I wish I could be like a sage. One who gives up all material possessions, all attachments, all chains, all desires and ambitions... and just goes and sits on top of a mountain. Calm, tranquil, peaceful with no care in the world or for the world. I don't know if that's how sages were like... but that's the impression I have and I wish I could be one. Just embrace peace, tranquillity, serenity... as if nothing really matters in the grand scheme of things. If you think about it, nothing does. As they say, the king and the pawn go back into the same box tomorrow. Yet we hoard. Seems rather pointless when you think about it. The humungous number of things a body has to keep track of just to survive from day to day. It's like a hotel which you never check into, but you have to do everything to earn your room, your meal, your right to stay. The dishes, the laundry, the job, the taxes, the bank, the phone connection, the housing, the healthcare, the visa... the myriad things on a never-ending list. And you have to be on top of it all. All the time. The machine must be oiled all the time to keep it running. And that's where I really envy the sage of olden times. It's no wonder they could meditate. They did not have to think of a constant stream of things that the more you cross out, the more they queue up. Doesn't it seem like we have made existence very complicated? The real things, the beautiful things, the joyful, fulfilling things are what you have to snatch out of the clutches of the machine really... You do not ask to be a part of the scheme, but you cannot not be a part of it. Unless you are a sage. And I doubt even sages today could be what they used to be. If they can completely check out of this hotel. Maybe the trick is to find a way to be this sage right in the thick of it. To not let the machine run you so to speak. To find the mountain inside you as the cliche goes. But how does one do this...?