active and passive...

One thing that struck my mind forcibly on my return to the Western hemisphere after an absence of several years in the Orient,

was the way we busied and over-busied ourselves, whether in work, pleasure, or movement.

Few take life easily; most take it uneasily.

Few go through its daily business serenely;

most go through it nervously, hurriedly, and agitatedly.

Our activities are so numerous they suffocate us.

It is a life without emotional poise, bereft of intellectual perspective.

We are intoxicated by action.

We moderns give ourselves too much to activity and movement, too little to passivity and stillness.

If we are to find a way out of the troubles which beset us,

we must find a middle way between these two attitudes.



— Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 2: Its Choice > # 1
Paul Brunton