Power and Intelligence

It is clear to some what Life has been doing, and continues to do through humanity, unlike what it has been doing through the rest of organic life on Earth. Clearly the one (humanity) serves a different purpose than the rest (of organic life.) In only a hundred thousand years or so, it has evolved human brains up to the point that, in just the last 100 years or so, ONE MAN - or woman - having achieved Real Power and Real Intelligence beyond that of their peers, could rule the entire globe more completely than any, compared to them, small-time Genghis, Alexander, Caesar or Napoleon who tried before. No dinosaur, no elephant, no whale, no dolphin, no turtle, no insect could do that - although from a slightly different perspective, one virus or bacterium could "rule the entire globe" by infecting every other thing in a seriously negative way... but that's another story nobody wants to hear about.

Carried further, "Enlightenment" is simply the next step in the orderly evolution operating through our species, up through flesh and blood (about two hundred thousand years so far,) up into brains (about sixty to a hundred thousand years so far,) up into the newest circuits of those brains where language, thought and reason have become the dominating force in the life of that species (about the last ten thousand years so far,) and then up into the highest ends of those newer circuits that can apparently access "higher worlds," also named "spiritual worlds," (about the last couple thousand years so far,) which will, quite likely, remain only theoretical for 99% of any generation, including the present one, while being "known" (which means accessible, being possible to "live there") by just 1%. THAT (sentence, and this entire paragraph, if not the entire message), is unknown and unknowable of course, since the only thing that can be known, is one's own particular circumstance...

Either you ARE, or you are NOT... 

and it can't be proved either way.

In any case, most of our present generation is "capable" of accessing "higher worlds," (the physics do not preclude that,) but clearly they don't want to, and they lack the tools necessary to accomplish it in any case, and that is why 99% of their activity while alive remains tied to, glued to, the physical world of things, objects, places, and people in their environment. But as for what is actually going on between their ears, and behind their eyes - the hidden world, "the quantum physics of the situation" - 99% have almost no possibility of finding that out for themselves, on their own, but there are always people alive who CLAIM to know, and are ready and willing to talk about it, and a few of those who charge large sums of money. Just ask Oprah or Deepak or Eckhart among hundreds, even thousands of others. Hey, "You cannot find yourself in the past or future. The only place where you can find yourself is in the Now."

Whether someone who CLAIMS to know, actually DOES know, again, can only be known for oneself. Anecdotal "evidence" from others is all but meaningless and should be discarded as non-useful information. That is where your OWN Head/Brain/Reason/Power&Intelligence starts coming into clearer and Clearer and CLEARER focus, like a large fogbank rolling across the internal landscape (that's the case for the 99% most of the time) that may finally turn into a Great Enlightened City right before and behind your eyes. First, you don't know what it is...

Then you absolutely do know. "Voilà!" and "Eureka!"

Enlightenment is simply the next natural stage in our evolution, even though only 1% or so will achieve that before they die, while the rest will only read stories and make mindless chit-chat on Twitter and Facebook and Yahoo for decades, never making the LEAP into the State of Emergency that is this Life or Death Experiment being conducted through our species. Right now, in this moment, as your eyeballs are literally being DRAGGED across this screen (and at the same time, simultaneously, thousands of other impressions are crossing your "foggy internal landscape") you have another OPPORTUNITY for Presence in the Moment. "Extending that moment for Eternity," is the kind of statement that ignites certain nervous systems ABOVE the fogbank, and when so ignited - time and time again - the Enlightened City peeks thru the foggy topside and you find yourself "Ruling the Entire World."

"Voilà!" and "Eureka!"

Cause and Genesis

Whenever this phrase appears in writing, most people instantly connect it to the Bible stories - the hows and whys about how God created mankind and all that - but this bit is not about that story, but another story, perhaps you've heard it echoing subtly between your ears, perhaps not. This bit may tickle some parts that have yet to be tickled (or, maybe not - mileage varies), but ONLY if you stay long enough to catch the light as it mysteriously jumps OFF the page INTO your eyes and is INSTANTLY converted into electrical signals, and then... and then... the wind whispers up and up through the leaves of that great, dark, damp forest between the ears, and eventually emerges at the top of the bright canopy (sooner, or later, or never - mileage varies) a mere, as-yet-undiluted, extremely faint outline that may suddenly come into clear focus. "Voilà!" and "Eureka!"

The Cause and Genesis of mankind is one thing that very possibly can NOT be personally known, and almost certainly can NOT be told - not by you, and not by anyone you know - and if you hear it told by someone, cover your ears quickly so as to not defile the virginal territory, up there, in here, as it is quite liable to permanently pollute. (Just a suggestion!)

The Cause and Genesis of mankind does not require Aliens from Alpha Centauri, or the Pleiades (or elsewhere - i.e., "off-world") a million years ago populating this planet with their seed - though making up stories about it, "discussing it with a straight face", and getting into minor and major arguments over it, is certainly appealing to some, BUT a massive waste-of-time for others. It also does not require believing in the Bible, or the Koran, or the Kabbalah, or Zoroastrianism, or any other so-called religious or non-religious holy or unholy book. It also does not require believing that the Theory of Evolution is (pretty much) settled scientific fact - and that our modern species sprang from evolved chimps and apes, whereupon arose the "Y-chromosomal Adam" who lived in Africa approximately 338,000 years ago, according to a recent study, and is the most recent common ancestor from whom all male human Y chromosomes are descended. You do NOT have to believe this, but you can Look and Listen much more deeply - and silently - than you are naturally accustomed to look and listen, to find out more for yourself.

The Cause and Genesis of YOU, on the other hand, is something that not only CAN be known, it MUST be, before you (your body parts that keep your brain parts alive and functioning) fall into the ditch, grave, or crematorium, as the case may ultimately be for you (if you die unconsciously that is... but that's another story.)

The Cause and Genesis of YOU, did not begin before your mother's story, and her mother's story, or Eve's story if you buy into that one. It began in that Sacred Cosmic Coupling of your parental units at the moment of conception when HIS genetic make-up merged with HER genetic make-up, thereby connecting a new "potential you in the near future" with the entire rest of the human species in the past, all the way back to that first mysterious coupling you don't really know anything about. Does it really MATTER if you don't know about that first coupling? Or, the five hundredth coupling? Tread lightly on this one, as there are  holes and traps and dangers afoot. There is only one coupling that truly matters to the one reading these light waves - your parental units, and when you get "really proficient at this thing," the second "higher coupling" of "higher centers," ...but that's another story.

The Cause and Genesis of YOU simply requires a serious commitment to self-observation - Looking Around, Listening Within, and stifling all the automatic and mechanical arising of "way-too-much-talking," and for a long time of sustained blissful presence in the real world (not to be confused with the imaginary world), so that you eventually learn-by-doing to THINK with ENERGY, "sans thought."

That is a mystery - and it is a mystory - and it can also be KNOWN.

"G.E.C.K.O."

"Global Entertainment Conspiracy Kills Optimism"

This Global Conspiracy is perpetrated through the brains of what are called "writers" and "producers" to produce "Shit Programming" for one purpose only: to keep the masses quite asleep and unaware of what is going on around them. Of course the "writers" and "producers" are unaware of this purpose as their purpose is to make more money - but they are equally caught up by it. Whatever their reasons for participating in the game, the results are the same: "Shit Programming."

This Programming fills their heads with incorrect, sometimes even malignantly ridiculous nonsense of all kinds, which fills just those parts of the brain where ordinary optimism would grow and prosper and flower were it not for this modern phenomenon which is even spreading to the rest of the world as it slowly becomes "modern enough" to get plugged into it.

The current list of "shit programs" available on American and European Television is enormous, and increasing - and it is easily obtainable by the rest of the worldwide audience having the capability to receive it: electricity, a television set, and possibly an internet connection, or even a smartphone over WiFi - and yet the willing watchers do so without realizing the negative long-term effect of this nonsense, nor what it is doing to their "higher parts", seeming to prefer the stimulation of their "lower parts." Most entertainment programs - including news shows - are filled with negative images and impressions and ideas, which supplants one's tendency for Optimism and Reasoning. After a few short years, or a decade or more of this "junk food for the mind," people begin to think and believe the world actually IS as they perceive it to be on the tube-for-boobs.

Shades of "Reverting to the mean,"
in both senses of that word.

Obviously (or it certainly should be), this is NOT about the "quality" of entertainment programming - primarily television, movies, etc. - but the tendency in human beings everywhere, young and old, to be mind-numbed on a regular and continuing basis by willingly participating in the "game" being perpetrated upon them. And, what is worse, the Internet has become even worse in so many places, though, as always and everywhere, there are some very important exceptions. Those "in-the-know" find those places/exceptions and they can benefit greatly by gaining access to that which the rest of the world - NOT "in-the-know" - has no interest in pursuing.

Mental and Emotional manipulation is the "name of this game", and most people actually enjoy being manipulated - while "believing" they are making choices. The same thing occurs in many areas of modern human life, and some of the worst examples are in the Marketing Game, where the producers construct short scenarios that hook the ordinary mind and without letting go even for an instant, push their message into the weaker minds who haven't learned to avert their eyes and ears in time. The consumerist societies around the world have become pessimists, lacking any chance of objective reasoning, because the Conspiracy is so pervasive. It comes into their homes, into their bedrooms, their kitchens, their bathrooms, their automobiles, everywhere. It covers the globe like a dense FOG, and that FOG fills the brains of the otherwise unsuspecting, who have given up hope for this world, this Planet, our Species, even their own Self-Perfection.

Good Luck, or Good Smarts?

It is queried: 

"Would you rather be very lucky or very smart?" 

(you have to pick one)

Here's one take regarding the kinds of things discussed here: 

You simply can NOT discount "good luck." 

Some people who "get involved" with this sort of thing - by whatever name it goes, if it even has a name - are just not "lucky", and that seems so clear. They may be smart enough - book smart, google smart, even street smart - but, they continue making the same mistakes over and over, thinking incorrectly, feeling inappropriately and reacting negatively to all the opportunities, BIG and small, Life presents everybody, and then they just fall away, never to be heard from again. Coming back to oneself - coming to, as it were - is hard enough without some exceedingly good luck.

Some people have what might be called by others, a "charmed life", in that they met and were "friends" (if not actually Friends of the Essence kind) with several people, from a young age, who nudged, pushed, advised, directed, scolded, prodded, and performed various other actions that resulted in their Finding the Real - or, "touching the miraculous" - before they might have done otherwise (if at all), had those "friends" never appeared in their life... although, of course, that can NOT be proved, so it just remains a feeling... and a set of strong memories as well.

From one point of view, you have got to BE such a friend first, in order to FIND such a friend later, and then you have got to continually IMPROVE yourself to find others - and that means, improving your essential qualities, which today in our modern world means, of thought and feeling (thinking, speaking and even writing.)

Everybody does NOT need to do this kind of thing, 

but it wouldn't hurt, and that's a fact Jack.

"Old age is a bitch"

Everybody nowadays has heard that one, and those who have reached even "middle-aged" (a sliding scale with each generation - you know, "25 is the new 20, and 45 is the new 35") know exactly what is meant. The young, of course, don't have a clue - lucky them! But, since everything operates in right-order - for the Primary Benefit of Great Nature, not necessarily for the individual life-forms - the main reason the young are the "leading edge of life's evolving", is precisely because they actually believe they are immortal, even as they might "know with their mind" (because somebody told them) that they are not - "Hell, I don't believe it! I'm indestructible! Hey, I don't even need healthcare!" The middle-aged and the older-aged KNOW with the senses, the emotions and the mind not only that they are quite mortal, but even that feature of their existence is draining away day by day.

"Old age IS a bitch!" and she is a harsh master. Almost everything about one's life begins to alter month by month from about the age of 35, and accelerates to week after week by age 55 and day by day after age 65, but unfortunately, these numbers are not fixed; they are personal to you and your experience. This descent into decrepitude in discernible stages can be easily observed and noted by ordinary people, whether or not they may have already discovered the idea of "Waking up", or "Enlightenment" before those notions lost all possible juice for them. The juice mysteriously enables the increasingly continuing ACT - no longer just theory - of jumping PAST all of the undue concerns over the inevitable decrepitude of the body, the feelings, and the intellect, into a state of being that is less and less identified with the impending dissolution that takes all human bodies, which some have referred to as a "state of bliss."

There is very little one can do about the body's descent - besides staying as healthy as possible. There is something one can do about the intellect's descent, and that's where an inquiring mind comes into the picture. Think more than you have to about everything. Question all beliefs - of others, and of yourself. Look into all your beliefs and try to see clearly how they are acquired - not only by you, but in others as well as the mechanics are the same. The hard realization to come to as quickly as possible in this strange journey to separate from the body - in time, before it's too late - is how beliefs of all kinds contribute to the descent being pointed to herein. Beliefs don't help - they hinder.

• For example, does a firm "belief in the existence of an external God" contribute to this descent, and if you don't think so, how do you KNOW.... or do you just believe it? 
• For example, does a relatively inactive, disinterested intellect contribute to its descent, or is it actually otherwise, and that the more active and interested is the intellect, the longer one may be able to practice this effort to separate from the body in time. 
• For example, do you know why, precisely, you showed up here this time - or anywhere else that time - to read some random and hastily written words from somebody you don't even know (not really) who doesn't know you (not really), and does this NOT KNOWING WHY contribute to your rapid descent into the death-spiral encircling you even now? 
• For example, now that you have been alive all the way to late-middle-age or even middle-old-age or older (eeek!), what have you got to SHOW for your time on this "search for the miraculous" you started so long ago? WHAT?

These are personal questions that can only be thought about, and scarcely dealt with at all. They are just too impertinent for most people to think about HONESTLY without lying and fabricating and just giving lip-service to them, without even realizing it! But, they are the kinds of questions that once you hear/read them, they become part of you. They live in you, in that certain place you rarely - if ever - visit, and even more rarely stay long enough to experience the absence of environment which is only possible there. Try it, you might actually like it. There is JUICE there.

"Hmmm" (deepish thots***)

Being able to instantly respond with sarcasm 

within seconds of a stupid question is a sign of a healthy brain.

You cannot kill time without injuring eternity, but

if you enjoy wasting time, is that time really wasted?

An intelligent person is the one who questions 

everything, even the things they know.

You don't really know how intelligent someone is 

until you remove their access to Google, Facebook, Youtube.

Without that little voice in your head 

you wouldn't be able to read this.

Cutting people from your life doesn’t mean you hate them… 

it simply means you respect yourself.

Fall in love with words, it weaves a magic that's unexplainable.

It is impossible to remember exactly how Your Dream starts.

Brain scans - and close observation - have shown that 

we do not experience the world continuously, 

but in rapid snapshots, AND...

We actually live about 80 milliseconds in the past 
because that's how long it takes our brains to process information.

"I am in You and I am You. 

No one can understand this 
Until he has lost his mind!" Rumi

"In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took,
but how many moments took your breath away." Shing Xiong

"Great minds discuss ideas; 

Average minds discuss events; 

Small minds discuss people."  Eleanor Roosevelt

"And Tiny minds discuss their 'reactive thots' from
'Googlefinds', 'Facegrabs' and 'YouBoobs'
with all their imaginary 'Tiny friends.'" Praybob

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

***Now, FYI, all the above were not Real Deep Thoughts... just, "deepish thots." 

RDT's are like Places in another land you have
NEVER even heard about, let alone actually visited. 

RDT's are like Excursions into some unknown part of town you have 

YET to even discover, let alone actually explored.

RDT's are Ideas from Higher Mind
- visitations, explorations, neural excitations -
that you have never tickled before,

which have, also, never tickled you either.

RDT's are Sacred Marriages made in Nirvana,
giving Birth to New You's,
over and over and over,
second after minute after hour
for the rest of your Life.

"Ooooh, what a Big Family you've got!"
(All the better to... m'boy!)

The Common Feature

The Common Feature of all humans alive today is that they don't know:

• Who or What they are while serving out their forced imprisonment here, 
• How or Why they arrived in the first place, nor,
• Where or When they will be, hopefully, checking out."

The Common Feature is that, in general,

• humans don't really even care about all of that, and  
• when reminded they turn away, "I don't wanna hear about it!"

Humans are like little lost animals with one built-in skill - mimicry. That is, these cute little lost animals - not knowing themselves as they are in REALITY - acquire personalities of those around them, both those whom they naturally like, AND those whom they naturally dislike. Is it any wonder that humans are such confusing little animals, and is it any wonder they are also quite lost?

"Really? I don't wanna hear about it!"

Humans are born naked into a fully-equipped-for-all-possibilities dressing room of human suits, and are fitted up with one or another suit-of-clothes that make them almost invisible to all the others of their kind - because, naturally, these little lost animals will readily and quite willingly KILL others that are too dissimilar. Can't have that, of course! So, this built-in skill-of-mimicry - both of outer-wear (clothing and styles and fashions), and inner-wear (thoughts and feelings and beliefs) - is their Stand-in-Master (they call it, "Me", and "I" - but you know THAT is just pretense, right?) until the Real Master makes His presence known... if ever... which, unfortunately is NOT very likely (and, you know THAT is true and correct, right?)

Humans prefer to live their entire lives in a "Macro Dream," consisting of billions of interlinked and never-to-be-linked micro-dreams that come and go on their own, governed by rules, laws and forces totally outside their knowledge and understanding, because, as "bad" (weird, strange, confusing, terrifying, upsetting, etc.) as those dreams can seem to be at times - even while "wide awake and a-walking" - they are apparently MUCH BETTER by a long shot than making the kinds of necessary efforts, over a long period of time, to find out the, "eeek!" Truth of the Matter!

Humans are lost in their dreams. And anyone who continues to push that notion upon them is considered to be an outcast in the "human family" of cute little lost animals. Therefore, even if one KNOWS how to break the stream-of-dreams that plague humanity, one should - one MUST - keep it to themselves under harsh penalty (which is necessarily self-invented and self-applied), but this is yet another in the long list of Universal Reminding Factors brought here recently.

The Universal Reminding Factor

People nowadays look around at other people, listen to other people, and wonder something like: "What the hell is going here? People are crazy, strange, weird, nuts, broken, damaged, angry, brutes, criminals, barbarians!?!?" (And lots of other negatively-tinged terms that are unnecessary to mention here in mixed company.) And, they are not wrong when you think about it superficially, simplistically, without Reason.

Are people really all those things mentioned above, or have they merely forgotten something - something so very important, so very necessary and essential for life itself - and that constant and continual forgetfulness has "made them" such that they always "revert to their mean", and in the case of humans, their "mean" has two significant 'mean'ings (heh, heh, heh, he just added a third.)

What is the default position of all humans - their "MEAN"? Simply, "Caveman Brutishness": looking out only for oneself, taken to the extreme in any generation. That is, being MEAN... to others and oneself, even as they imagine they are acting rightly... and with a very, long and slow ascent through history towards what might be called, "perfection".  This is where humanity is today - even after tens of thousands of years - at the "mean of his generation", still being and acting MEAN like everyone else, without even thinking about it. It is the Reptilian Brain, cloaked in a human suit and all grown up physically, but not - or almost never - emotionally, and still miles and miles away from anything that could be called intelligently.

This, however it seems or appears, is NOT anybody's fault. That is, no one can interfere with the process as it is unfolding, for it is unfolding too quickly to "get in front of". This is how personality is made after all. Things happen inside and around one at speeds that simply can NOT be tracked by ordinary awareness and consciousness - such as it has developed in most people - and as such, reactions occur from the reptilian brain primarily, and usually stop there, but sometimes rise to the limbic part of the brain that is underdeveloped to say the least - still very childISH (not childLIKE) - and only very rarely do they rise to the neocortex. Results - personality, the good and the evil - will vary widely and dramatically.

Now, we have seven+ billion "crazy people" - at various ages, backgrounds, and educational levels - running around this planet with nary a clue as to how they got here, why they arrived in the first place, where they might be going, and when - if ever - they will be checking out, given all the similarly "crazy" ideas and theories from religion and elsewhere that pollute the growing brain from childhood, making anything like "Objective Reason" far, FAR AWAY, and not in the cards - most likely - for humanity at large... certainly not in our life times. For oneSELF, well, that is another matter...

And, here it comes: The Universal Reminding Factor: One's own "self", reacting in the world. It's in your face all the time. You can see it, feel it, hear it, smell it, taste it, touch it. You can't forget your "self", anymore than you could forget a properly delivered Death Sentence from the ONE who can and will make it happen (Life). You can only forget that you continually forget yourself, and therein lies all the problems of mankind, who like Sisyphus is doomed to push and climb (be continually distracted by the "world out there"), but never gets off the mountain.

But he can still be Conscious, Happy, even Blissful 

in his realizations up and down the path.

 (Achieving Enlightenment) 

"Learning from others"

Out there in the world at large, it is quite necessary to learn HOW to learn from others, because doing almost anything physical requires help and instruction from those who KNOW. This is also somewhat true in areas which are not so physical, like experiencing and dealing with sensations, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, ideas, etc.

But, in the area of The Great Exploration - which has too many names to recount here, but should evoke in the reader a sense of something "beyond ordinary worldly matters", like those found out there in the world - it is actually impossible to learn from others. Generally, one does not learn anything about The Great Exploration from others. Generally, one must DISCOVER all aspects of the quest, and then attempt, albeit quite ineptly for a long time, to TEACH others - usually close and dear friends, but not necessarily - what to AVOID, what mileposts are and how to recognize them, what pitfalls are and how to keep oneself alert enough so that they can be properly dealt with just in time.

Generally, regarding The Great Exploration, all is TEACHING - from the one who knows something, to the one or more who wants to know it. Unless they want to know it, they can (generally) NEVER KNOW IT... period. There must not be any mechanical barriers to understanding new things, hearing new ideas, seeing new images, sensing new impressions, lest none of it passes the built-in barriers which are part of one's DNA.

That is, we - as we are born - are not MEANT to see, feel, sense, experience, think, know, understand anything at all about The Great Exploration, for if our basic genetic makeup was already so aligned with the All and Everything, there would be nothing left to do here, but move on to the next world only to "begin anew."

Clearly, we are all here now, so there is something left to do before we move on the next world, but WHAT? We are all here now, and for just long enough - several decades or more - to catch wind of something blowing through this world that is not OF THIS WORLD, but is a hint, a scent, of ANOTHER WORLD. Some call them "higher worlds", "parallel worlds", "hyperspatial worlds", "higher dimensions", and many other scientific and not-so-scientific terms, but in any case, once the wind is caught by someone, it's like a thick smell of something so sweet it can't be forgotten, yet it clearly contains "notes" (over- , under-, inner-, outer-tones) of something dark, sinister, dangerous, scary, strange, bizarre, and many other terms that can't even be named. In any case, this wind is now compelling one to delve deeper and deeper into the mystery that never goes away and is never solved.

The Onion is a perfect example and many have used it. Layers upon layers upon layers. The deeper one goes, the more layers are pierced through revealing the next exploration, leading to yet another layer. Good luck with all that, because there is absolutely nobody out there that is going to help you, or instruct you, or teach you what to do or how to do it. Only you can TEACH others what you are doing, even as you KNOW - deep down to your core - that you can never succeed at that. Yet, you must continue.

Thank goodness we have the Internet is all I can say, for it alone has transformed this planet and our species in ways that hundreds of thousands of years never did, and in only the last 75 years! Our brains, our minds, have so evolved that thinking, talking, and writing have become our Primary Activity in life. My advice to one and all - but always to myself first and only - is to find a small, willing group of friends, near and far, and develop a regular online meeting schedule with them, and start Working in real time to TEACH.

It's magical when it works, 

even as it is terribly uncomfortable 

for one and all most of the time.

"All you need are the three bones: the Wishbone, the Jawbone, and the Backbone."

"Enlightenment," and other supposed rewards

Seen correctly, ALL tendencies (propensities, proclivities, inclinations, predispositions, penchants, predilections, susceptibilities, etc.) in the human organism are "right order", in the same way that they are in lower forms of life. After all, The Sun(god) and Life(almighty) made each and every one, and as such, are always operating in the only way they CAN operate... and that includes, of course, all humans.

Now, it is true that certain humans, here and there throughout history, have claimed that people should "control themselves" (usually under the threat of great bodily harm, and other penalties), but those supposedly "in control" (slave masters of all kinds: kings, rulers, overlords, priests, parents, bullies, brutes, etc.) couldn't do it on their own, so why should anybody else do it? It is possible to hold one's tongue in the face of a brutish insult - especially if the brute is bigger and badder than you - but it is less possible when there is no fear of reprisal, and therein lies the rub in all this. One can not hold one's tongue if one can not hold one's thoughts, feelings and sensations, FIRST, and - in general - nobody can do that. (Nobody is supposed to do that! Nobody was made to do that!) Thoughts, feelings and sensations operate MUCH FASTER than ordinary attention and awareness, even though that condition can be reversed.

Some claim that self-control is the way to "enlightenment" and other supposed rewards, but those rewards simply can NOT be quantified - not by anyone alive or dead. They are just claims. Someone who says they have "achieved" some reward can't prove it to anyone, so it must remain an empty claim, an empty reward. This is not surprising considering the very low level of humankind on this planet today, even after tens of thousands of years experimenting with the Gift of Life afforded one an all. People have been asserting such claims for tens of centuries, yet all you have to do is look around at every person you know, or know about, and you will quickly see they have not achieved anything. Riches, perhaps. Possessions, perhaps. But, "higher being", "eternal life", "cosmic consciousness?" Now... look at yourself, honestly, sincerely, and seriously - which means, without giving yourself a pass. Done correctly, and often, this can "wake one up" just a little bit, and is the beginning of reversing that condition mentioned above.

Some claim that self-remembering, or chanting, or meditating, or dancing, or taking psychedelics on a regular basis, or many other things, is the way to "enlightenment" and those other great rewards, but even those who claim they do one or more of these things, and do them always and everywhere, are just telling stories to a gullible audience who wants to be fooled. Humanity, in general, is that gullible audience who only wants to be fooled and/or entertained, and/or misdirected, RATHER THAN setting sail on a course which can actually lead to the Path that cleanses the Doors of Perception and results in a simple and certain Clarity of Mind, Heart, Being, Body, and Consciousness.

All of this is a personal excursion, invented by oneself, for one's own private purposes, and as usual it is much better left unspoken about to others, including oneself. But, because we ARE as we were made to be, thinking and talking and writing - attempting to communicate to ourselves and others precisely what we know and have learned while alive - has become the most important activity in our lives. So, my advice to myself alone is this: think more than you have to about everything, but notice the PROCESS - the interaction of the forces and energies involved - which is behind the impulse to ACT and the apparent results that ensue.

A close friend once said: "Remember, in all of this, it's not the contents of the mind - what people think, believe, talk about and write about - that needs to be questioned, per se; it's the mind that is doing all the questioning. Put in a slightly different way: investigate the box, nothing but the box once a quick study of the objects is effected and out of the way. Unless one understands the nature of the box, they understand nothing."