we need to stand back

"We need to stand back from all that is going on in
the world, enter that timeless part of ourselves and
learn to feel what it is to be alive. Then we can live
in the world if we wish, but not be a product of it.
Whatever society is today, it will change. All
cultures and civilizations have a limited life span
and what is fashionable at one time is unfashionable
at another. But underlying all that goes on in the
world, our true nature is always there, underlying our
sense of who we are.

We are never apart from our true nature, except
psychologically, whilst we believe in the play that is
being enacted in the world, whilst we identify with it
and immerse ourselves in it. But we always have, if we
are aware of it, the option of standing back and going
into the silent emptiness of our true nature. If we
don’t take this option, then we get swallowed up by
the world and all the meaningless activity, and thus
miss the plot entirely."

--Roy Whenary