Even if you "knew the truth"  --   and it was critical -- 
it would do you no good. 
It would have no value, it would be of no benefit, and your knowing it would have no effect on your life, or understanding.

In that you and I are instantly dancing in a world of words I obviously am limited to same, so do take note that via rhetoric I am playing loosely with reality in my use of the term, "Even if you knew the truth, " (which ordinary people perforce do all of the time except they take no notice thereof whereas for this to be worthwhile, you must).  Although the truth & reality of what is going on in life is not something that you ever, "know ",  thought has no other immediately available way by which to otherwise express its observations and thus such terminology is its lingua franca and while specious, we all understand what the words are attempting to say.      So,  even considering it on the basis that you could, in thoughts, via words, "know the truth ", then reconsider my opening comment:
Even if you did, "know the truth"  --  and it was critical  -- it would do you no good. (So with my caveat in mind, let us move on to the focus of today's dispatch.)

Every person believes that they know some truth about life, and the truth that they know is always critical. 

(Take another moment to recall my model of conscious thought that presents its raison d 'être as  an enhancement to survival via it being a problem solver and manipulator of the environment.  This is simply the picture I conceived of which I personally found superior and more explanatory than any other I ever discovered.  I encourage you to find your own, for no model of anything is ever as enlightening as one that comes to you as the result of your own efforts to see and understand.  So for the moment we will employ mine which remains quite valid and helpful in this certain enterprise.  But I offer an ongoing challenge and encouragement for you to consider all of these matters for yourself and see for yourself whether my model is pragmatically accurate or not.) 

By any reasonable view, thought 's primary talent is in figuring out ways to increase the chances of a man 's survival, (and a corollary to that being to make his life more comfortable), and being put in such a position, the only things that truly attract thought 's attention are things it sees as potentially improvable vis a vis enhancing the odds of surviving.  The first time that thought 's attention is drawn to matter X, it sees X simply for whatever X happens to be.  But if thought 's attention is drawn again to matter X  it is because thought has concluded that alterations could be made to matter X that would be beneficial to man 's comfort & survival.  Thus, by my instant model, thought never sees anything as it is after its first contact with the thing, for if thought has sufficient interest in the thing to later look at it again it is because thought has decided that the thing can be changed in some way that will be of benefit to man, or at least to the man having the thought.

This view is a critical view.
What this thought "knows " about the thing that has drawn its attention is a critical knowing.
Survival-related thought only thinks about things that it believes can be and possibly should be changed.
       It is thus critical of the thing 's present state.

It is by the conscious thought automatically operating constantly in our brain that we enjoy the life, the luxuries and the longevity we do today  --  but  --
look for yourself.   How much of your thoughts ' time is spent pondering survival enhancing possibilities, or threats thereto?  I challenge you to look into the matter for yourself and then deny what I say, (and what I say is that), most of what your thoughts talk about have no direct connection to matters of survival, nor any meaningful significance.  The thoughts & resulting mental pictures you are privy to, moment-by-moment throughout your life are simply what thought does in its spare time.  It is what thought does when it is not involved in survival significant problem solving.

And you can look upon much of thought 's play as being, "serious play" in the sense that the inner scenes it may be engaged in which appear irrelevant to instant circumstances can yet be seen as thought preparing itself for future contingencies by reviewing scenes of past behaviors, and by trying out potential future ones in the safety of the brain.  In the ongoing, subtle process, thought imagines how such-and-such a past event would have turned out if you had done or said this particular thing rather than that particular thing.  And thought will then take these reenacted scenes and its imagined, refurbished words or deeds and project them into future circumstances wherein the newer version might prove more profitable. 

In other words; even when thought is apparently working at its most trivial, meaningless and asleep level it can actually be a fighter-in-training, and in its case, shadow boxing is not the exercise of choice --  criticism is.

Thought in a man's brain, for the purpose of improving the future, is constantly engaged in a critique of both the man 's behavior and that of other men as well. 

 No one who looks at, or objectively considers what I have said can fail to recognize its validity, but what is its relevance to a man trying-to-rub-the-gunk-out-of-his-eyes & get-to-the-bottom-of-things?

Thought being critical of certain physical conditions which it sees could be changed to enhance life & survival is one thing, but when a man's thoughts have no such immediate task and begin to engage in, "pretend" and "play acting" so as to keep their problem solving skills honed, they will eventually become entangled in mental scenarios & conversations that have only a tenuous significance to the individual man's life. 

Thoughts so engaged is the basis for some men judging themselves to, "Be asleep, and living in a dream"

Even if you did, "Know the truth about you, life and everyone else",  and the truth turned out to be critical,  which it would be,
then what you did know would be a kind of knowledge that did not tell you anything.  Everyone, sleeper & inchoate mystic alike already have an abundance of critical knowledge about everything, and to no enlightening end. 
                              Don 't you begin to get it?!

If a "knowledge" is critical -- 
--  no matter its content  --
then it is not really "knowledge"  -- 
           --  it is criticism.
 

No criticism will awaken anyone.
Criticism will assure that you sleep.
Criticism is necessary for normal thought to operate.
Normal thought will not awaken you.
 

Even though I began today 's news by noting that it is really misspeak to speak of, "Knowing" the truth that is the Awakening, Enlightenment & Liberation, still until you achieve such a consistent condition you are left primarily in the hands of thought and ideas to help you finally find your own way, and I tell you plainly, simply and directly that there are no critical thoughts of any sort, stripe or variety that will do anything to your mind but keep it asleep and confused.  There is absolutely, positively NO critical thought of any kind that will in any way ever help open your eyes to what is really going on.

If, "The truth" was a thought, 
then a "critical thought " would be its literal antithesis,
but yet note, based upon my demonstrable model herein employed, critical thought IS thought 's natural approach both, (you might say), when it is on-the-job, and  simply goofin' off.  Thought is by its very nature and purpose --  critical, and yet, "critical " is precisely what kills the cat of awakening.

A perceptive man will not find today 's news merely a philosophical treatise, but rather a most practical working tool toward that certain goal.

It offers a simple, and simply magnificently efficient approach to forging ahead with a minimum of wasted effort.

                      Forge on.

                                   Jan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

There is an addendum below, but let me strongly urge you to chew on the above for a while before reading it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Addendum: How do you fit in the above with your criticism of you being asleep?