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2679_050401
Notes by CF from Audio of Jan Cox , May 4 2001
Suggested Title: “What’s making me do what I am Doing?”
Begin: Something I am struck with, and the fact that humanity is not struck with, is how things are arranged to where no one asks the question, “Through what supernatural, unnatural, or indescribable door do I imagine I got here (in this reality) to work at odds with the nature (mother earth) of this place.
The most glaring example today is the burning of fossil fuels. ( In the past it has been the arms race.) The cold blooded science says that the burning of fossil fuels is causing global warming and melting the ice caps. Your mind cannot deny it is true. But it can’t be true in the way presented.
05:00 Even if the science does not get involved in the ad hominem attack against humans, the ordinary mind will ask the question, “How can we be so stupid to continue to burn fossil fuels when they harm the planet? How can we foul our own nest? Why do we keep buying bigger cars?
But the question that never strikes the ordinary mind is, “How can we act unnatural?” (What makes me do what I am doing?) Surely some of you see it momentarily at times. It is hard to hold on to. It is like a caterpillar momentarily enjoying the fuzziness of itself.
Suddenly you are struck with what being alive is or what being conscious (as we call it) is. Another example is (it may seem unrelated) are the magazines of models of beautiful, young, thin, and well balanced featured women and how society applies the standard to all women. Its unnatural.
10:00 So the simple version of the supernatural door question is, “How can we act unnatural? “ Extra terrestrial does not work. Extra universal does not work. (Did you ever notice that the universe is not named? Planets and galaxies are named but not the universe.) Is it unnatural to burn fossil fuels?
15:00 Do not take anything I am saying as criticism or sarcasm. I do not mean it that way and if you see it that way you will miss the point. The simplest way of cracking the nut of unnatural acts is to ask the question, “How can any “creature” act unnaturally?”
How can the human mind believe it can act any other way than naturally?”
Picture the first humans stumbling onto a piece of coal. Were they like kids saying, “lets set fire to that?” And if they could not set fire to it they could whittle on it and hence the wheel. It was the foundation humans needed for the internal combustion engine, the automobile, and cooking food.
20:00 Everyone in the world wants a car and a beautiful woman. In some way or another these desires are doing damage to the planet and to half the population. But instead of asking how stupid we humans must be, no one seems to ask, “How can we act so unnaturally” ?
The planet is the first place to look. The planet made the fossil fuels and made women attractive to men. The planet made our brain cells and brain cells seem to do all the thinking.
25:00 Further on down this road of questions is the question “Do you know what you are going to say next?” That question is the answer to the question, “How can humans act unnaturally?”
The ordinary mind has to answer yes to the question, “Do you know what you are going to say next?” If it did not answer yes the ordinary mind would have to accept it does not know what it is going to say next. (Much less do next. But I try not to bring that up)
One of the great fleeting pleasures of asking these questions (I understand the nervous system can only stand it momentarily.) is like the caterpillar momentarily wallowing in its fuzziness. When you can bring this (more of a feeling) right up to your own state of consciousness – its just fun.
It is not a challenge. It has to be posed as a question to make up a circumstance. Lets suppose I am taking off the mike and I am through for the night and say I see you Monday. Just in this one room all sorts of things begin to happen. With a limited x number of people we all stand up at a different time.
We stand up in a different way and head in different directions and to different places. We are just a microcosm. And if we take this microcosm and multiply it by six billion – well – no one asks, “What is making me do what I am doing?” It is the adult version of “what am I going to say next?”
You have to ask the question of yourself in real time. I do not know if words are helping or not. It is a feeling more than a question. But it is the question “How did I get here?” It is not psychological, social, circumstantial, or a historical question. It is not divinity or fate.
30:00 It is spooky and fuzzy. Here we are. Me and everyone else “believe” we are making constant decisions. “I” will take a shower. “I” will brush my teeth. “I” will go to such and such restaurant and ask so and so to join me. And if you ask, the ordinary mind it will say it made these decisions.
Nature does not turn out minds to be interested in these questions. You might call folks like us slightly damaged goods for considering these questions. Ordinary people are not wired up to be interested in these questions.
I make up that reason because, if they were wired up to ask the questions, there would be no end to it. It would get spookier and spookier. It is the firewall to keep people from doing this. It is the mindset of impending doom. (Acting unnaturally)
35:00 No one thinks a bee or a tree acts unnaturally. But as long as humans believe the mindset that humans are acting unnaturally it is an immunity to being awake. Think of it as going out in your own backyard and trying to do something that will harm the planet.
39:18
Jan’s Posted Daily Fresh Real News
May 4, 2001.
You either know what you are doing — or you do not,
and in the world of ideas, ordinary minds do not
— and do not acknowledge they do not.
With physical skills, you clearly possess them,
or you do not:
you can either walk a tightrope, fly a plane,
perform surgery, or you cannot,
and no sane mind deludes itself thereabout,
but in the intangible world of symbols
the mind normally makes no such clear cut distinction.
Several features does the mind of man limn
to distinguish him from other earthly creatures;
most relating to his alteration of the physical environment to more efficiently suit his needs, and desires,
(a capacity totally dependent on his ability to
manipulate symbols in his brain which he can later apply
to material conditions),
but the feature that his mind finds most captivating about itself IS simply its ability to play with symbols.
(A prisoner in solitary confinement will trade away his meal to whoever delivered it in exchange for
a scrap of conversation;
the worst punishment known to man is the deprivation
of symbolic stimuli, which indeed can
ultimately do as much damage to his nervous system
as lack of food will to his digestive one.)
When you consider the amount of technology,
(things that do not naturally grow from the ground),
with which your life is surrounded,
the importance of the minds symbolic manipulations
put into tangible practice is obvious,
and when you look at the large part that
culture plays in men’s lives,
you are also seeing symbol-weaving at work,
but in this instance — NOT so obviously.
Everyone realizes that without the proper
physical training,
(with, or without collateral symbolic instruction),
an athlete cannot competently compete,
and everyone understands that without the proper education in appropriate symbolic subjects,
a scientist cannot plot the desired trajectory of a spacecraft,
but once past areas wherein are visible,
tangible consequences of symbolic activities —
— everything is up for grabs;
minds can believe they see anything they want to see
in circumstances wherein all that is going on is
symbols frolicking with other symbols.
“I know where Oz is.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am positive.”
You either know what you are doing, or you do not,
and in the world of ideas & symbols,
ordinary minds do not face up to the fact that
not only do they not know what they are doing — but
neither can they ever know,
for in no ground-based sense
are they actually doing anything.
In the realm of ideas,
knowing-what-you-are-doing
would seem of paramount importance —
thus the importance placed on education.
A man cannot speak authoritatively on history,
art, politics, or religion without a thorough
training-in, and knowledge-of the subject —
ergo the importance placed on academic credentials — and their passionate defense by those holding them.
In the realm of symbols — no one knows,
or can know what they are doing,
hence the importance of having a
physical piece of paper that says you do,
and hence also,
mens snippiness when accused of not knowing.
If you in truth do not know the location of Oz
then produce a certificate that says you do,
and snarl aggressively at any suggestion otherwise:
that is all a human can do,
and that is all that ordinary humans feel the need to do.
(When you’re playing fairy football,
running over an elf is just as good as
creaming Bubba Smith.
In this mortal play life is staging on earth,
each person’s role is written so that their character
acts as though he does not realize that he is simply playing a part,
and pretends not to distinguish a difference between the physical activity taking place on the boards,
and his dialogue —
— a presumed manifestation of his thinking.
The role written for each man’s mind
never includes the character becoming interested
in knowing the source of his script.
You either know what you are doing, or you do not,
but as long as you play out your assigned role,
there is no need to know
and yet each person’s character is made to pretend that knowing does matter, and that they do.
I know where Oz is.
Are you sure?
I’m positive.
In the ordinary world of ideas, no one knows what they are doing, and not one out of every million men who ever walk this planet ever realize this;
for one reason, described as just twas in symbols —
— it is not true;
based on the currency-of-ideas commonly available to
the mind — it cannot be so.
Ordinary men’s minds do what they do;
they think what they think, and say what they say,
and integral to their existence is that characteristic of
the role they play
that makes them say
that they do indeed —
— know-what-they-are-mentally-doing,
(this is how it is with them).
But in the rarified & privileged realm in which
the one man in a million roams,
he neither thinks that his mind knows what it is doing,
nor does he think that it does not know what it is doing.
He simply is wise to what is going on.
While it is not literally possible to remove yourself entirely from the drama being played on the physical stage-of-life,
he who in his own way comprehends the above
can take his personal focus away from this
pleasing little farce once he has seen
each of the major acts once already,
and perceives generally where the plot is headed.
Simply put: Men who say that they know what they are doing mentally — do not,
for it reveals that they do not understand
what is going on in the mental world.
One man in a million does come to realize
the true nature of mental reality,
and he neither knows what he is doing,
nor does he not know.
Things are then just the way they should be —
…………..(seeing as how that is how they are.)
J
“I know where Oz is.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m positive.”
“The more I think about what you say,
the less certain I am that I like it.”
“You’re making progress.”