Why? Y Is this a symbol for the branching of the way?
The point of unrest fruiting in duality?
The indication of growth?
An upward ascent into multiplicity or the sign for entropy where from exquisite particulars all descends into unredeemable monotony?
Or the emblem indicating the rumoured mysterious trinity?
The uncorruptible creative forces upon which we weave our four dimensional tapestry?
These questions are brought into focus by Brainy Bonce before Clever Dick the slick Know-all ticks off the answers in a flash. In a flash indeed, since Dick’s keenly aware that Speedy Gonzalez is always revving up in the wings.
Mind you, Clever Dick’s got to get the bull’s eye first time or Lord Muck will mash him up with Top Dog bile then Wise Owl will seem to smile before all hell’s let loose inside the house.
Dear me, what can Simple Simon do? Or say?
“I knew I shouldn’t have followed you,” accuses Doubting Thomas. “I knew we’d get into a right mess like this!”
“O God, are we really up the creek again,” bawls Cowardy Custard.
“Shut up!” thunders the hard as nails Head Master opening the way for Lord Muck to nod and add, “Now I will read you Wise Owl’s definitive word on the precise way we must all approach our family problems.”
“What problems!? snaps Smart Alec. “I aint got no problems! Honest folk don’t ‘ave problems do they,” chimed in Honest Fred. “Honest folk practice what they preach.”
The arsehole creeper nodded sheepishly, whilst scribbler, his journalist brother, hurriedly made notes to turn into cash keeping an eye on The Beak who was fortunately swimming off to sleep.
“No HEAD master worth his salt gets deflected by common comments,” whispered Stirrer The Trouble-maker into Big Head’s cloth ear, but before Lord Muck had a chance to re-hearse his lines, Romeo perked up imagining he sniffed a whiff of Sexy Sadie’s alarming pussy perfume. Addressing his projection he began:
“Isis, my Goddess, I’m ready to take flight
With you, away, away from their stale dreams .
O Sadie your sweet soul has cleansed my sight
So that I see that you’re my radiant queen.”
“It’s not fair!” whined Moaning Minnie the uptight Wallflower. “What’s wrong with me!? I never get any oomph like that!”
“What’s she on about?” demanded Nosy Parker.
“Sour Puss is moaning,” replied Doormat Doris gesturing with her double chin towards Cry-Baby-Bunting. “Moaning cause Billy Liar Romeo never wants to goose her and keeps calling her Sulky Sue!”
“All Romeos are Billy Liar Sadists!” screamed Bossy Boots the disregarded Prick-teaser. “And they’re never satisfied until they’ve hurt a woman so deep she can’t stop thinking about him!”
“I’m hungry,” spluttered Simple Simon.
“You’re a Greedy Guts,” retorted Andy the Health Freak.
“I know, let’s all play a game,” yelled Sexy Sadie.
“I thought we are playing a game,” shouted Pious Pete, the deep-psychology de-coder.
“You’re a Spoil-Sport,” cut in Ginger The Clown.
“What’s the point in playing games?” said the acidic Awkward Harry.
“Almost anything would be better than THIS!” snarled Smart Alec.
“I’m hungry,” pleaded Simple Simon.
“I know the way out of this one,” swanked Billy Liar.
“What d’ya want to eat?” asked Wide Boy winking to Tea-Leaf Tommy. “A nice pie?”
“What sort of pie?” demanded Agony Ivy, The Slow-Coach Stickler.
“A fresh vegetarian pie!” snapped the Health Freak.
“Yes that would do me,” whispered Simple Simon. “I don’t believe in snuffing out animals.”
“Where on earth did you get that load of cobblers?” snarled Bert The Butcher.
“Show us the colour of yer lolly mate,” interjected Wide Boy.
“What!?” spluttered Simple Simon.
“Bread, cash, readies, brass call it what ya like. If ya want to eat, you gotta cough up mate! That’s the real whirld!”
“I don’t have any money,” whimpered Simple Simon.
“Nor do I,” added Alice admiring her curls in the looking glass.
“But I’m hungry,” gasped Simple Simon.
“So am I,” purred Goldilocks.
“No cash!” summed up The Beak, “Then you don’t eat! And if you insist on disrupting these proceedings you’ll get hard labour without sleep!”
“I’ve been trying to keep them to the task for ages Your Honour,” spewed the Arsehole Creeper, “but Simon keeps yacking on about grub.”
“Tell-Tale-Tit,” snarled Bully-Boy. “Another word out of you and I’ll walk all over you!”
“Come on!” shouted Busy-Lizzie. “Everyone hold hands in a circle. And NOW all together, Ring-a ring-a roses, a pocket full of posies, A-Tishoo, A-tishoo, we all fall DOWN!”
And everyone did well most did. Not Awkward Harry of course nor Lord and Lady Muck nor Simple Simon who remained in the dead centre a quizzical pivot around which all the rest got up and danced again.
“I can’t play! I’m hungry,” pleaded Simple Simon.
“You ARE playing but with little enthusiasm,” retorted Clever Dick scoring a point.
“And you’ll stay there playing till you drop before we’ll even contemplate feeding you,” sneered The Screw.
“Is that true?” asked Simple Simon.
“It’s the law!” proclaimed The General. “Complain and we’ll wipe you out!”
“Come on everybody! Screamed Goldilocks. “This is s’possed to be a celebration! Simple Simon SHUT UP! Come on EVERYBODY! Ring-a ring a rosies, a pocket full of posies. A-tishoo, a-tishoo we ALL fall down!”
“O Goldilocks,” whimpered Simon from under a pile of giggling bodies.”What can I do?”
“Follow me,” urged Pious Pete.
“Don’t listen to him,” hissed Wise Owl. “What you need is to understand how you got into this mess in the first place?”
“It’s because he never did what we told him,” grumped Mother and Father. “We wanted him to study and do well at school so he could hold a good job down but he spent all his time gazing into space!”
“He rots inside a whirld of his own!” snapped Brainy Bonce.
“That’s because he’s basically STUPID!” cried Arsehole Creeper.
“Dead right,” shouted Cowardy Custard The Traitor.
“Well,” barked Lord Muck glancing at his watch. “It’s a well known fact that he contributes NOTHING to society!”
“I’m scared,” whined Simple Simon.
“What exactly of?” purred The Shrink gleaming.
“He was talking to me actually,” replied Wise Owl.
“O really,” scowled The Shrink. “And who in hell DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?”
“In hell, I think I’m no BODY,” replied cool Wise Owl.
“And who do you think I think I am?” retorted Big Head.
“You think you’re some body,” laughed Clever Dick. Hearing this Wise Owl and Simple Simon creased up!
“All very well,” offered Doubting Thomas, “But the point is that he’s SCARED!!! That’s the crunch, NOT whether he’s simple or stupid or some body or no body.”
“I wouldn’t go along with that,” confessed Pious Pete-The Stickler-whilst eyeing up Miss Goody-Goody-Two-Shoes. “Whether he’s trying to be NO body or SOME body is probably the main ingredient contributing to this mess he’s got us ALL in!!!”
“Can ANY body become NO body by trying?” posed Honest Fred.
“No, but there’s nothing to stop ANY body trying!” snapped back Clever Dick.
“If I don’t EAT SOON, I’ll become NO body,” uttered Simple Simon.
“I doubt it,” corrected Wise Owl. “Ghosts aren’t No-bodies.”
“No they’re thin-body SOME-bodies,” sang Clever Dick very pleased with his sharp in/out-sight.
“Sounds like you’re on good terms with your shameless egotism,” cut in Smart Alec.
“O I’m so hungry and FED UP with all this argy-bargy Wise Owl ! Fed up to the teeth!”
“Come on EVERYBODY! Simon! You’re trying to under-mine the fun we could all be having. If you ruin OUR GAME, I for one, will never speak to you again!”
“That’s it! You tell him Lizzie!” shouted The Stirrer.
“We’re all fed up with you STUPID SIMON! STUPID SIMON! STUPID SIMON!” Screamed Bossy Boots soon accompanied by the whole shooting match.
“Wise Owl! Help me. Help me! How did I EVER get into this mess?”
“We ALL contributed to making this mess Simon, and now, to get out of it, we have to listen deeply and not be distracted by any of that mob. You’ll have to just let them carry on their game of glamourizing their solidarity in dis-ease, death and spiritual emptiness. Of course they’ll do everything they can, use every trick in the book to try and stop us really teaming up together but our real lasting health depends on us enjoying a real honest relationship.”
“I don’t know what that word ‘relationship’ means Wise Owl.”
“That’s because you’ve been blindly wandering around in the under-whirld Simon. You must real-eyes for your Self that what is called ‘The World’ is really a conned-senses invention using imagination controlled by sub-conscious language concepts. Consensus mind IS the under whirld. A condition of soul-sleep but I’m not saying this because I’m trying to construct in your mind the idea that I’m The Master. I’m saying this because I know there is such a BEING.
I’m in between that Being and you Simon. Yes, I’m in between ANY body and NO body.”
“That’s extraordinary Wise Owl.”
“Yes it is Simon. All the others-without exception-are obsessed with trying to be SOME-body even though in reality this is impossible. Any-body who is fuelling this process of trying to be some-body , is feeding a demonic activity. The activity of destroying their own possibility of taking part in the healing of this mad mind. A conned-senses mind which is very busy torturing this life-giving mysterious planet.”
“Come on EVERYBODY! Don’t let Big Head corrupt Simple Simon! Come on! Grab Simon! Grab him! Come on! Ring-a-ring-rosies, a pocket full of posies, A-tishoo, A-tishoo, we ALL FALL DOWN!!!!”
“Wise Owl, I’ve got to confess that I’ve been trying to BE SOMEBODY all my life,” exclaimed Simple Simon crawling out from under the pile of sweating flesh.
“Of course you have,” sighed Wise Owl. “You’ve been trying to be Brainy Bonce The Mad Professor, Reliable Ronnie, Smart Alec, Clever Dick, Romeo, Speedy Gonzalez, Pious Pete, Lord Muck , The Beak, Saintly Jesus, Peaceful Buddha, Shiva Guru, The Dashing Tycoon, The Wild Artistic Thinker, Honest Harry and of course Wise Owl.”
“That’s right and when I got thwarted I’d immediately become Doubting Thomas, Dog in The Manger, Scrooge, Greedy Guts, Dennis The Menace, Bully Boy, Desperate Dan, Billy Liar, Roger The Dodger “
“And Cowardy Custard,” added Wise Owl peering at Simon over his horn-rimmed glasses.
“I hate to admitting to being HIM Wise Owl. It’s so degrading.”
“O but there’s far worse Simon. There’s Jack the Ripper and Judas The Traitor O YES! But you’ve already fallen asleep again and so you’ve forgot that actually you aren’t ANY OF THESE characters.
In your sleep you imagined that you could choose to be this one and not that one but no sooner you assume that you’re any one of them then you’ve actually opened your soul to be possessed by ALL OF THEM! This is because in assuming you are any one of them, you’re assuming that you are not who you are! And once you deny who you really are, why you’ve got a shifting soggy marshland for a mind! Then within that miasma one mirage willy-nilly follows another.”
“Come on EVERYBODY, we’ll get them this time! Ring-a ring-a roses, a pocket full of posies, A-tishoo, A-tishoo, we ALL FALL DOWN!! Come on Bully Boy, give Simon a punch in the gob. Make him scream for mummy. Come on Simon, join the gang and leave that Swanker to his own weird ways.”
“Don’t even LOOK to see who said that Simon,” cut in Wise Owl.” “You’re hungry, right?”
“Starving!”
“But no whirldly pie will satisfy your need but you have to see that for your Self.”
“I think I see that!”
“That’s not good enough Simon. You’ve got to be 100% sure. Completely CLEAR on this issue.”
“How did you become so clear on this point Wise Owl?”
“I’m not going to give you a pedigree to justify my demand that YOU BE 100% CLEAR on the structure of the whirld. You’re starving and I of course can relate to that condition because I know why you’re starving. So LISTEN CARE-FULLY. I’m starving as well. And what I need to nourish me is YOUR ATTENTION. Now that of course is what all the others want and that’s what they’ve been getting from you but in truth you’ve not been FREELY GIVING to them. Basically you’ve been ‘TRICKED INTO GIVING’. You’ve been drained by them, ripped off, because actually none of them are real. They’re stale attitudes and therefore they can’t give anything. They’re forms of fear, and you’ve been caught in this mad ring-a-ring-of-roses game in which your mind has been used as a factory to manufacture new forms for fear to use to enable it to enter into this world which has therefore become more and more dominated by demonic strategies and behaviour.
And so you’ve ended up without the free use of your own mind since it is now fully employed camouflaging the enemies of truth.
And also your MIND, dear reader, has become occupied by an invading army and they’ve pressed ganged you into messing for them!
And so, according to your performance, you’ve been ‘rewarded’ or punished and you totter on un-certainty hoping for that dreamed-of moment when you’ll be given that special pie which will satisfy your gnawing need.
But the only pie they can ever offer you, is all-ways a crust surrounding fear-filled deadness. Empty fear-filled lies. That’s the only ‘food’ this demonic psychic whirld can offer. Open your heart and listen to the cacophony. A cacophony of hypocrisy and lies. Their whirld is NOISE. But of course I’m not referring to the Earth which is a scintillating Princess drifting freely through a Kingdom of mysterious possibilities.
The whirld my friend is a whirlwind of error. An interpretation of life projected onto The Earth and then the innocent Earth is RAPED AND EXPLOITED to maintain this horrible profit-obsessed projection. And so, The Earth our Mother, has become a slave of the commercial whirld which is the respectable front for the murderous armies so there are very, very few beings walking on this radiant planet right now who are NOT SLAVES OF THE DEMONIC WHIRLD. Almost all the beings who move about this divine Earth are sleep-walkers. Ghosts of guilt and superficial hope. Fear-drunk fiends yearning to be SOMEBODY.
And because you became so afraid of The Beak, Simon, you ate yourself out with apprehension and became Humpty-Dumpty terrified of your approaching inevitable Fall!
To get you down off your alienating wall you need to give me 100% attention, and anything less than that will mean certain disaster.
So, now that I can feel you at last giving me your un-divided attention, I can give you guidance in return and so you will not feel ripped off by our relationship.”
“So honest relationship only occurs when attention is freely given Wise Owl?”
“Of course. Your life lives through your attention, so if you give your attention to attitudes and respond to them as if they are real what happens is that the energy of your attention MAGNETISES the attitudes, so much so that they seem to be individual ‘conscious Selves’. So you fall asleep to your true nature and end up surrounded by shifting magnetic fields. You dream inside a Dolls House. You get attracted to this and repelled by that. Your psychic experience feels like you’re being knocked about inside a Punch and Judy show. Happiness seems to be a dream that can only happen in the future! You dream of escape through a Goddess or a theme , or, or, or.
My job Simon , is to dis-enchant you. Once you are de-magnetized we can unite our abilities and then together LISTEN TO NO BODY.”
“No Body!?”
“Exactly. The way of truth leads from the heart of confusion which is YOU to NO BODY. To step onto this Holy Path you have to turn away from every temptation to be some-body.”
“I’ve taken the first step and I real-eyes that I’m not better or worse than anybody.”
“Well done Simon. You’re right this is the beginning of walking the way. Now we can attune our Selves to the body-less Being.”
“Can you hear NO-BODY speak Wise Owl?”
“No it’s not possible for me to hear the Nameless One because I have no mind to listen with.”
“No mind ! That sounds dreadful. How come you have no mind Wise Owl?”
“I have no mind because I am not a Being like you. I am your real memory. If you like your real conscience. I can speak and discriminate but we need each other to be able to LISTEN. I live in your heart which up to now you had lost touch with but now there’s been a change of heart in you you find it possible to give me your full attention. Yet you are far from being fully awake so at the moment I’m a temporary character in your dream who will vanish like everyone else in your mind. But I’m not afraid to vanish because I’m not born of fear like every other character who’s been fighting for control of your mind. I’m born of remembrance. Remembrance of bliss. Remembrance of the real world. The real world of love. The real world of true peace. The nourishing peace of paradise.
I’m here to re-MIND you of the reason you are starving!
Everyone trapped within the de-personalizing magnetic fields of this voracious monster called the whirld is starving for LOVE.
And they are starving because they are FEEDING IMAGES with their LIFE. They pour their life into DEADNESS. Yes Simon they’ve been feeding the dead!”
“Why don’t they feed their souls instead feeding the deadness Wise Owl?”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know what the real food is.”
“Exactly AND you didn’t know who your real Self is. So, even if ‘in theory’ you could have discovered the real food, you would have blindly followed the way of the whirld and poured it down the drain of false being.”
“So this is a dream and all the characters in my mind including the character I imagine I am I’ve constructed. All except you!”
“Yes Simon I don’t actually live in your ‘mind’. I live in your heart which is the link with your true mind. Your true mind does not belong to this whirld. It belongs to a true world which it is possible we will enter into TOGETHER as one.”
“Another world! That sounds daunting Wise Owl.”
“That’s because you’re still speaking from a viewpoint held WITHIN your mind. Come on my friend, you must be honest instead of speaking from an old position! I have almost come to end of my speaking. Let us together GO INSIDE and deeply feel the peace. For there in the nourishing silence we will be able to starve to death all the false characters in your mind. We’ve got work to do!”
“I just had a glimpse of what you mean. Just then as you said the word ‘work’ I got a sick feeling. Immediately I saw that this ‘feeling’ was not a demonstration of my true Self, but was a typical re-action from one of my parasitical lodgers. It was a Lazybones reaction affiliated to Clever Dick Smart Alec and Roger the Dodger. In fact none of them WANT TO WORK! No wait a moment it’s not that they don’t want to work. It’s ME! All these characters are my EXCUSES for NOT WORKING FOR NO-BODY. Because if I work for no-body none of these parasites could feed off my life and they would starve into non-existence.”
“And all of them Simon, are disguises for the idea or image of your Self.”
“You mean Wise Owl, that if I’d not been renting out my mind to the image of Self’, I would not have fallen spiritually asleep and let all those parasites live off me. They’re mouthpieces for this dumb idiot I’ve invented called ME!”
“You’ve got it. It would be wise from now onwards to treat your mind as your Self and then treat all the other ‘voices’, viewpoints, and attitudes as unwanted guests.”
“I get it. I simply stop feeding them with my attention.”
“And they’ll ALL DIE and vanish forever including what you imagine is me and what you previously thought was you”.
“So that’s the meaning of the action of Christ chasing the traders out of The Temple. The Temple is a symbol for my real Self the true mind. The money dealers are a symbol like the pie man who offers what appears to be good food which later turns out to contain a load of parasites which occupy the mind and demand to be fed with constant attention. But they not only demand to be fed they actually attempt to sever one’s connection to real LIFE.”
“But you wouldn’t eat their razzle-dazzle pies if you weren’t feeling EMPTY and you wouldn’t be feeling empty if you were AWAKE and feeding off the true Spirit of love and forgiveness.”
“So why does one fall spiritually asleep in the first place Wise Owl?”
“That’s a good simple question Simon, but I’m not in the position to answer that, and even if I could and did, I don’t think the answer would help rather I imagine the answer would offer an opportunity for more controversy, and yet another excuse to fall back asleep! In fact the living answer is you and I listening to NO-BODY.”
“Actually I just had a flash. It’s all a question of IDENTITY. I fell asleep the moment I thought my reality depended on the correct interpretation of reality. The moment I thought my mind was too simple to live in reality! I thought I could not exist without taking in psychic lodgers. Then I ignored the miraculous presence of Being and felt un-real and isolated.”
“O.K Wise Owl, I now SEE the way forward. Wise Owl!? Wise Owl!!?”
Text and image: Neil Oram