Notes on Chapter 3

Being Alive

The search for this quality is essence of anyone’s life.
The quality is found in all things
We can only really understand it when we see it in ourselves.
Seen in the smile of gypsies.
Smile of being at home with one.
This freedom/oneness comes when we abandon ourselves – give ourselves over to our intuition.
When all our forces can move freely within us. P.48

“So long as we are like this there is a tightness about the mouth, a nervous tension in the eyes, a stiffness and a brittleness in the way we walk, the way we move.”

Japanese film Ikiru (To Live)
Terminally ill, makes a park in a Tokyo slum.
He has no more fear because he knows he’s going to die. He has nothing to lose.
We are most alive when we are taking risks e.g. high wire walker family who fell.
“On the wire that’s living…all the rest is waiting.”

To be at ease with nature and the elements
No fear of ridicule, morality, loss etc.

Most of us live not knowing whether we are free or not.
But when we smile unexpectedly is when all the forces are momentarily resolved.
Hold on to these moments and repeat them.
Women recognize these moments better than men.* ( fake and felt smile confirmed more often by women than men)
Conscious effort to attain this state will spoil it – we only know them in retrospect
Yet we all know the feeling.
When we are most just, most sad and most hilarious p.53

We recognize this quality when it occurs in buildings*- by asking whether they are like us when we are free – which buildings, places make us feel like this –which ones make us remember those moments.

One creates the other – they are not just an analogy.
People who have this quality put it in their constructions
It is the quality of life
We should seek it in order to become alive.