JAN’S DAILY FRESH NEWS
                     © 2001: Jan Cox
                                      ****************************************************
 

August 20, 2001.
 
 
 
 
 
 

           It is Monday, and that certain father says to that certain son:
“Here is another instance of an unrecognized fact
that is of essential significance to what we try to do about our mind,
and when put in words that are coherent to the mind,
it is true and not true;
the example is this statement:
                            The mind has no memory of itself.
 
 

This is easily observed by those with the proper
scientific interest and equipment, (physics' uncertainty principle
turns out to be an atomic version of the neural findings --
and why would it not be, since neurons are composed of atoms).
 
 

A man (beyond the freshmen level)
anxious to satisfy that Certain Hunger
could not undertake a more profitable course of study than to conclusively prove to himself the veracity or error of the statement:
                             The mind has no memory of itself.

Getting to the bottom of this will clear up everything you have ever wondered about, and sweep clean, your beach.
 
 

If you say to the ordinary, sane mind of any man that the mind has no memory of itself he (his mind) will instantly deny it,
and with what seems to be readily available evidence to the contrary --  but a keen eyed investigator,
using his own mind as the only correct lab,
and employing that particular unnatural method of,
Self-objectivity, unique to the few,
will eventually get a glimpse of the gabberflasting fact that
his mind has no memory of itself, yet when faced with the assertion, 
it can acceptably refute it.”
 
 

One of their animals came into the area where they were
having this wow pow, and did one of those things that seminals do,
(at least in s. Fl.)
and the father continued.
 

"Even though the truth is obvious, as always,
(as regards the singular thing we few attempt to do: set a table on itself);  it is simple  --  but not easy.
Trying to see that the mind has no memory of itself
will give you a whole new definition of the word, ‘tiring’
(maybe even, ‘frustrating’ & ‘irritating’…. [in case, (I’m sure!),
that you are in need of such!]).
 

Mind has copious memories of the body, and its experiences;
indeed consciousness would be useless without it,
and it will try to slip these in as examples of its memory of itself,
(which the alert experimentalist will easily see through),
and mind, when challenged on its lack of self memory,
will immediately pull out something it will claim it was thinking
only an hour ago in a certain memorable situation,
(e.g. mind will say: ‘I remember what angry thoughts I was having
this morning when that man dented the fender of my brand new car
as he pulled in next to me in the parking lot’  --
and the mind does remember this physical episode from earlier that day,
and the hostile thoughts it says it had sound correct & not unexpected,
but you are too cataractic to really be a son of mine
if you cannot see right through this mental mirage.

There is no way to prove that the mind did not think
what it now says that it did;
there is no way to prove TO the mind that it has no such memory of itself;
it says that it does --  and thus  --   it does.
I say it does not --  and the observable reality backs me up,
(if you want to see it badly enough).
 

You will never be able to say to that ordinary operation of your brain,
that produces what men call their, ‘mind’
that it has no memory of itself without it conclusively denying it,
so there is really nothing more to say about it from this angle.
To the mind of all ordinary men --
--  including the ordinary side of your own  -- the statement that:
                                    The mind has no memory of itself
is simply untrue and will forever be so,
but in the few of our family’s tradition,
there exists a peculiar mental feature whereby,
with adequate effort & perseverance,
you can see things about your mind to which
the ordinary mind itself is blind
(or in a hyper dimensional state of denial perhaps).
 

All of the historically acceptable methods of trying to change the way your mind works arises from this unrecognized reality:
trying to be: ever-mindful; to always, remember-yourself, (or some image, word or idea);  to live-only-in-the-present-moment, etc,
are all attempts to change the situation of the mind --
                                    having no memory of itself  --

that is what they are  --  plain & simple --
but  by the mind made  --  overly vague & complex.
 
 

Ordinary people have no continuing awareness of the
small repertoire of repetitious, day-dream-thoughts that
make-up their normal consciousness,
and although such as we, do, ask yourself this:
now that you are extremely aware of it:
how else are you able to tolerate the mind’s numbing redundancy?

How does a man who is cognizant of his mind’s endless repeating of
a small number of scenes & sentences, keep from going mad?  --   simple:
                      the mind has no memory of itself   --   of what it does.

And note: the mind does not have amnesia about itself;
it did not once have memory of what it has done & simply forgotten it --
                                          --  it never had any.

You can watch it for yourself --  moment-by-moment:
the mind has specific thoughts, but retains no memory of them;
a thought passes through and --  Whoosh! – it is gone & forgotten.
This is how the mind is able to have a certain thought,
and then only seconds later have the same thought,
and treat it like it had never been thought before.
This is why you (your mind) cannot self-remember --
it has no capacity to remember anything concerning itself --
and the captivating apparent exception to this seems to be
in realizing that you have not been, self-remembering;
the only thing resembling success in the affair
is your awareness of failure;
the nearest there is to a man’s mind ‘remembering itself’
is in it being momentarily aware that it has not been doing so.
This is not a notation of alleged flaws in any of these initial approaches,
but it is me trying to shake you into seeing the distinction --
the eye/I opening distinction between what you think & what you can do.
 

Realizing that all so-called, methods to bring the mind/consciousness under your control (its own, truth be called)
is no cause for discouragement;
seeing what I today point to will free you from
an endless & futile wrestling match with your own shadow;
without recognizing what I refer to,
you will forever be depending on something that is not there:
mind’s memory of itself and what it does.
 

The goal of the few could be stated as:
the attempt to make permanent in you  --  the ephemeral;
to stabilize in you  --  the unsettled; to unify in you  --  the fragmented,
and they each reflect the reality of man’s mind --
which is totally dependent on memory:
no memory --  no mind, (not in any useful sense),
and no practical alterations can be made to something
that is not there (‘practical’ was tossed in for comedic relief).”
 

The son discovered one of the animals, under his clothes,
and after appropriate action was taken, the father continued.
“At this particular moment, there is nothing I could more highly recommend to you than you take my statement:

                                      The mind has no memory of itself –

and devote yourself devotedly to its investigation and consideration.
 
 

                 What seeing this for yourself will accomplish –
                                  I cannot begin to describe.”

                                                      J