The never to be forgotten feature of striving for enlightenment is of course,
to condemn yourself when appropriate, and praise yourself when needed.
One state forbids physicians to wear clown costumes while on duty.
To get by in prison you have to be pretentious.
Another state prohibits anyone who talks from being straightforward.
To seem sane in the city you must be fraudulent.
There are but two forms of sincerity possible for creatures with consciousness:
the normal fake kind and the sort an awakened man would employ.
(Perhaps of interest: ordinary people prefer the first variety.)
One day some feathers were talking and one said: “You do realize that the only reason we stick together is that we’re all stuck to the same bird.”
Of biological note: in some quarters neurons are considered superior in intelligence
to skin coverings   (a presumption by no means at this point, universal).

One man (having reached a certain time, if not place in his life) announced:
“I shall, in the remaining days allotted to me, say only that which already I have said.”
Another chap’s strictly private motto is: “I will fight  --  at any cost  --
all tendencies to be normal (that is): to be like I naturally tend to be.”
And there is a certain hermit who, immediately upon awakening each morning,
will say to anyone he finds in bed with him:
“Now what were we talking about last night?” –  then ignore any response.
(Wait – that may should say: “…anyone he finds in head with him.”)
And another guy says: “The great thing about striving for enlightenment is that
you can have-at-it any time you want   --  unless of course there's someone present to stop you.”
ChasingTheThing is the only adventure wherein the knight himself is his only dragon.
    “Is that what so suppresses its popularity?”
Bingo!  –  Sir Faux Foe.
 

The ole man said to the kid:
“The essential requirement to get-ahead is to have a get   –   get it?”
He paused for the lad to pursue this, then added:
“Perhaps from one view: the worst feature of waking up is that
it will never occur unless you want it to.”
    “But even wanting it to is no guarantee it will happen, is it?”
“No, but that still doesn’t change what I just said.
The inescapable basic fact regarding everything that humans do is that
they depend on a man’s desire to do them: eat, fuck, sleep, pray, wake up, et al  –
with some being instinctive  --  and all being instinctive to some.”

There is nothing more crucial to being taken seriously in prison than
being verbally consistent.        (Plus without it, the proverb business would take a real hit.)
 
 
 

(And speaking of such): A Cliché Update.
‘Tis not necessary to be part of the literary life to RE-write history.
 
 
 

Is it not interesting that it is thoughts and words which originally attract one to
the path of enlightenment  –  yet they are also what tells you: “This will never work.”
There is a planet in another galaxy where Morals to stories do not exist;
the consciousness of the creatures there is clearly ahead of those on Earth,
which allows them to have thoughts that are not solely determined by circumstances,
(though don’t forget that all stories about other worlds cannot be substantiated by local standards).
 
 
 

The thing about laying siege to a fortified castle when you have access to
unlimited supplies is that you can wait it out for as long as it takes,
and the thing about being in a fortified castle with access to outside unlimited supplies is that you can hold out as long as it takes.
 
 
 

Realities: The Hard And Soft Of It.
Those still entrapped in primary affairs,
would feed Vivaldi to the bears,
while those whose love is the secondary
will head inland to catch a ferry.
(Now a verse stripped to the bone -- concerning those who have no home.)
“Yay transients!  Hooray for the runaways!   Let’s hear it for the escapees,
then we’ll go eat the scoreboard!                        Yay, yay, yay!    (and like that).”
 
 

Nutritional Update.
In private one guy changed from thinking of himself as struggling to awaken
to picturing an effort to rid himself of all artificial ingredients.
(Some things won't be delivered to prison.)
 
 
 

Graffito discovered in an abandoned cell:
“Stupidity causes death –  but making note of someone’s stupidity
can bring on consequences far worse    (leastwise for the would-be escape).”
 
 
 

Regarding Mental Resources.
For maximum efficiency: one man became his own think tank.
 
 
 

The Local News  --  The Extremely Local.
Every day, one man is his own biggest story;
every day, one man’s inner efforts are the biggest story of any day.
 
 
 

To be-asleep is to think that talk is important to your living;
being mystically asleep is to think that particular talk is,
(from this you can figure out what it is to be awake).
 
 
 

One Uncontrollable Urge Of Conventional Prisoners.
If you don’t know anything special  --  criticize someone you suspect does.
(Seems to really pass the time for such folks.)
 
 
 

With much vigor do ordinary minds embrace the images of the demons they create.
(“Better it be a haint behind the door than a burglar.”)
 
 
 

A man said to a mystic: “I think this, trying-to-wake-up-from-a-dream is just a
self delusional game you people play,” an unfair charge in that it is not much different from the, pretending-to-be-asleep one everybody else plays.
 
 
 

Dating News.
One man is going-steady with himself (that is): when he is really with-himself  –
he is unusually steady      (in a certain sense).
 
 
 

Definition of a hermit,
(and remember: this is just a joke; not a metaphor; much less a symbolic allusion  --  just a joke);
A hermit is a man who has neighborhood concerns down to a minimum,
and do understand that a rebel’s neighbors are the synaptic associations
that formed without his effort and were already there when he first arrived.
 
 
 

(Follow up to a previous story concerning a planet where Morals to stories are not allowed):
In a pristine jungle: The roar of a lion needs no interpretation.
    (“Pa pa: when I grow up can I be pristine?!”
“In our family my boy, the conscious part of the brain realizing its situation
is the way you revert to being untouched          ---        as irrational as that sounds.”)
 
 
 

One man posits, waking-up to be the individual disengaging from
the incessant collective prison unrest.
 
 

Talk.
If you talk about a thing long enough you’ll begin to think that it’s important.
 
 
 

Significance & Speech.
If you think about a thing long enough to realize its actual importance  --
you’ll stop talking about it.