Smoking Mirrors

Dog Poet Transmitting.......

Today... by the grace of my teacher, I am going to point out some VERY IMPORTANT THINGS. They may, at first glance, seem SIMPLE ...and... basic elements of existence, which you might think we should have long ago, taken for granted, as if... “Well, Hell, everybody ought to already know that.” I wrote another Smoking Mirrors previous to this and sat on it for a couple of days, metaphorically speaking. I tossed it. There was too much of my going into what certain other people are saying and doing. For instance, here is an older article about someone I am not fond of and if anything... it is more true now but... if you don't know this does it matter? Anyway, I am tired of pointing out what some people do wrong. That's their business. I felt it necessary to protect others from being deceived. Perhaps I will never shake this motivation but mayhap, I might become more subtle.

We are inundated with false prophets in these times. They have a high profile and make buckets of money. I could not do what they do for Love or Money. In the first instance I would lose the love. In the second instance I would have closed off The Doors of Inspiration. You HAVE TO care more about what you do than what it will get you. The idea of personal profit SHOULD NEVER ENTER YOUR MIND. Now... no matter what you do and no matter how well you do it, there are ALWAYS going to be people who don't like or trust you and that is more often due to their own state of awareness (or lack thereof) than it is to you. Life is a mirror. That is ONE OF THE IMPORTANT THINGS. Consider ALL the implications of a mirror. Also consider what happens if you leave a mirror in an attic, a barn, or against the wall of a building.

Your mirror can get so dust coated that you can't see into it. Sometimes when you can see into it, the image is distorted by the dust or any number of other obstructions, like birdshit. BEFORE you attempt to do anything in the visible or invisible theaters, clean your mirror.

Always speak the truth. Herein lies a problem. Telling the truth is not advisable in every situation. There are any number of creative workarounds one can employ, most especially... saying nothing at all or THE VERY HANDY; 'I don't know'. There is a reason, a VERY GOOD REASON why you should always speak the truth. Think about it. If it doesn't come to you, continue to think about it. Think about it right before you go to sleep.

EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL. Repeat this often enough so that it has a subliminal effect like that of the sound of a stream running near your house but which you no longer are consciously aware of at all times, because of ACCOMMODATION. One of the abiding secrets of a successful life is to make Eternal Verities an actual part of you. This you achieve through SUBLIMATION. This is what makes affirmations work. This is the working feature of phrases like, “Everyday in every way, I am getting better and better.”

Sure Visible, I get it, Everything is Under Control BUT... People who know that everything is under control do not say, “BUT”. People with the unshakable conviction that Everything is Under Control see the entirety of life within and without in a remarkably different way than those who are being controlled without being aware of it. You are either DRIVING or... BEING DRIVEN. That is the full import of what we call The Devil and the meaning of his pitchfork. You are either 'driving' or you are 'being driven'.

If you ONLY get the VISCERAL embrasure of this phrase (Everything is Under Control) humming, vibrating and resonating within, on automatic pilot, you will lack for nothing, once you've been Field Tested.

There are ONLY two directions you can go in, other than dog paddling in place. You can say, 'In' or 'Out'. You can say, 'Up' or 'Down'. You are doing one or the other. Nothing stays in place, except the motionless controller of everything. Nature abhors a vacuum. As the song says, ♫ You gotta serve somebody ♫ As for philosophical constructs, there is Advaita and Dvaita. Both are legitimate and ALL other systems convolute and complicate outward from one or the other; or Inward, if you prefer. People are going to want to argue about that. These are people who, GUARANTEED, have missed the point. You CANNOT get the point and then argue. Think about it.

IT IS... WHAT IT IS. You can make it as simple or complicated as you like and profit or suffer accordingly. As for Self Discovery, consider The Labyrinth. I mean labyrinth as a timeless archetype and you are going to want to encounter Ariadne first. She was married to Dionysus, which should tell you something. A lot can be garnered by reading this 'detailed' compilation. Why is Ariadne associated with BOTH Theseus and Perseus? Consider the philosophical representation of the one with The Father Monster and the other with The Mother Monster. If you have bothered to read either of these, or both of these, or more likely, part of each, or neither, you can see how complexity tends to rear its multiplicity of heads. The interesting and relevant thing here is that BOTH OF THEM ARE IN YOUR HEAD and aren't going anywhere until you resolve the matter.

If you are able to say, “I don't know.' over and over long enough, applying it to everything, whether you think you know it or not, you will arrive at the Visceral- I don't know. I did this so... I KNOW it is there. 'Know'... 'Don't Know'; what the Hell is he talking about? The whole of life and its fundamental truths are to be experienced either Viscerally or Intellectually. On the one hand, you get it. On the other hand, you argue.

If you are going UP and IN, you are proceeding to Godhead. If you are going DOWN and OUT (grin) you are proceeding into bondage. In times of Material Darkness, the environmental pressures are slanted toward DOWN and OUT.

If you are WILLING and if you are passionately inspired, there are some SIMPLE procedures that you can employ and SO LONG AS YOU ARE CONSISTENT, you WILL attain. One method is to stand guard at The Gateway of the Mind, that portal through which thoughts enter, and to reject EVERY thought that 'surfaces' or 'enters'. It is VERY IMPORTANT to recognize that some thoughts SURFACE and some thoughts ENTER. Through relentless practice of this, THE ESSENTIAL will reveal itself. The 'clutter' must first be removed, lest one 'mistake' The Essential for the Clutter or the Clutter for The Essential.

Another method is to repeat, “I don't know” as if it were a mantra. Another method is to ask, “Who am I?” There are variants on all of these. The point is to make these like that stream running by your house.

When I was in the years between 8 and 12 years old, there were two books, besides The New Testament that I read repeatedly and which sailed me on Dream Ships to the far ports of call in the mind. One was Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels. The other was Elizabeth Hamilton's Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. I read these over and over. What worlds of imagination these two put into my hands!

The Tarot is all about programming the subconscious and bringing to the surface mind the vibrating archetypes of eternity; activating the God Qualities so that they may channel through you. This was also the purpose of the Greek and Roman myths, insofar as they familiarized us with the submerged powers resident in us all.

None of these things and pretty much nothing else... works unless you employ them. You have to practice anything to develops skills. Of course, there is always Air Guitar and Lip Syncing, if you are lazy or a poseur; no shortage in that department these days. However, you cannot fire-walk your way to playing lead guitar with Boston if you are not Tom Scholz, who attended MIT (a verifiable genius). You cannot hold forth extemporaneously upon a subject unless you know that subject or are a very skilled bullshit artist. There is no getting around putting in the hours, days, weeks, months and years; not happening.

You have enough procedures and methods here to go where John Lennon said they were going when he was asked, “Where are we going, John?” 'METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING'. The final result of anything ALWAYS comes at a cost. Doesn't it then, make sense, to have the result be something you really, truly, without question want? ? Works for me.

These are NOT systems and procedures that I CAME UP WITH. These are systems and procedures that were gifted to me by one who attained to the penultimate. Here's the deal and let me express that by an example; When I lived on Maui, I had this band; Les Visible and The Critical List and we often rehearsed and recorded at a property owned by Michael Welch, who was a BIG supporter of the band. He had 5 acres at the end of Hogback Rd in Haiku. Michael always wanted to play bass and he would hook up his bass to play along with us whenever we got together. He couldn't play very well (if at all). I said, “Mike, all you have to do is start practicing now and in a few years you could be good.” The bass is not difficult to learn. A few years later, Mike could not play the bass and I said the same thing to him again. A few years after that, Mike still could not play the bass and if I remember correctly, I reminded him yet again. I haven't seen Mike in over 20 years now but I'm pretty sure he still can't play the bass.

End Transmission.......

Today's Song is;