A father asked a son:
“In what way would you say has the body been a bad influence on the mind?”
and the boy thought to himself:
“That is the damnedest question I have ever heard:
‘In what way has the body been a bad influence on the mind?’”  --
and the elder interrupted his reflection by responding himself to the query that
he had proposed:
“When mind finally appeared in man and saw how beautifully the body worked  --  
--  mechanically and without thought  --
it decided to imitate its operation as much as possible" --
the lad pondered this for a moment, then commented:
“Well, they do both function quite adequately in automatic mode,”
and the father injected: “True enough  --  if that is all you are after”  --
the son sat on this for a second, then added:
“All that you are after  --  or: all that you are satisfied  with?” --
                         to which the old man nodded his concurrence.
 
 
 
 

Everything in man runs automatically and continually --
which everyone but the certain man accepts  --
him taking exception to this arrangement in the brain’s operation of consciousness, and thought.
The automatic-running-mind constitutes man’s common consciousness:
an ongoing rhetorical reflection of the body’s physical state,
along with its reactions to unanalyzed, raw data previously received by the mind:

“A primary reason people cannot break free of the mind’s
automatic-running-of-thought
is them trying to explain why they have the thoughts that they do.”
             “Oh my! --  that can’t be true!”
“.....Yes, maybe you are right.”
              “But  --   but  --   what if it is true?!”
“.....Yes, you could be correct.”
 
 
 
 

The body in silence is continually analyzing its condition via feeling and behavior –
knowing something is wrong through pain, and changes in habit;
mind too checks on itself, and under totally different conditions attempts
a regular diagnosis of its activity (thought production),
but it has no extrinsic standard to go by  (such as physical pain, or change in sleeping habits);
its efforts to determine the propriety of its activities are literally like a trial in which
the defendant and the judge are the same person,
and neither of them having anything resembling a coherent understanding of the case, or their place therein. 
 
 
 
 

The god of one world says that one hundred per cent of the pleas he receives
from its inhabitants concerns either their health, or self image  --
one of which he can do something about,
and one of which is beyond his ability;
he notes that in spite of how obvious this should be –
none of the creatures seem to grasp the distinction.
 
 
 
 
 

“Son, without a doubt: the single strangest feature of our family’s special adventure comes in your ultimately realizing that you have no actual feel  for  --
--  much less knowledge of  --   who  --  what you are.
It is plainly ridiculous  --  yet liberating and satisfying at a level unspeakable,
and completely unknown to ordinary men  --  who, by way of their ordinary thoughts, know precisely who they are and how they got to be like that.”
 
 
 
 

The body’s knowledge of itself is certain,
based on a constant comparison of where it is in relationship to
its physical environment;
the mind’s knowledge of itself cannot be certain,
for it comes solely from the thoughts passing through it
which bear no relationship to anything other than themselves.
 
 
 
 

A kid ran into the kitchen, tugged on his mother’s skirt and whined:
“Ahhhh!  Uncle Charlie just pointed out to me that you can’t ever get toothpaste
back in the tube once you’ve squeezed it out. Ahhhh!” to which she replied:
“Just be glad your father has never told you how things are after you hear about being conscious in a way different than you are now”  and upon hearing herself say this,
she took his hand and joined the little one in braying: “Ahhhh!”
 
 
 
 

“Son, there was once a man who fought thoughts  --
then took on words  ---
then turned his attention back to thoughts  --   then to words again --  and like that.”
    “Like what?”
“That.”
     “What that?”
“Like that, dammit!”
 
 

You can aim your mind like a pistol   --   or like a flame thrower –  it’s all up to you --   ...other than for the fact that it’s not....that and the fact that they’re all the same anyway,