Culture Kills

Here are some more words to live by from Theodore Isaac Rubin (Reconciliations: Inner Peace in an Age of Anxiety) courtesy of my mom. Which ones hit home for you. For me, it is #3.

1) Stop the pursuit of the mythical "it" - that nonexistant, self-glorifying, heaven-producing magical "something" we sometimes mistakenly call our "real self," which couldn't have less to do with either reality or self.

2) Stop running in the rat race for success. Stand still long enough to become conscious of self and feelings other than lows and highs connected to failures & victories.

3) Get a feeling of yourself in the immediate world again - looking at and really seeing other people's faces, buildings, flowers, streets. Engage in really smellingam tasting, touching - indulging the perceptive senses.

4) Eventually, reorder your priorities, especially those that govern your use of time and energy.

5) Break through, somehow break through the enslavement of compulsive mechanical living to what I've come to call "tranquil aliveness."