The death of Jan Cox, in 2005, left a group of students, his family, and lifelong friends, with an archive of many thousands of pages of written material, in addition to his four books. Also audio and video tapes remain, and they are also in the process of being archived so that the originals can be deposited in a library. There are also hundreds of "cartoons": the artistic medium in which he tossed off drawings in ink or magic marker, which are, in the opinion of some, masterpieces. And he left a world class collection of vinyl and CD records.
His students, who may have attended lectures for decades, are a unique repository of his ideas: ideas not being the right term, for it was the inadequacy of words, ideas, and how to see beyond, this common mental currency, to a reality he once labeled in a story, Istanbul, that composed the field in which work was possible.
For in a world where mystical experiences are actually quite common, the attempt to evaluate this phenomenon in a larger economy of human reality is an analysis in which he continued the work of Georges Gurdjieff. At the heart of his endeavor was his own well being, and then, helping others towards what he saw. These are not aspects of a varied life. Though no one else played the way he could, the attention and rigor of his goals, which it would be reckless and misleading to speak of, consumed the entire man.
It is not clear what his impact on the world will be. His was in some ways an impossible goal, and preserving his physical legacy may be an acme. He spoke of everything existing at the grace of life. The life of life is alive is a direct quote. During his life his accomplishments were mostly ignored, and this reflected his position so far ahead of the mechanical wave, that his point was invisible to the majority. This situation may not change soon--it is not clear to this person anyway.
It is possible to speak of part of his legacy: a technique of mental focus which was communicable, and which is glorious in that it can be practised, and the results immediately felt, all the time. There were many ways to show how to do this, to the student with promise. This technique rather upended mystical history, though it was not utterly new. But one can see the appeal. Instead of hours, years of meditating, waiting for enlightenment, there was something one could consistently do, with immediate rewards.
I would not call this the technique itself, but it is one approach, and one he stressed. Do not think the same thing twice. The actual technique, being wordless, is not amenable to mass distribution. One hesitates to go further about this.
Who knows what can be conveyed, perhaps, for a variety of reasons, less than one thought, though probably not less than he thought, at the end.
