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2642_020901 55:29
Audio tape # 2642 of a talk given on February 9, 2001 by Jan Cox
Notes by CF
“The Mind can not think about itself ” or,
The Snake consuming its Tail
Begin: There was a guy in a monastery and all he ever talked about was “that it was all in the mind.” Wanting to awaken, thinking you are asleep, thinking you are succeeding or thinking you are not getting anywhere with all of this is “all in the mind.”
After listening to me say “it’s all in the mind” and you believe “you get it” and you have questions, thoughts, or observations you would like to share with me then “you don’t get it.”
There is a trickiness to all this. (Wanting to awaken, thinking you are asleep.) The mind operates in such a way it thinks or is convinced that when it thinks about itself it is thinking about itself.
05:00 The nature of consciousness is that the mind wants to think about itself. If the mind did not think it could think about itself I do not know where it would be. The mind does not think about itself but it thinks it does. You can tell the mind it does not think about itself but thinks it does and the mind will say that is what I am doing now.
You can tell the mind it is illusion and the mind will consider it but illusion does not explain it.
The non conscious areas of the brain that constitute a splendid nervous system are continually monitoring. If someone was observing the conscious part of the brain daydreaming he may say that is the conscious part monitoring itself. (This would be a valid observation and instructive by someone who does not quite get it.)
10:00 But the conscious part is not monitoring itself. If you are listening the mind cannot think about itself. (I am hoping the sphincters of your lobes are tightening over this description.) Being asleep is the illusion that the mind can think about itself.
15:00 This is the cutoff line. Everything is in the mind except “the mind is not in the mind.” The mind believes it is monitoring itself and the brain can monitor every other part of the body (A grain of sand in your shoe can be monitored.) but the conscious part cannot monitor itself.
The conscious part of the brain cannot think about itself and believing it does is being asleep or at the very least it stops you from seeing the whole shooting match.
That is why there is no progress in trying to awaken, but that is from a man who made a lot of progress for many decades. For many decades I collected information on my mind, I came up with new ways to observe the mind, and I was so close to succeeding I was almost awake.
Then one day I saw it. Then one day the question is gone. When you see it the illusion is gone and the question is gone. “Believing” you are trying to awaken or believing you are asleep, or believing you are making progress or not making progress is an illusion but the mind will never see it as illusion.
20:00 A story comes to mind. A great mystical teacher is dying. All the faithful followers are around his bed. The mystical teacher begins to tell them “I was never awake. I never did actually get there. All the methods I presented were a grasping in the dark. The methods were beneficial but I never knew they would work for sure. “Then he said “abandon them” and died.
And one guy said while he was leaving the room “Well, shit” I am too close now. I can’t give the methods up just because they don’t work. I have made too much progress. I can’t stop now.”
If you can look around and see and you think you are thinking about the mind and you realize that is not my mind thinking about my mind wouldn’t you at least get a chuckle thinking about it.
When you do “see it” you don’t think anything else about it. Well’ not at the moment. When I think back about all the stories (and I contributed) in pursuit of awakening and all these stories are the mind’s inability to realize it cannot think about itself.
If you see that, then that is the answer. It is not the end because I don’t know if anything is the end of anything. When you realize what “Its all in the mind is” you can never be as big of a baboon as you were.
25:00 Whatever method or discipline (meditation etc.) one uses they are told to do it long enough and they will achieve enlightenment. And whatever the discipline, its okay but after the method or discipline metaphorically no one understood it. If it is not understood it is hit or miss.
What the method does is bring you to a point where you realize what is going on. What is going on is not awakening from a dream or not meditating but it is realizing the mind cannot think about itself.
The mind is not something apart from itself so it can’t think about itself. Believing it can think about itself is what being asleep is and that is ordinary consciousness.
30:00 For the mind to think about something it has to be outside the mind. Even the non tangible (insults, sadness, etc) is not in your mind. Non tangibles are something other than your mind. You bring the non tangible into your head abstractly.
35:00 I say the mind can only think about things not itself. It is like looking. You cannot see letters crammed up next to your eyeball. You have to be some distance away to see things. You cannot be merged with it.
It is like asking a fish “tell me about the water.” Fish are surrounded by water and they have no opinion. “What do you mean water? Our minds should be so smart.
A mind trying to think about itself is like a fish trying to describe water. The mind cannot think about itself is the beginning and end of everything.
Every meditation and every wise word me or Buddha ever wrote means nothing when you realize the mind cannot think about itself. It is full blown awakening and it is almost impossible to see. If anyone asks me how to do it, if I was honest I would say, I don’t know.
40:00 I thought it may help you and me to realize everything you think about is outside the mind. The ordinary man does not believe the mind cannot think about itself. The mind is made to monitor life, to measure and control our reaction to the environment.
45:00 I have pointed out in the past that when the mind is talking religion it is talking about itself. Tonight I am telling you that is an illusion. I have also said that if you cannot put your hands on it then it is the mind talking about itself. (There are difficulties in getting this far.) Now I tell you that is not true.
50:00 “The mind cannot think about itself” That is something to do. There is no downside to thinking about it. It is the sound of one hand. It is the snake consuming its tail. There is no answer to the sound of one hand. There is the enlightenment. Think about it. Work on it. You can’t make an observation on your mind. That’s been the whole problem.
Jan’s Posted Daily Fresh Real News
February 9, 2001.
Friday —
and just enough time for:
MORE ABOUT KNOWING
He who will answer questions, knows little;
he who will answer no questions, knows more,
and he who acts like he doesn’t even hear your questions knows most of all.
(And you might grouse: A lot of good that would do me,
but you would be mistaken,
for he would have been extending to you — much help.)
What ordinary men believe knowing to be
is like cutting off a finger to help you count.
You can then look at it and say that it is one or two
or none — it’s entirely up to you — its your finger.
What an ant colony knows
is not what an individual ant wants to know,
and what he wants to know is meaningless to the colony.
Knowing that helps you reply to criticism,
and lash out at others
is not THE knowing;
knowing better than this, is.
There is no support for knowing — no proof;
if someone asked you: how do you know?
the way you know that you do know is by the fact that
you do not know the answer to that question.
When you do not yet fully know,
you fall prey to answering such questions,
but when you step on a dead frog who knows —
— fried pies come out his eyes.
You can change your left foot — but not your right,
and only a man who knows,
knows better than to try it.
You never know youre dead —
— til you check.
Some who want to know — but don’t,
hate anyone who does.
People who don’t know, think that those who do —
— Make the world go round — not so;
that is done by those who don’t know.
Those who ask — do not know;
those who answer, do not know either;
look where that leaves you..
SEE where that leaves you and you’re no longer left.
Most people have no interest in knowing;
the few who do
initially interfere with their chances by seeking it.
Those with the real potential eventually —
see through it;
get over it, and
go past it —
on to where it actually is — not where mind seeks it to be.
A man who knows is like an empty bucket of nothing;
everybody else is like
everyTHING else.
The dirt of the ant hill knows — the colony does not know.
The dirt & the consciousness of the colony are both in you.
A man who knows,
and then says he knows,
no longer knows.
(The reality of these 12 words is in you.)
Those who do not know condemn ignorance;
those who do not know condemn ignorance as illusion;
those who do not know do not realize that
ignorance & illusion are as just as real as
knowledge & reality.
To know is to know no distinctions;
to not know is to be a drawer full of dividers.
If you shoot a man who knows,
he bleeds ones & zeros.in no particular order.
Those who know do not recognize the truth if they hear it.
(That is a trick fact that slipped out of your head.)
Real Fact: Trick facts count.
Not knowing is serious — knowing is not..
…but you cant prove it!
You can call-a-mans-hand if he doesn’t know,
but if he does know — he cant be bested.
(This too is all still seated at your inner poker table.
[isn’t that something?!:
you don’t win — yet you cant be beat.])
Those who do not know,
see how conditions-make-the-man;
men who never know are products of conditions, yet
those who know,
know this is not so.
The galaxy knows — your neighborhood does not.
It’s good to get out more often — away from YOU inside.
Joke Of The Day:
Those who want to know
think that all men would benefit from knowing;
those who do know
understand how this idea appeals to non knowing minds.
Today’s Race Results:
Anything that is not knowing
is funny.
Those who do not know
believe they should be catered to.
Those who do not know are a jillion laughs.
There is armed combat between those who know,
and those who don’t.
No one sees the arms, and no one sees the combat, and
the fattlebeal is in yo haid.
(hey, laugh it up or everyone will think you don’t know.)
J