Here is my new post-introduction to V6 No2 Kids of Lower Utopia, the second printing. V6 No2 is the beginning of an allegory of (Zen) Non-Dualism that continues on with River (Softdoor's older sister) in V6 No3 Letters from the Front Lines.

You probably have recognized by now that I am not really interested in where comics are. They are for the most part history to me, and "history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake" (Joyce). I am interested in what a comic can be - so I approach it with all the reverence and direct honesty due to an animal of art - which it is. Thus this new introduction: Kids of Lower Utopia V6 No2 - A Post-Introduction

KIDS OF LOWER UTOPIA V6 No2. A POST- INTRODUCTION FOR THIS 2ND PRINTING

(11/11/06) Last night an old friend reminded me of something I once said to him back when we were young voracious seekers. I said, if your God is the last concept who stands at the door of liberation - to total Self Realization - then why worship some generic household brand name, some old hand-me-down approximation, why not worship one of your own creation, one custom fit to the shape and color of your own psyche, (or something like that)? Though I can't remember telling him that, I know I was not just being philosophic, this was what I had done as a kid, which I still hold in me as most sacred, and back then as a guarded secret.

Religions always mistake the finger pointing at God for God. I am essentially an atheist, to me God is the persona of your deepest realization given an anthropomorphic form. But recognizing God as "man made" does not make God any less beautiful and sacred. On the contrary, it frees God (the final concept) from fitting any other criteria other then your own deepest feeling of the sublime. The sublime lives within you, and feeling - which can not be taught - is your only source of That Truth. "The Truth is not any idea beyond all other ideas. The Truth is not an idea at all. The Truth is an experience." -(AM)

So as a child, what my parents called my "imaginary friends," were my Gods. My mother had her Jesus, my father had his Holy Ancestors of western art, and I had TheOtherCat and PapaWolf.

Why these personas? Why this cup? Because they were exactly what I needed. How do we know that they were exactly what I needed? By the fact that they were who came to me. Because that is how it works. And from these two were sent The Witnesses: a menagerie of Godlings who informed my life (all varying personas of the final concept). In the same way that my mother read the hand of Jesus in the minutia of daily life, and spoke to Jesus (her "imaginary friend") in prayer, so I did with PapaWolf, TheOtherCat (BlackAlice), Peter-in-the-rock, Mr. Bones, The Stripped Man, Catfish, Snake, and so on.

The imagination of a child is far stronger then the mutual reality of the world, it is far more potent because a child having just arrived from Pure Reality is still partly of that Reality, a child's mind is still somewhat transparent to it, and effortlessly feels the unlimited-potential alive in everything. Look into the eyes of a calm newborn, that is the very Buddha looking back at you.

Quantum Mechanics tells us that the mutual reality is only an agreed upon illusion imagined and maintained in thought. So …change your thoughts; change your reality. But how do you change your thoughts? You can't change your thoughts on the level of thoughts, that is where all religions fail. If you want to change your thoughts you must go to the root of thoughts. You must ask your self the question: Who is this "I" who wants to know. What is this Awareness that is the witnessing space in which all your thoughts arise? (Always remembering that; "What is perceived can not be the perceiver." -NM )

So let's assume you have puzzled out and realized that the "I" is Being, your essential nature beyond thought, your true Self. There are as many ways (portals) to experiencing your essential nature as there are humans alive to experience. This "I" (I-Am) that You Are, is a true thread take hold and follow it, and it will take you beyond all Gods.

This is The Work. The Work is that of realizing and experiencing your true Self. It takes NO time. Literally! Because your Very Self exists only in the Now, therefore you Are already, you need only realize it. You can not "do" this experience - It is already, you can only allow what is … to be. That is why it is called realization, because you realize that the Truth is who You Are, (that is, when your perception is not clouded by thoughts).

"Thinking is the problem," says Holybean. The mind is a constant montage of useless thoughts, an endless circling of the same desires and fears. But above all the mind fears losing your Attention. The mind can be a wonderful tool but mostly it's not. It is mostly a parasite that stirs your desires and feasts on your fears to keep you trapped in it's dependency, and to keep you from experiencing the liberation of your own true nature, your Very Self.

You are that close.

Thinking is what we are taught when a child first learns language. "Say Dada," and it's all down hill from there. All that is "Dada" has been separated and reduced to a two syllable sound,- and we call this knowledge.

But … it is what is. It is who we are as humanity. And is why we can not live without war and suffering everywhere, "conflict is the nature of the mind" -(ET). So …the question is; are you helpin' or hurtin'? (That's the question you can finally answer without hesitation after your first child is born). The best you can do for the world is to end your slavery to the reactionary nature of the mind, and experience your Self, which is the source of all that humanity feels to be The Good. But that is, of course, only if you have had enough of suffering.

It really just comes down to that, have you had enough? If not …you won't get it, because you need that earnest, almost desperate desire of "enough" to begin the search for your Self. And your Self … is just waiting for you.

This eleven page comic is the story of a woman: River Scout Finnagain who has had "enough," and longs to return to the Gods of her childhood, and the Pure Reality of joy. How does she do that? What does it take to befriend your Self ... again? Nothing but Attention.

Thanks for looking, your Brother Toc.