One story, for instance, relates that the simple man comes home in the evening wondering what’s for dinner, the complex man comes home pondering the imponderables of fate, and the enlightened man comes home wondering what’s for dinner.
… psychological traditions also validate the three levels … Dr. Esther Harding has pointed out that psychic energy can manifest itself in three ways: as instinct, as ego consciousness, and as investment in the Self. Man evolves from acting instinctively to putting his psychic energy under the control of his ego. Then he must evolve further, to place his psychic energy under the control of the Self, that higher consciousness that is variously called God, enlightenment, satori, or samadhi.
Simple man lives in this consciousness and finds happiness in a rich inner world, no matter what the outer circumstances may be. Men of enlightened consciousness know this noble fact and live in a philosophy and an attitude of happiness. Complex man, lost to the simple attitude of happiness and not yet understanding that God is what is, remains stranded in his worry, loneliness, and anxiety … remains trapped by nostalgia for the past or anticipation of the future
Because we have the unjustifiable opinion that complex consciousness is highly desirable, we very carefully educate our young out of their simplicity as early in life as possible … children who have been robbed of their childhood … who therefore develop neuroses later in life.