Examples

James Joyce was one of the more notable rejecters of Catholicism. Right after he died a priest tried to persuade his widow to have a religious burial. Said Nora, "I couldn't do that to him." The relevance of this anecdote in the context of comment on the uncommentariable work of Jan Cox is that you can see how important his position on Catholicism was to James Joyce. Which points up the reality that so-called opposites are just one whole. This example, that of an atheist was actually one example Jan Cox used to illustrate the point that to reject something is to accept that very thing. Could one be a real atheist one would be quite calm about the church and not even think about the church at all. To oppose something is to give that which you oppose, vitality. This applies also within.

Hearing Jan

What will never be captured in words now, is the experience of listening to Jan Cox talk. I at least cannot begin to explain, among other things, the way he could say two different things, literally at the same time in a public (well at least the group) setting. Not two contradictory things, but two separate intellectual points.

He could also direct his comments in this group setting to one person, or --- sometimes he could give the impression he was talking directly to you, while HE was on stage and sharing his speech to a group of people.

And then there was his speech to individuals which was based on his knowledge of that person, his knowing exactly what at a certain moment had the best chance of helping that person look in a certain direction. In a sense this description applies to all his talks to a group of people he allowed to stay based on their purpose and potential. These were the people he did not kick out, deliberately scare away, or gently discourage. (This last I to myself called the velvet boot.) This speech to individuals, though, may be information that was not really relevant to others. A street level example of this last, is his telling me that I should take my car to the dealer to get it fixed. This advice was based on his knowledge of me, and was not at all transferable to others in general.

But more typically his speech to individuals was not about such mundane matters, but focused the same knowledge of the person he was speaking with a regard for their potential at that moment. Speech received in this mode could be something the individual remembered well, though it may actually be only relevant to that individual, at least only relevant to that individual regarding the surrounding details of what he said. Thus he might frame a point to someone who was given to hero worship differently than he would speak to someone who grasped that a certain respect was appropriate when relating to a real teacher, rather than the "horizontal guru" to use an exact quote from Jan Cox.

Such talents that a real man could possess are one way myths about psychic powers begin. I use the word myths to stress that when a man has a certain base of knowing, then the usual descriptions just do not apply. There was nothing psychic per se about some of his talents, it was just that most men do not think themselves, really think, at all, and so were impressed by what was really a minor aspect of the talent of a man who knew the source of his knowledge, and remembered it.

Poorly Packed Pickups Pinned Up Again

Picking poorly packed pickups back up- --because this is a graphic glimpse of a reality which is hard to point at. I mean the lurching quality of progress, any kind of progress, the half falling, stumbling, of Life itself. Look at the load on the truck bed, trussed haphazardly, piled peculiarly,and if you following the same pickup I am, as you study the load , you feel a little nervous. You do not want to meet a ladder unexpectedly. This picture, the poorly packed pickup, though is a reality at the axel of things. In the words of Jan Cox--there is a core of confusion to everything. And it could be that this reality ripples though everything. Certainly there is no reason to be surprised at spotted, jagged margins. The surprise would be a rhythmic, regular progress, because that would mean you certainly were not paying attention at the moment you so categorized it. Let me point out, as he did occasionally, we are not pointing to the regularity of physical functioning itself, like breathing, which should not be messed with.

Ugandan history

Today is apparently the anniversary of Idi Amin's assumption of power in Uganda in 1971. Televised news pictures of Amin and ambassadors to Uganda gave Jan Cox an interesting picture of -- the circuitry of man. He shared with us the discomfiture of some of the ambassadors as they tried to dance on the same stage as Amin, who would break into dance steps alot. I guess that is one reason why people say it is good to be king. In this pictures of men in suits on a stage, Amin would be the all powerful hormones, and the ambassadors and/or ministers -- neurons. This relationship is unchanging.

Fluffy Cats to Fat Brains

You have seen cranky cats--they can swell to a seemingly larger animal by bristling their fur. This is a similar effect to dogs finding something elevated to mark. The position on the fire hydrant tells the message RECIPIENT the important data--how big the dog is who shares their neighborhood. Think what critical tinformation that is--kind of like the reason you laugh harder at your boss's jokes.The point here is the advantage size offers in a world of constantly changing chemical flux.

Which makes me wonder if the motive for building the pyramids was similarly biological and motivated. What if the drive that ordered the monumental architecture was like a cat expanding in physical size. Of course, one motive does not rule out other explanations--such either/or logic is fundamental to ordinary mentation (I mean since there is explanation A for the motive of building the pyramids, that rules out explanation B being potent) and a hindrance to considering anything beyond the actual rearranging of the external world. The examples of such rearrangement in this paragraph are not the useful scientifically needed reordering that are obviously useful--like windmills. The very obscureness, of the reason for the size and shape of the pyramids stresses the necessity to look elsewhere for an explanation of their building. My suggestion is that monumental buildings are an attempt by men to fluff up themselves. And it should work, imagine an invading army encountering the pyramids for the first time. Not Napoleon, but the very first time, wouldn't the leader of the invading army think, "what have I gotten myself into?"
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And what if---most of man's thinking, most of human words, words like 'Yale' (to use one of Jan Cox's favorite examples) are similarly the result of a need for mortal man to fluff up himself against a reality of the unknown. Perhaps words which do not refer to the external world have a purpose that is hormonal rather than denotative. Only people are unaware of their motives and the reality of the cognitive import of what they are saying.

A Century Defining Life

Such is how it is possible that future generations will describe Jan Cox's. I of course have no crystal ball but if you realize the regard in which Socrates is held today and that the life of Jan Cox was spent pursuing similar goals, with a success that is not measurable and yet could be called immeasurable, such descriptions do not seem out of line. One cannot compare mystics, but it is neat how the 20th century seems to contain both Gurdjieff in the first half, and Jan Cox in the second. The singular contribution of Jan Cox to philosophy and any planetary knowing was a relentless empiricism in which all gauzy religiosity was stripped away from an objective pursuit of "that which is." Gurdjieff had started on this path. Jan Cox called it the "WORK" ("Way of Real Knowledge") in his early decades of having students, and in a pointing to the haplessness of all verbosity, "This Kind of Stuff," later among many descriptions. New descriptions were critical: the idea was to burn all maps when the nourishment was gone.

He is not better known today because during his life time there was a self regulating aspect to life that prevented attention from being paid to his efforts. Part of this was the fear which most experienced when they perceived at a biological level the accuracy of his knowledge of those around him. When will it be safe for the academics to chat about his writings of Jan Cox? Who knows. But he knew his own worth and he wanted whatever nourishment could be gained from his writings to be accessible to others who might follow after his death, along a comparable path.

This desire does not contradict his repeated reminder that he could not "teach" anyone anything. Part of the mystery is that you can only really learn from your own efforts. I am tempted here to mention a lovely event when Pentland sent spies to check out Jan's activities.
But that is only tangentially relevant and we will get to that later.

Poorly Packed Pickups

Poorly packed pickups--you have seen them, you hate to follow to close, something might fall off and dent your car. I like the sound of the phrase, the alliteration. Jan Cox often used alliteration, and of course it is an old English poetical device. Poorly packed pickups---this picture of the mind, shows exactly the way thoughts pop up in your head: thoughts in this picture might be something that fell off the truckload. If life is a pickup, then the stuff in the truckbed could be an apparently overloaded, genetic bundle, perhaps an individual, and words something that fell onto the asphalt. Falling onto the asphalt in this picture would be a word popping into ordinary consciousness. Academics then would be roadside scavengers of a sort. By academics I mean of course the aspect of ordinary mentation which purports to know what's going on.