Reverse alchemy

 

We can transform life and the world around us into something small, stupid and totally meaningless. “There is not much point with anything. Life sucks and then you die. Nothing but money counts, really.” However, it is possible, I think, to see that this is not the reality as it is, but a conditioned habitual way of looking at it, an idea of what the world is like.

Sometimes we have to make ourselves completely stupid in order to fit into a group. We have to adjust to others, at work or in school, and because it is not that easy to find a new job or a new school we have to a put up with a lot. So the stupidity gets reinforced and after a number of years we don't know about anything but stupidities. Life and the world has been completely transformed into something totally stupid.

 

Consciousness; awareness, attention, the sense of I am, the observer and the observed, all of it vanish at night and comes back in the morning. A doctor can put you to sleep in a second before an operation. And then he wakes you up again after the operation. A good hypnotist can do the same thing only by using words. Consciousness is very flimsy.

Consciousness comes and goes; presence, the now, awareness, attention, awakenings, thoughts, discipline, love, joy, suffering, the sense of I am, meaning, everything comes and goes.