAKER ADDRESS THE AUDIENCE:
“ARE ALL OF YOU SEEKING TO UNDERSTAND THE REALITY OF “THE SELF”?”)
AND THEY ALL YELLED BACK: “YES!”, AND HE CONTINUED:
“THEN DO YOU WANT ME TO PLAINLY EXPLAIN TO YOU WHAT THE SELF ACTUALLY IS — OR
DO YOU WANT ME TO TELL YOU THINGS ABOUTWHICH YOU CAN THEN ENGAGE IN
ENDLESS SPECULATION?”,
“ENDLESS SPECULATION!”, THEY ROARED IN RESPONSE.
2044-6
ON HIS FIRST DAY AS AN APPRENTICE MECHANIC A LAD WAS TOLD BY A VETERAN: “WHATEVER IS THE PROBLEM WITH THE CAR) MAKE THE CUSTOMER FEEL AS THOUGH IT IS ALL SOMEHOW — HIS FAULT.”
,THE GARAGE OF: SEEKING THE TRUTH: MANY DRIVE IN — FEW DRIVE OUT.
2444-7
AN ALLEGORY THAT MAKES IMMEDIATE AND PERFECT SENSE IS EITHER A FLAWED ALLERGORY, OR ELSE IS AN ALLEGORY THAT WAS USED WHEN ONE WAS NOT NEEDED.
“I THINK I’LL GO TO MYRTLE BEACH.”
“OH, BY THAT YOU MEAN THAT YOU ARE GOING TO TRY TO_ALTER YOUR MENTAL PROPENSITY FOR DISPAIR INTO A MORE CHEERFUL OUTLOOK?!”
“No IT MEANS THAT ITHINK I’LL GO TO MYRTLE BEACH.”
2044-8
A TRICKY ASPECT OF TRYING TO TAME THE WILD DOG OF THE MIND IS THE PROPER SEEMING
ASSUMPTION THAT THE WAY TO DO SO IS TO BRING HIM INTO THE HOUSE
WHEN, FROM AN EQUALLY VALID VIEW YOU COULD JUST “TURN HIM LOOSE COMPLETELY”,
THE KEY WORD BEING, “COMPLETELY”, WHEREBY THE DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN,
“INSIDE THE HOUSE” AND OUTSIDE
ARE LOST.
2044 -9
To GET AHEAD IN LIFE — YOU MUST HEAR VOICES:
TO EVEN MAINTAIN NORMALCY — YOU MUST HEAR VOICES; TO EVEN BE JUST CONSCIOUS — YOU MUST HEAR VOICES.
To REALIZE WHAT’S GOING ON REQUIRES YOU MUST PERSONALLY DISCOVER WHERE THE VOICES ARE COMING FROM,
(AND HERE’S A HINT, ONE THAT HAS CONFOUNDED QUITE A FEW: THE SOURCE OF_THE VOICES HAS NO NAME.)
2044 – 1 0
A SUPER SIMPLIED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISTRACTED STATE OF MIND:
“JUST ONE DAMN THING AFTER ANOTHER ..AND ANOTHER.„ AND ANOTHER..
XXX
AND NOW: SOME MORE HISTORY OF THE GREAT SECRET STRUGGLE:
THERE WAS ONCE A SCHOOL DEVOTED TO THE TREATMENT,OF THE DISTRACTED STATE OF MIND
WHICH WENT BY THE NAME: “STOP THAT TRAIN!”
2044-11
MORE ABOUT: INSIDES & OUTSIDES, (FOR THOSE WHOSE EARS ARE NOT CAUGHT IN THE SCREENDOOR.)
THE SLEEPING MIND IN THE EVERYDAY WORLD IS A HUMMINGBIRD IWA.WORLD OF HAWKS; THE WORLD OF HAWKS IS THE AWAKENED MIND.
INSTEAD OF THE GAME, “ROCK, PAPER & SCISSORS” ONE MAN CHANGED IT TO: “I KNOW & I DON’T KNOW” WHEREIN NOBODY EVER WINS — BUT HE KNOWS THAT
GOIN’ IN!
-4. 2044-13
THE SIMPLE TRUTH OF THE MATTER
No ONE. KNOWS WHAT BEING ALIVE IS ALL ABOUT, BUT EVERYONE LIVES WHAT BEING ALIVE IS ALL ABOUT.
FIRST VOICE: “TELL ME THAT ,YOU KNOW — TELL ME THAT YOU KNOW.”
SECOND VOICE: “BUT I’D BE LYING TO YOU.”
FIRST VOICE: “OH, SO YOU DON’T KNOW.”
SECOND VOICE: “WHY DO YOU SAY THAT?”
FIRST VOICE: “CUASE IE YOU DID YOU WOULDN’T BE TALKIN’ ABOUT SUCH DREAM STUFF AS
“LYING”. IN A HEN HOUSE, IF YOU HEAR A “QUACK” THEN BE ASSURED THAT IT IS
NATURAL FOR SOME CHICKEN IN THERE TO SOUND LIKE A DUCK.
No ONE KNOWS WHAT BEING ALIVE IS ALL ABOUT, BUT EVERYONE LIVES WHAT IT IS ABOUT.
(WHICH IS ANOTHER REASON TO LOOK OUTSIDE — WHERE YOU ACTUALLY LIVE, RATHER THAN LOOK INSIDER — WHERE YOU JUST “QUACK” ABOUT LIVING.”)
2044-12
REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEY CLAIM,
MEN DO NOT USUALLY GO IN SEARCH OF “TRUTH & ENLIGHTENMENT”
BUT RATHER, UNWITTINGLY CHASE AFTER ECHOES OF THIER OWN IGNORNAT, DELUDED WORDS.
LIKE A MAN ALONEA-TRAPPED IN A MAZE OF CANYONS WHOSE EVERY THOUGHT CREATES :ECHOES WHICH HE TAKES TO BE THE VOICES OF OTHERS, AND AFTERWHICH HE FOOLISHLY RUNS.
A GENUINE DEFINITION OF “BEING ASLEEP AND LIVING IN A DREAM” IS: THE PURSUIT OF WORDS WITH NO REALIZATION OF WHAT YOU’RE DOING.
2044 -14
ANOTHER RANKING To RANKLE THE ALREADY RATTLED
THE FOOLISH BELIEVE THEY KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON; ORDINARY MEN NEVER THINK ABOUT IT.
THE’ WOULD1″,BE ‘ENLIGHTENED BELIEVE THEY KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON; THE ENLIGHTENED NEVER THINK ABOUT IT.
A MAN WHO FOR YEARS HAD SPOKEN ON THE MATTER OF ENLIGHTENMENT IN A MANNER
OFTEN CONFOUNDING, ONE DAY SAID TO HIS PERSISTANT AUDIENCE:
“How MANY OF YOU HAVE REACHED THE POINT NOW THAT YOU TOTALLY FEEL AS THOUGH
YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING ? RAISE YOUR HANDS.”,
THEY ALL RAISED THEIR HANDS,
HE THEN SAID:
“SEE — YOU DON’T TOTALLY “NOT KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING”
YOU KNEW TO RAISE YOUR HAND WHEN I ASKED THE QUESTION.”
‘2044 -15
QUESTION: HAVE YOU EVER MET ANYONE WHO WAS ACTUALLY ENLLGHTENED?
ANSWER: HAVE YOU EVER MET A FLASHLIGHT THAT KNEW IT WAS A FLASHLIGHT?!
2044-16
AND NOW: THE FINAL SORRY ,TRUTH:
THOSE •WHO SEE ‘WHAT ‘ S GOING ON
NO LONER ‘ KNOW WHAT’S GOING NG ON.
. ( I ‘M SORRY, BUT THAT IS THE TRUTH. GOOD NIGHT, AND -CRASH SAFELY . )
Condensed Transcript
Jan Cox Talk # 2539 June 16,2000
Notes by DC
Suggested Title = Toughtus Interruptus
00:37 I’m not sure how to preface, how to tell you what the point of this is…one of the oldest ideas related to all This…is the idea that it is the indiscriminate mind that is the awakened mind…that the sleeping mind is simply the mind that chooses…It should be that the sleeping mind…is the mind that is involved with unnecessary choices. [National Association of Radio Broadcasters]
06:26 Here’s what I wrote for reading at this time.
06:29 [Reads] “Grandfather,” said a lad, “before he died my father mentioned The Great Secret and said that you knew what it was. I am now your only living relative. Will you please tell me what it is?” The old man chuckled and said, “I’m surprised to hear this. I don’t know why your father told you that but yes, it is true. And while I love you as though you were my own son, it was all so long ago.” And the old man rubbed his chin and looked off in the distance. “Truth be told, I can’t rightly remember what it was.” And upon hearing these words, the lad was more impressed by the old man than ever.
07:24 [Reads] Only those whose confrontation with life as it is has never been sufficiently direct and head on remain confused enough to try to describe it.
07:37 [Reads] A man who had seen the great river was asked, “Did you like it?”…
08:09 [Reads] The normal outlet for thought is talk. And yet, a man who understands the reality of what talk is, talks not.
08:26 [Reads] Headline: How It’s Different For The Few, Yet Not So Different But Still Different, Way Off The Normal Different Scale. All men see Life as composed of shapes, attributes and their thoughts about the shapes and attributes…
09:17 [Reads] Another way to mark a distinction between ordinary men and those seeking the extraordinary mystical goal is…another one I made up…discovered…what goes on in ordinary peoples’ mind is completely useless, but ordinary people don’t seem bothered by it. But such is not the case for those seeking the truth…but…what they don’t realize is in their seeking of the truth they’re confined to the area of the useless stuff that’s going on in their mind…
10:41 [Reads] A dog can make endlessly fine promises to himself about staying in his yard but as soon as the sound of a passing car is heard, Bam! He’s off again.
10:54 [Reads] The tricky way by which you can make some use of the mind…
11:07 [Reads] One of the early descriptions of being mentally in a dream was the following. “Been there, done that…” ad infinitum et tedium.
11:58 [Reads] If more people would practice thoughtus interruptus there wouldn’t be so many unwanted ideas filling up our orphanages for the useless. (To that same degree, we’re all unwed mothers. We’re pregnant carrying around ideas that we have no idea who their father was or what the hell we’re doing with them.)
12:39 [Reads] Physical likes and dislikes are necessary to stay alive. The purpose of mental ones are less certain.
12:52 Well, I can do better than that. Physical likes and dislikes are necessary for man to survive. Mental likes and dislikes are necessary for him to be confused, and to be an active player in a confused, collective game with all other men.
13:10 [Reads] From this, you could say that an enlightened man is one who leaves his ball with the other players and goes on home….an enlightened man goes home, but he leaves the ball there…
13:34 But better put than that even would be to say that, to an enlightened man the distinction between the game out there and his observation of same in here becomes blurred to the point of extinction…there is no longer an operational distinction between what you observe going on out there and your internal observations of what you observe going on out there.
14:22 [Reads] Thus did the speaker address the audience:
“Are all of you seeking to understand the reality of the self?”
And they all yelled back, “Yes!” And he continued,
“Then do you want me to plainly explain to you what the self actually
is, or do you want me to tell you things about which you can then engage
in endless speculation?” “Endless speculation!” they roared in response.
14:58 [Reads] On his first day as an apprentice mechanic a lad was told by a veteran, “Whatever’s the problem with the car, make the customer feel as though it is somehow his fault.” The Garage of Seeking the Truth. Many drive in, few drive out.
15:30 [Reads] An allegory that makes immediate and perfect sense is either a flawed allegory or else is an allegory that was used when one was not needed.
15:48 “I think I’ll go to Myrtle Beach.” “Oh! By that you mean that you’re going to try to alter your mental propensity for despair into a more cheerful outlook.” “No, I mean I think I’ll go to Myrtle Beach.”
16:08 [Reads] A tricky aspect of trying to tame the wild dog of the mind is the proper-seeming assumption that the way to do so is to bring him into the house…
16:39 [Reads] To get ahead in life you must hear voices. To even maintain normalcy you must hear voices…to realize what’s going on requires you must personally discover where the voices are coming from.
17:05 [Reads] And here’s a hint that has confounded quite a few: The source of the words has no name.
17:26 [Reads] And now, a super-simplified description of the distracted state of mind: “Just one damn thing after another and another and another…”
17:40 [Reads] And now, some more history of the great secret struggle: There was once a school devoted to the treatment of the distracted state of mind which went by the name, “Stop That Train.” (Can’t you just tell that rereading some of them won’t do a damn bit of good?)
18:06 [Reads] Headline: More About Insides and Outsides For Those of You Whose Ears Are Not Caught in The Screen Door. The sleeping mind in the everyday world is a hummingbird in a world of hawks. The ‘world of hawks’ is the awakened mind…
18:47 [Reads] Instead of the game “Rock, Paper, Scissors” one man changed it to “I Know And I Don’t Know,” whereby nobody ever wins but he knows that going in.
19:06 [Reads] Regardless of what they claim, men do not ususally go in search of truth and enlightenment…
19:31 [Reads] A genuine definition of being asleep and living in a dream is the pursuit of words with no realization of what you are doing.
19:40 [Reads] Headline: The Simple Truth of The Matter. No one knows what being alive is all about. BUT, everyone lives what being alive is all about.
19:56 [Reads]
First Voice: Tell me that you know; tell me that you know.
Second Voice: But I would be lying to you.
First Voice: Ah! So you don’t know.
Second Voice: Why do you say that?
First Voice: ‘Cause if you did know you wouldn’t be talking about such dreamstuff as lying.
20:14 [Reads] In a hen house if you hear a quack then be assured that it’s natural for some chicken in there to sound like a duck.
20:23 [Reads] No one knows what being alive is all about but everyone lives what being alive is all about. Which is another reason to look outside where you actually live rather than look inside where you just quack about living.
20:44 [Reads] Headline: Another Ranking To Rankle the Already Rattled. The foolish believe they know what’s going on…
21:05 [Reads] A man who for years had spoken on the matter of enlightenment in a manner often confounding one day said to his persistent audience, “How many of you have reached the point now…”
21:40 [Reads] Question: Have you ever met anyone who was actually enlightened? Answer: Have you ever met a flashlight that knew it was a flashlight?
21:52 [Reads] And now the final, sorry truth: Those who see what’s going on no longer know what’s going on. I’m sorry, but that is the truth. Good night, and cry safely.
22:17 Page 12, that I secretly slipped out of the rest of them while you people weren’t looking.
22:29 [Reads] Regardless of what they claim men, including mystics…do not go out seeking…truth and enlightenment…what they’re chasing after…[is] echoes that your mind makes every time it thinks. I’ve got to say again, I should shut up right there…
23:48 Alright, I’ll go ahead. Talk about the impossible; talk about invisible, melted pudding that never was there to start with. Unless you’re totally empty headed, clear headed — you can be sitting around reading a book…making quite insightful, original observations that without any doubt at the moment seem to be an effort, a movement closer to the truth, some new understanding…closer to a more permanent state of alertness, enlightenment…if you can see it…you are not chasing after the truth…you know what you’re doing?
27:03 It’s like you’re living in a maze of canyons…every time you have a thought in your mind down there alone in this maze…if you actually spoke it would create an echo…you might think, “There’s someone here.”
28:04 But here is the best description, or the one I like tonight: When your mind has a thought…just you, there alone, it creates an echo, or a shadow as I normally put it…and that’s what you’re going after.
28:55 [Reading something striking] seems to trigger your own understanding in some new way, or seems to expand some understanding you had. That is not what happens, if you can see it in a certain way…
29:36 I say, if you can see it, a delightful new exposition, or expose even, of what’s going on…is to realize that every time a thought’s in your mind it creates an echo…like you’re down in a maze of canyons…and there’s no way out of that, except to be awake and to be clear headed. That sounds better than empty headed; doesn’t it?
31:15 This is something…If you really pursue it on yourself, it’s the kind of thing that will finally back you…into a corner. It’s to the point that a mirror can almost turn fast enough to see itself. [Thermostat]
32:00 You’re not chasing…what you call ideas are echoes of something that already happened in your brain, and you hear it in such a way as you take it to be away from you, outside of you, on a page, from someone else’s mind…you’re not hearing anything, you’re not chasing anything outside yourself. Well, that’s a real knee-slapper when you realize it. That you’re sitting there having important thoughts…and you realize what you’re having — as we call it “what you’re having” — but what you’re doing right then is you’re listening to echoes that you don’t realize where they came from. They’re echoes of stuff that already happened in your mind.
33:46 What I was talking about, unnecessary choices, was — I put it quite as simply as I know how, that I assume can’t be other than obvious to anybody once I say it — that physical likes and dislikes are absolutely required, that is, the feelings by which we live…us and all other creatures have likes and dislikes that are native to their species and without them you couldn’t survive…but what is the purpose of mental likes and dislikes? And anyone who can give an answer to that, they should own a radio station…
35:15 I say that if you can find any answer in you then you should look again. It’s another way — I found it a more practical way at one time — of trying to consider the idea that…the awakened mind is simply indiscriminate.
35:54 Anyone who ever ponders that…what would they take it to mean, “An awakened mind…would be an indiscriminate mind, a mind lacking discrimination”? [If not indicating tolerance, what?]…What would an ordinary person make of it…?
38:55 Well, let me read a little more….Physical likes and dislikes are necessary to stay alive, but what is the purpose of mental ones?…Mental likes and dislikes, here’s what they’re necessary for: they’re necessary for a man to stay confused…uncertain, and to be an active player in a collective, confused game with all other men…To believe that there is some importance, that political talk radio is of more importance than commercial…Top-40 radio, yo have to make a distinction, “There is a difference.” There is no difference. It is a game of confusion. It is a game of likes and dislikes and the only purpose…serve[d] is to keep an individual man sufficiently confused so that he will play in the secondary game with all other people, that is one of total confusion, such as debating politics, arguing religion, arguing morality…do you realize without having likes and dislikes of a sort that are literally meaningless to physical survival there would be no world of civilization?
41:20 I was going to ask in conclusion if you could see the connection between that little news item and this one: No one knows what being alive is all about but everyone lives what being alive is all about.
41:50 I said in the last couple of nights, again, a version of this thing, but it goes like this: People like us, mystics, claim that they want to know what life’s all about and they see clearly, they’re correct in their initial view…that there are no ordinary sources that know what’s going on…that is the minimum definition of a mystic, to start with…they have to realize that the normal channels, religion…philosophy…anything that is readily available to them…does not explain Life. Now, it takes that. You just have to be wired up that way; it just has to happen in your life, from my view, or you’re not even a minimal mystic, ever…you believe that none of them explains what’s going on. So, you believe you’re after an explanation of what’s going on.
44:09 I will reread my item. No one knows what being alive is all about, no one. But everyone lives what being alive is all about…It was really of great help to me for a long time, that I would bring this back up to myself and realize it: that in a sense, physically speaking if you make this arbitrary and nonexistent distinction between a man’s mind and his body…then I say that physically every one on this planet is living an enlightened life…
45:15 If someone’s engaged in self-destructive behavior…[they’re not living an enlightened life] and everyone around them immediately understands it. They just don’t call it that. But I’m saying that physically everyone, all ordinary people live a fully enlightened life. You can’t do otherwise and be ordinary. If you’re doing otherwise, you’re not ordinary and you are literally engaged in self-destructive — not mentally — you’re engaged in physically self-destructive behavior. You’re committing suicide, perhaps gradually. So, you are by no means ordinary…
46:15 I say that out of the 6B, all the ordinary people on this planet…everybody is leading an enlightened life. And an enlightened life is based upon choices…drinking water…and not drinking lye…you make choices based on likes and dislikes. Mentally, the world that is not limited to the physical world…as much fun as all that is, what do you think about most of the time?…what you like and dislike…I say that everyone lives a life that witnesses the fact that they know physically what life’s all about. But I’m telling you that nobody knows mentally what life’s all about.
48:29 And one reason you don’t know, and why people think they know is because they depend upon likes and dislikes. Which is the only way the mind can work, ordinarily.
48:43 Remember I ended up, if you like that, the final item tonight was headlined, “And Now the Final, Sorry Truth,” which was “Those who see what’s going on no longer know what’s going on.”…to know what’s going on you have to think about what’s going on. And if you think about what’s going on I guarantee you, you don’t know what’s going on. Anyone who thinks about what’s going on doesn’t know what’s going on.
49:17 As far as I’m concerned…I can describe what’s going on in life better than anybody I’ve ever read about or heard about. But at any time I’m describing what’s going on, to some degree — do you hear me? — I don’t know what’s going on. Now, I know what’s going on because I know that me sitting here talking about what’s going on is not what’s going on. Do you?
50:17 …Most people that think about enlightenment think that everybody else is not enlightened, and it just goes on and on and on. But here it is: Once you know what’s going on, that is, once you see what’s going on you no longer know what’s going on…it’s like trying to get a centipede to tap dance.
50:44 Once you know what’s going on you know not to think about what’s going on because whatever you think about what’s going on is something other than what’s going on.
51:45 I can’t resist pointing out again that somebody should think to themself, “Does that mean if I was sitting around and having great thoughts myself and suddenly had no thoughts about the very thing I was having thoughts about, having something to do with the nature of awakening and sleep, and I suddenly had no thoughts, that I might be on to something?” For you people on tape, I just shot the finger pistols…it was an affirmative gesture.
52:30 But then…this empty-headed thing, well, now what?