The Active Life?

I must say, I really love this quote from Merton.  I suppose it speaks deeply to my desire and/or attitude, at least at this point in my life -- a time when I am seeking to recover my "right mind."  Most certainly, we all need to find something of this balance and harmony between the active life and the inner life to find wholeness and maybe even a smattering of holiness . . .

From The Way of Chuang Tzu:

"Those who are caught in the machinery of power take no joy except in activity and change--the whirring of the machine!  Whenever an occasion for action presents itself, they are compelled to act.  They cannot help themselves.  They are inexorably moved, like the machine of which they are a part.  Prisoner in the world of objects, they have no choice but to submit to the demands of matter.  They are pressed down and crushed by external forces, fashion, the market, events, public opinion.  Never in a whole lifetime do they recover their right mind!  The active life!  What a pity."