True Stoicism Results From Seeing All Brain Function as Reactionary
The following recordings are from Jan’s final years, when his voice was diminished and he spoke in a low whisper. Some listeners may find these tapes hard to listen to, or difficult to understand. Thus, as another option, transcripts are being made and will be posted.
Otherwise, turn up the volume and enjoy! Those who carefully listened to Jan during this period consider that he spoke plainly and directly to the matter at hand, “pulling out all the stops,” as he understood that these were to be his last messages to his groups, and to posterity.
Summary = See Below
Edited Transcript = See Below
Condensed News = See below
Key Words =
Summary
6/7/04:
Notes by TK
There is a reason for man’s fascination with the stoic hero, or attitude, or its appearance. Awakening to the totally reactionary nature of the CPB changes everything: true stoicism results. Non-physical suffering becomes impossible.
All psycho/emotional travail disappears like the illusion of slight-of-hand magic seen through. The frightening snake in the tool shed becomes the coil of rope it actually is. (34:11) #3157
Notes by DR
Jan Cox Talk 3157 There’s no such thing as a !!…(good) reaction. When you see that you’re no longer fooled by anything the conscious part of the brain comes up with. No thought that it produces has any significance. The things that have an emotional aspect to them can no longer have their way. The surest way to wake up is to try to go to sleep. Make a list of what constitutes being asleep. (frightened/upset, incorrectly confused, unnecessarily upset, …That you have a thought is foolish/untrue.
The source of all words, ideas comes from the conscious part of the brain, without it we would have none of those and it’s : ! automatic, mechanical. The other organs, like the heart, beat, but the CPB (conscious part of the brain) is wholly reacting. It only operates in reaction to something else and the only something else is always traceable to something extrinsic and something is always triggering it, day in day out. It’s not you. It’s a piece of reactionary machinery. Seeing that, you live the life of stoicism because nothing can bother you.
Transcript
06-07-2004 #3157
Edited by S.A.
When you see for yourself what I’m trying to describe, and are not just going along with my description, you’ll never again be able to think about things the way you do now. Not that you can’t always take a nap, but once you see this for yourself, you can’t nap seriously, because seeing what I’m trying to describe will change you forever. On numerous occasions I’ve said that if you understood things in a particular way, that would change everything, but this literally will change you forever. I feel that I should warn you, because this takes the juice and the vinegar out of everything except serious stuff like having your foot caught in a bear trap, or a paper cut on your tongue.
Why are humans so attracted to, so fascinated by, the stoic attitude, or at least the appearance of stoicism? There is a reason why throughout history men have been fascinated by heroes with a stoic attitude, and I will bet that most of you have a feel for that. Stoicism is everywhere. The very term comes from the heyday of Greece, and stoicism is heavily represented in the repertoire of Western dramas. Think of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. They and similar protagonists have been playing out the stoic hero. A crowd rushes in and tells one of those heroes, “They’ve killed your father!” Our man lifts an eyebrow and says, “Really?” The crowd screams, “The Trojans are gathered in a great mass outside the gates! They’re going to overrun us!” Our hero never panics. He calmly leads his men to victory.
Stoicism is the very thing that will happen to you if you see what I have been describing as the natural state of the conscious part of the mind, that part of the mind which is you. There is no sense of “you” outside the conscious part of the mind, unless you include the physical awareness you have of your body, which we can not adequately describe. The closest grasp you can have of that physical awareness is to study your dog or cat, or a lion in a zoo, and observe whatever sense they seem to have of themselves. That awareness is all that you would have were it not for the conscious part of your brain.
Everything that you and everyone else calls your self, your spirit, your personality, is the conscious part of the brain. When you realize that the natural condition of the conscious part of your brain is to be an automatic reaction device—when you grasp the reality of that—that is what changes everything. My description is as adequate as I can make it at the moment, but I am aware that my description does not begin to cover the reality of this. For one thing, trying to grasp this could not be more time-crucial, because you can only catch this at the instant that it’s happening. You can’t take time to think about it, or you’re right back in the grip of it.
Several talks ago, I said that I was about to describe something that truly could not be described, because as soon as I described it and you heard it, you’d be done for. My description might be interesting to you, might seem enlightening to you, but that would hang you up, because the conscious part of your brain would react to what I said. What I’m saying to you now is that there’s no such thing as a “good” reaction to this. There only seems to be a “good” reaction, until you see this fully. It’s as if you wake up to it in an instant, except that it took you twenty or thirty or forty years to build up to that instant.
The point is, between my words and realizing this for yourself, you’ll have all sorts of good thoughts, good pictures, good ideas that push you closer to grasping this. You might as well enjoy them now, because once you see what I’m talking about, there will be no more good ones. Instead, you’ll be continually slapping and kicking yourself, figuratively speaking, because you’ll no longer be fooled by anything the conscious part of your brain comes up with. At that moment, if you recall what you have realized, that will stop everything. Conversely, when you catch yourself taking a quick snooze, you will realize that whatever put you to sleep not only was nothing, but anything that you think about that particular nothing is nothing. There is literally no longer anything to think about, because you understand that anything you do think about what just happened makes it happen again.
Actually, there is only one instant of being awake, and that’s whatever instant this is, when you’re not thinking. In a sense, you do think. I can’t tell you that I found some trick to stop the mind. If you find such a trick, I’d like for you to tell me. In that instant of being awake, the conscious part of your brain can no longer lead you into thinking that any thought it produces has any significance. The only significance is to remember, at that moment, what it is you know. That remembering stops the conscious part of the brain from instantly putting out another thought. You are having a thought, but the thought is something like, “Stop that!” That is the conscious part of your brain sending out a message to itself.
The conscious part of your brain operates in a manner that is very simple, very direct, and glaringly obvious. When you see that for yourself, you can’t be distressed any more. The things that the conscious part of the brain will do that have an emotional feel to them no longer will have their way. They’ll no longer be of any significance.
What all of this has to do with man’s attraction to the stoic attitude, amongst other things that will never be the same, is that seeing what the conscious part of the brain actually is shows you what your sensation of “you” is. When you realize that when the conscious part of your brain is operating normally, it will only react mechanically, then all of its reactions that would typically have had an emotional aspect to them will disappear. While this realization does not stop physical pain, it will stop all non-physical pain. When you realize what the conscious part of the brain truly is, you will no longer feel non-physical discomfort, except for momentary lapses, which, I admit, are not enough to really enjoy. Oops! I’m sorry! I meant that the momentary lapses are not enough to do you any harm.
You might snooze for a second and let yourself feel discouraged, or let somebody hurt your feelings. The conscious part of your brain might think about something dumb that you did, or some event in your life that the conscious part of your brain felt was discouraging—but as soon as you remember what you already know, the discomfort, under whatever guise—sadness, discouragement, self-pity—will vanish. You will be truly stoic.
In other words, if your distress is not caused by physical pain, you can’t really suffer for very long. Evidently all of us can still fall asleep for a second now and then. If somebody tells you, “You’re the stupidest person I ever met,” then you might feel outraged, crushed, emotionally distraught. That could still happen—for a second. Maybe for two seconds—if you really try. The joke is that if you try, the sleep blows away even quicker.
Isn’t that funny? We are back to that old favorite that claims the sure-fire way to wake up is to try and go to sleep. What’s even funnier is that somebody might have said that to you twenty or thirty years ago, and you’d have thought, “That doesn’t make a lick of sense.” Oh yes—that statement makes all the sense in the world. That statement is at the heart of recognizing for yourself the true nature of the conscious part of the brain—that is, the nature of everything that naturally goes on in every person’s head—because everything that goes on naturally is being asleep, is uninformative, is unenlightening, and that makes your view of everything and everyone, including yourself, always slightly distorted. That makes you fearful of things that are not frightening, and confused about things that couldn’t be simpler.
That’s kind of pitiful, isn’t it? To drill deep down into the realm of being asleep, being unenlightened, being metaphysically in captivity, and find that it all comes down to being unduly and unnecessarily confused and frightened and upset. I was going to name some more feelings, but I ran out. Am I forgetting anything? I think not.
Between me and Buddha, we’ve produced—my last rough estimate is somewhere over two million eight-and-a-half by eleven pages of writing, and what that all boils down to is—that’s all there is to being asleep. Every non-physical complaint that every human has ever registered, whether it be of emotional pain and distress, stupidity, incorrect ideas, foolish opinions, blasphemous beliefs, or anything else is all traceable to the fact that the conscious part of the brain is a totally automatic reaction device. The impression that all of humanity has, and that life has instilled in us, which is that your brain originates thought—when you see how false it is, that answers everything.
That answers why people do not differentiate between what I call the first or physical reality, and what I call the other reality, which has no physical substance. Why is it that the other reality seems so meaningful when it has absolutely no substance? Why is it that nobody’s ordinary consciousness can realize that the other reality has no substance? When you say, “Don’t you realize there’s a difference between religious belief and a windstorm?” then intelligent people will think and mull and ponder and reflect. You might think, “Why can’t you answer me? Surely you see that there’s a difference between being insulted and being cut by a knife?” That people need to think about this seems inexplicable.
You’re in for an even greater surprise, a greater pleasure, when you truly grasp that the conscious part of the brain is the source of every bit of our other reality—all words and all ideas. I don’t mean that your particular mind is the source. I mean that all of the other reality comes from the conscious part of men’s brains. Without that conscious part, none of the other reality would exist. We would have no notion of anything that had only an intangible or metaphysical existence.
You need to see for yourself the full nature of the conscious part of the brain, see for yourself that consciousness is automatic and completely reactive. The conscious part of the brain is like the musician who just plays the same note over and over. Somebody asks him why, and he says, “Everybody else is looking for the note. I found it.”
Some other areas of the brain do just one thing, like they mechanically regulate the body’s temperature or blood pressure or equilibrium, but consciousness is not mechanical just in the sense in which the heart keeps beating over and over again. The conscious part of the brain is not only mechanical but also totally reactive, only operating in reaction to something else. That something else is always extrinsic. Something outside of you must trigger the reaction from the conscious part of the brain, but it’s not as if when there is no trigger, the conscious part of the brain does nothing—because something is always acting as a trigger. Always. Day and night.
Isn’t it strange that such a reactive piece of machinery seems to be us? That’s what makes this so hard to see. The conscious part of your brain has no difficulty picturing your heart as a totally mechanical pump, the same kind of machine that you rent to pump water out of your flooded basement. The conscious part of your brain has no trouble looking at the heart, the kidneys, the lungs, the liver, as mechanical pieces of machinery. They are living tissue, so we can call them bio-machinery. The conscious part of your brain can also view other parts of your brain as pieces of bio-machinery inside the larger organ of the brain itself. But what the conscious part of your brain can do only with extreme, almost mystical, difficulty is to see itself in the way that I’m describing.
In a sense, I was awake to what was going on for many decades, and satisfactorily so, without ever seeing it this specifically. I could have died without seeing it this specifically, and been quite satisfied with what I understood, because that alone explained everything. But this additional understanding blows everything else out of the water. This is a delightful simplification that slices through reality instantly and unquestionably. This couldn’t be clearer—right before your mental eyes, the truth about everything.
The conscious part of the brain is what everybody feels to be them—their spiritual, their metaphysical, their real inner self. The self that only they know fully. When you realize that what seems to be you is not you, but a piece of reactive machinery, when you see that reaction machine for what it is, you can never again fall into the hands of the illusion of self, except for a second or two, and then only if you really apply yourself. Ha!
When you realize this for yourself, you will live the reality of stoicism, because everything other than physical pain will cease to bother you. I repeat, nothing but physical pain will be able to bother you. That is just one of the small treats you will lose. Now, it does say that right here on the label, but I didn’t know whether the print was large enough for all of you out there in mp3 land to see. That’s why I have to warn you. Ha! Ha!
Jan’s Daily Fresh Real News (to accompany this talk)
THE CITY CONTINUALLY CAUTIONS:
“NOW DON’T TAKE THIS PERSONALLY…”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Chronicle For The Cortically Cold Blooded
JUNE 7, 2004 © 2004: JAN COX
Mystics’ Most Disliked Story.
After four thousand years of various metaphysical schools professing that you can learn or otherwise achieve an understanding and tolerance of life,
yesterday a man announced the opening of the ultimate, final word system,
its name saying it all: You’re Either Born With The Capacity Or You’re Not.
(Its success a predictable certainty, wouldn’t you say!?
[Which is why this idea has always been so popular and well received.])
In one city’s annual: This Will Never Be OUR Official Motto contest
this year’s winner is: “A mind that keeps bankers hours will soon be rolling in dough.”
(‘Tis good, wouldn’t you agree, for hoi polloi to have available some feeling of certainty, even if it is of the negative mode [such as for instance]:
“Have no fear good people — do not uselessly trouble yourselves:
You will never be able to understand what is going on with life.”
Why not let ‘em have something like this, after all: the mind has and asks for so little!
“Is this your idea of humor!”)
From our Science Desk.
All really hip magazines write the Letters To The Editor they print.
(“Is this supposed to convey some metaphorical message?”)
From our Sports Desk.
You can always punt: that’s why your mind is wearing that heavy shoe.
Only things with no ordinarily apparent purpose
might have any purpose worthy a rebel’s attention.
Self pity is always helpful — to those with a partial or crippled self.
One man says: “In the city, no matter how often or conscientiously
you peel away the mist from the fog you always find more fog.
Thank god for the certainties available to those living in the city.”
(“…part of the mind,” he failed to add.)
Life keeps a close rein on those it likes,
and life likes most everybody (at least in one quite pragmatic sense).
Says one chap: “I am so happy when on drugs that I am darn near happy.”
(And several of his synapses wondered what type he was talking about.)
“Some neurons sure can be nosey!”
But not enough naturally to suit a nervous-system-rebel.
True blue, natural born prisoners always think locally,
while escape is in the universal realm.
Civilization’s institutions are man’s intellect and words made concrete.
From our Dialogue Desk.
“Other than being called a low down cheating, lying dog
what name do men most hate being hung on them?”
“Prisoner.”
“You win the trip to Cancun.”
“A lot of use I’ll get out of it.”
“Tune in tomorrow for another thrill packed thirty minutes of: Let’s Make An Irony!”
“Or: Stick Out Our Tongues In Disgust.”
“If you like.”
One man says: “Although I know my opinions don’t count for much,”
the key word from his perspective being: although.
(He is surely a leading contender for the City’s Supreme Poster Boy.)
From our Legal Desk.
Without a built in escape clause, the ordinary, so-called city part of man’s mind
could not operate with its present efficiency;
if routine human thinking could have its feet actually held to the fire,
men’s minds would have no feet left.
“Yes, Your Honor: we have checked, double checked, tripled checked,
and will continue this ad infinitum, just as you ordered.”
“And just as is necessary (or else this whole Lego world will blow up on us.)”
Conversation between one part of a man’s brain and the other parts:
“We may have wasted a sizable portion of our life by you not listening to me.”
“When we could have wasted it on other things!?”
“Now we’ll never know”
Separating illusion from fraud accomplishes nothing in the routine
mental/spiritual world of man.
“Well, it entertains him.”
Yes, ordinary minds it does.
As the kid headed off toward the city playing field the ole man coached him:
“Don’t worry about the score — they ain’t even got the rules settled yet.”
(“And they’ve only had five thousand years,”
silently mused their faithful dog Mordancity.)
Before he would get out of bed every morning,
one man made his mental images take off all their clothes.
“Between the endless sound bites and film clips in my head,
why I hardly have enough time left to actually live my life,” added a man
with a suspicious resemblance to the supra mentioned canine.
While not listed in any of the travel brochures, being enlightened could be described as: stripped consciousness (compared to the standard variety.)
From our Employment Desk.
“In the city: Everyone labors under illusion!”
“But at least they have a job.”
In a rebel camp was found a hand written pocket dictionary in which ordinary thinking was defined as: “The inability to think of more than two things at a time.”
(FYI: The Junior Edition lists it as: “…more than one thing.”)
And from a distant mesa an unseen choir began to sing:
“Imagination,
it’s funny,
it never laughs at its own self…”
From our Travel Desk.
The way to tell with iron drawers certainty that you are in The city is if the place
where you are finds nothing whatsoever humorous about you being there.
(“ ‘Tis nice for those in lifelong confused transit to have at least that one little thing
to depend on. [And ‘twas awfully thoughtful of you to highlight this for them.”])
If you stay in the city and live your inner life as you were born to do,
you are able to swallow frogs in a flood and spit back out profound spiritual insights.
All hail Urbania! — Commander & Caesar of all that is normal! All hail!
“Pa pa: when I die can I…” “Yes.”
Additional Definitions.
The civilized: Happy captives in a brand new land.
Adam wasn’t driven from the Garden, but to Consciousness.
(“I keep forgetting that!” said Words.)
Cautioned one ole timer to his brood:
“No matter what an exemplary, law abiding life you lead, remember:
We’re all goin’ up the river and do hard time.”
Some people can naturally swim in the sea of consciousness and thought,
while others must spend their life thrashing about therein,
constantly fearing they’re going to drown.
Hey! — come on — let’s play: That’s The Way It Is!
Enlightenment, Liberation & The Awakening can’t be taught:
if you are born with the potential, it can be encouraged and ultimately activated,
and that’s the way it is. Ta ta.
J