"Be Here Now"

Almost everyone has heard of the phrase "Be Here Now", but how many actually can, or even comprehend it? Very few indeed. It is an interesting phrase, though, and you will read it in ordinary psychology books, self-help books, as well as the expected "esoteric" teachings. Why? Because, everyone can do it to some degree and it seems to "work", that is, when you hear it (or remember it), it seems to cause a perceptible effect internally, and that effect is generally experienced as, from pleasurable to momentarily "awakening". And so it is.

But, as usual, what is missed, is how to sustain it, how to get anything long-term from it.

What is missed, is that the mere fact that people can do it to some extent, still does not produce what CAN be produced, by those who also, comprehend it. Full (or better) comprehension of the idea, must include, an understanding of these two words: Exciting, and Calming.

In people's ordinary state, they are not excited - certainly not in the way children are excited, and they are the models for this expansionary theory. What do you really remember, about your childhood - the times when you were excited! Excited to get that new bike on Christmas, excited to go to the circus, excited to ride the roller-coaster, etc. The so-called, "calmer" times, when nothing was really happening to you, you've all but forgotten.

Now, some people, in their adulthood, ARE naturally more excited about just being alive. Others, probably the larger percentage, are not - they are typically "just pretty bored" by it all.

To really push "Be Here Now" in the direction it was meant to push one, is to "Be Excited about Being Here Now" - by whatever means accessible to you. If that means utilizing, in a creative way, your intelligence, imagination, emotionality, or senses, then by all means utilize them - that's, from one view, what you have them for; to receive impressions from the world in the most complete and profound way, that only a fully-functioning human can.

Be Excited about Being Here - it works, and it works reliably.

The rest, as they say, is up to you.

Time

One of the most common experiences of so-called "higher states of consciousness" occur in episodes of high-adrenalin rushes occurring in near-death, or near-calamity, events - such as auto-accidents, or very-near-misses.

At such times, Time seems to be greatly altered. Suddenly, you find yourself just seconds away from what might be your Death, and yet, it all seems to be taking place over minutes, many minutes. One part of the conscious mind might be saying "That truck should have hit by now! That truck should have hit by now!", yet, from another part of your mind's perspective, you realize that you're still many moments away from the expected calamity.

"Time flies when you're having fun" "Time drags when you're having none"

If only we could intentionally reverse that ordinary flow-of-time! To make time linger when you're having fun, and make time literally fly-by when you're bored/depressed/sad. To MAKE it so!

Such, is the unexpected outcome of intentional efforts at increasing one's so-called consciousness. Time does become what it IS - a dimension in one's life, which can be climbed up and slid down, all under the control of one's consciousness.

Quack, quack

The Fourth Way is one of the few systems that view man as "unfinished", or "open-ended" - as opposed to non-humans, which are "finished", or "closed". This is, perhaps, the most powerful and significant concept in those teachings, for without it, man is no better than the animals, and animals do not have the possibility of conscious evolution within one lifetime.

The idea, further elaborated, suggests that, with certain efforts, he might begin to "complete himself" intentionally, to do what Life is trying to do with him, over much larger time scales than just one lifetime, but do it himself, within his own given lifetime.

Completing himself, suggests, becoming WHAT he truly is - a fully-conscious Human Being, as opposed to a half-asleep, usually-distracted, relatively-aimless, half-human or pseudo-human or potential-human.

Unfortunately, those systems have either forgotten, or never knew or understood the relationship, "I's" have to the question of being "unfinished". Those systems suggest that, even with his "many I's" - within which, he is, virtually 100% of the time - he is always, still, open-ended. But this is incorrect. While fully engrossed in his "many I's" - again, all the time! - right then, and then, and then, he is operating, functionally, as a closed-system. That is, the energy which vivifies him, and allows him to operate at all, is circulating within a closed-circuit, and nothing ever (not once in a while, NEVER!) escapes the closed-circuit. That is, in no uncertain terms, if it walks like a duck, acts like a duck, talks like a duck - it must BE a duck; not a man, a duck.

Quack, quack.

The Pill

You ever notice (of course you have!), how all the "World's Religions" are classified into the Eastern Traditions and the Western Traditions? Hey, how about the Northern and Southern ones?

Anyway, have you also realized that, if you were to actually count the bonafide Eastern teachings (those with a name), and compared that to the Western teachings (also with a name), that the Eastern ones would win hands down? This is probably obvious, because the East has been trying to figure out "What's it all about, Mohammed?" a lot longer, several thousand years at least, than the West, which only started doing it seriously about 1500 years ago.

So, you'd think that the East had probably figured it all out, by now, having been working on "the problem" for so many more thousands of years, but have they? Hardly. The East, in general, is much further behind the West, in so many areas - economic especially -owing to the fact, perhaps, that the primary modes of existence there, is to get married, raise a family, then, when nearing the end of one's life, to chuck it all for the "search for enlightenment". Whereas, in the West, the "search" usually occurs first, with the young, and then peters out almost entirely, leading to the traditional forms of marriage, family and finally retirement.

In any case, though there are probably more "eastern-style" Rishis, Roshis and Gurus, than their "western-style" counterparts, you certainly don't see more evidence that there are any more "fully-realized" humans in the East, than in the West. Many more say they are, of course, but how can that ever be tested?

Maybe none of them are. Maybe all of them only think that they are, and so, they don't have to inquire any further into the mysteries of existence. Maybe the Eastern Traditions, in toto, just don't work -period!

Anyway, since this is a place to further such bizarre viewpoints, consider it furthered. In fact, maybe the only possibilities for true human evolution, before the ultimate bad day, known as death, is from the Western Traditions, and not the organized ones, but the un-organized ones, and the very-recent ones.

A few spring to mind - the Fourthway in particular. Perhaps the Fourthway offers 21st century humans the only real possibility at unlocking some the cosmic mysteries, that originally draws everyone who ever lived, into their life-long spiritual pursuit.

Perhaps, real conscious men have existed, do exist, but not in the East, only in the West, and only quite recently. One reason for this may be, that not until the last 50-70 years, has Science actually begun to catch up to Religion, such that those with the spark of interest required to begin and stay-with, a long-term spiritual quest, might reach the success they long for. Such success may actually require not only thorough understanding of the "philosophy of enlightenment", but an equally thorough understanding of the "science of enlightenment".

The "Science of Enlightenment", on the surface, almost sounds like an oxymoron, and the utterer of such non-sense would invariably be labelled a moron or worse, even in polite society. But, since we here, in this forum, couldn't care less about such labels, this idea should be expanded in every way possible, before just dismissing it without examination.

Many western systems and teachings, in fact, do include a "scientific" perspective - some even build and use gadgets to further their claims that Cosmic Consciousness can be achieved by using such toys. They may not be that far from wrong. Afterall, the Fourthway introduced the idea of the "Sly Man", who was one who knew the existence of a pill, and could take that pill to produce energies/results in him that would take anyone else, months, years, or never to produce.

This "Pill" was certainly metaphorical, and probably not to be understood as some kind of pharmaceutical ingestable, but the metaphor is extraordinary, when you start considering it, without the inborn, inbred resistance to such a strange notion.

This would be an appropriate place to stop this argument, to see if it still seems pertinent later on, after one has "come to their senses". Let's see if anything comes of it.

Everyone thinks just as much as they can...

...no more and no less.

Lest you think he/she/it "of few words" (or "of clever retorts", or "of simplistic replies") could say more than the little he does say, know that if he could, he would. That's why all descriptions of Heroes and Gods and Supermen, include a reference to a "FACT" that while they are BIG on Action, they are "of few words", because the description comes from other men, who can only think that far and no farther.

This idea filtered down into the life of men who believe they are "striving to be" (like) them; that "stopping thought", or "clearing the mind", or becoming like a mirror in there, is something worthy of their (continued) "effort".

Hah!!

That is a retro approach to reaching the Future. That is the "unknown realization" that man can not think more than he can, "rationalizing that inability", saying that "super" men are "of few words". Hah! They are simply birds that can not fly; fish that can not swim; men that can not think more than they already can - but now, with a big stupid smiley face on.

All thought, systems of thought, philosophies, religions, sciences and the arts, are from the past - but with a built-in, almost genetic notion, some call it memetic notion, that they are from the Real Objective Immutable Future.

The past is genetic drift, genetic succession. Life, as lived by men, is all forms and aspects of this genetic line of succession, or proper replacement, expanding thru man (in the mind, not the physical body - from his personal point-of-view, the mind is expanding and changing, the body is not). For a man, his body represents the immutable past, and his mind represents the Future.

The past is the need at the genetic, cellular level and not at the level of man's intellect, which informs all the subsequent forms and aspects of his life. It is the genes (genetic line of succession) that needs heroes; seeks revenge; writes paeans to suffering; looks back in fondness; reads/writes/enjoys history; feels prideful, fearful, patriotic; reads/hears/enjoys in any intellectual or spiritual way, wise words from 4000 years or 4 days ago.

It is NOT man that enjoys all this, it is his genes. It is NOT man that profits by thinking further about that which his genes are pursuing behind his back, and that includes the entire human race with all its interests, involvements, aspirations. That is, the Game of Civilization.

He, of few words, can NOT think more than he can, because if he could, he would. Why? Because information is energy. And if a man only uses the energy "up to here" or only "up to here", then he's only extracted the minimum possible for him right then. ("Extract", "minimum", "him", are just words but they "point to" a reality behind the words.)

Towards a more complex intelligence

What if more complex intelligence is NOT returning to the unity, or being stuck in duality, but analyzing information in a non-polarized way, which is not non-duality (just another name for unity), but something more akin to triality. This would be like maintaining constant awareness of three-things-in-play, three-forces, three-tendencies at once.

Perhaps there is a 4th circuit beginning to function in man. Above the ordinary intellect (yellow), which is itself above the ordinary limbic emotions (blue), which is certainly above the ordinary lizard-brain sitting atop the spinal cord (red).

The 4th circuit is conscious nonpolarized analysis of, "what" is occurring. The 3rd circuit is the unconscious polarized thinking about, "what you're doing". The 2nd and 1st circuits are the polarized feelings and sensations about it, reflected personally, locally - to be layed down in memory. (Notice you CAN remember - if you try hard - nearly every step and activity in a day. But note, you can NOT remember what you were thinking during that same day.)

*********

Perhaps conscious evolution requires moving energy up the circuitry, in particular ways, for no other reason than to do it, to move it, because movement is Life, stagnation is Death. One must always be on guard for moments when "you" will try to steal the little-bit currently available, and use it to support a well-maintained status-quo, which is just a part of the personality wanting to stay alive at all costs, by feeding its' memory, sense-making, and story-building activities. To move the energy past the point where personality will try to steal it, sometimes requires, subterfuge, sleight-of-hand, and mis-direction - to keep the creature occupied long enough for the energy to move past it's long arms that would try to steal it.

Success in this, does not produce stories for the diary, personal anecdotes to record in memory. Stories, which pass for "work efforts", are just stories - but to suggest they're more than that and believe it, is just silly. Work efforts which don't try to pass for anything, may be, but only the one who suppressed the desire/need to squeal will ever know.

*********

In order to think in a nonlocal place in the intellect, from a more complex intelligence (which is just another way to say, think MORE than you CAN about it), you must consider the subject in a special way - non-dually, in a non-polarized way. You do not have to rule anything in or out, to consider it from a nonlocal place in the intellect. The local place in the intellect, "me", can only think about everything "from its' point-of-view", and all it has to "bring-to-the-table" are memories, of a human life spent reading and talking and moving around. Such a subject can be held in the attention, just out of reach of "me", while intentionally not forgetting it's there. The subject itself, will, if the exercise is done just right (or even sometimes, just wrong) gain mass, grow if you will, and become like a lens, focussing the available energy on the burgeoning point-of-understanding developing there. A little fire ensues and suddenly (when conditions are right) - a bonfire of burning forms.

But you always have to keep "me's" hands off it, or it immediately disperses, and simply goes to feed the local point-of-view, you were attempting to escape from.

Like into the production of "stories" - these stories and personal anecdotes, as innocuous as they are - serve two purposes, at least. The first, shared by all, is to bolster the belief that humans ARE something, KNOW something (when in fact, they ARE NOT anything yet, and they KNOW NOTHING yet), and the second, they keep the full-view, which is not hidden at all, quite hidden for all - it becomes part of the common concensus reality, the world dream.

For example: "conscious wish". This is an old idea, it goes back centuries and takes many forms. But in all the cases of reported "success", where's the proof? Can it be taught to others? Can it be proved they learned it? (Or like all such "goofy-actions-at-a-distance", is the "failure to teach/learn", simply rationalized as the students' inadequacies, rather than the, more correct, teachers' ignorance?)

It's like UFO reports - where's the proof of hard-edged scientific evidence?

It's a 1/3 or 2/3 view of a reality all are in touch with, but don't fully comprehend, and so it gets "reported" as Alien encounters, conscious-wishes-come-true, co-incidences, sychronicities, serendipities - all fun words at coctail parties, but further evidence that the one using them (believing in them) sees only 1/3 or 2/3 of something more real than they CAN imagine, and so they must step down the potency of that hardly-even-felt sensation/feeling into a buzzword-of-choice.

These are all simply cases of the energy, surging, surging, surging up the spine into the ends-of-the-nervous-system, getting inadvertantly diverted into the 3rd circuit - the explaining circuit, the story-telling circuit - and missing yet another opportunity to scale the walls of commonality, into the 4th circuit, to actually SEE 3/3 of something as it happens.

The energy wants to take form, it wants to "Be Something!" - and who can blame it, so do you! But, look not to the world for any help on this - books can't push you into a nonlocal view of yourself, only to a more firmly-held belief in the local view of yourself.

As a fellow explorer once suggested to me: "A man can read all he wants in a book about 'Embrace watchfullness, despise thoughtlessness,' or 'The named way is not the eternal way,' but it is impossible for him to ever get that thing to move beyond merely an 'opinion he holds.' Though, he actually believes HE DOES get it passed being just an opinion, when in reality such stated observations have already died and become merely opinions, and part of his thought-to-be 'self', forever: the very thing he actually thought he was struggling against. A man will never write in a book 'you must think such and such, but of course if you actually do believe what I just said you're no better than when you started.' It somehow must be discovered by a man who actually dives in and lives this."

Think about all these matters from a non-local, non-personal viewpoint, without reference to 3rd-circuit "thinking-about-it" and "story-building", and you may taste something you've never tasted before - or not. Now, THAT would be a story! But don't you dare tell it!!

What ARE you?

What is filtering now through the body of Life, is the energy behind man-the-form. It's no longer a question of who you are. You must now see what you are. And what you are, is not a thing but a process. A process that can be seen and understood, a process that can be physically expanded and continued.

What has previously been called the domain of the gods, realizations of one's potential, enlightenment - whatever - lies within your own nervous system. It is, and has always been, the unactivated area above the current level of consciousness. That is the reality behind enlightenment; it's the extension of your own nervous system into previously unused, unactivated areas.

Man is not separate from the gods in the way that religions have always described; he is not separated from sanity or perfection, and has no bad habits other than the habit of being "I". The organism that is man is not a stable mass, it is not a thing but a process. A magnetic field within a living grid.

"Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk"

As in all things, the outer reflects the inner, and vice-versa, and when you catch it out the corner of your eye, it brings a smile to a part of the brain that rarely does anymore, the older you get.

Why DO friends let friends drive drunk?
And what the hell does that mean anyway?

Friends let friends drive drunk, because they want to be able to drive drunk themselves. (Here, of course, we're not talking about alcoholic beverages saturating the blood-stream, creating a state of decreased motor facility and mental awareness.)

If those people actually WERE friends of the drunken-one, they would take them aside and intervene, as necessary, to prohibit them doing harm not only to themselves but to other people - both physically and psychically.

But, noooOOOoooo. Because they, themselves, enjoy driving while drunk and causing all sorts of mayhem, ahem, they give their "friend" a pass, support his "need-of-the-moment", put him in his car and send him on his way. While they, in their smug satisfaction that they "did all they could", simply go on with the rest of their lives as though nothing even happened.

Then later, when the bad news reaches them, that their "friend" has literally self-destructed, crashed there on the side of the road, quite beside themselves (sometimes, even literally), they instantly feel sad and depressed and sorry for their "poor friend", and begin railing against the auto-manufacturers (who must've built a bad vehicle), the city-planners (that would put a tree of all things on that particular corner), the bar-owner (who sold them that last potent drink), but never, NEVER themselves.

(Here, of course, we're not talking about alcoholic beverages saturating the blood-stream, creating a state of decreased motor facility and mental awareness. Geez, Louise, what the hell ARE we talking about?!?)

You know, one sign of intelligence, is being able to think about two things simultaneously, without either one losing the full force and power it rightfully possesses, while being able to merge the two discrete views into one even more powerful insight-of-the-moment.

The "rich" and "famous"

You ever wonder how it is, that the rich and famous are always admired and revered by society, and further riches heaped upon their heads at every opportunity (moved to the front of the line, given the best tables, showered with gifts, adoration, and kisses, etc.), while the poor and unknown are usually reviled and persecuted by society, and the little they have taken away at every opportunity?

(No? I did once...)

There's a reason, you know, and it has nothing to do with religion, spirituality, or man's inhumanity to man, or other similar dumb ideas. It's an example, graphic and quite "in-everybody's-faces" (so it can't be missed, except by the dense**), of what goes on in the mind of certain individuals (here and there), who have started Thinking for themselves (exploring the inner worlds).

You have to have some gold to make gold. And if you have none, then the little bit of whatever it is you do have, will be taken from you.

Such is life.
Suck it up.
Quit complaining.
Get out of the house more often. (hint, hint...)

** the definition of dense: taking anything someone ELSE says personally, or "taking offense".

Are you a stay-at-home?

Like or not, agree with it or not, there are two kinds of people (for the purposes of this ad hoc rendition) - those who could be called, stay-at-homes, and those who could be called, explorers. Generally, one does not become the other - at least not in their lifetime (which is just about all the time you've got, eh?)

Stay-at-homes are, of course, the VASTEST majority on our planet. Only a few explorers ever even get borned, let alone all growed-up to do their "explorer-thing".

And, it seems (apparently), that explorers are born, not made. That is, obviously, if you are born a stay-at-home, a stay-at-home you'll remain till death does it's inevitable number upon your livelihood.

Now, (you guessed it, right?) there are two kinds of explorers: 1) the kind who want to climb mountains, dive deep into oceans, trek off to far away lands, or just generally extend the "known boundaries" of where everybody else lives (the stay-at-homes), and, 2) the kind who couldn't actually be bothered by planetary journeys, even inter-planetary journeys (though they'd probably not turn down such an opportunity if it ever arose), but prefer the inner journeys into, around, and about their own minds.

Are you a stay-at-home?
Probably, you are, even if you think you're not.

Are you an explorer?
Probably only the first kind, even if you think you're the second.

One way to tell which kind of explorer one might be, is their instant, immediate receptivity to ideas they've never encountered before. Are they attracted to such, almost with a perceptible >>passion<<, or are they quite irritated, almost repulsed by such? Explorers-of-the-first-kind generally make plans, and stick to them, and major (or minor) deviations from those plans are ill-received. Explorers-of-the-second-kind have neither plans, route-maps, directions, or presumed outcomes - for, exploring is all that is intended from the outset.

If a person is irritated, and disturbed, and upset by the introduction of new ideas, then they are neither an explorer-of-the-second-kind, nor probably even an explorer-of-the-first-kind. Yup. They are a stay-at-home.

Now, of course, and it certainly goes without saying, there's nothing WRONG with that - being a stay-at-home. Afterall, it's only because the vastest majority of mankind is, and wants to be, a confirmed, die-hard stay-at-home, that explorers are free to "do their exploring thing" unimpeded, and unemcumbered. (Hey, someone's got to keep the home fires burning, and build the libraries, and record the histories, and stuff.)

But, the explorer-of-the-second-kind, is not even concerned with that. Once s/he sets off on the trail for the most exciting journey of the ages, they've already - for all intent and purposes - left the planet which spawned them, and not that willing anymore to even return.

One last thing, if you ever meet such an explorer-of-the-second-kind >>in the flesh<<, you won't know them, and you won't recognize them.

Religion versus Politics

What makes one guy/gal get all super-heated over some organized religion - be it Christianity, Buddhism, or New Age Astrology - rather than some organized political persuasion - be it Marxism, Libertarianism, or Rastafarianism?

Temperament. The general, genetic temperament of that person. And then, that same temperament makes the mind manufacture a reason, an explanation to justify what the temperament did anyway.

No problem so far...

Except that the person - being led around by his temperament - has no clue, what's going on. S/He "thinks" (because temperament made it so) it's the "ideology" that attracts them to the cause. But it's not the ideology at all. No one follows a religion or political persuasion because of an ideology or an "ism".

Temperament controls everyone, and temperament makes the mind come up with reasons why the temperament does what it does anyway, and the person being controlled, thinks it's just the otherwise, just the opposite. Hah!! You think you're going one direction, but you're going the other. Hah!!

The Six Directions

One thing that distinguishes those more awake than the average hibernating homo (somnambulistic sapien, that is), is that he understands that EVERYTHING ordinary mind - that normally-present recording device more apparently "active" while up-and-around with the sun, versus down-and-out with the stars - sees (thinks, believes), is upside-down, inside-out, and whack-birds.

As such, EVERYTHING is a constant source of amazement, that can be considered from new and different perspectives than the ordinary, walk-around recording device could ever do, let alone HEAR even if told about it.

Further, such a one soon realizes that, that which produces entertainment when considered from one "direction", can be reversed and mined for even more - providing double-duty; like living twice-as-much, twice-as-long, twice-as-interestingly as the average hibernating homo.

I pick my knows in public!

That's right. And I don't feel guilty or ashamed about it, either; afterall, everybody else does it too, so I fit right in. At least, I'm aware I'm doing it.

But really, how else can a person reveal how the world smells to them, and whether or not some miniscule part of it passes their highly refined "smell test"? How else can a person verbalize what they believe to be true, unless they pick it out and shovel it up for all to see, especially first and foremost themselves; to feel it, to roll it around the lips and fingers, to look at it from this way and that, and finally either toss it away, give it to somebody else as a gift, or even better, keep it to oneself - presumably, for later.

Picking one's knows in public has become so widespread, commonplace and acceptable to the general population, that some, especially those who do it the most, are called experts, wise, learned, knowledgeable, and intelligent, while those who never do it, risk being called stupid, unknowledgeable, and ignorant.

Such is life on Earth at this time and place.