If The Following Were True,
It Would Totally Explain, In A Startling New Way,
Everything You Need To Know Concerning The Serious, Critical Views Of Life
So Common To Man:

One man, to keep himself alert and on track,
pretends to himself that everything other people say that annoys him
they do so solely for that purpose,
and although this may sound simply fanciful at first,
be assured that for the few, it can be a most potent, eye opening tool.
Try it on yourself:
every time you are suddenly alert enough again to come-to-yourself mentally,
and realize that your thoughts were again, just then,
operating in their automatic mode, and making critical comments about
some other human’s thoughts, and treating it all quite seriously,
say to yourself:
    I am the only person in the world who takes what they say seriously;
   everyone else is playing with my mind and laughing at me --
   constantly saying things which they do not mean,
   just to watch a gullible idiot like me take them seriously and get upset.

If you do not understand that this could literally be happening –
and that if it were, you would have no way of ever realizing it,
then you do not have even a scrap of a good suspicion regarding the
bottom-of-the-barrel role  thought plays in the thing humans call their life.
 
 

The temperamental mind cannot grasp that thoughts are fungible;
life has men continually critiquing the contents of their thoughts
rather than studying the thinking process itself.

Life clearly has no interest in men waking up to what is actually going on,
(random example): life moves men to scrutinize and criticize the programs on TV, giving no attention to the effect television transmission itself has on the brain regardless of content, (same with writing, and conversation).

What matters in man’s second reality is always the vehicle --  not the cargo;
always the medium, (which is always thought),
and not what the thoughts seem about.

You dream in your mind not because of what you dream about –
but because ordinary consciousness has no story telling resources of its own,
and constantly looks without.

You dream because your thoughts look away;
you come out of the dream by redirecting your attention,
searching for thoughts within --  which are unique --  not fungible.
 
 

A visitor appeared at a man's residence and said:
“I want to invite you to a party at my place,”
and the man said he would be pleased to attend and the visitor then said:
“But let me warn you about a few things:
it can get pretty noisy, with all sorts of meaningless chattering going on,"
which the man said would be alright;
"And sometimes heated discussions will break out,"
which the man said would not bother him;
"And sometimes this leads to a sense of confusion sweeping over things,"
which the man said would not be surprising;
“And there may be drugging going on --  and over indulging of many varieties,”
which the man said was okay by him:
“And it is quite possible that a fight may break out,”
and the man shrugged his understanding of such things;
“And before it is over, there will probably be some sexual activity,”
to which the man smiled and nodded his acceptance --   then asked the visitor:
     “What time should I arrive?”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter,” he replied,  “There will only be you and me.”
 
 

Is the best way to represent reality by metaphor --  or is it the only way?

The fact that reality seems best represented by metaphor and symbol
should suggest something regarding the nature of what men’s minds call reality.