At a news stand he picked up a spiritually styled, self-help magazine
with the title of an article therein heralded on the cover: “Pain Without Suffering” --
then laid it back down, saying to it: “Call me when you have one: ‘Pain Without Pain.’”
 
 
 

One man says: “Start treating an otherwise meaningless thing seriously,
and it becomes serious  --  like movies.”
    “How about yourself?” someone asks.
 
 
 

Within the wide scope of advertised products a man realized there were
endless cries of: “Now you can find the right car for you: the right pain reliever:
the right toilet cleaner: the right breakfast cereal,”  and mused:
“Hum! --  the right everything but the one thing I’m after.”
 
 
 

One chap proffers this pondering:
“Why do the ordinary believe that wagging your finger at people,
and sternly delivering bad news makes you seem intelligent? --
better still: why do the ordinary believe that there is anything they can do
that will make them seem intelligent?”
 
 
 

Another Law (At Least By City Custom).
The less you understand about life  --  the more you talk about people.
 
 
 

One man’s recipe: “Never be far from bed, or your head.”
 
 
 

Tip.
If you know the secret phone number to call,
there is a place that will pay you to be quiet.
 
 
 

One man says that debating ideas with others, or just turning them over in
your own head is like a chess game --  he admits he’s not exactly sure how this is so,
since he doesn’t play chess.
("Well in that case: is he even positive that he is  --  oh! -- never mind.”)
 
 
 

Conversation Number Forty Nine.
“Anyone who allows himself to be identified as a: 'spiritual-master'
is unquestionably a fraud.”
    “But such blanket statements do not take into account
      the individual characteristics of the people involved.”
“The people are irrelevant: it is the activity itself that is an inescapable sham:
guaranteed: anything that wants to be known as a bird --  can’t fly.”
 
 
 

One man says he will feel his life was well spent if, at the afterlife, bar of judgment there is but a single charge deemed worthy of being mentioned against him, that of: “Pedestrian habitually darting into traffic.”
 
 
 

The way you get things straightened out is to be a polar bear among bunny rabbits --
in your own nervous system.
 
 
 

One man proclaims: “The best part of achieving Enlightenment
is how much more respectfully people treat you."
(It clearly doesn’t hurt your sense of humor either.)
 
 
 

A father said to a son: “Notwithstanding our many fascinating conversations,
never forget that beyond even the most grandiose words is always the ongoing
crude life of cells, organs and bacteria.”
“How can I?!  --  since they’re the ones that make me say: ‘How can I?!’”
 
 
 

If  (as ‘tis said): the purpose of religion is to give man comfort,
then the purpose of the certain man is to give himself special comfort
by first making himself uncomfortable in a special way.
 
 
 

A son said to a father: “If I knew how we decide  --  I would surely be awake.”
   “Are you waiting for me to dispute that?”
 
 
 

One man thinks that all of our leaders should be gasoline powered  --
“So they can be shut off.”
 
 
 

The Way It Goes Number Sixteen.
The rebel starts out a minority in his own home town territory  --
then gradually turns the situation inside out  --
consuming both himself and all his opposition  --
until nothing is left but what there is.
 
 
 

In the wake-up business there is never any discussion of customer-satisfaction.
 
 
 

Dialogue Number Thirty Three.
“The secret is: Indifference to suffering.”
    “You’re expecting an objection?”
 
 
 

The way you get things straightened out
is to be a lawn mower in a paper flower plant  -- in your own nervous system.
 
 
 

“Garbage in, garbage out” holds true except for a garbage incinerator  --
which is what the certain man’s mind is.
 
 
 

Life In Stone Cold Reality.
If circumstances make it impossible for you to laugh,
the circumstances are that you’re asleep.
 
 

One man often hears the humming of unknown machinery  --  far off in the distance.