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

August 25, 2001.
 
 
 
 

                 THE FATHER & SON FILL SOME HOLES
                 ________________________
 
 
 
 

As they stood with open eyes, considering the job before them,
the trunk of the family tree looked around  --   spat on the ground,
and began to unreel a saturday spiel to the younger sapling.
“There is, operating in man’s mind,
a bleed-over from his survival instincts which threads throughout
The Thing that the few want so badly to get their hands on.

Simply stated, living creatures are programmed to either like or dislike stimulation they receive; such is the sub flooring to staying alive.
Ferns, frogs & Finns either like changes in their environment,
(and its effects on their inner world) or they do not,
and biologically there is nothing they can do to alter same;
your body cannot modify its instinctive, morbific reactions to things which are to it, natural poisons to make them acceptable;
about this physical side of man’s relationship to the life
in-&-all-around-him --  there is no debate:
it is simple, straightforward & most efficient:
he lives & dies on the basis of liking or disliking his stimulants.

                         How deep you reckon that one is?
 
 
 

But when we leave walden for washington,
when we go from gastric juices & the autonomic nervous system
to neurotransmitters & the cerebral cortex,
this instinctively driven piloting of course on the river you plow
as per your like or dislike of the islands you therein encounter
assumes a different hull configuration which most mortal sailors
never into account take.

Disliking extreme heat is one shape;
disliking ‘extreme’ political views is not quite the same;
any natural dislike an ordinary man physically feels will be found to be
validated & beneficial for survival,
but the same cannot be so easily said for his dislikes of things in man’s non-physical, cultural/mental world;
likes & dislikes therein are all that keeps this realm viable,
but to say they have direct bearing on man’s survival is unfounded,
though totally ignored by all but the few.

(You might make passing note of how little interest men exhibit-in,
or attention they verbally give-to the area of their likes
as compared to their dislikes in the non-physical realm;
for every good word they will speak for forms of
meaningless distraction they like,
one hundred & one they will render regarding those they dislike.)

                 Do you still try to put more dirt back into a hole
                              than you originally removed?
 
 
 

Leave us spare the body of further verbalization (as well it does us
except  [thankfully]  in emergency circumstances)  and turn our
mental attention on to  the only subject  [other than technology]
of practical significance  --   mind itself.
Even though your thoughts cannot be burned or poisoned,
they are as solidly programmed to either like or dislike that which stimulates them as are your physical features;
without the endless comparisons between what your thoughts say
you (they) like and what they say you (they) dislike,
the normal world of thought & all-things-non-physical would be
houdini-villed.

      If you have more dirt left over than came out of a hole
               why not dig a new one to put the excess in?!
 
 

If baseball only had one team, no one would like or support them,
and if all painting was Impressionism, it would have no distractors;
the touchable, physical environment in which we live
is --  there  -- in its entirety --
regardless that every person instinctively likes parts of it
in which they come in contact, and dislikes other parts,
but the intangible environment created by man’s own thoughts,
is only there by virtue of his likes & dislikes thereof,
(and need I note again,  ultimately -- ‘meaningless’ likes & dislikes).

   Since we have reached this level -- let us get even grimier.
                 Here is how the batting line up stands:
 

everyone realizes that they have instinctive reactions to physical stimuli that are always either pleasant or unpleasant;
that with which they have come into physical contact,
they either like or dislike, and that is that.
If queried, everyone will admit to having likes & dislikes regarding
things which stimulate them mentally (catch their attention) --  but
they attribute the reason for their liking or disliking to the thing
(if a man dislikes opera – it is opera’s fault; something is wrong with it);
this is the bleed-over from man’s physical instincts wherein he
dislikes a certain noxious plant he once tried
because of what the plant did to him,
but Abstract Expressionism has never done anything to anybody;
yet oblivious to it all do people who do not like science-fiction --
blame science-fiction.
What is going on when a man expresses his outraged dislike of
religion?! --  What is there to dislike? --  or to like?
Why not start an organization devoted to the final extermination of
that god dammed flying squirrel & goofy moose?!

       How deep do you believe a hole must be to be a real hole,
                         and not simply a depression?
 
 

But now we get to those high up, isolated few branches of
man’s family tree on which our peculiar line is precariously perched,
(not actually, precariously, but the off’d alliteration overcame me).
Like everyone else you recognize & abide by your physical
likes & dislikes, and you realize that the mind part of your brain
is also full of likes & dislikes of things that are not physical,
but once you are sufficiently involved in our line’s secret tradition
(not actually, secret, it’s just that no one else is interested)
you then move totally beyond the pale of the pedestrian to the recognition that the dislikes of non material matters registering in your thoughts
are not grounded in the non existent things --
but in your non material thoughts about them.

Then you have moved onto the higher branch of no longer being
caught up in the endless tail-chasing-to-no-where of liking or disliking
things which are entirely products of man’s thought,
and instead now dislike being the medium for such meaningless activity.
Here is as far as most of our distant relatives go;
you could say that it is a start, but then you can also say that
financial advisors hold clients’ interest paramount & that fish ski.
 

You must reach the point of realizing for yourself that the like & dislikes
that you & everyone else appears to have, you have for NO reason  --
                        they're just --   THERE;
they have nothing to do with the reality of the things liked & disliked,
for the things have no reality;
these likes & dislikes concern matters that simply --   do not matter.

But the essence of The Thing is beyond even this level,
which is extraordinary enough in itself.
                No, we move on to the hippo hiding in the shoebox.
 
 

Those hot on the trail of The Thing ultimately have but one dislike:
anything thought that has nothing to do with finding The Thing;
you are normally in mental state P and you want to be in state Q,
and this is now the only mental dislike you have  left   --   state P.
        ‘Screw that condition! Out damn P! I hate being P’d!’

What could be more predicted? --  this is the neural paradigm;
man’s thinking is programmed to thus progress --  but you must
progress it even further to actually yourself  --  see The Thing,
and not just be a hearer-of-tales-about-it.
You must somehow --  get-past; see-past; understand-your-way-past
the mental dislike of the mental state you dislike.

I cannot tell you how to do it, I can only assure you that you must do it.

You have to find a way of doing it for yourself   ---   it can be done,
but only if  you TRY to do it.
If you remain comfortable with just continually berating yourself for
your too-often-present   --   sorry-ass-state-of-consciousness,
the most improvement you will ever experience are those brief moments when you become aware again of your sorry-ass-state, and berate yourself.
 

           Ponder: a sickness whose only respite is in the time it takes
                    for the patient to think: ‘Damn, I’m sick!’
 
 
 

Without question, if you really are a son of mine --  you are sick --
you feel sick in mind, and there is no greater sickness;
but it is a sickness unique to our family bloodline,
and there is no cure from outside.
You cure yourself by getting to the bottom of what I am pointing to;
your cure is in seeing for yourself the true relationship between
                                       Hansel & Thoughtel;
between things which accomplish something,
and things which merely mean something to you on the basis of your l
iking or disliking them.
 

              The only reason I am able to help you is because
                            I no longer like or dislike you.”

                                                         J