Thinking In Its Proper Place

When you see, instantly you know what action to take. There is no choice to make. It is certain. It is done. 

Thinking can build a telescope and a rocket ship to the stars and account for money earned, saved and spent. And it can serve all all other mechanical operations it invents. But if you use thinking to guide your life psychologically from within what your life was soon will become a mechanical process. It is to be walking dead. There will be no creativity. There will be no love. You will be nagged by a recurring worry that some important thing is missing and you will not know what is lost. Like a machine you will repeat the same behaviors expecting different results so long as you shall happen to live. You will buy insurance, for example, expecting good health. You will invest money expecting to enjoy your old age. You will court the opposite sex and expect to find love. But love and enjoyment will stay away. Thinking is quite limited. Science makes many technological advances but always leaves many more to be explored. Thinking is quite limited. Science solves problems but creates many more. The missing ingredient in societies today is something that puts thinking in its proper place and leads a free human being on a living journey filled with love and peace and enjoyment and true abundance. It requires no naming and no religion and only is found by free people not being controlled by thought. Thinking is over-rated and quite limited. What is beyond it is unlimited.

Follow a butterfly. Imagine what the caterpillar realized when its cocoon opened.

 If there is a profound change now

the future will be new.

 BEYOND THINKING

Perhaps something which is very complex can be spoken simply. Once upon a time people on Planet Earth acted immediately in the now. Almost exclusively. Then thinking was introduced. At first on a limited basis. It grew rapidly. Without knowing it, people crossed a line into a world where thinking dominates action. Life changed.

Thinking is built on two things. Memory of a past which anticipates a future. The past and the future are its foundation, in other words. “I have been this I will be that.” I ate strawberries in the past and I want to eat them again. Question that goes unasked is: who is it says I ate strawberries and desire to eat them again? That, whatever it is, is now in charge of your life and is going to run it from now on is why it is important to ask that question. What is it? From where did it come? How real is it? How reliable? It may seem that the one who thinks is who I am but is it so? “I am” just might be something that was here before thinking began to predominate.

A most influential book in the field of psychology was published in the 1970’s. It definitely and brazenly declared a breakdown of the bi-cameral mind (brain) occurred centuries earlier and was the dawn of consciousness for human beings. People were at that time freed from being controlled by God. And yet, people who have had extreme  difficulty adjusting to the world of man in recent times, through serious psychic exploration, have become aware, at least to an extent, of a fact that all time is in the present moment and, therefore, effective action is always clear and instant. These ones claim their life has shifted from a difficult one to a thoroughly enjoyable one for which change they cannot find sufficient words to express extreme gratitude. And they uniformly declare for them “real” consciousness arose with the reduction in the value of a separate self rather than an elevation of its importance. The consciousness they speak of includes the whole world or the big picture. 

No attempt will be here made to go any further on the matter since the writer knows only those who are truly interested will go to the trouble to find for themselves what the author is discussing. All depends on you finally. If you find you will not bother to search for the psychology book and read it as a beginning you are not ready for the challenge. Perhaps at a later time you will be moved to dig for answers if the question sufficiently pressures you to do so. The problems associated with thinking as described here cannot, of course, be resolved by more thinking in the same dimension. Albert Einstein spoke that and realized that to continue to do the same thing expecting a different result is insanity. That is why this dialog ends here.

 WHEN A CHILD MET CHRISTIANITY

I was told as an innocent young child that Jesus, a very nice man, died willingly for my sins, my wrongdoings, my shortcomings and the thought of it made me feel a terrible guilt. The guilt made me consider joining the outfit that taught me that message to perhaps in that way assuage my guilt. But, truly, at a deeper level, inside me, I was wishing Jesus had not died for me at all; that He had instead allowed me to bear the consequences of my own failures since it was so obvious to me that He was so much more than I would ever be. As it turns out, He did just that for me and all others.

Many, many years later I listened to someone speak to a group concerning the truth of it all in the manner of Jesus dialoging with a gathering of friends. He concluded by saying when you see the terrible dilemma of the whole human population you must feel, not bad for “yourself”, but bad for the whole of humanity from which you are inseparable, you feel utterly responsible. And in that I felt the truth of the story of Jesus’s sacrificial death. Real action has no future. There is such a thing as vanishing as a separate self and not wanting ever to be found. That one leaves your salvation in your hands out of love. And I could no longer take the sacrifice of Jesus personally. 

Jesus may have told of what he had seen, to Mary Magdalene for one, and the story was told and retold for many generations before Christianity as it exists today arose.  It had by then become possible by pasting together selected pieces of gossip over centuries to present a tale wherein the leading character dies on a cross a bloody death to save all the rest of mankind. It was the Romans who saw its potential as an organized program around which to reunite its fallen empire. It is put together by thought to promise all troubled peoples a Heaven somewhere else after death by telling it that some other “perfect”person died for the forgiveness of all their sins and omissions.

In the telling it became a crucifixion and actual death of the body and resurrection for a reason. Made into a personal sacrifice one could tell it and keep hold of the old favorites of the  personal self, now saved for eternity, along with its connections to all its favorite traditions, with all its allegiances, desires, ambitions, greed, lust, plans, etc. It was adopted as the official religion of Rome in that form and continues down to the present age. Although the Romans could see the popular attraction of such a teaching, they failed to  see that selling God is never going to lead to anything good hence the falling of Rome. Christianity is passed off or justified as a tale of the killing of innocence, as if that is a good thing, a sacred thing, but face it, adults do not read it that way for they are too far from innocence, kids do. And Kids are struck in terror by the tale…I will get slaughtered if I remain like a child, therefore, I must adjust to a world that includes the killing off of the pure and innocent. And most of us do adjust and become adults. Strange it is that Jesus had admonished his listeners that they must become as children to enter the Kingdom of God. Adults accept the preaching of a personal savior which allows them to remain separate from “bad guys” who do not have the same savior and now we understand why Christians are so willing, eager even, to send armies of their own children to kill humans in droves who are seen as in conflict with their personal selfish interests as “Christians”. 

Jesus flew all right but not from one place to another place in space. His escape was within entirely. The true story of Jesus is decidedly not a guilt trip. It is a complete release. Heaven he taught about is not in some place…away from Earth…it is here now. And now contains the future. So, real action has no future. Eternity is not a long, long, long, long time. It is now and the future as one. There is such a thing as vanishing as a separate self and not wanting ever to be found. Thus a sudden realization cheats death of all its power.

 THE 4-LETTER WORD

Listen, up, people, to what I will tell…

Love is not elusive or mysterious or fickle nor is it a 4-letter word. 

The word is not the thing. Love can have as many vowels and consonants as she pleases and then some more if she wanted to be one of your words but she does not. What you experience and call love is not love at all but a selfish game whereby you spell love and bind her and expect her to serve your books. Burn all books containing the 4-letter word that curses love. Love knows how to leave when it is time for her to go. When you come around. Offering a ring and a promise you will never keep. It is you who are elusive and mysterious and fickle unpredictable and dumb. 

You are the only life form on the Planet that sets traps for and tries to own innocence. Mine, you say. Another 4-letter word. You better listen up if you ever expect to be loved for one moment by any loving thing. By the way, God, not the speakable word, is love, but not the speakable word. 

Release her and let her know you have done it. Now. No, in a flash release everything you have named and mean it, if you can. Is it possible for your brain to be so empty? Once it was and yet alive and functioning well. You are the living proof of that fact. Do you not want to find out what life is like without a word? It might thrill you. Are you afraid you won’t be able to get your words back? What does that say about you? What have you become, my sweet young thing? A sponge? It is not an evil act to learn words but it is evil to forget who you are in the process. What chance do you have now? What good are you to you even? 

When something has no actual existence, is not a fact, but has the appearance of existence, what do you call it? A trick? Said the Joker to the Thief. We all want to know love as a fact yet settle for a trick because it feels safer. What a mess we are in. 

Whenever somebody does not receive a nice living by making bowls but makes a living doing work for an employer who sells bowls and tells him what to do and how to do it what do you call it? A trick? Said the Joker to the Thief. Again, why do we settle for the trick? It feels safer. We are afraid. The employer knows we are.

Does health actually exist or is it only to be found in books? Does a doctor have health to give or books describing health which word is not the thing? Why do we settle for a trick? Said the Joker to the Thief. It feels safer. We are afraid. The doctor knows we are afraid. 

Does a justice system have any justice? Said the Joker to the Thief. The lawyer knows we are afraid. 

Do weapons make a society less violent?

Does the media possess the knowledge you need in order to be safe? 

Does the person who tells that he has found God know God? His or her “self” hides behind the statement: I have found…Said the Joker.

  

Look into these matters. All these things we settle for which seem to promise safety are, when examined, in fact impotent and doomed.

 ANOTHER HEART

Maybe “heart” the word as it has been used by poets and seers and lovers to point to some truth inside all people of all ages and both genders and all religions and all walks of life that is not an organ of the body that pumps blood symbolizes a complete psychic system free from problems of any kind. Could it be an actual  capability we have to “see” the whole picture at once with clear, complete, unfragmented awareness? It could be experienced as a song or a deep feeling of assurance or stillness or colors or in some other way. Is it a demonstration that words can symbolize what is felt when one realizes nothing is really something and something is nothing at all? Does it stand the world image the mind has constructed on its head? It does.

 THINGS NEED TO CHANGE

Everybody agrees with “things need to change”. But most of us settle for going around searching for “how?”  That’s no change at all and guarantees we will stay stuck. There’s a real change that actually begins and ends in a question that actually changes things by answering itself, though. Is that not elegance of a high order?

Question could be “Is it possible for things to change?” This leads to that and pretty soon things have changed. Now, it s only really important that when the question is asked the questioner means it and means it real bad! You see there’s really never any “how” to anything. There’s an infinite number of ways to go about doing a thing. With this approach the most blessed feature is that rather than setting a goal, making plans to meet it, and working hard to carry out the plan, modifying as seems necessary as you go…brings to mind a war room and a group of military officers carrying on with war plans under hot lights…in this alternative approach of asking a profound question and then going about living, there are no leaders, only players, and a feeling of fun, and freedom, and it is like this job is being done for me by ghosts who picked me out to join a uniquely creative sort of dance with them to participate in a wild bit of frolicking and luck and no one is to blame and no one is to be given credit for going along for the ride. Furthermore, no remorse or regret is possible for nothing is left over for all activity is in the slice of time called now without pause for reflection. Evaluation and explanation and analysis are of no value either. That’s a relief! Saves a lot of wasted energy if you ask me. 

As a metaphor I leave you with this little tale from my life just today. I was struck by a strong need to find the name of a singer and a film made about her life. I did not go searching. A short while later I was getting something from the fridge  and decided to sit down and read for awhile in a book I had started earlier. Reading, my book fell open in my lap accidentally and as I was finding my place to continue my read the pages flipped and I happened to notice a page with a yellow marker line and glanced quickly at it to find it revealed the name of the singer and the name of the film based on her life both. Life can be like that all the time. It is not predestination at all, though. It requires a serious attempt to stay in the present which happens to be where everything happens is all. The other way a person spends most of every day in the past or the future where nothing happens…missing life. Come on. 

 A RELIGION OF SONG-LINES

Bob Dylan once quoted a lyric to Sam Shepard that went “You must learn to leave the table when love is no longer being served! Just show them all that you are able! Just get up and leave without saying a word.” 

Bob said he did not know who wrote it but it was a good lyric. Sam agreed. Bob added, “you gravitate toward people who’ve got something to give you and maybe you’ve got somethin’ they need.Then one day you wake up and see that they’re not giving it to you anymore. Maybe that’s the way it is…Maybe the rhythm’s off.”

So, what if the whole of life is that. The life you have is a rhythm for now…and it is always now…a song-line to walk or dance to; that’s the Australian aboriginal’s idea. And it is so simple anybody who wants to can do it to a tune he knows well. I mean to say, life is a sure bet! Never was any need to gamble. Oh-oh! I am getting it that the Tree of Knowledge in the Bible was the big gamble...I wanna do it my way relying on knowledge which is always quite limited. All God wants us to do is dance our own song-line that’s playin’ inside us.

I was jolted to read of the conversation between Sam and Bob because all my life I had thought of myself as extremely out of step with everybody because when it comes time to leave a party…any kind of party one can attend…I just leave without a word. It always is that way. I cannot do otherwise. Often the idea would strike me that what I am doing is rude just leaving without thanking the host or hostess for the party but I do it. I want to add that never once have I had a hint from anybody that that is a fault of mine. I mean it never has been a problem to be so out of step with good manners. So, my point in raising this is to propose that when one does a thing solely because he or she cannot do it another way no matter what then in that case one cannot fail ‘cause the singer of your song-line is that powerful and love is no longer being served. That is my religion. The whole darn thing! It’s fair. It’s lovely. It’s possible. Makes the impossible possible all right. That is a good religion based on a good lyric. 

Bob and Sam went on to agree that women and men have different rhythms and the two are actually one rhythm…and like God and the Devil they are a part of each other. One cannot do without the other. That feels in complete harmony with the religion of song-lines.

 

 TWO OLD FRIENDS MEET FOR THE FIRST TIME

All righty, then. I have no need to be named. Talkin’ to me is like talking to yourself anyhow. I live in this world just as it is and make it up too. Do both of them things. And I’m really everbody. 

You're crazy! That’s for sure. But that’s what’s happenin’ here all right. I am talking to myself. You have been a surprise to me this day! Most of the boys who meet a girl like me with whom they can act themselves without having to think about it first- throw that girl away.         

Hell, Girl, you bring out in me somethin’, when alone, I never would guess is there.  My own rainbow.                                                                                          

The two embrace.  

Kiss wildly.

 Name?

(Shake of head)

You must have a name.

How come?

Well, I see you are here and everyone here has a name.

What does a name matter?

We need to be able to identify you for our records for one thing.

I do not wish to be recorded.

We must have proof you arrived and the date of arrival. How old are you? 

Just newly born. Still being born. Will be until I die.

You are going to have to cooperate if you intend to be a part of the social system.

Not interested in belonging to anything, thank you.

See here. I can see for myself you are here and must do my job.

Look, you, I have been trying to tell you that you can see I am here and that is enough for you to know the truth of my arrival and my presence here. In fact, if you insist on asking questions of me and writing reports soon you will be more aware of what is not so than anything true. In that case you will no longer be able to simply know I have arrived and stand before you. You will see only your imaginary image of me and treat me as that. May I go on my way please? I am in a hurry and hope you do not mind. Leave your questions in writing with my parents and if I decide that answering any of them is appropriate I will answer them at that time. 

 An Inventory of Troubles

The Questioner from inside the brain asks the brain: “Why are you in conflict?

Here I am. Age about 40. A man. Very confused. So confused am I that I begged for help from some folks who told me they had been as confused as me and found freedom from it. I wanted that, too, finally. Up to that moment I had rather die confused than accept help. Getting help on life’s tests was cheating had been hammered into me at school. So, my brain began to reply to the Questioner by saying, “It’s been hammered into me all my life”. What do you expect of such a poor fellow as Me?” As the brain moved on in answer to the Questioner it discovered so many ideas it had in it that were so fierce it began to hurt. It ended up at I cannot stand myself. I had been sent to Sunday School as a lad to study the life of Jesus Christ and was asked by a parent at home, “Who do you think you are, Jesus Christ?” Then I was punished in front of friends from school. I was crushed to have failed so. That was my brush with religion as I understood it to be.

I do not need to go through the long list of the many ways I thought that I failed to measure up to what a man is supposed to be for all people to understand it. I was stranded in a world in which I am unworthy doing my best to become worthy or at least to hide as much of my unworthiness as possible from the authorities whoever they are. And I resolved to change. Many elaborate plans were made. Failed to change time after time. 

The important thing my brain told the Questioner was that it had been loaded with problems to solve from the earliest days of life. What can be expected from such an abused brain? It was predetermined to fail. More and more confusion and conflict was its certain destiny.  Suddenly, like a flash, I forgave my brain for even trying to manage such a goofy life and began anew. What would follow was completely unknown to me. Had to be.

But on this occasion I act, now, knowing all of time, the past, the present, and the future, are contained in the now. All problems require time and all time is contained in now. It is called by ancestors renunciation. Nevermore will I load up my brain with problems of its own. All are mine. Removing myself solves the problem instantly. This is my brain speaking. Problems imply time for their solution. I deal with them now! It has become impossible for them to pile up. My brain is free now.

I am what I am and it’s all I can be. I am fully appropriate to live a human life by my nature which is human when my brain is completely free of problems…not a single one does it carry. Free, it solves every problem by removing the cause

                                   immediately!

 

Note: What is not to be explained in words at all is the experience of someone who vanishes and does not want to be found. Or, what is an authentic human being (as opposed to a sponge) really like? The only treat I’ll toss is -creative. Find for yourself the difference between invention and creativity! It’s so much fun!

 

IS AMBITION GOOD FOR HUMANS?

The lack of any ambition at all does not prevent the love of doing. These two are not dependent upon each other. They are entirely separate. In fact, conflict in one’s life is most damaging to health and ambition is a great source of conflict and confusion among people. Actually trying to become prevents freedom.

A wife with ambitions of her own married to a husband who has ambitions of his own will conflict often. It must be so. What is ambition? I want to become. I am not enough now but later I will be. The moment  I set my sights on a goal I set a most terrific limitation that excludes all other possibilities. They say an archer will miss the target until she lets go of any need to strike it for a reward or prize. Neediness blurs the vision. One is nervous. Do not agree with me. Question everything. Find out. It is your life. Ambition is an eight-letter word. What is really written here goes deep and includes every possible action a human will take in a lifetime. Good to know the way that works for you. But you have to do the work necessary to find it. Nobody else can give it to you. A friend knows this about you. 

I want to say a bit more. I did not need to write this. It was in line with my purpose. My purpose is not laid out before me as a plan into the future (which is nonexistent) it is felt now. See, the past and future are in the now. Understand the archery example and grasp the message…the shot is now and the future is now. There is no separation. The shot is a whole work, a part of which, is the role of the eye. It follows that the shooter and target are one. And the purpose is felt now. The most admired performers of any kind are the ones who say I do not do what I do to be rewarded because it calls up the love of doing in all people.

 My note: It seems when anyone grasps that the past and  future and present are in the now there’s no going back. The whole being comes awake to live. Love is present. Time a servant. All things work together for good. Anything is possible. A coded message may appear unconsciously to carry the truth of it to the same unknown place inside others. (2022)