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2657_031601
Audio Notes by CF of a talk given by Jan Cox on March 16, 2001
Suggested Title: The Mind’s Natural Activity of Pretending
Begin: One of my personal favorites is the notion of pretending. I am not sure if you folks have taken it to a worthwhile extreme. Maybe you have. I mentioned it last time and I have mentioned it in the past.
The classic example of meditation is to still the mind. The more active form would be to use the notion of pretending. I find using the notion of pretending the ultimate form of actively meditating while still thinking.
(My meditation is laying in bed (before going to sleep or before getting up in the morning) and coming up with a new thought about thought.)
From several views, man’s ordinary state (the mind’s ordinary state) is one of pretending. The body does not pretend, does not try to calm itself, and is not easily fooled unless the ordinary mind is involved. The body does not like to do anything it may see as detrimental or a waste of time.
05:00 The mind is normally involved in redundant silliness. We few have a need to change this state classically referred to as the sleeping mind to a more focused state classically referred to as the awake mind. I propose to you that in this distracted state of redundant silliness the mind is pretending.
Because the only other possibility is the mind is as stupid as it seems. (For example the belief in life after death.) The mind may believe it will live after it dies but the body either has no understanding of it or the body does not care.
Man’s mind (not man-his body is not a participant) believes he will live after he dies. This is the mind’s foolishness except the world’s entire population to varying degrees is that kind of fool.
These two possibilities of the mind “it is either pretending or it is as stupid as it seems” almost cover ( I could slip in another) all the potentials. If we are afraid we are about to die we may be told that after we die we will live in heaven, be free of any illness, and be better looking, and believe it. This is idiocy from a rational view.
10:00 It is almost impossible to believe that people are this stupid. So what am I missing? But when it hits you that the mind is pretending and everybody is pretending and if you had seen that on your own then “trust me” you would have taken the weekend off. You would have gone and picked up a red headed waitress at the truck stop and driven down to Panama City whether you wanted to or not. You deserved it. (That kind of freedom.)
15:00 Humanity spends much of its time, money, life, and energy in religion and beliefs such as life after death with no evidence to support it other than other people’s minds.
People are not lying about life after death, Jesus rising from the dead, or seeing ghosts they are pretending. People are not totally deranged because they can do things I can’t. People can can build bridges, create symphonies of music, and send people to the moon and back while believing in life after death..
The human mind is astounding in what it can accomplish but a large part of the mind is engaged in activity that can be classified as idiocy. The mind, to a great degree, is given to pretending.
Pick out anything in life that you cannot weigh, measure, or put your hands on one way or the other and whatever the mind says about it then I say the only answer is “the mind is pretending.”
The mind can go from the brilliance of theoretical planning (space travel etc.) to immediate insanity. The immediate insanity makes no sense unless the mind is pretending when it is not on duty. Intellectual arguments over the intangibles of religion make no sense unless the mind is pretending. The mind knows better but it is almost impossible for the mind to hold the idea.
20:00 Picture this whole state that we dislike classically called “the state of being asleep” and picture it as simply being “The Mind’s Natural Activity of Pretending.” Your mind is not asleep. It is pretending to be asleep. It is the only possible answer.
But when you lay there and try to hold the idea the mind is pretending to be asleep and the idea that the mind knows better it is like grabbing a sock and pulling it inside and out – inside-out – inside-out.
I call the use of the idea that the mind is pretending an active meditation. Instead of stilling the mind you are trying to blow the mind up.
Our ordinary mind does not operate any differently than others. We are just annoyed with the mind and see it in a different light. If the mind is not an idiot and it is simply the mind’s natural activity of “pretending” when it is not on duty why won’t your mind go – Oh,- Okay You caught me pretending.
If the mind is pretending it should know it is pretending, Here you are trying to calm the mind or bring it under some kind of control because it annoys you and then you come up with the idea to say to the mind “You know, I have been censuring you (the mind) unfairly- you (your mind-but there is no you) are just pretending.
It should wake up your mind. That explains it except for this part. How can the mind pretend and not know its pretending? And if the mind is pretending why does the mind bother me? If it is all pretending it would explain everything in a way you never normally consider.
25:00 All the mechanical ramblings (replaying past episodes of your life, I should have done this or that, etc,) is the mind pretending and the mind (your mind) realizes it does not mean any of it- the mind- your mind is just pretending. It is the only sensible possibility.
No one believes what religion says. (ex. God wrote the bible) so why can’t the mind tolerate the possibility it is pretending when it brings it up. People can tolerate attacks on their religion (they attack back) but they won’t listen when you say “You are just pretending to believe what you do. You can fight over land and water rights but you (the mind) are just pretending when you fight over religion.
When the mind (what appears to be you ) fights over religion it is not being stupid or lying the mind is pretending. It is hard to hold. It appears to be easier when you try to still or focus the mind. But what else could that be other than shadow boxing? 30:26
Jan’s Posted Daily Fresh Real News
March 16, 2001.
CON JOBS, EXPOS?S,
AND THAT WARM COZY FEELING
Humans love expos?s; they enjoy being conned —
— with one exception.
Even when it has cost them money, or more,
men relish learning that the leading companies in a particular industry have conspired to keep prices higher than they would have been otherwise,
or that a governmental agency’s information department consistently gives laughably erroneous
answers to citizens serious questions,
or that a certain hospital has a continuing record of performing the wrong operations on patients
in their care;
the list is as long and varied as history itself,
and includes every facet of the human experience
from science, religion, and academia
to politics, finance and the building trades.
Scandal sheets are always best sellers,
and muckrakers are welcome wherever they go —
— with one exception.
No non thinking part of any persons body
likes to be fooled;
it is too dangerous — can even be deadly.
But the thinking thing truly enjoys being conned — IF
the con gets exposed;
(you cant enjoy being snookered
if you never realize that you have been!).
Humans — in their minds — like to be conned AND
to have it exposed to them.
As be the norm with sapien type homos,
they may say otherwise:
a man can speak condemnably about a politicians uncovered shenanigans at taxpayers expense
while furiously grinning like an envious hyena,
or shaking his head in favorable bemusement
even as his words disparagingly detail the overnight fortune made by some stockbrokers illegal activities.
Humans enjoy hearing about a good con job;
they will unwittingly nod their appreciation of
a well executed swindle, (the cruder the better,
it might be noted) —
with one exception.
Mens holy books blatantly, even gleefully
reveal the frauds and cons that their own gods have subjected them to — and yet they hold no grudge.
Is there no limit to the intellectual deceit
humans will abide;
no boundaries to the humiliation they will
mentally endure as these endless frauds are
endlessly exposed?! Obviously not!
— with one exception.
Mans mind observably, and undeniably
accepts being conned as a way of life,
and beyond any doubt,
enjoys having it revealed to him —
but in one area this ceases to be so;
there is one matter in the life of the mind that
it considers sacrosanct — itself.
Mans mind will gladly believe that his leaders,
friends and family have and will deceive him,
and unflinchingly accept that even his gods
mislead him and conspire against him,
but the mind has no interest-in, nor tolerance-for
the slightest hint that it might be engaged in
similar activity.
When you finally realize what life is
this is understandable,
and seen to be part of the minds necessary position in the overall arrangement of things;
good for the herd, but not at all helpful to an individual cow trying to develop non collective sight.
A cow seeking to see-for-himself has but a single hurdle: his minds natural inability to focus on itself,
and ever see itself in any light that is not cast by a
total snow job.
And there it is — THE BIG CON —
the one that is never exposed;
the one that the mind has no interest in being exposed,
or even investigated.
A tree may not ever be able to escape the rain,
but it might see thru the con that tells it that —
it can walk.
J
have you ever seen an enlightened pine?
………it is not your enemy…………..and it won’t trick you.