The Virtuals seek many different modes of gnosis or enlightenment. This slogan refers to one of the foremost of these "horizonless goals:" the gnosis of "stayin

The Virtuals seek many different modes of gnosis or enlightenment. This slogan refers to one of the foremost of these "horizonless goals:" the gnosis of "staying awake", or more specifically, always waking up. This is the most exalted yet everyday mode of enlightenment, one which is not attained so much as continually rediscovered. There is only waking up and rubbing your eyes . One of the techniques to developing these moments--which we err in considering "states" of consciousness--is to allow these very slogans to randomly erupt in the mind. Spontaneously "mad" behavior, tricks, and optical illusions are also common approaches, but the moment they become fixed as "techniques" they begin to lose their efficacy. The point is to cut against established patterns--to "kill the Buddha," as the Ch'an patriarchs say. For example, rather than staring at a beautiful object that catches your eye in the market, observe how others relate to the object. As in English, ngHolo's Indo-Chinese dialect contains the image of the dawn as a "crack" or "break." The peasants believe this crack is real--that a day literally ossifies over its 24-hour period, trapping the earth inside a cosmic shell. The shell is then ruptured by the rising sun. But the Virtuals play with this image to emphasize both the violent and nurturing aspects of "always waking up". On the one hand, perpetual gnosis constantly rends the dreamlike illusion--or more exactly, the tentative construction--of your present plateau. On the other hand, such gnosis pervades the mind with the empty but pregnant emptiness of the glowing dawn sky.