knock at the door

It is one of the unexpected disasters of the modern age that our new paralleled success to information has come at the price of our capacity to concentrate on anything very much. The deep, immersive thinking which produced many of civilizations most important achievements has come under unprecedented assault. We are almost never far from a machine that guarantees us a mesmerizing and libidinous escape from reality. The feelings and thoughts which we have omitted to experience while looking at our screens are left to find their revenge in involuntary twitches and our ever increasing ability to fall asleep when we should.

There is a devilishly direct relationship between the significance of an idea and how nervous we become at the prospect of having to think about it. We can be sure that we have something critical to address when the very notion of being alone grows unbearable. For this reason, religions have always been forceful in recommending that their followers observe periods of solitude, however much discomfort these at first may provoke. A modern temple to reflection would follow this philosophy, creating ideally, reassuring conditions for contemplation allowing us to wait for those rare insights upon which the successful course of our life depends.

One way to knock at the door.

Source: Alain de Botton, School of Life