Life, of course, is never simple; but it is also true that we make things much more complicated than they need be. Common sense as practiced by someone possessed of self-knowledge is often more profound than the most abstruse philosophical theory, and in its purest form it could even be considered a form of “enlightenment”; for who could be more enlightened than someone who sees things as they really are, with no interference from a self-protective mind? When we have nothing to gain and nothing to lose, reality suddenly becomes much less threatening.