A son asked a father:
“Pa pa, of all the thousands of stories and stuff you’ve made up to make-the-point, which are the least favorite?”
    “That’s easy, the two which also happen to be my best.
One was a tale about a so-called, mystical teacher who, on his death bed,
called for all of his followers, and said to them:
'Knowing that I am dying compels me to confess to you:
although I teach it  --  I am not awake --  I have no idea what the term even means;
as long as I can remember I have wanted to be the center of attention,
and initially tried to get into show business, but turns out I have no talent;
then I stumbled across this, wakening-from-a-dream thing,
and one talent I do have is talking  –  so  --
after reading a couple of books about it  --  before you know it –
I’m out lecturing about it and sizable numbers of people are showing up,
and getting completely captivated by what I’m saying --
but I have never known what I was talking about:
I had no enlightened, awake teacher or instructions  --
I just made up all the stuff I’ve ever told you.
 

So now   --  you know the truth.
Get out of here quick! --   forget everything I’ve ever said and told you to do,'
and all his students began to scream, curse and cry as they fled the room –
all except one guy who just kept standing there,
and the dying, self confessed, sham mystic said to him:
'Didn’t you understand what I just said?! --
all of my methods that you’ve been trying to use are fake  --  give it up!'
and the guy rubbed his chin  --  and slowly replied:
'Yeah, I heard you  --  but I’m too close to waking-up to stop now.'
 

And the other least popular of my creations is the story about the man
who proposed the question:
'If you took the general characteristics mystics have always used to describe
an Awakened, an Enlightened man,
and with no study, or effort of any kind simply began acting like a person with those attributes  --  what would be the difference between you and a man actually awake?'”
    “But that's no story  --  that’s something you once said to me!”
“So it is.”
 
 

Everyone loves the past  --
for it is there that even the densest of minds can make things make sense.
 
 
 
 
 

Only those who don’t understand what’s going on make others defend themselves (their interests, their tastes, their ideas) –
shameful  --  pathetic, shameful behavior
in those who profess aspirations to awaken.
 
 
 
 
 

If there is one thing the certain man does not think himself to be it is:
an example to others.
 
 
 
 
 

There is but one type of advice: technical  --
all else is not advice, but ox farts on a summer’s eve.
 
 
 
 
 

Wanting to awaken/achieve enlightenment is wanting to be in control of your mind,  --  at least feeling like you are  --
 which you can do for moments simply by remembering that you want to,
which temporarily stops the normal, automatic running OF  your mind.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Life, through aging, gradually renders you irrelevant beyond your will,
while you can do it to yourself more immediately and profitably by
realizing what is really going on IN life.
 
 
 
 
 

There is behavior and there is thought,
and the two may or may not have any connection.
    Your actions can be stupid, or your thoughts can be.
 
 
 
 
 

Before you can develop a true individual self, and any real depth,
you must first achieve a certain kind of intentional shallowness.

                        P.S. having a self-image and a real individual self are incompatible.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wanting to awaken is the desire for selective neural suicide,
neural abandonment, breach-of-contract.
 
 
 
 
 
 

The certain man only knows for certain that he is one  –
he may see a few others who are apparently also  --   but  --
he only knows for certain that he is.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Original thoughts can excite the certain man in a totally extraordinary way that is not without some metaphorical similarity to sex:
(in a musical context: Berlioz  --  romance; Bird  --  sex.)