(Fans of enlightenment who have never been in the game believe that the state is something that is: experienced once – permanently in place!)
Unwaveringly do minds weave dream scenes of a man-with-the-understanding being totally and forever free from the mundane restraints of mortal life and the routine restrictions of the flesh. Ah, those most excellent dreams; a man of enlightenment walks on water, heals the sick, reads minds, predicts the future, is recognized and honored wherever he goes, and lives naked in the snow – suffering ne’er a sniffle. But above all, their conception of an enlightened man is one who never ever again feels as crummy as they do, (whatever be their particular form of crumminess).
Such people are evidencing no more insight than run-of-the-mill clothed primates. They are still listening to their own, it-was-here-when-I-moved-in consciousness, which relentlessly speaks of itself as being something apart, and separate from the body in which it resides. It thinks about itself aloud, in your brain, as being something entirely ON ITS OWN. After all, it can think about Monet….or it can think about Degas…while the lungs can only breathe air, and not carbon monoxide.
Because of mind’s ability to think about this, or to think about that, it conceives of itself as being literally free, (as compared to the remainder of man), but never considers that its freedom is confined to meaningless areas. You may certainly enjoy paintings, and The Impressionists, and personally favor Monet above the rest, but such preferences are vacuous, (particularly if compared with what enters your lungs). Even if such mental prejudices are taken solely on their own, they are still without literal significance in a man’s ability to physically live out his days.
The public, visible self of a man who loves art may be based on his, thinking-of-himself-to-be-a-recognizable-man-of-the-arts. Regardless of his height or complexion, his mind may easily believe that he is the cultured, genteel persona he displays verbally, in dress, and in demeanor, regardless of what contrary feelings may, in him, permanently reside.
Not all ventriloquist dummies dressed in tails are operated by gentlemen.
J.