Introspection Is an Illusion
Summary = See below
Condensed News = See below
News Item Gallery = None
Transcript = None
Key Words =
Summary
9/19/05:
Notes by TK
There is no “right” way to pursue enlightenment; but the successful end result is simply to know what consciousness is. Night dreaming is automatic thinking written in a different hand, in different ink. Supreme automatism is to be in the groggy twilight zone after waking up and STILL want to think about the dream, even when you know it is a dream. .
The only thing we can think about is what happens outside of us…AND how we feel. Under ordinary conditions, the mind cannot think about itself: introspection is an illusion. The mind can think/say that it does…but it does not. (34:25) #3354
Jan’s Daily Fresh Real News (to accompany this talk)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
IF IT’S NOT ORIGINAL,
DON’T CALL IT “THINKING”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Frontal Lobe Fodder For The Artful Few
SEPTEMBER 19, 2005 © 2005 JAN COX
A father said to a son:
“Ordinary men’s minds are like self-centered registering devices (e.g.):
‘My wife’s death devastated ME! — it has ruined MY life,’
while the certain-man’s is analytical:
‘Why do people look at everything from only a personal angle –
and why does no one notice this?’
Man’s natural attitude is: ‘It’s all about how I feel and what I think,’
about which the inner-insurgent does something they do not:
he uses an outlier ‘I’ in the conscious part of his brain to examine the standard ‘I’
which voices his normal egocentric sentiments, not in the familiar
psychological sense of: ‘What happened in my childhood to make me like this?’ –
but in a much wider, unclassifiable manner closer to physics than psychiatry.
Everything that occurs in a man’s life affects his nervous-system, but allowing his
automatic thinking to interpret it sheds no light of understanding;
the special-investigator trying diligently to solve-the-mystery turns his flashlight on itself: something which those of ordinary mind cannot, or certainly do not do.
You are either born with the interest and capacity therefor, or you are not.
That’s the good news (I haven’t learned what the bad news is yet).”
The winner of this year’s: What’s The Funniest Thing You’ve Ever Heard contest
is a middle schooler from Flambeua City whose entry was:
“Whenever someone says: ‘So I said to myself…’”
(“I thought we agreed not to say anything about the question of:
‘Who IS your “self” if it is not the you that is talking to yourself!?’
I truly believe it is in the best interest of humanity as a whole to consider this
subject entirely off limits for any thought or discussion.”)
Whenever this one guy would be accused of saying something inconsistent with something he had said previously, he would reply that his earlier comment had been made in a different-context;
the oak oracle next to his house (who he alone consulted) noted that there is no actual “different context,” in that Life is the sole context, and that within it exists all words, thoughts, feelings, bodies, minds, perceptions and realities, and that any notion of
any of them being capable of a presence outside this context is just meaningless musings of half-asleep brains.
(After suffering this intellectual comeuppance, the man considered seeking the services of
a saw-happy tree surgeon.)
One guy wonders: “Have I got the makings of an inner rebel? –
I increasingly find that when someone asks me if I’m interested in this-or-that
particular matter, as soon as they ask me – I’m not. Am I getting close to qualifying?!?”
As he got older, one man’s mental radio station went from being
Top 40 Rock ‘N Roll to what it announced would be: “An All News & Talk Station,”
(though it turned out to be mostly talk.)
There is nothing the certain-man is more loath to say than “I” –
yet nothing to him is more important.
After decades of familiarity with the one speaking,
one guy said he wasn’t much interested when his regular mind said:
“Hey, look at me – I’m the swimsuit issue!”
The fastest growing occupation on one world is Being Interviewed,
(and while the pay does not top the national salary index,
it is higher than its two closest rivals: Subsistence Farming and Picking Your Nose.)
How, Right Before Your Unseeing Eyes, Local Reality Can,
In Times Of Cold, Rub Its Hands (Your Conditions) Together,
And Stay Warm (While Often In The Process, Making You Hot).
A wet dog is a happy dog – unless he has a master enamored of dryness.
(“Is that why men can’t satisfy god?”
That’s why ordinary men can’t be satisfied with what they believe they think.
“Yeah…well….that’s what I meant.”)
The Day Of Death.
The closer it got to the day of his death, the more he thought about it;
the closer it got to the day of his death, the less he thought about it;
the closer it got to the day of his death, the farther away he got from the part of him
that thinks or doesn’t think about such inevitable matters.
(Guess for an alternative headline you could use: The Death Of Certain Kinds Of Days.)
Progressive Tete-A-Tete.
“Why pick on your own mind?”
“Whose better!?”
Advanced Version.
“Why concern yourself with only your mind?”
“Whose better!?”
Deluxe Edition.
“Why do you talk about only your mind?”
“Whose better!?”
Foremost Folio.
“What!? – you think that no one has a mind but you?”
“Whose better!?”
(And a de-frocked linotype operator adds “Makes sense to me.”)
After a prolonged bout of problematic episodes with his thinking, one man says he seems to be getting all of the side effects, but none of the benefits of a stroke.
Today’s Myth.
Through one of its many mouthpieces of public institutions, Life sent word to man: “Don’t make me mad!” – the majority of humanity’s reaction thereto being perhaps best described as insouciant (as in: “Don’t bother me with threats –
what worse can you do to me!”) and for the briefest instant, Life was taken aback.
(“Wow! – if this isn’t the kind of story ordinary men wish were true!”)
Note: If at first read you’re not sure how to take this news item,
don’t bother asking for clarification: you either get it or you don’t,
(which could be Life’s form of revenge on men for even thinking about such matters —
who knows?! Oh yeah, by the way: you shouldn’t take any of this personally.)
Hollywood Update.
Thinking is a movie –– “Stop camera!
Bring that film over here and let me examine it.”
What is cuter than a man with a little teeny mind who believes that
he has made a really big intellectual discovery.
A Morning Ritual In One Household.
“Okay son: what will make you sicker than drinking poison?”
“That’s easy paw: taking what other people say as though they are serious about it.”
Historical Supplement.
Several of man’s better known religions, political systems, and economic models
came about as a result of a certain group’s inability to recognize a joke
when confronted with one.
(Same for most men’s public personality.)
In an attempt to influence his self to go the way he desired, one man said to his self:
“If you will do exactly as I say, you will be handsomely rewarded.”
Concerning The Trip From Here To There.
Being more conscious than is necessary is like mental travel without any baggage.
J
The naked nomad is the one you want to be.
Jan’s Daily Navigational News
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *