Fixed Ideas

Any "system of thought" which you "hold dear" - having accumulated and probably read piles and piles of books, manuscripts, journals and other assorted written (and in today's Internet age, video and audio) materials by a variety of authors and their supporters and critics over many years and several decades - gets deposited into your cerebral cortex, which must by their very nature - being primarily "words of a language" - become fixed in you. If they were NOT fixed - but malleable, movable, changeable - it would not be a "system of thought" but merely fragments of something, wherein even the fragments could change without anyone even noticing. How could anybody "learn" anything if information manifested in your brains like that? Mathematics, Science, Religion, Philosophy (and so many other things of course) consist almost entirely of fixed ideas, and those who know them well enough can sometimes receive higher degrees at educational institutions.

Regarding the physical world, all ideas about "settled matters" MUST be fixed - at least for the time being - and so they become fixed IN YOU. That's right order. "Earth is round and spherical, NOT flat like a table", is a fixed idea and that's right order, or your next trip to your parents home might result in falling into the infinite abyss! "2 + 2 = 4" is a fixed idea, and that's very good, or your next paycheck may be totally ridiculous, and your bank accounts fall to negative amounts!

Regarding the intangible world, however, all ideas MUST be malleable, to be of any enduring value to you (that is, you who are attempting to find out what's going on, to awaken), but unfortunately they are not, and that does include religious ideas, spiritual ideas, philosophical ideas, psychological ideas. They are presented to you AS (so-called) "FACTS", and what are sometimes called, "verifiable" facts, but all concepts about the non-physical world (of that which can not be touched, like "nirvana", "self realization", "enlightenment", "thought", "consciousness") are non-verifiable, for the same reason you can NOT VERIFY that Cinderella's ball gown was IN FACT, a size 4, and off-white in color, and her hair was IN FACT, shoulder length and jet black in color. And, oh by the way, SHE was an enlightened Zen Master of the highest order! (See? Anyone can say Anything about Anything... but that in itself means nothing whatsoever.)

Go figure...

Oops, you can only DO THAT in matters regarding the physical world (of that which CAN BE touched). In the non-physical, language-based, thought-based, made-up by men, mental world, no figuring is even possible! You can not add, subject, multiply, divide, or determine the square and cubed roots of such ideas and concepts, in order to produce Real Understanding of Enduring Value. You can, however, through an extreme lack of attention and awareness, become more and more confused over time as a result of those ideas shifting around, changing shape and form and color and meaning in there, thereby becoming misplaced, misnamed, misused, and misremembered, which usually leads (okay, ALWAYS leads) to more confusion.

Go figure...