JAN’S DAILY FRESH NEWS

                      © 2001: Jan Cox
                                         ***************************************************

August 24, 2001.
 
 
 

      THE FATHER & SON DIG SOME DITCHES
              _________________________________
 
 
 
 
 

Once the tools were in hand, the elder began --  and began talking:
”This thing is simple  --  but not easy  --   in fact,
if it were more complicated it would be easier  --  and in fact,
this, unwittingly, is responsible for the laboriously intricate procedures
generally employed to accomplish it   --   as though:
if a thing is too tiny to see, we’ll blow it up larger to study --  or:
since you do not want to look directly at the sun, view it in a mirror,
or perhaps best metaphor of all:
a steam shovel cannot single out a solitary gold molecule
so it scoops up tons of dirt instead, (ordinary thought, in the trope, 
being the machinery unsuited for the specific job,
[an even more realistic version would speak of the loader’s inability to pick up itself]) --  but no matter the linguistic festivities, the fact lies plainly in the open, all around you like the dirt on the Earth:

              This Thing the few want to do is simple ---  just not easy.

                                                Here, look  --  dig at an angle.
 
 
 
 

You, my lad, may be thinking: ‘This is easy for him to say now --
after it taking him most of a life time to realize it,’ and I say to you:
‘Don’t be a smart ass  --  it accomplishes nothing,’” (and this marginalia made even their oldest post hole digger nod in bemused agreement, [and at moments like this when he would offer potentially explosive observations while the younger had sharp objects in his hand, the elder was glad that the entire affair was only taking place in the safety of one man’s mind]).

"But the statement would harbor accuracy,
for it does seem to require at minimum, damn near a life time of relentless relentlessness to ever cut-&-stumble your way through all the complex outer garb
in which ordinary thought must try to dress the simplicity of The Thing.

A life time of pleasurable activity can also be had by studying
and thinking about the various descriptions of how to find The Thing; 
commonly do ordinary men say,  regarding a journey to a new destination, 
that getting-there-is-half-the-fun,
well in the case of This, with those who never see it through,
getting there is all the fun they will ever have --  but,
what you may anomalistically come to understand
will not go with you into the grave anyway, will it..........(unless of course),”
                                   and he really put his foot into it,
“(Alterations arising from such have, at our cellular level,
an effect that lasts beyond our gross anatomical disintegration.
Who knows, my little one,
you becoming more coherently conscious in your lifetime
may some day make it easier for some pine tree to achieve its enlightenment.)”  
                               The father got a good shovel full with that one,
                                             (so mused the lounging pick).
 
 

"When you hear-about, become enthralled-with & decide to go-after, This Thing,
your entire world, (mental world that is),
takes on a sudden new glow, and unidentifiable excitement fills your inner air;
if to This Thing you are born,
you have no doubt WHATSOEVER that finding This Thing
will instantly answer every question you or anyone else has ever had, and give you generally unavailable information that will make your life from thereon out --
a downhill slide on Teflon --  and,
you & everyone else who has ever felt this way --  are correct,
but my god!   Such a formidable undertaking!
You probably should totally abandon your present life,
and relocate full time with some teacher who has already found The Thing,
and who will whip you pronto, into shape, (or putting that on hold for the moment):
read all of the books ever written about The Thing,
(right there is enough to occupy you for the next seventy years), or at least  join in some closer-to-home group activity with fellow seekers who already have in place,
a system of The Thing they have adopted.
But, my god!  The whole thing is so complicated!
Some of the people you talk to say they have been at it for decades,
and still have not found The Thing;
they say it not to discourage, nor do they seem to be,
they just tell you out front that it is not unexpected to spend
a lifetime in sincere search, and still never actually get your own
personal hands on IT.
'But, Hell,’ you say to yourself, ‘You have to start somewhere’ --
and indeed you do, but you do not have to stay there forever,
which in practice amounts to not gradually blinding yourself to
what is going on so that eventually you pretend to not realize that,
where-you-started is where you still are.”
                   He reached for the pick  --  which made the pick happy.
 

“If you never apply yourself to seeing The Thing’s simplicity,
the complexity of whatever system you commence with
will only seem to become more complex with time.

See, here is what I would say to a real son of my consciousness:
I would tell him to consider any reading-about, or discussion-of
The Thing to be just entertainment, and not to expect anything more,
but if he wants more, do this:
use my patented method of meditation:
in bed at night, in total darkness & silence, on your back,
arms stretched out on the sheets above your head,
and in the morning immediately upon awakening,
dig into this ponderer:
                  ‘How am I aware of laying here having thoughts?
                   The “I” having the thoughts IS a thought,
so what is it that is aware of the thought called “I” --  having thoughts?’
 
 
 

                         It is too simple to be easy,
but the bottom of This Thing is too simple not to be findable;
you just have to finally get on the right track, which I admit,
and warn you --  is itself almost too simple & obvious to be seen
by things as lumbering & clumsy as the thoughts presently appearing in your head;
but it is possible If you will take the kind of approaches I talk to you about --  or,
it may not be possible for you,
but you will never know for sure unless you give up the pretense
of complexity and solemnity that is an endemic virus always lurking amongst the few, and go for the simplicity,
for I tell you for the last time today:
              This Thing is simple  --    but not easy...... (well,
  not until you get a good personal whiff of its simplicity  --  after that!     WHOA!
                                Put away the tools  --   it’s Guinness time!”

                                                     J