The 'sixties' psychedelic poet/playwright Neil Oram offers more mind-nourishing poems, plays, novels and philosophical articles.

 

POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS
by neil oram

A strange transmission or fresh space to breathe

One can never begin at the beginning. If one begins at all, one must begin with dismantling. Dismantling the edifice of nouns. The tower of talk.

All knowledge is a form of talking. Almost all talking is based on belief. Belief in a noun-whirld. A whirld of THINGS which change.

THE WORLD

Most people believe the world exists. If questioned they point to familiar objects like bodies and trees. They assume that the world is another name for ‘The Earth’. It is further assumed that the Earth is nothing more than a ball of matter which is here to provide human life with a platform and sustenance. This ‘idea of the Earth’ is one of the central illusions out of which the whirld is organ-‘I’-sed.

‘World’ and ‘Earth’ are both nouns. A noun is a name which stands for ‘an assumption of an object’. The actual non-objective nature of this vibrant MYSTERY—called ‘Earth’—is con-sealed by a fog-wall called ‘the world’.

That world, ‘or whirld’, is in fact, a mental object.
It is an interpretation of earthly existence. It does not exist except as a mental con-vict-shun. This mental activity is projected onto the Earth—and lo! We have ‘a whirld’. Property, weapons, fear and lies. The Earth is raped, ripped apart, exploited in order that it serve no other purpose but ‘nurture our whirld’.

The whirld is a general concept which includes everything that can BE SAID about human PERCEPTION of existence. The whirld is an opaque cloud of ignorance in which humanity, blind and battered, massacres itself and the Earth. Its origin arises from the I-die-a of ‘self’. A self which is a body/or, is not a body. Which dies or does not die. Out of this uncertainty of ‘self’ a whirld is projected. It is an historical line of force. The arm of the law which represses LIFE whilst protecting forms of talk, opinions, knowledge, instructions, order, laws, belief-systems, repetition, uniformity, patriarchy, war and the main social product—BOREDOM.
Looking at the history of this social disguise you can appreciate WHY the whirled is another name for conflict. It’s based on opinion and yet depends on enforced con-form-it/he. People are forced to con –form. Con-form to be-lie-f systems. It is a belie-f that the whirld is one. The whirld is projection of con-flick-ting beliefs and can NEVER be one. The Earth is one, but it is not a noun. It is a mysterious movement into depth. The depth of Being. Feeling.

‘Me’ is the lens used to project the I-die-a of existence –the whirld—onto the assumed Earth. Without ‘me’ the whirld fades.

CONSCIOUSNESS/UNCONSCIOUSNESS

 

You probably assume you are conscious NOW! The word ‘consciousness’ occurs fairly frequently and you assume it’s in ‘some sense’ synonymous with ‘awareness’. It is further assumed that consciousness is a level of Being which is in ‘some sense’ SEPARATE from what it is conscious of……..?

So this use of the word ‘consciousness’ refers to a process of projection. The mind, possessed by THOUGHT, is used by thought to imagine a different state of mind which is free from being possessed by thought. This projected idea of ‘free mind’ is what the word ‘consciousness’ stands for in many idealist tracts.

But I hear you object ‘aren’t I conscious NOW of what I’m reading?

I reply—aren’t you assuming that ‘making sense’ of what you read IMPLIES consciousness? Computers ‘make sense’ of what ‘they read’ but are they conscious?

Yes, you re-act to (mental) interpretations of existence and assume you’re in relationship to ‘consciousness’. Now, if the word ‘consciousness’ indicates something real, it must point to what is PRIOR to re-action, to THAT without which existence could not BE.

Consciousness CAN relate to existence, but not within the ‘space of be-lie-f. Out of language we have invented an imaginary whirld which we use to batter LIFE into shape.

Consciousness is that which is. That which SEES.

Now because what is called ‘consciousness’ is NOT CONSCIOUSNESS but instruments of force—instructions, opinions, Laws, ideals, belief systems, ‘knowledge’—in fact FORMS OF TALK—because of this, that which has been suppressed by all this SOCIAL DISGUISE is called ‘unconsciousness’. But what is suppressed is the LIFE FORCE…not consciousness. The life force is dammed up and re-channelled into forms of repitition generating uniform-it/he and boredom—patriarchy’s legacy for the future. Desert. Desert. Desert.

The suppressed life force is harnessed to project self-centred illusions onto the Earth which creates conflict, emptiness and war. Out of this fear of emptiness we seek power through status. So people become specifically shaped lenses for the projection of fear—which is the fuel of POWER. This power is used for maintaining a daily existence which is motivated by status considerations and the exercise of privilege. A way of existing which avoids real life and consciousness. It is the arm of the Law which turns the heart into hatred. Hatred of what is real and deep. Hatred of Truth. Hatred of true consciousness which can SEE through the disguise and quicken the life force, (feeling), into ecstatic expression.

So consciousness can only relate to the life force when a GAP is discovered in the midst of habitual re-active behaviour. That GAP is the womb in which a new mind can come into Being. An appreciating mind born of consciousness and life.

Acting on belief is considered an innocuous activity; one in which people have ‘a wide range of choice’. Actually ‘the whirld’ is shaped by the belief that ‘sane existence depends on belief’. Wars are produced on the basis of beliefs and very few indeed have no belief in force to project.
Sane existence is supposed to indicate ‘meaningful life’.

Beliefs originate in prejudice. Prejudice is that ever modified breeding ground, from which that virus—known as ‘thought’—is projected as a theme for daily existence. Beliefs are the basis for all the various brain-washing programmes—brand names for the innumerable strains of soul destroying virus. Holding and nourishing a belief blinds any individual to the way their mind is being used. A mind occupied by belief is definitely dis-eased.
Because the pandemic has almost totally eradicated spontaneous intelligence and happiness from daily existence, it is considered natural to be possessed by prejudice. Ancestral prejudice. Directions, instructions passed on from generation to generation. Mouth to ear to mouth. PASSED ON? Forced on! Belief—whatever it purports to be—is an instrument of force. The innocent body is imprisoned and pressurized into conformity. From BIRTH. If you refuse to con-form to ANY be-lie-f whatsoever, the volume control on pressurizing is turned up!!!

Of course—though deeply covered up—it is believed that ‘you can not survive without belief’. This illusion—albeit subliminal—is that ‘without your illusions everything would get worse’. WORSE? The belief is that ‘unless you seek guidance from thought, you wont know what to do’. It is further believed that through ‘not knowing what to do—you’ll fall apart. Fail to survive.

The ancestral prejudice is passed on to uphold various forms of hierarchal structure. Verbal injunctions –internalised and called ‘my thoughts’—are the means of control. Therefore it should be obvious that there will be no ENCOURAGEMENT for anyone who refrains from acting on the instructions. The instructions insinuate that you have no innate, intrinsic intelligence.
One late Spring day high up in the mountains, Mama eagle started to push baby eaglet—very gently—towards the edge of the very high crag. Baby eaglet felt Mama was being very passionate. Very loving. Very close. Suddenly baby eaglet turned towards Mama and there was something in Mama’s eyes which seemed MAD! Mama!! Screamed the eaglet as Mama gave a sharp shove…Mama! Mama! The eaglet screamed flinging her ‘arms’ out…and she was floating high above the distant valley below. Mama! Mama! I’m flying. And Mama took off and flew beside her love child.
Now would Mama have been a kinder Mama if she had said a few days before, “in a few days I’m going to push you off the cliff so you can learn to fly like a grown up eagle”.
You know what would have happened. The little eaglet would have got terrified…would have insisted that it wasn’t ready to fly…and when it was pushed out of the nest…would have been a curled up mass of feathered fear crashing to its death.
Thoughts are believed to be the way to knowledge. Knowledge the door to certainty, confidence, high status and therefore happiness. In other words, thoughts are believed to be the necessary CUURENCY for an effective, meaningful LIFE.

An occupied mind can NOT see. Occupied by fear it is afraid to SEE. Afraid to see that it believes it has no OPTION but be a purveyor of FEAR. Fear is the life force, real existence, feeling, suppressed into conformity through enforced belief. Yes, LIFE itself is trance-formed into FEAR through the dependence on belief, thoughts and instructions. How so?

Through leaking one’s life into thought, thought becomes strongly CHARGED UP, whilst one’s body/mind becomes so weak, one is completely unable to stand alone. Lacking real psychic energy, such people are moved about like aimless autumn leaves.

Occupied minds can-not create. They can not SEE what to do. They have to be told. Belief is a form of TALK. Belief is dependent on talk. The human being has become possessed by talk. What is called ’knowledge’ is a form of organised talk. A form of deadness. It is believed that without this disease spreading deadness the human race would ‘deteriorate into rampant savagery’.

No belief can make use of, or control a mind which AWAKENS to the reality of its imprisonment. The awakening occurs through the mind SEEING in what way it is not free. One free mind can inspire another mind to be free. When a mind wakes up it understands very clearly what kept it asleep. One form of persuasion or another. There is a fear of SEEING. There is a fear of BEING. But it is fear itself which is afraid. Fear is the parasite feeding on you. It is fear which is afraid of you becoming FREE. Free of it.

A free mind can not be used as a blind projector of dis-ease. A SEEING MIND can not be used by fear. Power.

When you are no longer occupied territory, belief after belief will be hurled at you; but if you’ve really SEEN what beliefs are, it doesn’t matter what FORM the ‘thoughts’ take—it’s only talk. Ancestral prejudice.

LET BE-LIE-F DIE

FOR GOOD

 

TRUST

Is it always wrong to break someone’s trust?

To break someone’s trust in what is false like Father Christmas, the government’s account of what’s going on, the religious people’s view of what is going on, the economist’s view of what’s going on, your parent’s view of what’s going on, your partner’s view of what’s going on etc etc is NOT WRONG! Even so, a person whose trust in falsity has been broken might crack up as a consequence of having to face the truth.
So the question of whether it’s right or wrong to break someone’s trust can’t be crystallized into a formula… because then it becomes a question of whether one can trust this or that formula? This opens up the question of whether one’s decisions and actions should be determined by other people’s maxims, rules, (i.e. moral data ), or whether it is possible to decide each issue on the basis of TRUSTING in one’s own sense of what is true and good?
I can SEE that the concept of ‘trust’ has been frequently used to manipulate people to NOT THINK.

So there is the IDEA of what can be trusted, (no need to question), and the IMAGE of trust characterised by certain modes of behaviour, selective patterns of speech and tones of delivery, ( you can trust ME says Tony Blair, George Bush, Billy Graham, Adolph Hitler, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and the News Reader).

How often have you suspected that the image of TRUST is used to camouflage actual disgusting behaviour?
So the word TRUST relates to at least three questionable areas:-

The realm of IDEAS
The whirld of IMAGES
The world of behaviour

The whirld of images uses the realm of ideas to conceal the world of behaviour and fact.

Did they not TRY to indoctrinate you, through the realm of ideas, to TRUST in the IMAGE of someone’s future behaviour?

So I encourage those who are capable of thinking to question, (and therefore doubt), what they profess to trust.
THE MONKEY MIND and its INFLATED VIEW OF ITSELF.
How it’s terrified of BEING mis understood.

Try examining that area of pressure which is articulated through conformity.

Egotism is pressure
Seeking release.

Telling your mind to be STILL
Is a very agitating activity.

 

THE FUTURE

It ought to be quite obvious that we are con-fused by the notion of the future. One is unsure. Is it that we’re confused when we, so called, reflect on the future? Reflect? And then one considers NOT REFLECTING on the…? What? What is this question we glibly call ‘the future’? A different feeling? A different space?

Obviously we reflect on mental notions, and imagine that because the notion appears to NOT BE a reflection of the present, it could well be a reflection of a possible future.

First—concern with ‘the future’ is concern about ME. Basically the concern is NOT about events yet to come, but about how these imagined events will affect ME. ME. ME. ME. ME.

The repetition of ME is a psychological activity. Looking at present events in the darkness of this activity induces a sense of uncertainty. Out of this uncertainty—a certainty is yearned for.

This yearning for certainty obviously implies a belief in CHOICE. What is the RIGHT CHOICE which will bring ME a sense of security????

So events—the movement of the heavens, the earth, moon, comets, tectonic plates, clouds, floods, blood, birth, digestive systems, etc; etc;--are all ACTUAL movements in a continuum. Verbing. And we have no position OUTSIDE of this holistic process from whence to grandly VIEW and make self concerned evaluations.

Eventing. In truth it is this way. Not events. Eventing. So how about INVENTING?

First start venting. Make an opening in your wall of assumptions. Let a hole emerge in what you call ME. Start venting INSIDE. Vent your claustrophobic concern about ME.

So in-venting in this sense of release from the cause of uncertainty—the concern with ME—is not to do with MAKING MORE MENTAL FUTURES. It is allowing strategic planning to collapse.

So let’s examine this seminal insight :--concern for the future is concern for ME. Do you imagine that if there was no ME CONCERN you wouldn’t HAVE a future?

What is this ME which is the focus of so much concern and confusion? Do you feel bored by that question…feel like drifting off into ‘the future’?

How little real attention is paid to actuality.

Me is a Form of imagination.
Imagination grounded in language. Me is a factory product. A language product. Me is a linguistic FORM.

ME contracts from what can NOT be described. Linguistically. Reflecting on contraction, ‘the future’ appears bleak. Afraid, uncertain, I fear what might happen. To ME. O let ME stay within what can be described. Linguistically.

That way the future will be describable. Even if it’s not CERTAIN…it will seem SAFE… dead!

Keep it! I’ve escaped from that hygienic mortuary. And you? Have you left the ME to die? Or do you want MORE of that deadening entertainment? Do you imagine that from your dead safety you’ll be able to enjoy the unpredictable? You imagine you can watch the shit hit the fan on T.V.? Give up imagining it wont hit ME. ME is the shit.

ME is the past. A biased form of the past. PREJUDICE. ME IS PREJUDICE. Prejudice projected in the present…and called the future.

The ‘future’ is a prejudiced form of the past. Occupying the present. Your mind. MIND. Mind is occupied and deemed territory. Mind contracts under occupation. Mind is occupied with the ‘future’. The ‘future’ is a distorted form of ‘the past’. It is a parasite. ME IS A PARASITE. A parasite occupying the present. The present is MIND. NOW.

IN the NOW eventing occurs. The now is PRESENCE. But presence does not present itself to ME. Impossible.

ME presents fantasy. ME is a form of fantasy.

I and MIND are one. Inseparable. I is NOT ME. I have no future. The ‘future’ is the symptom of the dis-ease called ME. I am at ease. Absolutely secure. MIND. ETERNITY.

 

COMPETITION

Healthy competition? Can competition ever be healthy? Is it ever promoted by the losers? And yet is there any condition or activity which has not the virus of competition somewhere woven through it?

The promoters even use the word ‘spirit’ in relationship to competition. A competitive spirit. I think it’s clear that the promoters believe that without competition there would be no life on this planet. And to be fair, it’s easy to SEE why they hold this position. But as the old saying goes, you don’t have to live like a horse if you live in a stable. Meaning is it POSSIBLE to LIVE in a non-competitive space?

First I must make it clear that I’m not proposing a hang-out for the bruised and battered.

This is NOT a proposition to be constructed at any level. I’m pointing to what is perpetually overlooked. Peace. REAL PEACE.

It could be that the Virgin Birth in the manger, is a very apt image of what I’m getting at. The trouble is, that it seems so far away from our present experience. What I’m alluding to is not religious…although it might be a real link to the realm of the spiritual.

You know the difference between the sense of ‘being driven’ and the sense of being deeply at rest?
You can NEVER be driven to peace. The modern idea that the driven can find peace at certain times through meditation is a lie. That so called ‘peace’ is not the real eternal peace.

The driven and the drivers of the driven are slaves of psychological TIME. Slaves of the whirld of competition. It is only by INWARDLY moving out of that Babylon, that one may come across a true non-competitive energy. Yes, there is such a reality.

This non-competitive energy and space is a completely different existence to the competitive whirld. Not only that, the competitive mind-set can NOT enter the non-competitive.

The competitive CAN make images of what it imagines is the Spirit of the non-competitive…like what one encounters in temples, mosques, monasteries, churches and cathedrals.
The so called competitive ‘spirit’ is a drug. A drug which feeds egotism. A drug which feeds both the mafia and the military.

If you understand what I’m saying you don’t need me to list all the different forms of the competitive virus. And make no mistake, it causes disease and deadness. It is the essence of this mad whirld.

Well can’t art be non competitive? Yes it can but it seldom is. ‘The poison of the honey bee is the artist’s jealousy’ wrote William Blake.
The Culture Whirld is a major breeding ground for the competitive viral atmosphere.

What about love?

Well that’s a good subject for the next popular mist-conception!

 

LOVE

The word ‘love’ is very strongly associated with disappointment. It should be clear therefore that ‘love’ belongs to the syndrome of psychological ambition. Love seems to be a particular type of expectation.
One ego wants another ego to be everything an ego can’t be. An ego is a soul-seed. It has not yet flowered into BEING a soul. So it can’t be without aspects of egotism. It can’t BE a soul. Egos like to pretend to be souls. The ‘love game’ produces a lot of energy needed for this ego activity. The consequence of burning up energy in this mad game is the ego soul-seed never matures into a soul. The right use of LIFE ENERGY is required to grow into a soul. Only souls are full of love. A mature soul’s love can inspire an ego to develop into a soul.

It seems that most egos are not interested in developing into souls. In fact they don’t seem to have suspected that this possible. They pretend to be satisfied with illusions of growth. With illusions of love. Satisfied with an ego alternative to real spiritual life.

Of course, we’ve all heard of some of the attributes of spiritual life, and not to be denied any possibility of more exciting experience, the ego PRETENDS to have the characteristics of what it imagines it would be like to be a mature Self-realized soul. Using language, such an ego attempts to talk/think itself into a more expansive reality. So if I can con-vince you that I’m ego-less…and you want to do nothing else but hang out with ME…I’ll be in PARADISE. I’ll tell you how wonderful you are, how you’re an embodiment of love.

But of course, that sense of ‘paradise’ depended on the pivot of ‘IF’. And where there’s a focussed ‘IF’, any artificial paradise dwindles in its ego-centred radiance. I ‘think’ you’re wonderful. If there’s any God or Goddess in existence it’s you. Do you ‘feel’ the same about ME? Feel?

Can one FEEL an interpretation?

How can I MAKE YOU ‘love’ ME like I love you?

And at some point one or the other says, “maybe this relationship has got nothing to do with TRUTH. LIVING TRUTH.

Without honesty there is no love. What a lot of people call ‘love’, is FEAR generated by resistance to real LOVE. Resistance to TRUTH.

The truth is only a soul is a human BEING

 

THINKING

Thinking is considered to be an activity which people do too frequently. Almost everyone assumes that they know what thinking is…and few enjoy it. One seldom encounters anyone thinking with joy. Actually one seldom encounters anyone thinking at all!

People talk to themselves and call this occult activity ‘thinking’. Living under parental and an all pervasive pressure, a high percentage of children are forced into deep psychic isolation. (that’s what all that so called ‘thinking’ really expresses). (Nowadays they talk to a computer screen).
The parents—being instruments of a continuous coercive manipulation—carry out instructions, (embodied in their childhood), and instruct their children to ‘act on’ THE INSTRUCTIONS. The basic instruction laid subliminally on the child, is that ‘only acting on the instructions—ancestral prejudice—guarantees survival’. The child is instructed to ‘instruct itself, using their instructions.

Talking to oneself is the same as instructing oneself. What very few seem to notice is that this talking to oneself—so called thinking—has the specific purpose of occupying the mind.

So what people call thinking is a process of being more or less totally POSSESSED!
No wonder it’s not a well loved activity!

So the next question is obvious; if this talking to oneself is NOT thinking, what is thinking?

Thinking today probably begins with SEEING the mechanical behaviour of what you previously called ‘thinking’. So real thinking begins with WAKING UP to what’s occupying your mind. Investigating WHY you allow this to go on? Through really thinking you will discover the emotional reason why your mental attention moves around in habitual patterns. Thought patterns. Patterns which can NEVER CHANGE as long as the same emotional reasons persist. Unless there is a fundamental release of emotional pain, the mind can not be free of its infantile noise.

Now it is generally assumed that there could be no thinking without ‘thoughts’. But as we now know, talking to oneself is definitely NOT thinking. In that activity of talking to oneself, thoughts are part of the grammar of language. WORDS. No more no less. So it’s obvious if you indulge in talking to yourself, you must use words. Thoughts.

So thinking is an activity of penetration. Penetration through SEEING. A sort of feminine penetration. SEEING not talking. And through SEEING allowing FEELING to be what it is.

Can you SEE—both inwardly and outwardly—without saying what you SEE?

SEEING is not dependent on the eyes. The eyes—miraculous though they be—only offer images which the mind SEES. Also the mind SEES thoughts; is that not so? The mind feels. SEEING and FEELING are NOT separate.

Real thinking involves feeling out the truth. When the mind awakens to the possibility of real thinking, it can free itself from any attachment to old thought patterns held by emotional pain. And when these old patterns are not nourished…they die. Fade away as frost flowers melting in the sunlight.

But do I hear you whisper ‘my thoughts refuse to die’? And is that another victim-like voice squealing? What does it say? ‘One after another…thoughts are hurled at my soul’!

My dear readers, please AWAKEN from that mindless mania and SEE what’s actually going on. You are deluding yourselves. Thoughts do not MOVE!!! It is you who is moving. You move your attention over thoughts which are as inert and dead as waxwork dummies. Yes, you move your attention over thoughts like a blind person moving their fingers over brail. You grab thoughts…they’ve never grabbed you. Just like you grab food and drugs.

So attentiveness is crucial to the mind’s ability to really think. Think about it. Do you really HAVE to give your attention to what fails to nourish you? Do you REALLY have to feed the PARASITE which drains the LIFE out of you? Is this NOT enough of a predicament to cause you to wake up?

So only a mind which is AWAKE is ALIVE, and only an alive mind can THINK. It SEES clearly the difference between the Earth and the whirld. Being alive it moves with LIFE.

The belief is that without ‘thought’ one wouldn’t know what to do! True. But it is further assumed that ‘not knowing what to do’ is BAD for you. It means you’re heading for failure and unhappiness. Thoughts are believed to be the necessary CURRENCY for an effective life!!!

So what are called ‘your thoughts’ are really ancestral instructions used to keep the habits--amounting to social CONTROL--in place.
If you refrain—even very politely—from acting on the instructions you are a threat to the social order.

Thoughts are verbal injunctions, internalised and activated by the belief that you NEED guidance.

Real people are those who enjoy a real relationship with the real. This real relationship is reflected in this life as vibrations of goodness. But goodness in this sense, is not an interpretation. If you don’t know what GOOD VIBES are…you’re not grooving with the real. For sure.

Answering the call to think, one is pulled beyond the pull of gravity.

Psychological gravity is caused by the mass of dead thought. The grave yard of the human soul. The deadly weight caused by the hierarchical imposition of its grave ‘way of life’. Thoughts are things and are subject to the gravity of an emotional NEED.

Most children have the inclination to enter thinking when they’re very young, but because the BIG PEOPLE who lord it over them are usually burdened with self-centred THOUGHTS, they discourage the child’s natural inclination towards ecstasy. The matrix of the familiar is off loaded onto the innocent. Then a child’s ability to fly above the known is severely hampered. The child becomes a prisoner of his parent’s gravity. A pot of gloom whose only future seems to be in consuming the swill of the past. That’s the whirld for you.

Of course the heart needs protecting, but it’s only in a relationship to Being that a safekeeping can be ensured. Instead, children are ‘protected’ with what cripples them…and once they’re weighed down with self-concern…they feel so CRAMPED in the mould of habit…they become psychic junkies…shooting up FEAR…which of course they score from the future!!!

Yes, ‘the future’ is the KING dealer, tying up the mind in poisonous ways of escape.

No one will EVER find release in ‘the future’.

If you ever lose the thread of your thinking you will find it very HARD to find it again. So be warned. Don’t become a zombie like the mass of flesh and fear stumbling about the whirld , disturbing anyone who seems not burdened with JUNK. Those ghouls assume they have the right to inter-fear with another’s peace of mind. Especially a child’s mind.

So put your life on the line and engage in this miraculous process called thinking.

That empty face you’ve no doubt seen paraded all over the globe, is not due to the beer, fags, T.V. crap food, obsessive chat or this or that…it’s due to the fact that there’s NO THINKING HAPPENING. What you’re SEEING is not LIFE, but that dead EMPTINESS which is haunting the EARTH . Each one of those mask-like-faces is a cell of in the dead body of the whirld.

To think is to explore. Explore and free your heart from the tyranny of mindless gravity. How wonderful is the ecstasy of fearless thinking.

 

TRUTH

One is born into a whirld which promotes the belief  that ‘truth’ is the ideal ground to which all our accounts of experience must be submitted. Accurate reportage. The truth is supposed to be something which can be told. Therefore what is said is evaluated according to the criteria of accuracy. Accuracy about the past. Accuracy about perception, interpretation. What is demanded is an unbiased expression of memory. But can any image of the past be true? Same applies to the present and the future.

The concept of relativity is supposed to be a ‘truthful image’ or principle of  EXISTENCE, yet as far as I know, no society has as yet, attempted to exemplify its SOCIAL implications. According to Einstein’s theory, all accounts of what IS is relative to where you perceive/conceive from. There is no ABSOLUTE anything…past, present, future or space. Past, present and future are relative concepts according to your position.

Perhaps relativity has not been promoted as a model for social behaviour because it could easily unmask ALL the myths surrounding the basis for hierarchical control. Ways of life which depend on agreements granting status and privilege would immediately be seen as existential lies. Status implies fixity imposed on MOVEMENT. A fixed state of mind is an existential lie.

A viewpoint—any viewpoint—is a product of the past and can become an illusory basis for fear. Our existence maintains a vast factory producing fear and boredom.

The essence of TRUTH is not accuracy. Truth is PRIOR to ANY rendering and it’s not an abstract ideal.  

Truth is liveable…but not describable. It is NOT a STATE of mind. It is MIND. Eternal mind. Mind free of ALL historical and theoretical  considerations. 

Being and Mind are not separate. There can be no true image or account of MIND.  Like thinking, it is ungraspable. It can not be social-eyes-d or brought into any area of control. No one can con-vince any one of the TRUTH. It is not some THING you will ever see. It is what you are. It’s what you SEE with. It’s where you SEE from.

Movement. Existence reveals infinite complexities of movement. Truth is always FRESH. ALL WAYS. Can you bring a wave from the sea home in a bucket? All you’ll have is stagnation. (The difference between a verb and a noun.)

Yes, truth is always FRESH. If you explore LIFE guided by that which is always FRESH, you can NOT fail to SEE the existential lies and liars. You will SEE through falsity of voice, gesture, attitude, role-playing, status, position, tone, emotion, thought and every subtle shading of possessiveness and control. Yes, TRUTH SEES.

It is a popular misconception that TRUTH will take the joy and fun out of LIFE. No, living the fresh truth TRANSFORMS existence into…I’ll leave you to find out…   

Every image of self is a LIE. Familiarity is a lie.      

Feel what you really FEEL. Release every image of yourself to the wind.

RELATIONSHIP

Probably no situation is more shaped by the mind than the concept of relationship. It is treated as a possession, a thing. A NOUN. Some thing that people imagine they HAVE or don’t. If they believe they have a ‘relationship’, they quickly move into judgement. It’s either a good or a bad relationship. Smooth, hectic, erotic, platonic, romantic, matter-of-fact, open, deceitful, warm, cold, deep, mysterious, flippant, permanent, casual, stimulating, deadening, sharing, isolating, abusive, etc; etc.

A ‘relationship’, as such, is an expression of parasitism. Symbiotic parasitism. Like ‘give me your attention, (energy), and I’ll give you mine’. Usually people are not that honest, and cleverly camouflage their need for the other’s life. Their aim to TAKE the other’s life. The camouflage often takes the form of a ‘self-sufficient  persona’. 

Those who leak life force the most, are those who most fear FEELING their aloneness…and therefore their sense of inner emptiness. And it is these folk who most strongly project into the whirld an image of self-sufficiency. And they have an ugly reason for this projection. 

Lonely, empty people admire this IMAGE and give what little life they have to the projector.

‘I don’t need anyone’  is the trick played to gain energy, (attention), from the gullible. So can you SEE the way the world is all ways operating inside a whirl? A whirl of lies. It’s a whirlwind of images.

So are you IN a ‘relationship’?  (Did that raise a smile?).  Are you free of all that infantile nonsense? If not, have you noticed what part competition plays in your set up?  And how about jealousy? You know the fearful threat from the imminent third. The man or woman  who MIGHT  suddenly move into focus. That threat to your uncertain future.

Having a ‘relationship’ is a form of suppression. And this is the inevitable outcome of making deals about the distribution of psychic energy. Each one controls the other’s energy supply. So, in fact, each one feels the other has become their jailor. (Of course they are both  prisoners  of ‘the illusion of NEED’ ). It is the imagined NEED which ties them up in this mad routine.

Suddenly, one of the pair appears happy. Full of LIFE. What’s happened? Immediately the other feels threatened! ‘You’ve been getting energy,( attention), from some BODY else’. (Yes, as you know, women were branded as witches and burnt at the stake for gaining energy from, or through an UNLAWFUL channel. That is, getting energy not through ME, (jailor), or my prison staff, (patriarchal institutions). Unless it’s through my approval…it’s EVIL!!!

“You get your energy from ME or we’re finished”.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”.

“Oh yes you do!”

This hell pivots on the generally unvoiced concept:--‘I’m afraid that you don’t need me as much as I need you’. Or, ‘I’ve let you have power over ME, but you won’t let me have power over YOU’.

So what is the way out of this quagmire?

Relationship—not ‘a relationship’—is actually indefinable. ‘A relationship’ is an example of ‘the illusion of connections’. How one thing is connected to another thing. It is part of the general body of assumptions based on grammar. Linguistic illusions. 

The assumption that reality is composed of things in various states of change and quality. And this applies to you—(if you’re a human being!). And if you believe that you are a separate being…you will no doubt believe that you HAVE A MIND. So people, whirlds and minds are represented as NOUNS. 

Now because it is imagined that reality is composed of things, it seems reasonable to imagine that there are connections between the things. So we have similes, synonyms, syllogisms and equations.

Take the notion of ‘simile’. The inference is that one thing exhibits a factor to be also found in a different classification of things. ‘He babbles like a brook’. The assumption is that we all know how brooks babble. But do we? The use of simile infers that the images of reality—are reality. The employment of similes encourages a dependence on fixity. If you really LISTEN to a brook I don’t think you’ll be inclined to say what it sounds like. It wont sound like anything you’ve heard before.

Why? Because listening is movement not re-cog-nition.

So our whole language structure supports and extends the illusion that you can find out the reality of some THING through IMAGE/linguistic manipulation. Like you don’t know what ‘A’ is, but someone says it’s like ‘B’.  Because you’re supposed to know what ‘B’ is like…you should now know what ‘A’ is like. 

O.K. so what is a mind like? A camera? A factory? A computer? What is feeling like? A thought? A river? A whirlpool? What is life like? 

If you operate through the structure of this linguistic illusionism you will never BE at one with what is. With what is ising. Freshness will always elude you. 

Alright, do you now understand why reason—grounded in syllogism—is a further example of the same spiritual blindness? It’s a symbolic movement from the general to the particular. 

Animals have heads. A horse is an animal. A horse has a head.

Now take this one:--‘We are animals’. Edmund Leach used that statement as the title to his Reith lectures in the late sixties. The implication being that we don’t know what we are, but the answer’s simple. We’re like animals…and the trick is this—all intelligent people know what animals are like. Don’t we? 

What we really know what it’s like to be an animal? Do animals know what it’s like to be an animal?

Is this moment like a different one? And is there such a thing as ‘a moment? 

So these linguistic illusions evade what? Thinking. Thinking about this mechanism which underwrites social con-formity. 

Real-eyes the nature of mind and all things pass away. Without things all connections  disappear. Then reality is being. 

The illusions of relationship and connections were dependent on the central illusion of a separate self.

Ego is supposed to be some-thing which enlightened people have dispensed with. It’s not a thing, but a misconception of what the ungraspable MIND is.

So if one is really relating, one discovers what can’t be said. One is therefore FREE from social control. All social conformity aims to fix what flows. If you  have ‘a relationship’ you are bound to be deadened.

Truly relating frees one from all concepts of relating. No expectations shaped by language. This movement awakens the forgotten heart and freshens the blood. 

 

READING

What sort of misconception could there possibly be about the subject of reading? Well, why do you read? You may not be scanning or browsing, but are you reading? I mean, can you read 100%? One hundred per cent attention on the…what? The words? The letters? The gaps? The inferences? The grammar? The style? The meaning? All of that—of course. 

Reading can awaken a question. A question which no text can truly answer. A living question.

It is a gross misconception to expect you’ll develop your life through reading. Nevertheless, you might be disposed to ask an important question. A question which leads to the undermining of every assumption. To stay within the implications of  such a question requires more than taking your eyes off the text. It requires allowing an un-examined question to arise. It requires that you actually surrender to the advent of the question. Make way for the question to live inside you.

Impregnation.

It is possible to verbalise the arising question, but only for the benefit of sharing. Through reading it is possible to share in a real investigation. You may become inspired to pass beyond the range of the familiar. The mysterious procedure of being taken into what is incommunicable.

It is a misconception to consider reading to be an innocuous activity.

My question is why do you read?

How much of what you read do you remember?

Many people can paraphrase or even repeat verbatim what they’ve read without being touched. Such people are even proud of being shallow. Am I escorting you through a very un-familiar atmosphere? Do you think I’m confused over the issue of ‘reading’?     

Do you read to escape from a sense of stress? Trying to escape from inward claustrophobia, from loneliness is hardly an innocent activity.

Where do you read?  Yes, where?  

No, not on the loo or in the bath, on your back or on the way to work. You read within an unspeakable event. You read within a capsule, which isolates your core from THAT which could awaken it. It could be that the way you read winds a thread of deadness around your soul.

It is NOT the books which poison. It is wanting to be TOLD what it’s like to be alive. So many want to read about what they deny. The great mystery.

 

HOPE

Is it possible to have hope, without a mental scenario as an object for one's hope? Another way of saying it is :-is it possible to have hope without a belief in 'a future hoped-for outcome'?

Could hope be a life-giving energy? Say i think 'i hope i'm being honest now'. That seems to be an authentic approach. Different than 'i think i'm being honest now'. 
The point of course is about the benefit, or not, of the state of hope?

And if one does consider the state of HOPE is nourishing to one's core Being, one doesn't want to live hoping one's hope will never be destroyed. 

So there's a difference between hope and what's hoped for. A difference between a present state of hope…and an imagined FUTURE. This is the real issue. If  hope lives in BEING, then the difference is between Being  and IMAGE.

And the difference between the image of  Being...and  BEING.

The difference between writing about hope, and being hopeful.

Full of hope.

If is say, "i hope i'm being honest now," i don't imagine i will lose my state of hope if i discover later on that i wasn't being totally honest. 'I hope i'm being honest' is a statement of endeavour...an endeavour which will surely uncover aspects of Being, as yet not realised.  
So hope in honesty seems to be a healthy way of life.

CYNICISM

Who do cynics think they are? Who do they work for?

Have you noticed the connection between cynicism and money? Lack or lots. Possessiveness. Power. Lacking warmth, cynics articulate a continuous defence against open heartedness. Actually cynicism is a form of paranoia.

It seems cynics consider themselves to be de-mystifying mechanics and upholders of ‘social common sense.’ Often they stand against originality in Being. Behaviour. 

The essence of cynicism is fear. Fear which is utilised to focus the mind in a particular way. A self-centred way. A perspective on what IS. A way of interpreting considered to be realistic.

The cynical way of interpreting is continuously maintained in order to uphold particular positions, postures and attitudes. Such postural attitudes are common place and considered as currency. Status. Tone of voice indicators. Un-admitted signs of STRESS. 

Cynics never dismantle the psychological ‘ground’ of their own expression. De-mystification of their own constructed persona is utterly abhorrent to them.  On the other hand, they cynically sell in one way or another…de-mystification programmes.

Cynics consider their attitude of mind to be worthy of admiration. A craft. A weapon. In fact an act calculated to generate uncertainty and envy.

Cynics are bound to calculation. Sado-masochism is a form of cynicism. A celebration of cynicism.

Cynics think they know what it would feel like to not be a cynic. Offer a cynic an opening and s/he will attempt to con-vince you that you are deluded. All the cynics I’ve met seem incredibly rigid! Rigid with self-importance. Soaked in arrogance. Emotionally immature. Sentimental.

Cynics often appear to be tied to a notion of a scarcity of energy. On this basis, they imagine they have to be selective on how they spend ‘their time’. They seem to think that their cynicism is an essential  filter for maintaining an elitist view on life. For maintaining what they consider essential. An accurate and appropriate filter. Cynics imagine they don’t have to explore an unknown avenue to know what it’s about. They can read about it. They don’t need to plummet the depths. They can ignore what’s deep. They can talk about it. Any real venture into the unknown would threaten a cynic’s position…on the surface.

One meaning for the word ‘God’ could be a gap in what is knowable. A gap from which cynics seem to turn away.  What if the GAP is widening? A gap which can’t be closed. 

Into this gap has been projected cynical rubbish.

O proud cynics do you have the measure of what is being presently revealed? 

Revealed through this obvious rent?

If you think deeply about what it means to be positive…or what it means to be negative…what do you discover?
Being? 
What is Being? 
Delving into this question led to a sense of aloneness. 
An unfamiliar atmosphere.
I say ‘YES’ to this atmosphere. Many say ‘NO’ to this same atmosphere.

Life is the un-knowable, and being unknowable man has said NO to it. In saying YES to what is knowable…he is saying NO to life. What he  ‘knows’ is the realm of the ME. He only says YES to ME. He may appear to be a YES, but this a mask. Being a form of the familiar he/she must avoid the unfamiliar. The unfamiliar is FRESH. The real positive.

The familiar ME can never be FRESH.

The ME being stale is driven to mask its staleness with psychological deodorants.

What I am is represented by the little I  in the word life. When I real-eyesd that, I became free of the claustrophobia of the whirld.

And where am I?

I am here. Here is not something you can know. Trying to know it means you NO it. Thinking you already know what it is,  means you NO it. Not caring about what it means to BE HERE, means you NO it. From the point of view of ME…being here is an overwhelming challenge. Appears to be.
Appears to be full of things. ME things.

There are no things HERE. Here is an OPEN INVITATION.

Yes to the FRESH.

YES YES YES    

 

PEACE

Real peace can not be found in the whirld. The sort of peace which is talked about in the whirld is an idea--used without any shame--to manipulate the populace. An image used by who-mans to disguise their spineless-ness. These images of peace will never solve any conflict. Any idea of peace belongs within the con-texts of political/religious/military strategies. Not ‘War and Peace’…but Peace hides War. War is Peace.

Real peace is not the opposite of conflict and war. Real peace is a state of Mind. A state of Being which is incapable of fear. This state of mind can not be manipulated in any way. It is a state of existence prior to ALL manifestations of apparent change.

Because real peace can not be manufactured, or in  any way engineered into existence, I can not give you any recipe for this WAY OF LIFE.

To live in a way of peace which can not be explained requires a total commitment to an un-nameable source of nourishment. Of course courage is required as well.

For some people abandoning phoniness takes courage. Maybe courage grows to the degree one abandons what is phoney. Phoney love. Phoney affection. Phoney interest. Phoney voice. Phoney promises. Phoney friendships. Phoney food. Phoney peace. Phoney future. Phoney fear. Phoney understanding. Phoney speed. Yes speed! You must travel at the speed of your own understanding.

Just let it go…and SEE.

“But how can I let go of what I don’t understand?”

Psychological weight is NOT  something which you have to understand…before you can let it go. Weight is what you feel.
A feeling which you tend to identify with. (I-dent/if-I)
The weight of me/i. The ‘weighty feeling’ of i. Decorated with much ‘weighty thought’!

You either give into this inertia and become robotic…or you struggle against the weight…and become robotic.

How about examining…not the weight…but why you hold on to it?

Could it be that you have a fear of being without fear?

When you try to imagine what it would be like to be without fear…you probably feel very confused. Foggy. Peace can not be imagined. Or the peace which is imagined is not real peace.

Who-mans assume their existence depends on FEAR!!! This is the foundation of the whirld. The who-mans whirld.    

 

PHILOSOPHY

Do you assume philosophy is what professional ‘philosophers’ say it is? 
These so called ‘philosophers’ invariably hold teaching jobs.
They usually talk and write about philosophical texts.
They project their interpretations from an established platform.
A respectable, squeaky-clean platform.
A logically extended platform.
Yet these logical extensions actually support bands of severely unbalanced people. People whose body/heart/minds are completely out of sync. Blatantly unbalanced…yet these well-paid ‘philosophers’ ignore their psychological condition on the basis that it is irrelevant to ‘their work’.  So they avoid delving into the essence of their own existence. Yet in spite of this amazing ignorance, any one of them is quite capable of teaching the roots of existentialism. 

Is philosophy nothing more than a form of talking or writing?

Is there a spirit of philosophy which exists prior to any linguistic expression?

I say the love of living Truth is the essence of real philosophy. And perhaps real Art is the love of beauty—or the expression of the love of beauty. And could it be that ecstatic poetry is the courting of beauty by the love of Truth?

It seems that those who make a living out of ‘being philosophers’ are willing slaves of their own mental constructions. Who never jump off their professional platforms. Who never jump out of their skin. Out of ‘their minds’. Who never take any actual existential risk. Who are never more than window dressers. And what do they dress up?

The corpse of life. Life denied and deadened by fear. The fear of being real.

And how is this corpse attired?

With the sterilizing voice of repressed PAIN ! Controlled, denied pain. Suppressed pain fuelling safe respectability.

I didn’t start off  by loving Truth. I started off by hating falsity. Hating the falsity which had been stuffed down my throat. I started off  hating the robot I’d become. A robot fuelled by fear. A fear of Being. A fear of being real. A fear of death. A fear of feeling.  A fear of feeling the HURT I was taught to avoid feeling.

Eventually I discovered that it was this unhealed, hurt child within, who was envious of  others enjoying life. If, as John Lennon sang, ‘you feel crippled inside’, you can neither enjoy life nor honestly enjoy seeing others enjoying life. Living honestly, aware of the hurt child’s strategies—moment by moment—brought about a profound change in my existence. I no longer unconsciously adopted, or fed the hurt child’s paranoid projections. I began to feel free of inner turmoil. Disenburdened. 

Most people are escaping from their own unfelt inner pain. Our whole society is an expression of this falsity. And professional ‘philosophers’ are the well fed priests of this vast, sick, self-hypnotising, time-wasting outfit.

The whole global society is playing the game of ring-a-ring-a roses. 

To become a real alive philosopher, you have to leave the game. Leave the game alone. Yes, alone!  That deadening game can not  be transformed. By leaving it alone you’ll find out what aloneness means.
And be warned! You will not be loved by those still playing the game.

I write to encourage my readers to leave that deadening game--for ever. 

What is important is the feeling/understanding of being alive. And when life is energising your body, soul and mind—instead of fear—you will be able to THINK with feeling. Be able to philosophise. 

 

 

RIGHT AND WRONG

Many people are pessimistic about the future for humans on Earth. They believe that life has gone wrong. But if life in this universe is a learning process how could it ever be right or wrong?

Trying to be right, afraid of being wrong, leads to a painful alienation from the pulse of life.

The drive to be right and avoid being wrong comes from a very deep psychic pain. Whether one was originally rejected out of neglect, or hostility, the pain felt by unreleased contraction of one’s whole being, is almost always the fuel for maintaining the concept of being wrong. Once one is inside this conceptual trap, it is very difficult to imagine that deep psychic pain doesn’t mean a definite wrongness. Actually the psychic/emotional pain indicates an unequivocal condition—perpetual contraction…and real release does not in any way depend on being RIGHT!

Without real release one’s existence is a form of disguised hell. Of course you can pretend that this is not the case, and spend your whole life disguising  your internal pressure. With real release there’s NO internal pressure to disguise. That’s the proof of the pudding.

Many people have so numbed themselves they don’t recognise the internal pressure which shapes their pretence at feeling ‘normal’. 

When one was very, very young, it seemed like one was DOMINATED by an atmospheric pressure. An atmosphere generated by the deadening falsity of the BIG people. Of course, one didn’t know how to articulate what one was aware of then. 

Pressurized staleness…idiotically called care…or even LOVE.

From this pervasive pressurized stale atmosphere there SEEMS  to be no release possible. So? So? So…contract from it! But it’s still there. Contract more…and more…and more…and more…and NOW has It gone? Has it? Contract more. Distract. Contract. Distract.

“Listen you jerk, do as I say, or….!”

O yes, those who have contracted away from their internal avoided pressure, become the ones who pass it on. 

What is this pressure which is passed on? 

 

ORDERS

The Ancestral Prejudice. 

“You must act on orders.”
“If you fail to follow and act on these orders, you will not survive.”
“Survival depends on ORDER”.
“Order is the proof orders have been accurately embodied” 

Are you a carrier of the ancestral disease? 

The only way out is to STOP! Stop being a carrier. Absolutely FULL STOP!

The ancestral prejudice is a virulent parasite…and you—whoever you imagine you are—WAKE UP and refuse to be a host carrier. It’s as simple as that. 

There is no organization on Earth which is, or has ever been an instrument of a real FULL STOP to pretence and falsity. On the contrary, every institution—so called religious or secular—has enticed its followers to carry the message. TO BE THE MESSAGE!!!

You have to be dead to survive.

Stop means to fast. To fast from obedience…or disobedience: inwardly first. That’s the first requirement—not an order. 

By stopping in this ‘fast position’, you stop spending core energy on camouflaging your distress. That’s why you will feel a tremendous intensification of pressure.

Conscious breathing is a great help…and you will need to be somewhere where they wont cart you off to the nut house…or in other ways attempt to abort your birth into reality.

If anyone reading this is sincere about wanting this planet to be cured of this disease of uncreative, PRESSURIZED dispiriting con-form-ity to deadening orders…you have to start with yourself and do a cold turkey. Really KICK that habit. Actually. TOTALLY.

When you really kick the habit of taking orders and being a secret agent for deadness—you’ll discover the grip it holds you in!  Immediately it’s obvious that it’s no longer a question of which internal suggestion to obey?  You have to kick every internal habit. And if you do this you become a terminus. A stop point. And of course a different type of pressure arises. This is a pressure which will intensify. And it will keep on intensifying until the fresh energy/spirit bursts free from below your contracted condition. Once this fresh energy starts to flow…your habitual defences against your own fresh awareness will disappear.

So it is not by being RIGHT one discovers true freedom and happiness. It is by being REAL. And deep emotional psychic pain is real. That’s why you need a real release…but no real release is possible within the whirld.

What keeps one in the whirld is having unreal responses to real pain. Think about it. Deeply.

Have you discovered that you are STILL choosing to be in pain right now? 

maybe you’re clenching your heart/mind because you’re con-vinced there’s something wrong with you.

You’re confused—not wrong.

Once you SEE that you don’t have to be right before you can find release…then you’re ready to let go. Let go of suffocating your Self.   

 

 

© neil oram 2009