Although you normally have no way of grasping it
(since you can’t get outside of it to see it for how it is):
your consciousness is like a box,
large enough to handle the everyday matters that concern ordinary humanity,
but a few people find it inadequate, and discover that all sides of it can be
pushed outward so that what it can handle is expanded:
this is the process known colloquially as:
waking up, achieving enlightenment, being liberated.

“I despise getting old,” said one man, “but not for the ordinary reasons;
what bothers me is that I cannot tell if I am becoming more awake and understanding
of life, or just automatically caring less and less about what goes on in life,”
and an acquaintance responded:
    “Well, whichever it is  --  it wears well on you.”
“But that’s not the point; what I’m noting is just the opposite from...no!  --  wait:
it’s more like sideways from what you said.”
For the certain man there is no excusing: not-grasping-what-you're-doing
even if it is something you’ve been wanting to do.
    (“Well, no wonder this, waking-up thing is so popular!”)

Something ordinary consciousness never gleans is that all talk about yourself
takes up room that could be used for you actually being yourself,
and thus expanding the boundaries of  your consciousness;
the words: “me & I” occupy a specific space in your consciousness wherein can be nourished an understanding that totally surpasses any available to men’s mundane “me’s & I’s" that would result in a more complete and satisfying you.
For the few: this standard trade off of: talking-about-myself
in exchange for me not investigating the potential of producing a different self
is not even close to equitable.

The sure way to tell you are in a constricted state of consciousness (a normal state)
is that whatever subject comes to mind  --  you instantly see the problems with it.

One man views the opinions put out by his normal state of consciousness as being: crash dummies.

A sage who was dying, but never mentioned it was asked:
“I know you’ve said that talking about an illness makes it worse,
but what harm could come from you talking about your condition now?”
    “Oh! --  you wouldn’t believe.”

To be of ordinary consciousness is to allow collective humanity to assist,
participate-in, if not totally dominate all your non essential decisions in life;
this gives needed comfort and security to ordinary men,
but is to the few: the very reality of: being asleep, unenlightened, captive.

Just as fighting with the cop trying to arrest you is to miss the point
(since it is collective humanity who is actually doing it),
it likewise is misdirected effort to wrestle with any of the particular thoughts
that life runs through collective humanity and the city part of your mind.

A man said: "Some things can only be understood by experiencing them,"
his half brother jumped in: "And the exceptions to this are?...."

Thank God For Something!
Imagine how good dead thinkers must feel to be quoted extensively.

Same as the stock market is just gambling embossed with an illusion of reason,
so are the stock ideas that appear in your mind;
ideas in circulation with the collective have, to routine men,
a patina of importance which the awakened eye sees as unwarranted.
The only thoughts you can be certain are not rigged are those original with you.
(The certain man’s ideas are like exclusively, in-house, IPO’s.)

A man proffers:
“One neat feature of having a multitude of ills (and thus a multitude of pills)
is that engaging in the extensive morning ritual of taking them all makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something regardless of how the rest of your day turns out,”
and his brother injected:
    “Sort of like what thinking about the ideas you hear from other people
      does for your everyday mind.”

Another chap says he is partially convinced of a certain notion that has come to him:
that if you never allow the idea of death into your consciousness  --  you will never die, (and of even greater importance):
if you never let the idea of: being-asleep into your mind  --  you never will be.

Two Conversations (And What Turns Out To Be): A Soliloquy.
“You will never fully awaken without forgiving man for being man.”
    “But how do you accomplish that?”
“By realizing that man is man."

“Do you regret the fact that by realizing what is going on,
you (for instance) lost the comfort that religion gives to ordinary men?”
    “No, because knowing what’s going on means more to me than such comfort.”

In a musing mood one day, a son asked a father:
“Have you most informed me  --   or entertained  me?” --
then instantly slapped himself smartly for again confusing the two.

Noted a father to a son:
“Beyond all the metaphysical hoopla (as entertaining as that can be),
waking-up, being enlightened, liberated, etc. is simply:
making your consciousness more expansive than it would be if you were not making the effort.
(And of course from that comes: being asleep, in the dark, and normal [we should add] equals:
your consciousness not  being as big as it could be at every moment.)”
The lad mentalated on this………then asked:
“So what is the purpose of all the mystical hocus pocus that has always surrounded this activity?”