Coin of the realm

When a man loses his fear of pain, he stops craving pleasure. Freedom from one is freedom from the other. Pain and pleasure are back to front, front to back. One is both.

Flat on my back

Let’s view our thoughts from a distance, with the non-reactive interest of a nephrologist surveying a cloudscape. What he sees is, well, what he sees. Here comes a cumulonimbus. There goes a cumulonimbus.

Boom! (2)

To break our attachment to our thoughts, we should not engage with them. What’s required is that we cultivate a certain aloofness, a majestic indifferency to their false urgency and howls for attention.

UFOs

We are gradually ceding control to a vast and insinuating intelligence. Being artificial, it’s cold. Take the growing raft of UFO sightings. They conjure no warmth, no friendliness. It’s like we’re being probed.

Between the poles

Over-the-top praise casts a shadow: under-the-table aspersion. The stoic practices indifference to both.