Not for beginners

Here it is, the hardest thing: Do what is necessary. Do not do what is not necessary.

Between furies and flags

Whereas intelligence is featureless, detached and not easy to discern, ignorance is blazingly obvious.

Awareness

What we call ‘ego’ is a mind addicted to thinking. Does it need to be said that thinking about this addiction can only feed the addiction? A higher faculty than thought is required.

Screwed

No doubt the mind is a powerful tool. So is an electric drill. Tools are for occasional use. We would surely view as deeply weird someone who walked around drilling all the time.

The death of partisanship

Scott Fitzgerald: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing thoughts in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” A smiling Nelson Mandela did this. A rank and unruly partisanship shrivelled at his feet.