Consciousness Can’t Think About Itself–But Don’t Let That Stop You
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.
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Summary
9/1/04:
Notes by TK
It’s impossible for consciousness to think about itself. But why let that stop you? There are as many descriptions of consciousness as consciousness can think of. To wit: consider the rich history of philosophy, psychology etc. How is it that all the descriptions sound so valid and precise and meaningful? Consciousness can say anything, and then believe it too!
Contrary to the usual cultural nostrums of conscious aspiration: knowledge, virtue etc., the premier endeavor of consciousness should be to control its attention. Cultivate the warrior focus, the Spartan mentality, living in the moment. Nothing is more beneficial for a man than that. Note the singular absence of this goal in modern civilization. Why are there no Spartans in life? (41:53) #3194
Notes by DR
Jan Cox Talk 3194 The Symbolic Spartans
While we are able to think about everything, consider how difficult it is for consciousness to think about itself. It’s impossible. There are as many descriptions of consciousness as there are political, social, and psychological. Socrates tried to get people to think about consciousness themselves. Everything about consciousness somebody made up. What drives us is none of the descriptions are satisfactory. The Spartans and the Sumerians said you have got to be in control of your attention. Why has it never happened when it could be more beneficial to man, or in the case of a warrior, a life saving Spartan in consciousness. Why is it not taught to ordinary men’s thinking when there could be nothing more beneficial?
Jan’s Daily Fresh Real News (to accompany this talk)
WORDS DO COME HOME TO ROOST
FOR REBEL PIGEON KEEPERS
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Spelling Out The Unspeakable Since 1962
SEPTEMBER 1, 2004 © 2004: JAN COX
A Glossary Of Terms Created And In The Past Employed By One Man ( J.C.)
To Describe Certain Inner Workings Of That Certain Extraordinary Hunger
And Commentaries Pertinent Thereto.
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(Part 2 of an ongoing series, and in that this collection yet lives, future additions to all entries are a possibility.)
A – Z
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Audio Chain: (1) An audio system requires speakers before it will produce sound (information); the electrical current must be converted to audio waves;
man can be seen as the speaker to Life’s amp.
(2) 95% of an amplifier’s energy is spent producing wasted heat
while only 5% of its power is devoted to actually driving the speakers:
should this sound familiar? – in a much more human context?
Action/Thinking Of Action: (1) Thinking of action comes into play when action
seems impossible or too dangerous – which in a nutshell is why thinking of action won’t get you anywhere.
With ordinary people: if words did not seem to make up for lack of action,
why would they talk so much about it (i.e. a constant barrage of promises
and threats of action at some future date).
(2) Under the rebel’s wartime conditions of struggling for The Aim:
those who appear to think the most are those who should think the least about
what they do;
the very times you think you should think some more is the time you shouldn’t.
The certain man thinks at the proper time, but acts when it’s the salutary season.
All Is Wrong/All Is Not Right: Ordinary men’s concept of all-or-nothing
is a cheap imitation of the rebel’s do-or-die method;
in man’s second reality: nothing is ever all-or-nothing: everything is compromise: everything is and must be inconclusive, and the only success is some success.
Captivity & Exile: (1) Humanity is in captivity – not exile, and until you understand that, nothing will ever make sense to you save fairy tales and myths.
(2) Those of ordinary consciousness find man’s condition disreputable,
and blame it on him being in exile: driven from his rightful home,
but which is a temporary anomaly.
Believing this serves two purposes: one: it keeps the door of hope open,
as in: “If I were back home, I would be well and whole,”
it perpetuates the sensation that things can change; that delivery is inevitable;
it’s only a matter of time (even if it is a very long time)
and two: it makes exile seem the basis of all his strictly mortal problems:
(“I personally have done nothing to deserve this; it all springs from the extraordinary conditions of my exile.”)
(3) If ordinary minds hear that man is in captivity they immediate announce
two conclusions: if he is it is either because of external conditions, or internal ones:
it must be one or the other;
in the city it is always thus: there are always two possibilities and as long as there are, there is always a way out: a verbal way of describing the situation so that the
material facts do not get in the way and block a mental exit.
These imaginary escapes (religion, political, economic, psychological models)
serve to perpetuate the real captivity.
The nervous-system-rebel must see that it is not a case of one-or-the-other:
they are the same thing – if they weren’t, no one would see a choice.
(4) The certain man concerns himself only with the possible: his individual,
internal escape; only good for one; you can’t bring two aboard the ark;
the only escape is for one.
(He who never grasps the transcendental, purely personal significance of
the word one, will remain behind in the flood – of the illusory exile.)
Though Life obviously employs the sensation of exile for its own overall good,
the direct question to the inner rebel is: How can a man believe that he is not home?! Where is it that you then belong, sir – on Jupiter? –
or perhaps in the body of that gentleman over on your left.
How can you think that you are not home, and then not undertake to find out
why you naturally think that way.
(Hint: Your consciousness knows.)
Constant Flux: Over a lifetime: the certain man’s mental condition.
Complex/Simple. (1) The simple are merely what they are
with no potential for change — and hence no future;
the complex are not merely complicated in some uselessly entangled manner,
but rather are direct, elemental and unrattled in their life and thinking;
their non city mentation is thinking-without-believing
while standard thinking is inseparable from believing:
thus are its bearers’ mental cages continually rattled by non belief.
Rebel intelligence has no connection to believing (which is a form of
unacknowledged self-reflection while lacking an individual intellectual self);
the certain man’s consciousness thinks only about observable features of the thing being thought about, and ergo does not have its perception distorted by
its own genetic temperament.
(2) Only the consciously complex can be simple,
while the simple believe they are complex.
(3) That the complex consume the simple is a fact of Life’s growth and can be seen every where from science to sociology; from cellular life to that of cultures;
for the nervous-system-rebel this law’s most significant appearance
is in his own thoughts.
Behavior that abrogates this law is censured because it runs counter to Life’s growth: for example: cannibalism (one kind eating its own) interferes with profitable processes: it wastes energy; it’s too close to an even exchange thereof;
no one profits from the act in the sense of meaningful expansion.
All growth is the complex consuming the simple; when this ceases to occur, (individually and internally as well as on a larger planetary scale) the system is dying, (e.g. men and middle age);
when your personal life ceases to be ever more complex – you’re dying.
(4) If it were possible for ordinary men to know-themselves – to see their intangible self as it is, Life’s need for the complex to consume the simple via man,
would come to a halt; if man’s actual condition could be grasped by normal consciousness – it would constitute (from Life’s perspective) an act of cannibalism.
(Only a few people experiencing this appears acceptable;
in the enormity of this Universe: exceptions may matter — but for little.)
(5) All plots, conspiracies and intrigues are the complex planning dinner;
any such activity by the simple are their attempts at a coup d’état.
The predominant hunger of the simple is for domination by the complex;
they have no wish to understand complexity, nor to emulate it;
their hunger is simply to be dominated by it.
(6) Men are continually involved in crude productions to make themselves appear more complex: turning eating into dining; protection-from-the-cold into fashion.
(7) The conception of time is man’s recording of the complex consuming the simple.
(8) The past is always simpler than the one studying it, hence everyone can only
study the past – while the future forever remains too complex for their grasp.
(9) The simple survive – the complex flourish.
Cost: (1) There is no connection between cost and need for the rebel;
prices are irrelevant regarding what it takes to mount the inner rebellion;
conversely: Anything he can afford – he knows is no value to his struggle.
(2) A large part of man’s life in the intangible realm is spent calculating costs:
debating the cost of Prince Charming’s coach makes Cinderella’s story just seem
that much more real. (Politics and religion have their own versions).
Debt: (1) Life will allow you to do almost anything except get out of debt.
(2) Life will permit you to think almost anything — except that you are not in debt.
Just Past Everything Is Itself Again: (1) The difficulty with change is that
no matter how far you go you always end up no more than thought’s breadth from where you started: this is Life’s ultimate safety net, and saves it from having to be on guard to retreat: if things go too far – they will end up back in their place of origin.
(2) Nothing runs indefinitely and what starts as change doesn’t end as change:
it just keeps going until it is its own self again;
a reformed drunk isn’t changed – he is his self without the booze;
the challenge for the man attempting to alter the operations of his consciousness is that it is both borderless like the Universe and singular like it as well; thus it is not possible to effect an internal alteration that can be objectively measured;
ergo no one can know for a fact that another man has achieved The Aim –
is awake from the dream; is come out of the inner dark and into the light;
how indeed is the man himself to objectively know that he has done so conclusively?!
(But when you achieve it – none of this matters.)
J
The only point to life (other than to stay alive) is to know.
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