“At times, Mr. Hsieh comes across as an alien who has studied human beings in order to live among them.”

An enlightened society has to be constructed upon a principle of unity, a direct experience of the ground and cause of the universe. Such an experience takes place in a spacious environment. This is not some spiritual mumbo-jumbo… By “spacious environment” I mean an open-mind.

Spaciousness is based on the discovery of equanimity—the realization that the value of others is not calculated by their capacity to serve me. In equanimity, all of the distinctions that establish and sustain a self-centered world-view are realized to be devoid of any real substance. The hierarchical relationship between boss and employee dissolves, and a true partnership emerges. What was once considered a collection of isolated and independent organisms trapped behind cubical walls, is revealed to be a single family, of which I am an example.

In a spacious mind there is enough room for everyone to be themselves. All the clutter is removed, and our stale and musty mind is aired out when all of the paranoid, self-centered activity ceases. All of our psychological busyness comes to screeching halt when we realize that the world is not organized around our comfort and profit. Our paranoia is revealed to be misrepresented dignity. When we realize that our mind and the world that birthed it is organized around this principle of dignity our actions become appropriate.

An open-mind is a confident mind, and a confident mind is a creative mind.

Spaciousness is alive. It is not dead space, limited only to our cushions or mats. We have to discover it in every aspect of our lives—business, family, sex, and traffic—because spaciousness is the ground that sustains all these various aspects of our lives.

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