Mental manifestations which the ordinary call, evil or ignorant, and the mystics, unenlightened or sleeping, are neither. The most that could be said from a fully informed view is that they are laughable.
To be sane and civilized is to vocally resist that which your thoughts find in error, either factually or morally. Factually covers the sane side, morally, the civilized. The first may bear directly on your survival, the second on your acceptance in the pack. One is essential, the other social and symbolic.
The secret intelligence of those who know-what-is-going-on is not in some supernatural ability to distinguish error from truth, but in their not taking seriously in matters intangible, the notion of error. You are not a fool by being a fool. but from objecting to foolishness and treating it seriously.
(Far, far from routine Mental City Life , and deep into Metaphorville):
God would pay no mind if someone laughed at him or ignored him. But Satan cannot stand it.
Good would resist nothing, but evil must, everything. Hormones have nothing to prove, but
neurons face a never ending scramble for respect.
At a level seldom reached by would-be travelers, the struggle is not between being asleep and being awake. But between seriousness and foolishness, and while it has been clearly well spelled, verbally above – it is quite tricky to realize for yourself. Which is which?
…No reason however, not to offer one additional hint:
Anything that any thought in you says is serious – is ridiculous and not worth you resisting or objecting to…but if you do, then you are ridiculous and living in a dream.
J.