Ignore time, for now. Ignore history, material. There. Did you just experience a thought? And in perception above all be honest. Don’t think about what that means—isn’t there an experience of credulousness at the idea of experiencing a thought? Stop. Stay with that creduluosness, that perception of belief through its possibility. I’m serious here; this is just your internal monologue. Having perceived belief, then, why would we not believe? Having perceived self-consciousnesses in conflict in the process of belief, why would we not believe in external consciousnesses? Having believed in external consciousnesses why would we not perceive them? And in perception above all be honest: have you noticed? They are trying to meet us too. Other consciousnesses, with their inevitable differences (being, after all, not-self), are interested in us, in we, in ours, in I. Fuck! Goddam! We are pressing into each other! And pleasure exists, and we and other I’s can collaborate to make what is best and most beautiful—we can touch and think and cook and sing and dream. And hold on to that! Hold on to that as you learn more about this real reality, take for granted its sufferings and impossibilities, and retreat even to ways in which to see the world as not-world, as other, as not-self, to separate self from other so as to partition pain. That the world is real and us and beautiful and we can help make it more beautiful is the greatest truth, the joy that holds up the sky, that lets us measure pain by its distance and love by its appearance.