undistracted with ourselves – appreciating small pleasures; examining the contents of our own minds; allowing the quieter parts of our psyches to emerge; thinking before we act. It is a poignant phrase because the louder voices

It is simply the expression of the universal discovery that a man does not really begin to be alive until he has lost himself, until he has released the anxious grasp which he normally holds upon his life, his property, his reputation and position.

A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts, so he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusions. — ALAN WATTS

Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.

We have to step out of the narrow circle of thoughts and feelings in which we are enclosed. We have to escape in order to have the possibility to approach another world and exist in a different way. For this, efforts are necessary.

Hiding is a bid for independence - from others, from mistaken ideas we have about ourselves, from an oppressive and mistaken wish to keep us completely safe, completely ministered to, and therefore completely managed. Hiding is creative, necessary and beautifully subversive of outside interference and control. Hiding leaves life to itself, to becom

Because often what keeps you from creative living is your self-absorption (your self-doubt, your self-disgust, your self-judgment, your crushing sense of self-protection).