Deep Laziness

4. repeat until done

2. elaborate on this structure in a way that preserves and strengthens it

it is not that we’re too stupid to please ourselves, but rather that we are effectively forbidden from doing so by the demands placed on us.

behaviors and rituals must change and self-repair as the individual and circumstances change. They also become more beautiful, meaningful, full of life, whole, as they undergo these structure-preserving transitions: increasingly stripped of what is superfluous, intensified, made more comfortable, better fitted into the person’s life as a whole.

find the centres

A whiff of emotion, a whim, a half-joking suggestion, can be the basis for doing a new behavior or elaborating an old one.

In the context of behaviors, “centers” might be activities, virtues, places, people, ambiances, longings, imaginings, memories, times of day, flavors. A well-developed center will be easy to see; it will produce positive emotion, a feeling of quiet ease, of non-separateness from the world. It will carry many layers of elaboration and generation. It... See more

people seem to be surprisingly bad at using their freedom to feel good, and especially at using it to feel deeply good.

5. repair as above, or allow to decay