Pascal’s prescription

Pascal famously said “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” On an individual level (and, after all, humanity is merely a collection of individuals), this can be regarded as both diagnosis and prescription. If you cannot sit quietly in a room alone, you have a problem. To resolve this problem, practice sitting quietly in a room alone.

Now, this does not mean all problems can be solved by sitting. Rather, the definition of a problem is something through which you cannot sit quietly. “For this, I must get up!” But truthfully, how many things that disturb the inherent peacefulness of just sitting need to be solved? How many empty problems do we construct to avoid sitting quietly in a room alone? Indeed, many would rather receive electric shocks than just think.

Cultivate a mind that is at home with itself and many “problems” will simply disappear.