[N]othing that is isolated can live, since the two most important characteristics of life are circulation and change. - Alan Watts

Nevertheless, the physical reality is that my body exists only in relation to this universe, and in fact I am as attached to it and dependent on it as a leaf on a tree. I feel cut off only because I am split within myself, because I try to be divided from my own feelings and sensations. What I feel and sense therefore seems foreign to me. And on being aware of the unreality of this division, the universe does not seem foreign any more.

Si întrucât fericirea
exista doar în corelatie cu nefericirea si placerea în corelatie cu durerea, omul inteligent nu
încearca sa le separe. Aceste relatii sunt inseparabile, mergând pâna acolo încât putem spune ca
fericirea este nefericire iar placerea este – întrucât o implica – durere. Pe masura ce realizeaza
aceste lucruri, omul învata sa abandoneze orice dorinta de a obtine fericire separata de suferinta
sau placere separata de durere.
Evident ca aceste lucruri sunt greu de realizat. Eu pot sa înteleg la nivel verbal si intelectual
ca râvnind dupa placere îmi potolesc setea bând apa sarata – deoarece cu cât obtin mai multa
placere cu atât vreau mai multa (Sa ne amintim de sensul mai vechi al cuvântului „dorin.a”, care
era „lipsa”!).

The difference between having a job and having a vocation is that a job is some unpleasant work you do in order to make money, with the sole purpose of making money. There are plenty of jobs because there is still a certain amount of dirty work that nobody wants to do, and that therefore they will pay someone to do it. There is essentially less and less of that kind of work because of mechanization. If you do a job with the sole purpose of making money, you are absurd, because if money becomes the goal–and it does if you work that way–you begin increasingly to confuse it with happiness or with pleasure. Yes, one can take a handful of crisp one dollar bills and practically water your mouth over it, but this is a kind of person who is confused like a Pavlov dog, who salivates on the wrong bell.