“Self-awareness” is a chump term; 
self-awareness is a sham;
self-awareness requires two things:
a self, and something to be aware of the self.
What is the other something?
 
 
 
 
 

When he became conscious,
he found himself lashed to a bowsprit,
being relentlessly lashed by waves.

He struggled to free himself, but could not.

He consoled himself with the fact that he was
helpless to stop the waves.

One day a passing petrel asked him how he 
distinguished himself from the ship to which 
he was lashed  -- 
a question that suddenly opened the man’s eyes to the fact that a ship has no home but the sea, 
and that waves are the constant reassurance of 
its proper positioning.

   A captain feels apart from the waters, 
   or he could not plot the ship’s navigation;
   a ship cannot feel so -- 
   trees have no word: “environment.”

No star, planet. or possum ever gets lost 
in this universe --  only men do --
only men THINK that they do --
and they THINK that they do only by grace of the 
one ability that distinguishes them from:
stars, planets, and possums.

A father told a son:
”But one thing stands between you, and --
--  THE UNDERSTANDING,”
     “Which is?” he asked,
”Your skin,” he replied,
      “How can that be, when you must have your skin
       to make you something separate from 
       the circumstances around you?” he asked, 
“It can’t be,”  he replied,
”But in you asking --  ‘how can that be?!’ --  it just did.”
 
 
 

“If it weren’t for ‘conditions’ -- 
no one would be dissatisfied,” said one man,
    “Well certainly,” added a second,
    “If it weren’t for unfavorable conditions
      there’d be nothing to be dissatisfied ABOUT!”
”No, you don’t get it,” said the first man,
”I just said --  ‘conditions’.”
 

Only men without THE UNDERSTANDING have 
a vocabulary containing the word, “about”;
in only one statement is the word “about”, appropriate:
”Thinking that here is an, ‘about’ 
connected to any matter you’re trying to understand,
is what makes the word, ‘thinking’ so ludicrous.”

   All you need to know regarding this subject:
   A causes B;
   B causes A, 
   and neither causes anything until YOU  
   think about it. 
 

And a man in search of THE UNDERSTANDING
asked a guy he suspected might have it:
”But I would prefer to think of my personal difficulty in 
getting-things-right
to be caused by how I FEEL, rather than by 
how I think about things,” 
and the guy told him to feel free to do so.
 
 
 
 

The wind blows all around a house;
and no matter how well constructed,
the wind blows all through a house.
And a fish trying-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-things
asked a shark, (who he suspected knew something):
”What is this thing I keep hearing about called, ‘water’?”
and the shark advised him first off to drop the use of the word, “about”  --  as in, “hearing about.” 
said the shark: “When you get to the 
bottom-of-things  --  you HEAR --
you don’t  --  hear ABOUT things.

Thinking that you are hearing ABOUT things
is what keeps you from seeing to 
the bottom of things.”
 
 

”The misdirectional dangers of the woods,”
noted a noted woodsman,  ”Is not the trees -- 
but the 
modifiers and prepositions.”
 

To have THE UNDERSTANDING, 
and to see to the bottom of everything
is to see clear THROUGH everything;
to see through all descriptions of things;
to see through all descriptions of things, and finally, 
to see through all descriptions of things.
 
 
 

One man says that if the mirror needed by those seeking THE UNDERSTANDING in the proper place 
did actually exist 
he would use it to slap himself SO silly as to 
break him free from the apparent ropes-of-circumstances that have him seemingly lashed to
the creaking bow of the
illusionary-ship-to-nowhere……………in particular.
 

“Oh, pa pa!” squealed a lad,
”That is where I wish to go -- no where in particular.”
 

Hey, all you’ve got to do is stop pretending that you 
know what life is ABOUT, 
or that you actually take it seriously --  and – ZIP!
-- there you are -- 
    safe at   --   no where in particular!
                    …where a man is always at home.
 

                                 Welcome back,

                                   JAN
 
 

Remember, boys & girls,
the name of the game is:
”You have to call everything --  something!”
with the advanced version being: “No you don’t!”