SITTING ON THE ASPHYXIATED
                                _________
 
 
 

There is nothing you can do to change;
all you can do is to stop doing what you’re doing that
makes you what you are now.

There is nothing you can do to awaken;
all you can do is to stop doing what puts you asleep.

There is nothing you can do to achieve enlightenment;
all you can do is to stop doing what keeps you in the dark.

There is nothing you can do to obtain freedom;
all you can do is to stop doing what imprisons you,
and you cannot "learn" the-great-knowledge;
but what is possible is to cease feeding your ignorance.
 
 

Is this not a fascinating affair?!  Just think about it:
you are in place A, and you want to go to place B,
and there is nothing in all of creation that you can do that will get you to place B  --  NOTHING!
The only thing that will work is to stop doing 
whatever it is that has you in place A to begin with.
Fascinating?…..hell --   insane! 
Unbelievable!  Inconceivable!
The human mind is in no wise prepared to 
deal with such a concept.
(Which in truth, is what makes,
trying-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-things
so cod-eyed captivating.)
 
 

In the external world the above would clearly 
seem untrue,  in that a man can assuredly 
move himself physically from place A to place B,
but as soon as you turn the matter inward,
it becomes decidedly, but unclearly, otherwise. 
In man’s internal world, no movement from one place to another is possible;
this is plain fact, but not plainly faced.
As always: mind knows the truth about 
what is going on, but cannot directly admit it 
since doing so would be self destructive,
thus do those with the desire-to-know
engage in impertinent but doable activities
in pursuit of said aim.
Men wanting to achieve enlightenment will:
leave their family; change their diet; 
give up sex; stop talking;
sit in uncomfortable positions in the cold,
and all manner of physical activities that you 
physically can do,
but they are attempting what is in truth,
an internal move by external means which is futile.
The accompanying explanation is that such 
physical denials of instinctive desires 
creates conditions more conducive to awakening,
a notion that, (if you are not alert), 
can fly right past you  --  smiling & waving as it goes.
This proposal is based on the same unstable, 
and normally unstudied notion that says you can
improve your health by changing your “life style” -- 
--  which is not so;
all that is remotely possible related to “improvement”
is to cease engaging in activities that are injurious to your health.
You cannot make your life longer;
all you can do is hasten its termination,
(via such things as: poor diet; lack of exercise; 
use of alcohol, tobacco, etc,
[in fact note that mind's sense of "progress" 
is in you returning to your normal state of health 
after an illness]).
Remember: mind knows better than all this, 
but is not constructed to confess it, 
and is thus pressured to pretend that it doesn't.
 
 

There even seems to be an exception to the above as
regards man’s inner world
in that a man can be in mental place X
whereat he has no knowledge of algebra, 
but then through a study of the subject, 
can become knowledgeable therein, 
and move to new place Y;
(again you must be attentive, or that bandit bus will
whiz right by you as you continue to stand 
throughout eternity at the imaginarily marked stop with that worn out woof ticket clutched 
hopefully in your hand.)
 
 

A bad tempered man will still be bad tempered 
even after he learns algebra;
having new facts will not change what a person is, 
yet people continually pass obviously counterfeit assurances to themselves and others regarding how the acquisition of new knowledge will produce a profound, and permanent change in them,
and again, mind is fully aware that this is not so, 
but not being set up to deal with it head on,
deals with it as otherwise noted.
 
 

There is a daily increasing library of knowledge devoted to teaching a person the truth-about-things --
about how to awaken from a dream & be enlightened;
how to go from being confused about the nature of man and life, to understanding it all,
(these instant writings, an example),
but they have just the opposite result.
There are people at this very moment who have abandoned the comforts of everyday life and companionship, and reclused themselves in silence
on far away mountain tops as they study the ten thousand manuscripts on hand which are believed to contain the complete secret to achieving the great-understanding,
and while those naturally attracted to such a milieu will naturally find it entertaining-passing-as-rewarding,
such activity – devoted to such a goal  --  is:
                     pouring water on a drowning man.
 
 

And as always, to make all of this personally pertinent,
apply it to the activity in your own head.
Everything that normally, and effortlessly 
takes place in your mind 
is what keeps you from realizing what is going on.
The thoughts about life that constantly pass through you are like smoke that continually clouds your view,
and any additional thoughts you throw into the mix 
only increases the smoke -- 
and this definitely includes any ideas about 
stopping the smoke -- MOST definitely.
 
 
 

For those determined to see this matter through,
all additional information is additional ignorance;
all thinking is non thinking --
all knowing is not knowing.

There is nothing you can learn that will change your mind & consciousness from one state to another;
what you do is give up your 
imaginary mental interests in the 
illusionary things that make up your present state.

It is not nearly as difficult as giving up Big Macs, 
or sitting cross legged for hours 
yet is so much simpler as to remain unseen by 
most minds that ever walk this earth.

In one genuine sense: there is nothing to do --
only a bunch of stuff NOT to do --  and even then:
 
           all that stuff doesn’t actually exist anyway.
 

                                      J