In the king’s army,
one man was deployed as a communications & data processor in a specialized tank;
it was unique in that his only view of the world outside was through a periscope.
The mechanics of the vehicle were complex beyond his understanding,
and even though his output often seemed to influence the tank’s activity,
he did not know who was actually in control of its physical movements;
someone in there with him had to be, since it clearly was not him,
but he had never seen anyone else;
he just did his job, and beyond that,
it was as though the tank had a life of its own, (in a manner of speaking).
 
 

The electronics keeping watch on the outside world ran constantly,
even when he slept,
but most of what it registered was either irrelevant or redundant to info already on file, so much of his time seated at the screen, eye on the periscope,
was spent day dreaming;
he technically could claim to, be-on-duty, and when the tank did enter
threatening conditions, he would instantly come to full alert,
and give all of his attention to the situation,
but such times were infrequent,
and the man’s musing eventually took an unexpected turn.
 
 

He began to imagine himself out of the tank, and free  --   on his own,
in spite of the fact that no one ever leaves the king’s service alive;
everyone knows: once in  --  always in  --   and yet  --  he had such a dream.
 
 

Although he had nothing by which to compare it  --  life inside the tank was not bad,
that is to say: he suffered no endemic physical ills from being there;
what bothered him was the mental fatigue caused by his confinement thereto  --

Since he had no contact with whoever was in the vehicle with him,
running its mechanical operations,
he had only his counterparts in other tanks with whom to discuss his dream,
and via their communications system, he did so,
and discovered that most of them were uninterested in the matter, and would generally parrot words right out of the handbook they were all given when inducted,
which mainly consisted of inspirational sounding platitudes
with no experiential significance;
meaningless, rah-rahs for king, country, honor, and like that.
 

The scant few he did find in other vehicles who seemed to recognize, and empathize with his frustration, and share his dream of a life outside the tank,
proved to have no better notion of how this might be accomplished than did he,
(truth be told, most of them sounded like they were living too much in a private dream world
to ever be of any practical assistance anyway), but still  --
they were the only ones he had to even talk to about the matter,
and for quite a while  --   talk he did --  for that was all he knew to do:
talk and dream, (when not fully engaged in his official duties).
Dreams of being outside the tank --  free to go wherever he wanted;
not stuck helpless inside a mechanical vehicle whose life, by its very nature,
is plodding and unimaginative,
whereas he had a mind --   wherein he could soar to far away places,
and picture experiences never to be known, inside the tank.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

As old as is the notion among an always present few,
of a man being able to change the workings of his mind,
is the idea that such would be, if not accomplished, at least encouraged by:

You must think about something;
regardless of anything you want, plan or do  --  your brain will think;
you must think about something  --   how to deal with the situation? –
that is the question,
(ordinary people obviously do not, “deal” with it --  they ignore it, that is,
their brains do not see this as a, “situation” --  a “problem” to be solved; only for the few is the question operative).
 

The full recognition of the dichotomous situation of you being an unrestricted mind confined to a strictly structured body,
is a liberating experience no words can touch;
it does not produce a feeling of resignation and defeat  --  quite the opposite;
the complete realization that the thing in you that is thinking about all of this
is totally and forever trapped in there and is never going anywhere,
and that the rest of you, (your body and non thinking brain areas),
lives always and only in-the-now,
and cannot be made more awake or further enlightened,