Zenutiae

My hut settled among neighbors,
I ignore the noise of horses and carts.
You ask how I get along -
My mind remains wide,
So my place is naturally remote.

- Tao Yuan Ming (365-427)

If I were a tree among trees,
a cat among animals,
this life would have a meaning,
or rather this problem would not arise,
for I should belong to this world.

I should be this world to which I am now opposed by my whole consciousness and my whole insistence upon familiarity.

This ridiculous reason is what sets me in opposition to all creation. I cannot cross it out with a stroke of a pen.

- Albert Camus.

we do not so much look at things as overlook them

Ride your horse along the edge of a sword;
hide yourself in the middle of flames