This is why all the great Asian philosophies begin with the practice of concentration, that is, of attentive looking. It is as if to say, ‘‘If you wa… - Alan Watts

It is in vain that we can predict and control the course of events in the future, unless we know how to live in the present. It is in vain that doctors prolong life if we spend the extra time being anxious to live still longer. It is in vain that engineers devise faster and easier means of travel if the new sights that we see are merely sorted and understood in terms of old prejudices. It is in vain that we get the power of the atom if we are just to continue in the rut of blowing people up.

But this particular kind of tension against the stream is habitual, and the frustration which it engenders is chronic. If I believe that I would like to break the habit, that very wish is another form of the same tension, and this in turn is a form of the basic un-get-at-ability of It. We are all lunatics trying to stick pins into their own points, and it is thus that our frantic efforts to set the world to rights and to extend our control over all happenings, inner and outer, are themselves the cause of most of our troubles. All force is tension against the stream.

Jinsei nana korobi Ya oki. Such is life– Seven times down, Eight times up!