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to the dictates of impulse. A concrete example will make this idea clear. The most elegant policy of the type we’re looking for is the practice of attentiveness. We simply commit ourselves totally to paying careful attention to whatever we’re doing. When we walk, we try to remain aware of every step; when we eat, we are attentive to the handling of knives and forks; and when we’re angry or upset, we remember to watch ourselves being angry or upset. In this way, the compulsive need of the prescriptive apparatus to follow a definite line is entirely satisfied. We are always pursuing a clearly prescribed goal: to be fully attentive. But this goal doesn’t determine the content of our activities. The policy of perfect attentiveness is compatible with our doing anything at all! With the prescriptive apparatus contentedly busy sustaining a policy of attention, impulse takes over by default. As in the case of liberation by despair, there may be an intermediate period of relative inactivity during which we don’t know what to pay attention to. After all, our prescriptive policy fails to specify a concrete course of action. But we can fully count on our bladder to take us past this point of impasse.

The practice of continuous attention to the present permits us to satisfy our biological needs. But can we live like this while leading a productive and creative life? If we intend only to watch ourselves, can we hold down a job, reform society, or raise a child? Our personal experiment will enable us to answer these questions for ourselves. By satisfying the presently felt imperative to follow a definite policy, the practice of attentiveness allows us to live impulsively on a trial basis. If everything goes well, we learn from direct experience that the store takes care of itself. When we’re hungry, we eat; and when we need to calculate and make plans, the prescriptive apparatus is called in to calculate and make plans. In this way we acquire the faith necessary for making the transition to liberated consciousness. Once the transition is made, we can drop the project of attentiveness as well. It’s only a crutch.

The faith required for liberation has nothing to do with arbitrary belief or wishful thinking. We’ve had a lot to say about the shortcomings of the rationalizing, calculating, and prescribing apparatus that rules modern consciousness. But modern consciousness can be transcended only when it cleaves unswervingly to its own truth. A glib pseudo-faith in the intrinsic goodness of inner impulses or outer saviors will not set us free. For modern consciousness, the only faith that counts for something is one that has withstood the test of relentless scrutiny with absolute intellectual honesty. Perhaps there is no salvation for us. Perhaps the fragile island of order and control so painstakingly won by our rationality is the only refuge. Perhaps life is ultimately absurd. It’s possible for a traditional mind to achieve liberation without having to deal with issues like these. But there can be no transcendence of modern consciousness except by traversing the sea of nihilism. We won’t be able to achieve inner peace until we’re ready to face the possibility that conflict is unending. Let’s not be comforted by hopes and lies. Let’s dedicate ourselves wholly to the truth, wherever it may lead. For the rational mind to which this book is addressed, there is no higher master.

he previous chapters have been devoted mainly to helping the reader detect and identify mental traps in everyday life. Unlike bird-watching, jogging, building a sailboat, or learning to speak a foreign language, this project makes no demand on our time whatever. The enterprise of trap identification slips easily into even the busiest schedule because it takes place at the same time as our other activities. We don’t need to diminish the number of hours we put in at the office, or give up a moment’s rest or recreation. In fact, it’s our customary work and play that provides us with the arena for our investigations. Here is the perfect hobby! An overexclusive concern