Thursday --
the day named in honor of the norse god of:
women’s ready-to-wear,
and an auspicious time to dip into:                      
                      
               The Case Of The Empty Room.
 
 

Everyone has a room filled with non-physical stuff,
which are the reference materials necessary to 
navigate in man’s mental-dependent reality.

Those with a hunger for the understanding
open a second room which they stock with 
instructions ostensibly devoted to the acquiring thereof.

The first room, (which all men hold in common, 
and whose contents concern but common matters),
is of no help in obtaining the understanding,
and in spite of its seeming appropriateness, 
and collateral expectations,
neither ultimately is the second;
for no matter what form they may take,
the directions in people’s second room 
which seem to be devoted to acquiring the understanding 
are actually instructions on how to have --
--  an empty room --
which is precisely what those with 
the understanding have  -- 
a third, and empty room;
an empty room that IS   --  the understanding.
 

None of the materials naturally found
in a man’s first room, 
nor any interpretations thereof,
will ever result in the understanding --
that is not their function,
and nothing any man can do will change this fact.
The reference points native to the first room are responsible for guiding a person through the worlds of words and ideas commonly entertained by
man collectively;
it is where is stored: movies, television, politics, music, literature, religion, the news, the internet,
and any other non-physical thing of interest to men --  
--   and that is the full address of that location.
 

There have always been born a few people whose 
mental hunger is never satisfied by what is available
in the first room, and the earliest writings of men everywhere reflect this in forms that range from philosophical speculations on the nature of 
truth & reality, 
to fantastic mythologies that symbolically 
address the same issues.
Eventually their non mainstream interest acquired its 
own name  -- mysticism,
and notwithstanding its present quirky connotation,
its definitive origin is not without a valid foundation.

”Mysticism:  the presumption of knowledge existing  beyond that which is commonly available,"
a possibility whose rationality is evidenced by 
the mere fact that the mind can conceive of
such a possibility.
In its mapping of its territory: 
once the mind decides that X miles out from where it presently stands is, “the horizon,”
it has, with the same decision,
simultaneously concluded that beyond that point
is more territory.
From this initial notion, it was but a short step for
people to place this presumed secret and superior,
”mystical knowledge” in the hands of gods,
demi-gods, and other un-natural --  un-earthly forces.

Thereby from its reasonable, operational origins 
was mysticism soon dispatched,
and relegated (in ordinary minds),
to the ranks of the ir-rational, and in-operable.
(After all: if mysticism is knowledge possessed only by 
the gods --  why should they share it with men?
In what way would this benefit them?!
     “The whole idea is preposterous!”
            --  and so much for that!)
 

Thus could the few with that certain hunger 
not expect any help or even encouragement from 
the ordinary, epsidixit,  “rationally-minded men” of 
room number one;
ergo the rapid establishment of their private
room number two,
where in they began to collect the words, ideas, directions, instructions, speculations, 
and all other forms of information, and memorabilia 
left by previous men with the shared appetite.
What is better known and obvious to the mind than
the dictum:  ”Learn from the masters," 
except that the instant instance is a unique case 
in the: Ongoing Investigation Of The Human Mind
By The Only Operative Available For The Job,
and characteristic of said investigator is the 
innate inability to accurately entitle the inquiry. 

From its beginning this activity seems unquestionably to be about the obtaining of something: a knowledge;
an extraordinary, not commonly available knowledge -- but that is not what the understanding is actually about.
The materials in the second room from which the few run their search for the mysterious knowledge
appear to be sundry pointings to its location,
and diverse instructions on how to acquire it,
but aware to but a pitiful few is the fact that
what all such really pertinent data is about is  --
--  an empty room --
and in what conceivable way can the continued collection, in a room, 
of data,
encouraging an, 
empty room,
ever be profitable?! -- (not to mention, less than insane).
 

The wondrous and secretive understanding
that is the true goal of mysticism
is not knowledge ABOUT anything; 
it is an empty room --  an empty, and new room.
It is not the first or second room cleaned out.
The contents of the first are immovable,
and while those of the second can be shuffled around, 
they cannot be cleared from the room.
 

The empty room is totally separate from the other two, 
although all three lie side by side,
as close to one another as lungs are to air,
as up is to down.
But in the empty room are no thoughts to stop;
no mind to calm; no self to remember;
no icon to picture; no mantra to chant, 
no unruly dog to subdue --  there is nothing --
in an empty room is nothing.
Nothing to do  --   nothing to try to do.
No successes with your attempts, and no failures.
Nothing to know, and nothing beyond your knowing. 
 

You must finally see what sitting in your room,
collecting more and more books, and ideas about, 
“How To Have An Empty Room”   IS! --  it is insane, 
(not to mention, quite likely, impractical).

You cannot change nor empty the first room: 
the one of movies, magazines, gossip & imagination;
but neither can you ever empty the second one which you created in yourself for the specific purpose of eventually HAVING a --  cleared-out-head.
It is once-&-forever filled with the purported directions you collected regarding how to gain 
the understanding,
yet “gain, obtain, acquire” are not valid descriptions
of what occurs;
the understanding comes from a losing,
a leaving, an abandoning;
foremost, obviously, of the first room,
but ultimately, and not nearly so apparent,
of the second,
where in you have spent such a large, exciting,
entertaining & singularly thought-provoking part 
of your life.
For those with the longing for 
the understanding
there is no joy equal to the time spent 
in the second room  --   if they never go there beyond --
for the real pay off and solution to this case
is in  --   The Empty Room.

No more battles to be waged;
no stupidity and mechanicalness to oppose you;
an empty room is just what it sounds like,
and if you find it,  
and finally find yourself in it, 
then look around, and suddenly see something --
--  you’re suddenly no longer in it.
If you are in the empty room, and say anything about being there --  Zap! --  you’re outta there.
You can’t talk about the empty room and be in it --
why you can’t even think about it, and remain there.

To make full, permanent use of the empty room
you must let it stay just as you find it --  empty.

If anything is in your room at this instant 
then you are not in the empty room,
and if you are not in the empty room 
you are not making as full use of the space available 
in your head as is possible --
---  and you will never have the understanding
that is the point of all this.

These are the true facts of this case,
and all the information needed to solve it.
 

The hardest clue to come to grips with is that
your present best & most favored room can never be anything other than it is now;
an area crammed to the bursting point with 
would-be directions of how to have a, 
“cleared out room,”
the ridiculousness of which has already been noted.
The human mind is truly challenged to even briefly conceive of a goal that is not of  --
--  obtaining & possessing  --   but of --  
                     --  losing & abandoning.
 
 

As concerns the understanding:
everything stored in your second room is wrong,
(that in your first is merely irrelevant);
what is in your second room was 
“right enough” to get you started, 
but its self-referential, self-fulfilling,
useless requisition of your mental space,
and attention must ultimately be realized
for what it is
by being seen from the perspective of 
the empty room.

Everything a person with-the-hunger seeks
is in that empty room,
and there is space for it always available 
                            in your head. 
 
 

There is nothing as liberating, exhilarating,
and totally informative as  --  the empty room.

                                      J