Pay no attention to that curtain.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Pay no attention to that network of conditioning behind the man.

Pay no attention to that consciousness behind the network of conditioning.

Pay no attention to that boundless emptiness behind the consciousness.

Pay no attention to that Supreme Godhead behind the emptiness.

Pay no attention to that mirror behind the Supreme Godhead.

Don’t pull that thread.

Don’t open that can of worms.

Don’t follow that Yellow Brick Road.

For if you do,

the whole game will be spoiled.

All your drama and conflict.

All your passions and projects.

All your beliefs and identities.

This whole Broadway play you have staged for yourself

will be tossed out the window and forgotten

with all the reverence and ceremoniousness

of a wad of chewing gum flicked onto the freeway

as you remember what you really are,

what you have always been.

You try to please your parents,

then you learn that’s an impossible endeavor.

You try to fill the parents-shaped hole in your heart,

then you learn it will never be filled.

You chase after wealth,

then you learn it will never be enough.

You chase achievements and impressive experiences,

then you learn they will never satisfy.

You chase after God,

then God starts chasing you.

You storm the gates of Heaven,

finally done with all this nonsense,

ready to become a Fully Realized Buddha™️,

then the one doing the storming

turns out to be a character in a video game

being played on a beautiful summer day

by a child with popsicle-stained lips

who simply sets down the controller,

gets up,

and walks outside.

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22 responses to “Pay No Attention”

    1. Thanks.
      You’ve helped bring this back up in my consciousness, where it rests.

  1. Roundball Shaman Avatar
    Roundball Shaman

    “Pay no attention…”
    .
    Trying to make a better world? That’s tough, and people of the World don’t want to do tough things. But “Pay no attention?” Now your talking. That’s something we can do. That’s something we ARE doing. With our eyes and heads buried into a small slave box in our hands that drains our humanity from our bodies and souls every minute we use it…
    .
    Paying no attention to the ongoing robbery of the public treasury and the creation of uncounted amounts of fake money used for the real. Paying no attention to how inhumanely we are acting towards each other. Paying no attention to the Divine Calling that was placed upon us at birth that we have swatted aside like an annoying fly that won’t leave us alone. Soon, our transformation will be complete. We will be fully-machine-like. We will have fully renounced our humanity and enthusiastically embraced the Borg World being thrust upon us daily by power-mad monsters walking around today with huge hard-ons because they are so turned on by our acceptance of their abuse.
    .
    Pay no attention? Of course we won’t. Machines don’t think for themselves.

    1. exactly sarcastic as i felt…
      i had just finished saying that this so-called “consciousness” was prob’bly better said as
      awareness. be aware, awake. be ware. be wary.
      not weary.
      stay alert. this is a world classroom takeover..disaster capitalism to say the least.
      like a conspiracy laying await…in da Bushes…the second of which
      called this serpent “the Ownership Society.”
      Uber alles “useless eaters” as henry da K put it….

  2. “…a child with popsicle-stained lips

    who simply sets down the controller,

    gets up,

    and walks outside.”

    Evocative image, but also amorphous, apparently meant to be. What is the “outside” into which the popsicle-stained child walks? Words like “enlightenment,” taken from the East, get us no closer to an answer than words like “salvation,” taken from the West. It is here, I think, in making more clear and compelling what this “outside” is, which one can enter only from the “inside,” that much work remains for us to do.

  3. Poetry only hints at what is beyond it, which can never be said directly. And thus the Secret protects it’s self from prying eyes too clouded to withstand the Light. As Emily Dickenson understood very well……

    Tell all the truth but tell it slant,
    Success in circuit lies,
    Too bright for our infirm delight
    The truth’s superb surprise;

    As lightning to the children eased
    With explanation kind,
    The truth must dazzle gradually
    Or every man be blind.

    1. Always loved that poem. Thanks for posting it here.

  4. Good morning Mrs. Johnstone. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to entertain the gods, nothing more. This message will self destruct shortly following cognizance of same in order to protect the innocent. Well done good and faithful servant and thank you for being a team player. The rest you know is the know you rest. Period. That smell? Why popcorn of course. The bets are all down but the House doesn’t lose – ever. Note: Poetry is the language of the gods but what they really appreciate is rhyme, the trickier the better. Let the games begin.

  5. Thank you, you beautiful artist shaman seer. Don’t let that go to your head, just continue being beautiful.

  6. just.plain.silly

  7. Paying attention to ones thoughts is an act of self awareness.
    ‘Watching’ thoughts without judgement is form of ablution
    Stillness is the result.
    Stillness is the way.

  8. the whole human race except a mere handful…i dunno, poets, philosophers, but free thinkers enduring so muck antagonism from the stallions of the status quo…are oblivious, by fear, by ignorance, by self-doubt, by poverty, by exhaustion, by loneliness, and by fake impotence and by wealth, by selfishness, and comfort zones immersed in DEAD ZONES…
    i despair even as i know we are at major risk of killing off Future Generations.
    i suggest we start copying and pasting everything Caitlin writes to our friends and foes.
    and add to it until more people think like this than don’t even think at all.
    see this film: it’s free.
    http://johnpilger.com/videos/the-coming-war-on-china-chinese-subtitles-

  9. Magnificent, Ms Johnstone, wonderful and magnificent!

  10. Don’t follow that Yellow Brick Road.
    For if you do,
    the whole game will be spoiled.
    All your drama and conflict.
    All your passions and projects.
    All your beliefs and identities.
    This whole Broadway play you have staged for yourself
    will be tossed out the window and forgotten
    with all the reverence and ceremoniousness
    of a wad of chewing gum flicked onto the freeway
    as you remember what you really are,
    what you have always been.
    — Caitlin Johnstone
    .
    We can find glimpses of that in the most unexpected places…
    .
    Merlin: “Now, first of all lad, we’ve got to get all these medieval ideas out of your head. Clear the way for new ideas. Knowledge of man’s fabulous discoveries in the centuries ahead. Now that’ll be a great advantage, boy.”
    .
    Archimedes the Owl: “Advantage, indeed! If the boy goes about saying the world is round, they’ll take him for a lunatic.”
    .
    Arthur: “The world is round?”
    .
    Merlin: “Yes. Yes, that’s right, and it also, uh, goes A-round.”
    .
    Arthur: “You mean it’ll be round someday.”
    .
    Merlin: “No, no, no, it’s round now. Man will discover this in centuries to come. And he will also find that the world is merely a tiny speck in the universe.”
    .
    The Sword in the Stone (1963)

  11. Hydrochloroquine Decalcifies the Pineal Gland > Fluoride and Chlorinated water displace Iodine in the thyroid and pineal glands, disrupting hormones and causing cancer. Another reason the medical mafia hates HCQ, they WANT you sick.
    “WuFlu Bat Stew News for You” > principia-scientific(.)org

  12. My thoughts precisely!
    http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/08/relenquish-citizenship.html
    I was pulling weeds a few days ago when I had the epiphany that all of the features of my “white privilege” were what we called “citizenship” when I was a kid. Citizenship gave us rights to due process, presumption of innocence, a voice in society, and the right and responsibility to act for the good of society, including our best efforts to choose honest and reliable public servants through voting.
    Citizens had very serious discussions about the propriety of things like wars, and the best way to solve societal problems, like racism, and unequal opportunity, and pollution. Citizens voted and got a lot of legislation passed in the 1960s and 1970s, which helped some problems, as intended, and had some unforeseen negative consequences, hurting some unintended victims, and making some corporations surprisingly rich, but…
    That was all very messy, and those who still think they are “Citizens” need to be publicly shamed for their effrontery. Look what they are doing to the descendants of slaves, even though they are also descendants of slaves!
    The real owners want the damned “Citizens” to shut up and quit making problems.
    We have a crisis that requires creating trillions of dollars to be given to the owners again, same as a few months ago, which the “citizens” are responsible to make good on eventually.
    Self-professed “Citizens” are too stupid to understand high finance, and need to get out of the way. “Citizens” should better apologize for things rich white people in America did in the 200 years before they were born, even if their ancestors didn’t come over from Europe until later, and their other ancestors weren’t rich.
    The mass media are working hard to present these interests of the owners to the imagined “citizens” in a way that they can understand. Whether it is all perfectly factual misses the point. It’s what might work, and that’s critical.
    What if all of these “citizens” created a populist-revolt? That would destroy America. What could be worse?!
    Now go back and watch TV, and try to pay attention this time.
    White Privilege is your sin, and you can never be forgiven.
    Listen to the woman of color with the megaphone (in front of those white guys dressed in black).
    Do not pay any attention to the man behind the curtain.

    1. Love this Caitlin. Must meditate on it though.

    2. We should resist using the popular language of “privilege” to describe an individual or group who, while being oppressed, is somewhat less oppressed than another individual or group. It is not a “privilege” to be free from oppression; it’s a basic human right.

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