Tautologies

In order to know that you are saved
you must be told you are damned to begin with

In order to be told you are damned
you must listen to the ones who are doing the telling

In order to listen to what you are told
you must shut off your critical faculties

In order to shut off your critical functions
you must learn to develop them in the first place

In order to develop your critical thinking
you must have something worth criticizing

In order to discover things to be critical of
you must discern the divisions inherent in nature

In order to see things that are different
you must know they are one and the same after all

In order to count to zero
you must create the concept of zero for yourself

In order to dissolve into nothingness
you must have had a concrete self that was convincing

In order to have a concrete self
you must learn to avoid the reflection of mirrors

In order to refract the light
you must allow the source of light to come in

In order to open the window
you must have entered the door at the start

In order to unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs
you must contradict multitudes

In order to lean and loaf at your leisure
you must have done some work that was worthwhile

In order to go on the dole
you must be recognized by the state

In order to be society’s dumb puppet
you must have been a very good baby

In order to be beautiful
you must abandon the beauty in yourself

In order to be magnanimous
you must be prepared to give the world big bear hugs

In order see the world as it is
you must know you are already in the world

In order to be here now already
you must wake up yesterday

In order to fall asleep
you must allow one day to precede the other

In order to let time progress
you must abandon all hope ye who enter here

In order to navigate the vastness
you must look up at the night sky

In order to avoid light pollution
you must stay away from fences and streets

In order to weave in and out of traffic
you must have faith in hither and thither

In order to stay in one place at one time
you must scatter your self freely to whomever come who may

In order to take communion
you must open your mouth

In order to breathe the breath that everyone breathes
you must know there is nothing new under the sun

In order to build a house on solid shifting sand
you must save up a great deal

In order to shore up your treasures in heaven
you must no heaven

In order to follow the river without end
you must find your way to the sea

In order to find your buoyancy
you must sink to the bottom of whatever

In order to be rescued from the well
you must realize you are not alone

In order to face the blood within
you must recognize your skin is translucent

In order to accept your temporary
you must be uncreated

In order to find the first cause
you must return to zero

In order to hear the emptiness
you must know when enough is enough