Thinking books

Consider submerging yourself in the canon of great works. Read the finest litera-ture, watch the masterpieces of cinema, get up close to the most influential paintings, visit architectural landmarks. There's no standard list; no one has the same measures of greatness. The "canon" is continually changing, across time and space. Nonetheless, exposure to great art provides an invitation. It draws us forward, and opens doors of possibility.

The purpose of rituals is not necessarily in the doing, just as the goal of meditation isn't in the meditating. We are building the musculature of our psyche to more acutely tune in. Awareness needs constant refreshing. If it becomes a habit, even a good habit, it will need to be reinvented again and again. Until one day, you notice that you are always in the practice of awareness, at all times, in all places, living your life in a state of constant openness to receiving.